Apple Rejects Congressional Contact App: "Ridicules Public Figures"

mykevermin

mykevermin

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This is just absurd, because it sounds like an awesome, totally useful app.

http://www.tomrichmond.com/blog/2009/11/09/apple-rejects-my-caricature-app/

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Thing is - this is the type of censorship that can occur with market dominance. I shudder to think what would happen if net neutrality was defeated.
 
Guess its the caricatures they took issue with--but still very, very lame.

Hopefully they'll at least approve a congressional contact app that doesn't have them, as it would be very useful.
 
i would download this app with or without the caricatures. but i like the caricatures, boo apple.

edit, the app needs email addresses, with the iphone its a no brainer.
 
[quote name='camoor']Thing is - this is the type of censorship that can occur with market dominance. I shudder to think what would happen if net neutrality was defeated.[/QUOTE]
What the hell are you talking about? The App Store and Apple's hardware and software have always been extremely closed, and they make sure to retain a certain degree of control over all of them.
They have a required screening for all apps before they're allowed into their app store, and it's perfectly okay for them to do what they want with their store.
 
[quote name='Liquid 2']What the hell are you talking about? The App Store and Apple's hardware and software have always been extremely closed, and they make sure to retain a certain degree of control over all of them.
They have a required screening for all apps before they're allowed into their app store, and it's perfectly okay for them to do what they want with their store.[/QUOTE]

I just don't think it's cool for a company to censor content for the sole reason that it may offend public figures. That shit may play well in China but in America we shouldn't have to tip-toe around the feelings of elected officials.

Now - legally can they do it? Yes, as you so eloquently and diplomatically pointed out they have the law on their side this time. The broader question is whether Apple is increasingly acting as a monopoly, courting favor with politicians in return for lax enforcement of anti-trust violations. Remember - Microsoft started out as a small fish too.
 
[quote name='Liquid 2']What the hell are you talking about? The App Store and Apple's hardware and software have always been extremely closed, and they make sure to retain a certain degree of control over all of them.
They have a required screening for all apps before they're allowed into their app store, and it's perfectly okay for them to do what they want with their store.[/QUOTE]

He's saying if apple didn't have such dominance in the market they wouldn't be able to be so closed and do this kind of stuff as people would say the hell with them and go to the competition.

But since they have such stranglehold on the smart phone and app market, they can do what they want.

Just like they were able to make iTunes DRM AAC which couldn't be legally converted to MP3 to play on most non-Apple mp3 players for years. But finally had to change once other MP3 stores like Amazon went 100% DRM free.
 
[quote name='camoor']I just don't think it's cool for a company to censor content for the sole reason that it may offend public figures. That shit may play well in China but in America we shouldn't have to tip-toe around the feelings of elected officials.

Now - legally can they do it? Yes, as you so eloquently and diplomatically pointed out they have the law on their side this time. The broader question is whether Apple is increasingly acting as a monopoly, courting favor with politicians in return for lax enforcement of anti-trust violations. Remember - Microsoft started out as a small fish too.[/QUOTE]Politicians are among the most shit on people in the country--I doubt Apple is trying to not hurt their [the politicians'] feelings.
Apple is hardly acting as a monopoly, especially considering how they have only ~15% market share. They just don't like to let people do things that they don't approve of. Why do you think jailbreaking is so popular?

Yes, their standards are ridiculous and (seemingly) arbitrary at times, but what is there to debate?

[quote name='dmaul1114']He's saying if apple didn't have such dominance in the market they wouldn't be able to be so closed and do this kind of stuff as people would say the hell with them and go to the competition.

But since they have such stranglehold on the smart phone and app market, they can do what they want.

Just like they were able to make iTunes DRM AAC which couldn't be legally converted to MP3 to play on most non-Apple mp3 players for years. But finally had to change once other MP3 stores like Amazon went 100% DRM free.[/QUOTE]I doubt that. Apple has always, always, always been known for keeping its hardware and software closed. Hell, they went out of their way to block out syncing with Itunes for the Palm Pre. The stranglehold you're talking about is utterly imaginary.
Apple has plenty of competition to deal with in the smart phone market. RIM is a massive player, and Android is rapidly becoming huge. WebOS (Palm's operating system) is a fantastic, and much, much more open competitor as well.
 
[quote name='Liquid 2']
I doubt that. Apple has always, always, always been known for keeping its hardware and software closed.
[/quote]

They made iTunes DRM free finally. And only after they were losing sales after Amazon and other major stores went DRM free.

Apple has plenty of competition to deal with in the smart phone market. RIM is a massive player, and Android is rapidly becoming huge. WebOS (Palm's operating system) is a fantastc, and much, much more open competitor as well.
Click to expand...

Android is new. So time will tell on that.

In the business world Blackberry gives them a strong competitor--but that isn't the main market for random apps like this. That's the joe six packs who buy an iPhone because it's the cool, trendy gadget to have. And I don't see them having much competition on that front. They do have a stranglehold on selling smartphones to people not buying them for work purposes--and that's who buys more games and other random apps.

Maybe Android phones can tap into that, but no one's seemed to be able to best Apples market of their products being the thing the "cool kids have."
 
I haven't been following this guy's blogs, but this app is up on the App Store now, so it's clearly been approved. $0.99 is all. Nice!
 
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