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Apple Invites Pulitzer Prize-Winning Cartoonist to Resubmit Rejected iPhone Application [Updated]


Yesterday, the Nieman Journalism Lab reported that Mark Fiore, who earlier this week won a Pulitzer Prize for his political cartoons, had submitted an iPhone application highlighting his work last year, but was rejected by Apple. The rejection was based on prohibitions in Apple's developer agreement against ridiculing public figures.

In December, Apple rejected his iPhone app, NewsToons, because, as Apple put it, his satire "ridicules public figures," a violation of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, which bars any apps whose content in "Apple's reasonable judgement may be found objectionable, for example, materials that may be considered obscene, pornographic, or defamatory."

Fiore, who publishes his animated works on SFGate.com, the online arm of the San Francisco Chronicle, is notable as being the first online-only journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize.

The New York Times today reports that Apple has invited Fiore to resubmit his application for inclusion in the App Store. The application was resubmitted this morning, and Fiore is now awaiting word on a decision from Apple, which refused to comment publicly on the situation.

Update: The New York Times quotes Apple CEO Steve Jobs as saying in an email response to a customer that the rejection was a mistake.

"This was a mistake that's being fixed," Mr. Jobs replied.

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Posted: 24 months ago
Let's hope he didn't use a cross compiler when making the app....
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Posted: 24 months ago



Let's hope he didn't use a cross compiler when making the app....


Haha, exactly what I was thinking.

Sometimes, the app store restrictions are a bit ridiculous, and when Apple realizes that they're dealing with people who know what they're doing, they remove those restrictions quickly.
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Posted: 24 months ago
So, famous people can do what they want. Nice, Apple.
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Posted: 24 months ago
Haha, and then they reject it again. Double-rejected, to the face!

But seriously, if I were him, I'd just say "Screw off Apple, you didn't care about me until I was famous!" Then submit my app for Android.

What happened to "Think Different." ?

Apple has their hand in the back pocket of too many politicians, it seems.
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
Posted: 24 months ago
I can't say I am a fan of Adobe Flash as I am a big supporter of an open web, but I must say that if cross-compiled apps are inferior then the customers in the app store will certainly vote with their dollars to favor the natively written apps.

However, I can see Apple putting this new restriction in their license agreement so as to protect themselves in case the Adobe folks find some way to sneak things onto the iPhone via their cross-compiling tools. Apple is protecting their turf, but by error on the side of caution they set themselves up for bad PR even if they intend to be more lax in acting on those restrictions.

Here is another example of that occurring.... certainly Apple is choosing to reserve the right to bend the rules where they see fit. But without the strict wording in the developer agreement they really wouldn't have a leg to stand on. They are doing the same with pornography by revoking/rejecting all those junk porn apps that polluted the app store while still allowing the "main stream" stuff from established publishers.

On one hand, its Apple's store and if they don't want to pollute their shelves with garbage then I applaud them. However, somebody is going to cry foul since there is not another legitimate store for iPhone apps, and I wonder if this will eventually blow-up as some sort of new anti-trust thing.
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
Posted: 24 months ago

So, famous people can do what they want. Nice, Apple.


That or they realized it was time to remove their head from you know where because they are not capable of judging an app's true worth...
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Posted: 24 months ago
Is it me or is Apple becoming a silly caricature of its own 1984 ad?
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
Posted: 24 months ago


But seriously, if I were him, I'd just say "Screw off Apple, you didn't care about me until I was famous!" Then submit my app for Android.


that's kind of a double-sided blade; you say screw Apple while taking yourself out of a market with a lot of potential sales.
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
Posted: 24 months ago

I can't say I am a fan of Adobe Flash as I am a big supporter of an open web, but I must say that if cross-compiled apps are inferior then the customers in the app store will certainly vote with their dollars to favor the natively written apps.

However, I can see Apple putting this new restriction in their license agreement so as to protect themselves in case the Adobe folks find some way to sneak things onto the iPhone via their cross-compiling tools. Apple is protecting their turf, but by error on the side of caution they set themselves up for bad PR even if they intend to be more lax in acting on those restrictions.

Here is another example of that occurring.... certainly Apple is choosing to reserve the right to bend the rules where they see fit. But without the strict wording in the developer agreement they really wouldn't have a leg to stand on. They are doing the same with pornography by revoking/rejecting all those junk porn apps that polluted the app store while still allowing the "main stream" stuff from established publishers.

On one hand, its Apple's store and if they don't want to pollute their shelves with garbage then I applaud them. However, somebody is going to cry foul since there is not another legitimate store for iPhone apps, and I wonder if this will eventually blow-up as some sort of new anti-trust thing.


Here's what I think the cross-compiler issue is. Adobe had the same sort of problem before they bought flash, with their app that made flash files. It was called LiveMotion and it was great. The problem with that app though, was that Macromedia controlled flash, and adobe could only reverse engineer it after the latest version had been released. So, the features of Flash 7 couldn't be realized by the Adobe LiveMotion app until waaaay after the release of Flash 7. Usually near Flash 8, etc. Adobe was essentially always a version behind. Not such a big deal with apps made for desktops and laptops. But if Apple wants to control the experience and have all it's apps updated very quickly for new OS updates, they'd have to reveal all the new features to Adobe way beforehand so that all the people making apps via Adobe's compilier could update them quickly. And of course Apple would be reliant on those developers actually desiring to pay Adobe for an upgrade to flash, which usually only comes out every year and a half or so. Much slower than updates to iPhone and it's OS. So instead, if all the developers are using Apple's tools, Apple can simply slide them a free SDK update and have them recompile. Since updating apps is so simple this way, Apple can easily require that the developers recompile in a certain time frame. Pretty hard to do for the developers that would be going through Flash, and if Adobe didn't update their tools, then the devs couldn't update, and you've got a mess and the only people losing would be the iPhone users, and then of course Apple.

Not saying it's right or wrong. Just saying that's where Apple's coming from. I really don't think they are trying to piss off Adobe in particular. Why should they be angry at Adobe anyway? They're the ones that didn't allow flash. Adobe should be angry at Apple.
Rating: 0 Positives / 0 Negatives
Posted: 24 months ago

Is it me or is Apple becoming a silly caricature of its own 1984 ad?


Steve looks more and more like the guy on the screen every day!
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