Apple strips top shelf, leaves corporate smut in place
Apple has had a busy night pulling minor publishers' naughty applications from the iTunes store, leaving porn as the preserve of big business only. It's been six months since Apple started letting scantily-clad women into the iTunes store, and apparently females around the world are up in arms against girls performing degrading …
My youngest had set his heart of having an iPod Touch for his birthday (dream on) so I spent some time investigating it. Not only won't it work with nearly every website he likes (no flash) but it doesn't have any kiddie filtering software. I asked in shops and friends who have them and they didn't know of any.
There is little point in worrying about what is in Apple's store if you can just go to 99% of the internet and gawp at what ever pr0n cranks your particular handle.
"but it doesn't have any kiddie filtering software"
Oh, apart from the passcode-protected "Restrictions"?
http://www.ehow.com/how_4527941_iphone-tips-parental-controls-restrictions.html
"I spent some time investigating it"
Yeah, that took 0.12 seconds to find on Google.
That said, never underestimate the resourcefulness of kids on a quest for pr0n. There isn't a system in the world that will stop a determined teenager...
built-in censorship is the main reason I won't buy Apple gadgets. Well, that and the risk of being thought a fashion victim techno-wannabe.
...if you're reasonably off, technichally able and you're NOT using an iPhone or a Blackberry, you're seen as a nerd, freak, Apple refusnik and/or friendless loser. The only demographic who MIGHT identify you as a fashion victim are unwashed comic con attendees, liunxtards and role play gamers.
for you at least.
"if you're reasonably off, technichally able and you're NOT using an iPhone or a Blackberry, you're seen as a nerd, freak, Apple refusnik and/or friendless loser."
"The only demographic who MIGHT identify you as a fashion victim"
So, erm. If you don't have one you should get one, in order to fit with fashion? That makes you quite the fashion victim. Fail to you
...Apple refusnik, I think. Pretty sure that's what I said anyway.
I read comics, run Linux and play RPGs, and even my like-minded "friends" think I'm a freak for not buying an iThismonth'sfad.
I don't like Blackberries either, so I don't fit in at work. I'm the definition of loser.
I'll take the evil Jobs, although I also hate Gates. And Stallman. And, for that matter, other humans. And computers.
"...if you're reasonably off, technichally able and you're NOT using an iPhone or a Blackberry"
Thanks! I have a BlackBerry! I can rejoice in not being something weird!
I actually see Apple's point on this.
Big names like Playboy do have a bit less of a sleaze factor simply by virtue of being a known brand.
That's brand politics for you.
"Big names like Playboy do have a bit less of a sleaze factor simply by virtue of being a known brand."
i.e. No pan-handles, flap-shots, or hamburgers.
Not big brands but expensive lawyers.
"The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format."
Translated:
"We are frightened at the prospect of lawsuits from big corporates as they can afford expensive lawyers (and possibly a few politicians) to fight for them. Conversely, we are not all at frightened by the small fry, our lawyers will simply use the "think of the children" gambit."
And what was the first site I visited when I got my first (non corpy) internet connection back in '97 or so?
What's the most famous pr0n brand in the world and one that every teenager knows?
Begins with a "P"...
Big names like Playboy? Are you kidding? They are no less despised by the sorts of people Apple is trying to pander too right now than Penthouse or Hustler. They are only slightly more respectable to less uptight coastal urbanites. In the heartland, the distinctions they are trying to make here are completely bogus.
They never should have allowed this kind of crap into the store anyway - if I want to knock one out I'll just point my iphone browser towards spankwire.com, balance it on the toilet cistern and enjoy....
I wish you hadn't of said that! Not because of the image in my mind of some chap knocking one out sitting back to front on the lav...
But because now you said it, some hip product designer for Armatage Shanks is now going to design an iPhone compatible toilet cistern with a sleek profile and a handy iPhone docking station and lube dispenser!
Spankwire uses Flash for all its videos.
Erm, so I'm reliably informed.
I've been reliably informed that you haven't been reliably informed. :-)
I've also been reliably informed that if you go to spankwire on a mobile, it gives you nice MP4's to stream.
Why do people still bother developing for this platform if that level of contempt and blatant double standards is constantly being shown by Apple? Just because the iPhone is currently the biggest Smartphone platform doesn't mean you should write for it.
If the developers leave, how long will it remain the biggest if there are no new applications?
Money perhaps? Some people do all sorts of things for money, which wiser heads would avoid.
Having your software on the App Store can net big money - the guys that wrote Ocarina (http://ocarina.smule.com/) had hoped to make $100,000 by the end of the year it released, but it netted about $400,000 in the first month alone - that app costs 99 cents. Just before that, the developer for Trism (a $4.99 puzzle game) got $250,000 revenue in two months (i.e. nearly 1,200 copies per day).
Developers will leave the platform because of Apple’s policy, no doubt about it – in fact last year there were more than a few articles about some quite respected developers doing just that very publicly. But the simple fact is, if money can be made, other people will develop for a platform/Apple doesn't care.
On the other side of the coin, this new Apple policy has removed some App Stores clutter. This developer - http://appshopper.com/search?searchdev=333206951 – alone had on the App Store almost 500 versions of the essentially the same photobook app… and I’m sure not all developers will be saddened by such news.
The iPhone is nowhere near the largest smart phone platform. Nokia is the largest followed by RIM (BlackBerry) with the iPhone in 3rd place.
I think you mean Symbian OS, rather than Nokia - but yes, that has the major share of the smart phone market (although this did decline last year). RIM, Apple and Android were the fastest growing platforms in 2009.
Nokia's share of the smart phone handset market also fell last year (as did four of the other big players).
The hypocrisy is expanding to support the expanding hypocrisy
I would expect the first rule of Tautology club is the first rule of Tautology Club, according to my expectations.
You're thinking of Recursion Club.
The first rule of Tautology Club is that there are no rules.....
Tbh it was pretty silly of the app developers to not expect Apple to have a change of heart, it was only a matter of time really. This is what happens when you live at the behest of a single company.
What is utterly reprehensible is Apple only doing this to people too small to fight back. They know full-well that what they are doing could land them in court if they targetted someone with enough money to see it through.
For a cult, Apple seem remarkably kink-unfriendly! I thought all cults apart from the religious ones were uber jug fests! Oh hang on... Apple is a religion!
Steve Jobs is a cult.
(oh dear, my keyboard seems to be malfulctiolilg...)
...I think you were confusing Apple with Raelianism.
I think that Rael guy might have been on to something. At least it's more fun than Appliantology!
Because they might retaliate, cry censorship, free speech and such and go to court were Apple practices could be condemned and the whole control of Apple over the Istore would vanish .
Not something Mr Jobs want to even consider.
So that way it is so much better : less smaller publisher that can't prosecute means MORE business for the well know that will not want to prosecute ...
And again the f...king children argument, do your kids NEED and IPhone ?
Do you want to live in the Moomin Valley forever ? I don't and as a kid, when I decided I wanted to know about sex, believe me I was as motivated to get my way as I was un-interested a few months before ... And I am sure I am not the only one .... ;)
Wonder if my app will be taken down? It was rejected initially for use of the word "thrusts"!
Called the Bedometer, it measures how many calories are burned during a love making session.
itms://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bedometer/id355284939?mt=8
http://www.bedometer.com
I'll keep the Register updated if it gets taken down!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/Design/graphics/icons/comment/megaphone_32.png
I have less objection to wobbling bits in the App Store than I have to Apple's pop-up warning that I'm attempting to download age-restricted material every time I go near a certain map app or a dictionary prog.
Paris, because anyone can find a Twatt in a map of Orkney.
That's a really unfair thing to do, more so because they're clearly picking on the devs who don't have the money to sue. It's one thing to say up front that you don't allow Flash or emulators or interpreted code and then stick to that. It's another to allow these apps and then arbitrarily remove them later.
Why not just ban any future apps but leave the existing ones on there, rather than taking everything away? Apple could have at least given them some notice. This is the problem with Apple's closed platform approach, and the iPad is edging that method of delivery closer to the mainstream and the desktop. I have to confess I never really saw a problem with the walled garden on the iPhone, but as soon as the idea of it moving to other platforms comes up I realise that this is not the future I want to see in computing.
And when was life fair? Or corporations for that matter?
Can you connect iPod Touch or iPhone to a service that provides a censored Internet connection? Or just trust the young person. I think it's an offence in the UK to give erotic material to a minor but I don't know if that means you must block their Internet use in case they look up naughty things themselves.
I must say too that stopping myself from thinking about those girls with windows in their lingerie isn't going to be easy.
Want to behave like an idiotic hypocrite? There's an app for that.
I would like to know, however, who on earth still pays for pron? It doesn't take a lot of effort to find more of it than any one person could use in a lifetime for free.
Isn't it illegal to restrict competition? I am sure the European Commision would like to hear about this practice.
Guys, do any of you know or even wonder how many of these taken down titles were free apps? I only came across this whole story due to a posting on SG, where their free flip-strip app (like the classic flip pens) was taken down, while their pay to purchase app was left behind, along side a few other pay to purchase ones. Many of the apps that I've heard getting the shaft were free to get (or at least demo), which means anyone with a net connection can just grab them.. I'm certainly not saying that Apple was in the clear with this call, but yah - if you're going to push something like the iPad for schools, you don't need 10 year old jimmy posting Wobble shots of his teacher on FB, and getting her fired, or using the "naked" app to post child porn pseudo images of his classmates and getting the whole school shut down.
after all, remember what happened when a kid last found Oral Sex in a dictonary. Webster was almost shot by a soccer mom.
"you don't need 10 year old jimmy posting Wobble shots of his teacher on FB, and getting her fired, or using the "naked" app to post child porn pseudo images of his classmates and getting the whole school shut down"
I'm pretty sure that all of this can be done without an iBone, any pen cam will suffice to get the "sample" and would get uploaded by, you know, *normal* PCs.
Obviously that's all the symbian foundation need to do now - provide a safe and lucrative home for all these displaced fap-apps.
If you're an established magazine, you're safe. It's that simple.
Apple want iPads to be accepted in schools and to do that, they need to clean the wobbling boob apps and £0.59 best boob underwear photoset apps out. Sure, keep the established magazines in because parents are familiar with the brands and kids see the covers in the local RS McColls anyway.
I don't want to come across as an apologist, I like naked women as much as most men, but it makes sense and Apple are not evil for doing this.
I would imagine that Apple execs have been discussing Uganda and possibly Bolivia with "salespersons" from the "legitimate" companies.
Paris? There's plenty more like that around.
Man, all this apple bashing is pointless.
If you really want to get your rocks off to some tart pretending to wash your iPhone's screen, or non-nude pictures of playmates you have more issues than banging on about apple not allowing this anymore.
Personally, i don't give a crap if it's on the app store or not, to me, iPhones/iPod touches are all about games, there are some quality games out there, for cheap, which is win win for me. Anything else is just a bonus. Basing your entire business model about peddling titilation is just stupid though, if these devs don't have anything else to fall back on, well, that's their own lack of foresight. (although, with the popularity of smut these days, i'm sure they'll find some other way to get money out of it)
Why was it so important for you to write a comment instead of just surfing on past?
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