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Posts Tagged ‘Reason Apple’

Apple, There’s Pornography On My iPhone. The App Is Called Safari. You Made It.

Apple’s hypocrisy with regard to the App Store is something I know well. Several times last year I wrote about Apple allowing apps like “Asian Boobs” and upskirt apps into the App Store while rejecting things such as satirical apps that mocked public figures. It was ridiculous. So you might think I’d be happy that Apple is now rejecting and removing sexy apps from the App Store as well. But actually, the hypocrisy is much worse now.

Problem number one is that while Apple is removing most of these sexy apps from the App Store, it’s not removing all of them. So who gets to stay? Big publishers like Sports Illustrated and Playboy. In fact, not only is Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit 2010 app not being removed, it’s being featured in the App Store. Both it and the Playboy app clearly violate the new rules of the more prudish App Store, yet they get to stay. Why?

As Apple VP of Worldwide Product Marketing Phil Schiller explained earlier to the New York Times, it’s because they’re well-known companies known for that content. Yet, he also cited women being upset about feeling degraded and parents being upset about kids having access to sexy apps as the main reason Apple is cracking down on them. The omission of the fact that parents probably also don’t want their kids downloading the Playboy app, or that some women might also find the Swimsuit app degrading is laughable.

Now, are some apps worse than others with regard to sexy content? Of course. But Apple has removed over 5,000 apps and counting under these new rules — surely some of those would likely be considered less offensive then the Playboy app. Further, this is creating the ultimate gray line when it comes to what is and what is not permissible in the App Store. For example, what if there’s a smaller publication also known for nude pictures that wants to make a lingerie app? Will Apple reject or accept that? Is there a certain circulation threshold one has to have to be considered “well-known” in Schiller’s words?

Problem number two is that Apple is breaking a golden rule: don’t take away what you’ve already given (in this case, to both to developers and users). Apple has not always allowed these sexy apps in the App Store. But at some point over the past several months they changed their minds and apps like “Asian Boobs” started getting accepted. Why did they do it? At the time, the thought was that with the new parental controls in the iPhone OS 3.0, they could leave it up to parents to decide what their children can or cannot download/use.

Apple was probably happy to let another huge rush of apps into the store, while yes, generating revenue off of them. Meanwhile, this spawned a wave of developers who were making these types of apps. Several of those developers have reached out to us over the past few days basically saying that Apple has just destroyed their businesses. Again, businesses that these people would not have created without Apple approving these apps in the first place. Apple giveth, Apple taketh away.

Problem number three is related to number two. I fail to see the reason that Apple built parental controls in to the iPhone OS if they weren’t to be used for situations like this. Why even bother? For games with violence? Please. I’m all for kids not having access to mature content if their parents are against it, but that’s exactly what these controls are made for.

So why is Apple making this big change that is pissing a lot of people off if they have this safeguard in place? Clearly, they must not trust it. But if that’s the case, why not remove the explicit content from iTunes? After all, the parental controls for apps are in the exact same place as the ones from music, movies, and TV shows.

Problem number four is perhaps my favorite one. Apple is going through all this trouble of removing these apps, and creating more work in scanning for next sexy apps to reject, when built in to every iPhone and iPod touch is not one, but two huge entry points for explicit material — and both are apps made by Apple themselves. The first, I alluded to above: iTunes. There are no shortage of films and TV shows with nudity and sexual content (along with violence and everything else) that are available on iTunes for purchase on the device. The same is true for explicit music.

But the second app is far worse: Safari. Each iPhone and iPod touch has a web browser that is more than capable of accessing any site on the web with a few clicks. This includes sites with hardcore pornography, or anything else a teenage kid can dream up. Apple is going through all this trouble to block sexy apps (which have never contained nudity, by the way, just sexy pictures), when they offer one of their own that makes it much easier to find far more sinister content.

Of course, if they removed Safari, it could well destroy the iPhone. So they’re not going to do that.

The sad truth is that while everyone can clearly see Apple’s hypocrisy here, it’s unlikely to matter. Just as with all the hoopla over the Google Voice app rejection, this too will blow over. As long as people keep voting for Apple with their pocketbooks, Apple will continue to do as it pleases, hypocrisy or not.

The lesson, I suppose, is that killer products give you carte blanche.

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Apple’s 7 commandments of app sex?

Filed under: App Store

Jon Atherton at Chillifresh, the app developer of Wobble, has posted what he says are Apple’s new rules regarding sexual content in an iPhone app:

I have spoken with Apple, and the following are the new rules:

1. No images of women in bikinis (Ice skating tights are not OK either)
2. No images of men in bikinis! (I didn’t ask about Ice Skating tights for men)
3. No skin (he seriously said this) (I asked if a Burqa was OK, and the Apple guy got angry)
4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs
5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex – all banned
6. Nothing that can be sexually arousing!!
7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content (not sure how Playboy is still in the store, but …)

Keep in mind that these rules have not been verified or posted by Apple, and Atherton has been on a roll recently of trying to drum up as much press as he can about Apple’s changes to the App Store policy on sexual content. But I guess that’s what happens when you make your living off of selling dumb apps (my opinion) that rely on a childish ‘wow’ factor appropriate to the matu twelve year-olds.

I’ve said this before, but I am glad that Apple has made these changes (pulling stupid “sexy” apps). I’m sick of seeing a “Hot Asians” app show up in every category (from Entertainment to Productivity to Utilities). The “sexy” apps were getting out of control, and they started to show up so much it was making it even harder to find good apps in the App Store.

There’s a good chance that this is the reason Apple has decided to pull those apps and not, as Atherton insinuates, that Apple has imposed some sort of Sharia law on the App Store – which is pretty insulting to Islam’s 1.3 billion members. The fact that Playboy is still available while thousands of junk “sexy” apps have been purged should be evidence enough that Apple is going after these cheap clutter apps and hasn’t actually launched a war on sexuality.

Is Apple handling this in the best way? Perhaps not. I think Apple could create a new category of “sexy” apps that could be disabled in iTunes’ preferences (or, even better, require an opt-in from users before they’re visible). Apple’s not the only vendor that chooses to exclude some content in its store. Best Buy, for example, doesn’t allow hardcore porn to be sold in its stores. That’s not censorship — there are plenty of other places customers can go to get what they’re looking for other than Best Buy.

The problem with this analogy, of course, is that for most iPhone owners, there’s only one App Store, and no place else to go for adult-themed apps.

TUAWApple’s 7 commandments of app sex? originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple giving huge discounts on Black Friday? No way!

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Retail, Rumors, Holidays

The boy geniuses over at Boy Genius Report are getting a lot of hits out of a story they ran late yesterday. Apparently, one of their contacts tipped them to a “shot of Apple’s yearly Black Friday deals” that is “reported to be something Apple will email out shortly.” The email (seen at right, pasted with an editorial comment from yours truly) shows alleged discounts of up to 30% on all iPods (excluding iPhone or iPod shuffle), up to 25% on all Macs, and up to 15% on all accessories, Apple software, and Apple hardware. This will only happen on November 27th and apparently “select” Apple stores will open at 6 AM.

Well, most of us here at TUAW are pretty sure this is a fake. A compelling fake, mind you, but an utter fabrication. Why?

First reason — Apple almost never discounts their products, other than selling refurbished equipment on the cheap. That’s part of the reason that the company is so successful and has the highest margins in the personal electronics and computing world. Discounts of “up to 25% on all Macs” are an Apple fanboy’s most exciting dream (next to the iTablet, of course), but we doubt if the Cupertino Kids would discount anything more than 5%.

Reason two — Apple Stores are, for the most part, hugely popular anyway. Apple doesn’t need to drag in customers on Black Friday by enticing them with wicked discounts. Let’s face it, most of the Apple Stores are going to be packed on November 27th, so why would Apple want to create traffic jams and general hysteria by doing something like this? Hell, most of the Apple retail employees would probably quit during Black Friday, leaving the company in the lurch for the rest of the holiday season.

Number three — Historical precedence shows that Apple usually provides discounts on Black Friday, but not as big as BGR is indicating. In 2006, Apple provided free shipping to shoppers at the online store. Last year, Best Buy discounted up to US$150 on Macs and Apple matched that, but there was no steenkin’ 25% discount.

And finally, reason number four — Apple’s probably not going to send out anything with that much blank space at the top of it. They’re too picky about design. They don’t want someone to have to scroll down through an email to read the discounts, even if there is an Apple logo floating around at the top of the email.

How sure are we that this isn’t going to happen? Well, if it actually happens the way Boy Genius Report says it will, I’ll wear a Boy Genius Report baseball cap (provided by BGR, of course) for four hours at Macworld Expo 2010 and give you guys some free advertising. TUAW readers — what do you think about the discounts? Are they going to happen or not?

TUAWApple giving huge discounts on Black Friday? No way! originally appeared on The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) on Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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