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Media (Apple) Media

On iPhone, Searching For Kama Sutra = Porn 283

heychris writes "Eucalyptus, an ebook app for iPhone, has been rejected from the App Store for 'objectionable content.' What's so objectionable? The Kama Sutra, available from Project Gutenberg, which is available on other ebook readers as well. Not only that, but the screenshot shows that you would have to search for Kama Sutra to get it; it's not built in to Eucalyptus. The author is reasonable but frustrated, while Herr Gruber is more succinct." I wonder how good the now-cheap Nokia 810 is as an e-book reader.
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On iPhone, Searching For Kama Sutra = Porn

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  • by Daimanta ( 1140543 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @05:54PM (#28046401) Journal

    Now excuse me, I'm going to read some find articles in the Playboy.

  • cydia (Score:2, Informative)

    by isama ( 1537121 )
    is the answer
  • by lothos ( 10657 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @05:56PM (#28046415) Homepage

    They should pull a Trent Reznor and re-submit the app. It sounds like approval is very subjective based on the reviewer. Chances are it might get approved the second time around.

  • ...with Eucalyptus and the shaking baby app. iPhone = iFun.
  • by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 21, 2009 @05:59PM (#28046457)

    If you are so opposed to Apple's censorship, STOP BUYING AND HYPING THEIR PRODUCTS.

    Until techy geeks stop hyping everything Apple does as the "next big thing" and start paying attention to the shady shit that Apple pulls every day, the situation will never get better.

    • by msobkow ( 48369 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @06:06PM (#28046543) Homepage Journal

      I couldn't agree more. Continuing to buy iPhones and other Apple products only encourages them to continue behaving as they have. Since when is it up to a company to censor products, especially when the censorship is so unevenly applied as to allow other eBook readers to access the Kama Sutra?

      Unfortunately, the simple fact of the matter is that people will not boycott Apple over such behaviour. In fact, many of their hordes of minions will probably be more likely to buy, claiming that Apple is "family friendly."

      • by Darkness404 ( 1287218 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @06:32PM (#28046839)
        The problem is theres really no other alternative. There are nearly no cheap AT&T handsets that A) Have a multi-touch enabled captive touchscreen B) A decent browser C) Lots of (quality) applications to download for free.

        Sure, Android is great... Unfortunately here in the US there are only one or two phones released with it officially and both are on T-Mobile. Windows Mobile doesn't support captive touch screens officially, and almost anyone who has used WinMo can tell you it basically sucks. Blackberry looks promising, but as of now their only touch screen phone is hampered by SureType or whatever they call it making your typing speed really slow, and its locked in to Verizion. And other than Symbian (which AFAIK doesn't have a phone with a touchscreen), there aren't any other major smartphone OSes to choose from.

        Until we get cell phone networks that actually embrace new and advanced hardware, it seems like we will be stuck with crappy phones.
        • by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) * on Thursday May 21, 2009 @06:39PM (#28046945) Journal

          The problem is theres really no other alternative.

          You're shitting me.

          Please don't pretend that it's all about the "A)..multi-touch enabled captive touchscreen".

          Why are people so resistant to simply admitting it's a fashion accessory? There's no shame in wanting something for status' sake. You don't have to make up rationalizations.

          • by pohl ( 872 )

            Please don't pretend that it's all about the "A)..multi-touch enabled captive touchscreen".

            I think you're shitting me...by mixing the words "haptic" and "capacitive" into one. ...and don't pretend that you have no ability to grok usability and the beauty of software's architecture. Never mind; I know you're not pretending.

          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by samkass ( 174571 )

            Only on Slashdot would your post get modded Insightful instead of its rightful "Flamebait" mod.

            In short, don't try to pretend you know why iPhone buyers buy their phones, because you obviously don't. Trust me, fashion has very little to do with my purchasing decisions. If you met me that would be pretty easy to confirm.

          • by Toonol ( 1057698 )
            Why are people so resistant to simply admitting it's a fashion accessory?

            It's embarrassing to admit they're paying hundreds of dollars extra in order to purchase some plastic respect.

            Not that it's wrong; it should be embarrassing. Apple needs to be careful, they're doing well but navigating in very fickle waters. The fashion tide can quickly turn.
          • Because it's not (Score:2, Interesting)

            by weston ( 16146 )

            Why are people so resistant to simply admitting it's a fashion accessory?

            Maybe before we actually discuss the issue, we could get some idea from you of why people seem to think they've shown some kind of deep insight when they say things like this.

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            There's a difference between a product that relays "I don't buy crap" and one that screams "Guess what color *my* credit card is??".

            It's more than fashion, with many/most of Apple's products. It's the upper, so called "BMW set". It's "Bling". It's almost regarded as jewelry that's 'ok' for a man to walk around with. It goes well with a Rolex.
            And yes, many people would consider is shameful to buy a watch with diamonds embedded in it.

          • by mjwx ( 966435 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @09:33PM (#28048449)

            Please don't pretend that it's all about the "A)..multi-touch enabled captive touchscreen".

            Multi-touch is a gimmick, you have a good point there. But a responsive touchscreen is an important feature. Capacitive touch screens with good drivers provide much faster responses, comparing the capacitive screen my HTC Dream (G1 in the US) to the resistive screen on the Samsung F480 and the Samsung screen is almost unusable compared to the responsiveness of the HTC. While a touch screen is not necessary for a phone, if you're going to put a touch screen into a phone it should be a decent touchscreen

            Why are people so resistant to simply admitting it's a fashion accessory?

            Cognitive Dissonance, they cant handle the conflicting ideas that the iphone cannot perform the same functions in other smartphones whilst maintaining the impression that the iphone is the "best phone in the world". Iphone fanboys are the worst fanboys to deal with.

            Although I admit to the sin of pride in my android based phone, I'll be the first to point out its flaws.

            There's no shame in wanting something for status' sake. You don't have to make up rationalizations.

            Post Purchase rationalisation [wikipedia.org]. The Iphone cost too much to be a simple fashion accessory, unlike jewellery it will never increase in value, when their contract is up after 24 months their phone will be worthless and superseded by up to 2 models. For this they have spent a minimum of A$1800 for a locked phone.

            • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

              by amRadioHed ( 463061 )

              Multi-touch is a gimmick, you have a good point there. But a responsive touchscreen is an important feature.

              Wait, why is touch screen an important feature and yet multi-touch is only a gimmick? That doesn't make sense to me.

              I don't own an iPhone and I don't ever plan on getting one, but the multi-touch interface is very nice in my limited experience with it.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by Wrath0fb0b ( 302444 )

          Unfortunately here in the US there are only one or two phones released with it officially and both are on T-Mobile. Windows Mobile doesn't support captive touch screens officially, and almost anyone who has used WinMo can tell you it basically sucks.

          (1) You can move the G1 to AT&T (or any other GSM carrier). Of course AT&T costs a metric ass-ton more than TMO, so I don't know why would want to do it, but that's a different matter? http://www.unlock-tmobileg1.com/EN/procedures/activate.php [unlock-tmobileg1.com]

          (2) WinMo sucks out of the box, but there is a massive community of people cooking up new ROMS and writing awesome applications. If you are a super-busy-important guy (why would you be posting on /.?) then it's not for you, but for anyone with free time that li

          • (1) You can move the G1 to AT&T (or any other GSM carrier). Of course AT&T costs a metric ass-ton more than TMO, so I don't know why would want to do it, but that's a different matter? http://www.unlock-tmobileg1.com/EN/procedures/activate.php [unlock-tmobileg1.com]

            Yes, but buying an unlocked phone costs more (like the G1 dev phone) and unlocking isn't officially supported. Just like I can unofficially jailbreak and unlock an iPhone to make it work on T-Mobile too.

            (2) WinMo sucks out of the box, but there is a massive community of people cooking up new ROMS and writing awesome applications. If you are a super-busy-important guy (why would you be posting on /.?) then it's not for you, but for anyone with free time that likes to play with gadgets and customize software, WinMo is an acceptable choice.

            Sure, but either way the core still sucks. You can make it be decent, but it still requires other software draining the battery.

            Also, what's all the fuss about capacitive touch screens? My >2-year old (yes, it predates the 1G iPhone) HTC Titan has a resistive touch screen that works fine without the stylus for any application designed for touch-use, including most of the WinMo interface since I upgraded to 6.5 (community built, naturally). The (past) lack of good touch applications on the WinMo side of things was a software problem carried over from the days of the stylus, not because of hardware that couldn't support it.

            A) No multitouch, you wouldn't think it would be that big of a deal, but it multitouch makes touchscreens much more useful for day to day activities B) Resistive touchscreens

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by Sloppy ( 14984 )

          The problem is theres really no other alternative. There are nearly no cheap AT&T handsets that A) Have a multi-touch enabled captive touchscreen B) A decent browser C) Lots of (quality) applications to download for free.

          You just made up a bunch of arbitrary search criteria. Try this: select from phones where DON'T SUCK. After that, you can worry about relatively trivial issues like multi-touch screens. I'll take DON'T SUCK and buttons, any day, over SUCK with a neural interface.

          • Ok, lets see phones that don't suck.

            iPhone
            G1
            Blackberry Bold
            Palm Pre (based solely on reviews as it isn't out yet)

            And even those phones still have a multitude of issues. There are no phones that don't suck. The iPhone has a horrid application approval process and many obvious flaws such as the lack of MMS/Copy and paste, lack of background applications, etc. But many will be fixed in iPhone OS 3.0. On the hardware side it has a crappy camera. Android still isn't 100% mature, the G1 has a broken b
        • by mjwx ( 966435 )

          Sure, Android is great... Unfortunately here in the US there are only one or two phones released with it officially and both are on T-Mobile.

          You can by the Android dev phone for US$425 +S&H (including the US$25 registration fee for the Android marketplace) or you could use grey imports. I bought my Android phone unlocked and outright for A$900 [ow.com.au] (standard price for a smartphone in AU, yes we do get ripped off) but buying it from Australia or Europe means that you'll get the local firmware (if that matte

      • With these random rejections happening all the time, I'm starting to think there is one Apple employee who is a complete dipshit/not fit for his job/bears a grudge against the world. It would be interesting to see what this hypothetical employee approves, if anything.

      • by raddan ( 519638 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @09:23PM (#28048389)
        I'm OK with Apple doing idiotic stuff like this. History has shown that, in the long run, the "walled garden" approach does not have a lot of longevity. Apple should know this better than anyone, seeing as they've tried it repeatedly. In the end cheap and open always wins.

        I'm willing to bet that once Android phones are really available, you're going to see the smartest developers moving over. Not because Android is technically superior-- it may not be-- but because no one wants to PAY for a SDK and pour loads of time into developing and refining applications, only to have it blocked by Apple for some arbitrary or unknown reason. Couple that with Apple's long history of incorporating good ideas into their own platform at the expense of developers, and I think their App Store will eventually marginalize itself.

        Right now, the iPhone is really the only slick thing out there (I speak as a Blackberry user and administrator, which is a platform that works but not well), but how long do you think this will be the case?
    • If you are so opposed to Apple's censorship, STOP BUYING AND HYPING THEIR PRODUCTS.

      Many of us have already done just that.

    • If you are so opposed to Apple's censorship, STOP BUYING AND HYPING THEIR PRODUCTS.

      I agree with that. It would be nice to see Apple transformed from Arrogant to Humble and Appreciative.

    • by Draek ( 916851 )

      Of course, but a bit of bad publicity is also necessary for them to Get A Clue(tm). Otherwise, they may think people aren't buying it because it wasn't shiny enough instead.

    • Who says the two parties you're referring to are one and the same? I'd argue that they are very separate groups.

      But I would agree that no, of course Apple won't change its business practices if they keep raking in the dough. I'm glad you've solved that complex market conundrum. As far as they know, their solution is working, and if I were in their shoes, I wouldn't change a thing. I might if you could prove that appeasing the hardcore enthusiast .01% market share would help the bottom line.
    • by ceswiedler ( 165311 ) * <chris@swiedler.org> on Thursday May 21, 2009 @08:39PM (#28048057)

      Isn't it possible to be opposed to part of something, and yet still find the whole valuable enough to warrant keeping? Have you, for example, ever been married?

  • Looks good (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Midnight Thunder ( 17205 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @06:00PM (#28046465) Homepage Journal

    I watched the animations on the site, and nowhere did I see the mention of the Kama Sutra. Then again if you can find the Kama Sutra in a search, how is this any different from Google or Safari?

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      I watched the animations on the site, and nowhere did I see the mention of the Kama Sutra. Then again if you can find the Kama Sutra in a search, how is this any different from Google or Safari?

      The funny thing with apps is - can you tell where the app ends and the downloaded network content begins?

      A number of apps make remote content appear as if it was local - sure things may be streaming and fetched from webservers and displayed in embedded WebKit frameworks, but they have the look and feel of the app its

  • by shellster_dude ( 1261444 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @06:02PM (#28046483)
    I happen to own a nokia n810, and I believe that it's ebook reading ability, particularly pdf, is excellent. It is probably my primary use for the device.
    • by Simon80 ( 874052 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @06:59PM (#28047181)
      I second this, my N800 can surf the web, play music and videos, view documents, make SIP calls, and run arbitrary (free!) Linux applications that people port to the platform (i.e. torrent client, pidgin, mplayer, Gnumeric..), with no approval necessary from Nokia, and yet when I'm not in class with the thing taking notes and using the Internet, my main use for it is to read books on the bus or when killing time for whatever reason. In the last four months alone, I've read over 500 pages of the OpenGL Red Book on it. I highly recommend an N810 to users who want an inexpensive, non-crappy alternative to the iPod Touch.
  • Nokia N810 (Score:5, Interesting)

    by bluephone ( 200451 ) <grey&burntelectrons,org> on Thursday May 21, 2009 @06:03PM (#28046495) Homepage Journal
    I have an N810 and LOVE IT. I installed Evince which lets me rotate PDFs left or right so I have a full page visible on the 800x480 screen, and it's wonderful to read a book on. The fact that I have a full Gecko based browser and full xterminal everywhere is just icing on the cake.
    • Yes, but it just does not have the same je nais se qua as the iPhone. For some people, being more productive isn't enough. They have to have the only phone that matters.

      When Nokia starts having billboards on the sides of buses with silhouettes of hip-looking young people dancing, then we can talk.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Eil ( 82413 )

      I have an N800 and I only sorta like it.

      I could spend all day complaining about it, but suffice to say that in regards to reading e-books... it's not much of a long-term solution. The screen has incredible resolution for its size, but the size of the screen is still small. You either need to hold the tablet close to your face or suffer eye strain.

      The Nokia Gecko browser is a joke. It's very slow, has limited options, and is very very buggy. Quite often it stops working completely until you do a reboot. I ca

      • Wow. I'll reboot my 810 every few months and that's it. It's rock solid for me. The 800 was originally released at 330mhz or so, and OS2008 bumped it up to 400 like the 810 has, so maybe the 800 is flakier at the higher speed? The 810 is a fantastic machine to me.
  • Just Resubmit (Score:3, Informative)

    by MozeeToby ( 1163751 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @06:03PM (#28046497)

    Its been very thoroughly established that Apple's censorship program is based more upon the reviewer you get than any standard set of guidelines. Someone got overzealous and rejected it, that doesn't mean that it is against Apple's policies. Just re-submit the thing and I'd lay even money on it that it will be approved the next time.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by PopeRatzo ( 965947 ) *

      Its been very thoroughly established that Apple's censorship program is based more upon the reviewer you get than any standard set of guidelines.

      So the problem is the way Apple set up the reviewing process and selects reviewers and allows for appeal of the reviewers' decision?

      Same result. Ultimately, it's Apple's fault.

      Apple simple does not believe in the power of the free-market, I guess. Instead of letting the free and unfettered action of the marketplace decide which apps and content will be run on the

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        Apple simple does not believe in the power of the free-market, I guess. Instead of letting the free and unfettered action of the marketplace decide which apps and content will be run on the iPhone, as god himself intended, they have decided that they have to protect...somebody, most likely themselves, from some user somewhere actually making a decision for themselves.

        Oh, FFS. Do you really believe that "the power of the free-market" would solve this problem? This is the free market; Apple is a corporation

  • by Manip ( 656104 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @06:04PM (#28046509)

    A lot of people have the mistaken impression that the Karma Sutra is a sex guide when in reality it is a guide to having and maintaining a strong relationship.

    For example it talks about marriage, how to meet women, and other things that you might expect from any modern relationship guide. It has a few sections about sex, kissing, and such but isn't the "sexual positions" guide that people think it is (often mis-referenced as such).

    It is no more porn than any modern relationship book (e.g. "Women are from venus men are from mars").

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by vux984 ( 928602 )

      A lot of people have the mistaken impression that the Karma Sutra is a sex guide when in reality it is a guide to having and maintaining a strong relationship.

      A significant portion of the book is a sex guide.

      It is no more porn than any modern relationship book (e.g. "Women are from venus men are from mars").

      I agree its not 'porn' in the sense that its intent isn't to stimulate or excite the reader, but its not Women are from Venus Men are from Mars.

      It's more like 2nd Century Cosmo for guys... "64 sex acts t

  • ... that the reviewer didn't look for 120 Days of Sodom [globusz.com] , I guess.

  • by heychris ( 587825 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @06:09PM (#28046581)
    Hi folks,

    Original submitter here. It seems the root link to the the author's blog is gone, though it's in the firehose submission:

    http://www.blog.montgomerie.net/whither-eucalyptus [montgomerie.net]

    He's posting his entire dealings with Apple, mostly of the form letter variety. Hope this app nonsense gets cleared up soon.

    CC

    • by myowntrueself ( 607117 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @08:58PM (#28048207)

      Heres a related article:

      http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/05/easter-eggs-may-get-apps-approved-but-could-hurt-app-store.ars [arstechnica.com]

      From the article:

      Jelle Prins created an iPhone app called Lyrics that allows a user to search for the lyrics to any song--even NWA's "F*ck Tha Police" or Rage Against The Machine's "Killing In The Name." Of course, Apple promptly rejected the app citing the "objectionable content" clause of the iPhone developer's agreement

      What. The. Fuck?

      So an application which does not specifically prohibit iphone users from searching for 'objectionable content' gets rejected?

      This isn't just about apps that *contain* 'objectionable content'.

      Its about apps that *permit* the user to *search* for 'objectionable content'.

      To me, and I'm sure to most reasonable people, this is in itself objectionable.

    • Reading Apple's replies to him, it looks like he's talking to a wall. 2 re-submissions and 2 denials, and they still don't answer a single question he asked.

  • There is either more to this story than meets the eye, or Apple really needs to get some better standards to their reviewers.

    I can understand if this was rejected because the reader in some way made it significantly easier to find the content. Bear in mind, even through the Kama Sutra is not a work of pornography, it is an adult work and if it was featured in some way, no one would doubt that there should be some consideration given to if it will be allowed on a site without parental controls.

    There is prob

  • by daybot ( 911557 ) * on Thursday May 21, 2009 @06:10PM (#28046591)

    This iPhone App advertising scheme isn't fooling me and I'm tired of these Slashdot stories feeding the cycle.

    1. Get iPhone app rejected by Apple, publish story, incite moral outrage by online community, then resubmit and get it accepted.
    2. ???
    3. Profit!
  • by bzzfzz ( 1542813 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @06:13PM (#28046631)

    It is difficult to imagine how the text-only English translation of the Kama Sutra [gutenberg.org] could be considered porn by anyone who has not spent the last 20 years in a Skinner box. Today, it is probably best understood as an interesting piece of history, since its contents are neither especially informative or titillating.

    Of course, if some of the reviewers at Apple have spent the last 20 years in a Skinner box [wikipedia.org], that would explain a number of the bogus rejections.

  • N810 as eBook Reader (Score:2, Informative)

    by kwalker ( 1383 )

    I use my n810 as an eBook reader all the time. The screen works quite well, and FBreader [fbreader.org] works like a champ (Even has its own Maemo repository). It doesn't have a book repository, but I haven't need one. The n800 should work about the same, and has a slightly larger screen. I just needed the keyboard.

    But then again, I've been using eReaders since my original Palm Pro.

  • I've had Stanza (another ebook reader) installed on my iPhone for months. And just last week on a whim I wondered if I could download the Kama Sutra from Gutenberg with it, so I tried. Sure enough, it worked fine.*

    So I dunno what the point of this rejection is, since I can already do with my (locked, unbroken, completely unhacked) iPhone the very thing they are trying now to prevent.

    [*: Didn't learn anything new, though. :-) ]

  • They are supposed to contain knowledge, wisdom, insight, information, ideas and imaginings.

    If you don't have access to information that could offend someone (or at least challenge how they look at the world), then you can't have access to anything. In this sense a program that can read books is the most offensive possible program you can make.

    However, Steve Jobs' comments about people not reading books anymore aside, I don't want to live in a world without books or one with a reading list approved by
  • Babysitters (Score:4, Funny)

    by Nom du Keyboard ( 633989 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @06:36PM (#28046899)
    I don't need our new government to babysit me -- Apple's more than willing to do it for them.
  • by GMFTatsujin ( 239569 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @06:40PM (#28046961) Homepage

    From the summary: "I wonder how good the now-cheap Nokia 810 is as an e-book reader."

    I have an N800, which is very close in specs. It's okay as an e-book reader, but nothing to write home about. I'm using FBReader.

    As a general purpose internet laptop killer, it's awesome, though. Especially if you couple it with a bluetooth keyboard. I've written novels on it, VNCed, SSHed, played some games, diagnose networks, listened to podcasts, and even played Ur-Quan Masters on it [longtailgamer.com].

    I barely touch my laptop anymore unless I need something that genuinely calls for a larger screen, like a spreadsheet or balancing my checkbook. The fun stuff, I leave to the N800.

  • by psoriac ( 81188 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @07:00PM (#28047187)

    http://th.ingsmadeoutofotherthin.gs/eucalyptus/ [ingsmadeou...herthin.gs]

    Just watching the demo video of Eucalyptus's interface makes me want to purchase it. The search methods, content organization, page zooming, and page turning seem very well designed and polished to me. Integration with Project Gutenberg is a fantastic bonus.

    Disclaimer: I have no relationship with either Eucalyptus or Project Gutenberg. I'm just a very impressed hopefully-soon-to-be user.

  • by Schnoogs ( 1087081 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @07:14PM (#28047333)
    ...your partner is on the phone during sex they might actually be looking up the next position instead of chatting with a friend.
  • by EzInKy ( 115248 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @07:33PM (#28047521)

    Seriously, why should Apple even have the right to restrict what people do, see, read, or hear on the hardware that they purchased from them? Once money has changed hands their ownership to the metal has ended.

  • The Real Question (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Sponge Bath ( 413667 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @07:36PM (#28047557)

    The real question is not why Apple is treating the Kama Sutra like porn, but why can't we get official, paid in full porn through the main application and content conduit for the iPhone?

    Come on Steve, there are adults out there using the iPhone. Give them what they want and be the pimp of your dreams.

  • I have not bought any apps for my phone yet. I promise this will be the first one. That demo was great.

  • Bug Report (Score:3, Interesting)

    by yumyum ( 168683 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @09:46PM (#28048541)
    Apple's nuts on this. I went to Apple's Bug Reporter [apple.com] to complain about this. You may have to be a registered developer to do this. If so and you are one, please burn some Apple karma and let them know that their approval process is nuts.
  • Android. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by feepness ( 543479 ) on Thursday May 21, 2009 @11:49PM (#28049303)
    I don't know why anyone even touches an iPhone. I will not tolerate my Apps being limited.
  • Apple = Evil (Score:5, Insightful)

    by lpq ( 583377 ) on Friday May 22, 2009 @03:58AM (#28050483) Homepage Journal

    It's only showing it's colors.

    Apple's always been *evil*. They've just become very good at creating the 'must-have' style products that are overpriced, locking you into Apple ... at every chance. Easily shutting down anything remotely resembling 'freedom' -- which is what made the PC great in the first place. People have complained about MS's adoption of more and more DRM, but Apple's always had a de facto locking -- by having exclusive locks on compatible hardware. MS went with the approach of allowing unrestricted interoperability (which, when they've tried to limit, they've gotten slapped down due to their monopoly position, but Apple is similarly a monopoly in their market. But MS on PC's and Apples on Apples, are both monopolies. Apple gets away with it because they are smaller -- but their policies and user-abuse are far harsher and more totalitarian than MS. Much of that stems from Apple's core culture, but some of it also stems from MS being forced to be more open because they are a standard -- which they became because of their openness.

    It disgusts me the way Apple fanboys fawn all everything Apple, which fancying themselves superior to PC-users. Bu it's nothing more than it ever was -- financial and "in-crowd" elitism.

    You see it in Apple's commercials...the I'm a Mac, vs. PC. The PC guy looks like the average harried Joe -- while the Apple guy is just portrayed as 'cool'...with all his little 16-17 y/o rail-thin model pod-girls dancing around him in silhouette, like an oh-so-more-sophisticated 'Deadhead' scene of rainbow colors, but with the original 'cool' of Beatles style and music 60's-70 -- the epitome of cool in the baby-boom generation, with it's message perpetuating the message of perpetual cool youth with their stylish Apple products. The iPhone, by it's price should be focused on adults and business types, but it's obviously focused on sales to teens and 20'-something as the latest trend of electronic fashion -- just like the ipods were yesterday's (and ongoing) fashion statement.

    But people should be concerned about how much market lock-in Apple has -- they own the main means of distribution for their gadgets -- and get to decide how their devices are used -- and they have shown that they have no qualms about shutting down anyone who tries to use their product in an unapproved manner -- or even performing the crudest of Christian censorship campaigns against 'objectionable' classics that have been previously censored or caused controversy. What will be next on their banned list, the unexpurgated poems of Walt Whitman, or the 'Song of Songs': an erotic piece that has been subject to demands of censorship over the centuries as it describes intense expressions of physical love, the voluptuous beauty of lovers longing for one another and in a uniquely feminine perspective, it's seductive and intimate language conveys and immediate, sensuous and intoxicating desire. Certainly worthy of censorship -- or how about the recent decision [centerforinquiry.net] in Bloomington, Ind where the city is refusing to run a paid-bus, public-service ad, "You can be good without God", as being too controversial (that's their definition of objectionable).

    That Apple is using it's censorship powers on type of apps and content is very disturbing given it's unique, monopoly lock in the markets it sells too -- yet the fan boys swoon on, like Apple can do no wrong. They were they original PC-company that moved to sue all their competitors out of business. The original company that "sued over their "Intellectual Property" -- they've been guilty of copyright, patent, trademark and DRM abuse since their creation and have no qualms using lawsuits and their market-lock on their products, to control what you can with "your" product (it's really their product -- they can brick-it anytime they don't like a change you've implemented). If you are lucky, they'll replace it

  • My guess (Score:3, Informative)

    by Benanov ( 583592 ) <brian.kemp@membe[ ]sf.org ['r.f' in gap]> on Friday May 22, 2009 @09:20AM (#28052533) Journal

    It's because his app doesn't respect parental control settings.

    Still kinda stupid.

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