Apple Bans Sexy Apps, Developers Upset 492
An anonymous reader writes "Apple is now removing many risque applications from its App Store so as not to 'scare off potential customers.' The removed applications, including SlideHer and Dirty Fingers, allowed people to see scantily clad women. Although they were once approved by Apple, even reaching the 'most downloaded' lists, Apple removed them after getting complaints that they were degrading to women. That said, the Sports Illustrated application is still available for those who want scantily clad women on their iPhone, and developers are up in arms over the perceived inconsistency. It's sure a good thing for those worried parents that they don't have any kind of web browser on there. On the internet, you're never more than one click away from something horrible."
Some are speculating that this is a ploy from Apple to drum up interest in the iPad from educators.
Even a swimwear merchant app that sold bikinis (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Perhaps another Sudoku app... (Score:4, Informative)
Why can't Apple let the market decide. Set up some sort of rating system so people can filter out stuff they don't want to see.
Re:Developers? (Score:5, Informative)
If Apple adjusts their policy towards habitual application spammers (have you seen the Games section?), it would also solve the problem. But its easier to just target soft porn.
The Playboy app is allowed to remain too! (Score:1, Informative)
So they are removing apps of women in bikinis but leaving apps of fully naked women.
Phil Schiller says it is because Playboy is an established brand: http://www.macrumors.com/2010/02/23/phil-schiller-acknowledges-new-app-store-sexual-content-ban-and-exceptions/
So the real message here is that these images are only degrading if they come from a non-established brand. apparently established brands are less offensive.
I have an iPhone and love it, would never buy a porn app from it, and hate to see the App Store clogged with those apps, but this is not the answer. Create an Adults/Mature section, put the the apps like this in there, and be done with it.
Re:I'm tired of this "degrading toward women" crap (Score:2, Informative)
Typical feminist hypocrisy on **anything** that might appeal to heterosexual male sexuality, but that doesn't involve a "by your leave, your majesty" from a woman! It's ok for a woman to masturbate, use toys and sleep around. That's "empowering." A man does anything like that and he's "degrading women."
Apparently you didn't get the memo. All straight men are rapists and thus bad people.
I was actually taught that in my Freshmen Writing class at Carnegie Mellon University. The content of said "writing" class was in reality "gender studies" but no one seemed to care.
No instructor could ever get away with teaching intermediate Spanish instead of chip layout in a semiconductor design class...
Re:Perhaps another Sudoku app... (Score:5, Informative)
iTunes U [apple.com] is the education section of the iTunes store.
Re:unbelievable, yet very believable (Score:5, Informative)
>>>Agreed. Sony learned from their VHS vs. Betamax lessons and proved it with the success of Bluray. What was the lesson? Betamax discouraged porn on their format.
>>>
I wish people would stop posting false stories. Sony allowed Betamax to carry porn, and have (or rather had) a whole library to prove it. Playboy, swimsuits, unmentionable stuff - it was all available on Betamax. You are quoting a false urban legend. In reality the reason Betamax failed is because it only supported 1 hour per tape (in 1975) and people felt 1 hour was not long enough to record an evening football game, or primetime programming, or afternoon soaps.
So instead they chose VHS which supported 4 hours (in 1976). While Sony later increased the max record time to 3 hours in 1980, the damage had already been done, and VHS had already gained dominance.
As for quality between VHS and Betamax, that is yet another urban legend. Just as Sony tried to dupe people into believing the PS2 had Toy Story-level graphics, so too did they try the same with Betamax, but in reality, there's no statistical difference:
- Both are 3 megahertz video bandwidth (250 lines analog horizontal resolution)
- Both have 0.6 megahertz chroma bandwidth
- Both have AM-quality sound recording... and later Hi-Fi recording
Re:Well... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Developers? (Score:5, Informative)
Exactly. There are app sweatshops like this guy [mobilecrunch.com] who has already been banned for gaming the system :
"In less than 9 months, Khalid Shaikh and his 26-employee team (most of which are in Pakistan) have published 943 applications [...] That’s roughly 5 apps a day, every day, for 250 days"
And they churn out crap like what Apple is now banning (emphasis mine) :
"They include “Top Sexy Ladies: Audrina Patridge,” which (from what we gather; again, we cannot test these apps because they are not up anymore) is an app that takes 5 pictures of The Hills star from online and puts them on your phone. Yes, it costs $4.99. There are hundreds of others like this, including Top Sexy Men apps and various news update apps"
Re:This Is Not Censorship At All (Score:5, Informative)
The fact is, a consumer retailer like Apple can stock and sell whatever products to choose to its customers. What they don't stock is really none of your business, and if you don't like, take your products and have someone else carry it.
This is just another non-issue. The problem with Apple is that they are too successful, they need to keep out the riff raff.
Hm, I'm not so sure about that. Schiller has already intimated that Apple is now operating a cartel with certain app developers when responding to a question [nytimes.com] about why Sports Illustrated's and Playboy's apps are not banned:
“The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format”.
I also suspect that Apple's App Store practices will lead to an antitrust investigation at some point. The iPhone is gaining dominance [tipb.com] in the smartphone market and if its capricious App Store behaviour continues, accusations of monopolistic behaviour are bound to crop up.
Re:seems to be working fine how it is (Score:3, Informative)
And it's been restored since they became a much more open platform, which happened when, exactly?
Apple was almost destroyed by bad management that stopped developing new products worth buying, created confusing groups of model lineups and kept absurdly high pricing for machines with last year's performance.
The first thing Jobs did on their current road to success was kill the clones, rather the opposite of opening up the platform, no?
Re:Even a swimwear merchant app that sold bikinis (Score:3, Informative)
First, beaches aren't only on oceans. In that part of the US, there's a lot of lakes of various sizes scooped out by glaciers in the last Ice Age. Many of them have beaches.
Second, it can get unpleasantly warm in the summer, because there is no ocean nearby to moderate temperatures. There are a few months of the year when you'd enjoy sitting outside in skimpy clothes (I don't think you want to see me in a bikini, frankly).