By One man’s loss is another man’s gain, and in the case of two contrasting Application Store ideologies, the iPhone App Store and Android Market each have their fair share of ups and downs. Whereas Android offers a free market where consumers decide what is good and bad, right and wrong – Apple has gone the protective route, ensuring the App Store offerings meet a certain standard of quality and morals, defined by them.
But what happens when the rules “defined by them” are RIDICULOUSLY more prude than the rules that would be defined by anyone else? Easy: 5,000 applications get removed from the App Store because Apple’s executive team seems to be stuck in an alternate universe where America in the 1950s meets a Catholic convent meets the unfortunate cultural demands of women in (some) Middle Eastern countries.
It all started when an app called Wobble iBoobs was pulled from the App Store. The application allows you to take an image, mark the boobs and shake your phone to watch them wobble-wobble, shake-it shake-it (and jiggle jiggle). It was on the App Store long enough to make $300,000 yet was pulled, and their creators sent an EMail that contained the following ominous sign:
We have decided to remove any overtly sexual content from the App Store, which includes your application.
There were at least 4,999 other apps/games with overtly sexual content, all of which were removed today. Peeved, the Wobble iBoobs team contacted Apple and got the following response in terms of the new “guidelines” – republished from MobileCrunch with Marc Flores comments in parenthesis:
- No images of women in bikinis (Ice skating tights are not OK either)
- No images of men in bikinis! (I didn’t ask about Ice Skating tights for men)
- No skin (he seriously said this) (I asked if a Burqa was OK, and the Apple guy got angry)
- No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs (yes – I am serious, we have to remove the silhouette in this pic)
- No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex – all banned
- Nothing that can be sexually arousing!! (I doubt many people could get aroused with the pic above but those puritanical guys at Apple must get off on pretty mundane things to find Wobble “overtly sexual!)
- No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content (not sure how Playboy is still in the store, but …)
Stay here and enjoy your iPhones little kids – Daddy Android will be in the next room hanging out with the other big boys and girls. Don’t worry: one day you’ll be able to swim in the deep end, jump off the high diving board, ride your bike without training wheels, and wipe your own butt too! When you get an Android Phone that is…
How do you feel about the level of censorship going on in the iPhone App Store? How much should Google tolerate in the Android Market or should it be 100% free and open as long as it isn’t racist, pervert and derogatory? And by the way… why does Apple pull content from the App Store yet allow music/audio/video with ANY type of language, titles and content into iTunes? Consistency Apple… consistency.
[Via MobileCrunch, Painting by Natasha Sazonova]
Ha… android comes out on top
Wow! I’m a huge Apple fan, but this type of news/censorship is alarming. It’s the Howard Stern issue of the terrestrial radio. Well, I guess and hope Google’s Android will be the sirius of the app stores. I have an iPhone, but now I’m So glad I also have a Nexus One. Not because I want to download the jiggling boob app (I don’t), but because I should be able to, if I want to. Tisk Tisk Apple.
First of all, NO ONE can scream “Censorship!” Censorship is when the government does not allow certain content. A person or company has a complete right and an obligation to allow or disallow any content that bears its name.
That being said, in my opinion, Apple needs to get a bit of a balance between what may actually be over the top and what is risque. What they should consider is a rating system similar to the ESRB and video games, many of which have more sexuality than these apps. If you have a child under 18, and somehow they end up with an iPhone or iPod Touch, it is still the parental responsibility to monitor content and behavior, just as they do with everything else.
Just another reason y android will beat apple in a year or two
Apple is going down… hard… and I’m lovin’ it! ;)
Censor: Any person who supervises the manners or morality of others.
There is nothing that implies that censorship is only carried out by government entities.
Windows mobile platform 7 is going to be awesum. I eat my farts.
@bob
“Censorship: the suppression of speech or deletion of communicative material which may be considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive”
While apple may have the right to censor its own platform, it is still censorship. Censorship is not exclusively a gov’t action.
@Neemo. Yeah Apple are going down hard with their billions in record profits they just posted. DOH!!
If apple doesn’t bump up their app standards and their GUI with 4.0, then I can see Android going big with advertisements, and i mean BIG. I would have liked to see the Desire make it big but the normal consumer isn’t ready for Android yet.
Censorship is a de facto part of life in America today, whether we like it or not. Tenio is correct to state that it is not exclusively a gov’t action, and if we REALLY look at the main culprits behind contemporary censorship in our country, it is actually corporate monoliths like Apple, Microsoft, the Associated Press, Walmart’s record store, cable, satellite, and wireless providers, ISP’s, etc, that are usually caving in to the demands of parents who willfully choose to abdicate their parental responsibilities to the nation at large. People who want to outsource parenting to the media, the gov’t, the school teachers, etc, are the REAL reason that hugely profitable corporations are stifling individual creative expression: it is in the name of good PR and to not be the bogeyman in the scandal-loving media’s nightly broadcasts that, too often, can make or break businesses. No CEO wants to go down as the laissez-faire exec who allowed such scandal-provoking products on his store’s shelves, to the ruin of the company’s bottom line.
This is extreme even for apple.
You have to be an adult to have this phone on contract, and adult to have a credit card in order to set up an account, before you can even buy these applications.
So why do Apple feel that being an adult is not enough, and remove this sort of application?
I own an Ipod Touch which is essentially the same thing, and i use a lot of sports applications. The pictures/animations and videos often show Topless males, and women in training vests for examples. Does this mean they will remove these applications?
I know plenty of iphone owners, and i still don’t see the appeal of them. If they weren’t so well hyped, they would not sell so many. I’ll pick an android phone over an Iphone any day of the week, and this latest decision from Apple is not likely to attract many adults who are capable of deciding on what they expose themselves to.
RIP Iphone.
the day this happened 16 new countries got a apple app-store. Most of them were Islamic .
i guess that it is not a just a coincident that with the new stores the rules changed too.
Maximize Profit. thats it. if you dont like it you have to leave. i dont like this menality… it never worked out on the long run…
@Bob
Why try to change the definition of censorship. It applies to news organizations which are mega corporations and it applies to Apple?
and why they don’t remove safari? it’s the easiest way to acccess hot contents…
(I know why)
@Enea – Seriously! This is nothing but a pr move to endear them with the parental and bible-belt set. Until they remove internet connectivity from the iPhone and iTampon, users of their devices will have access to almost limitless porn. Whom do they think they’re kidding?
It’s funny how the infamous babyshaker app was deemed acceptable by Apple until the media got wind of it.
Apple owns the store, it is their image they want to protect. No different than any other company. When a celebrity goes bad, ie tiger Woods, companies want to distance themselves from it, they are a business after all. They employ people, insure people and they are in some cases have to answer to stock holders per their contracts.
This is the adult world. The kiddies can get their naked and half naked wall papers, and themes anywhere on the net. I applaud the move, there is too much crap to sort thru, and android market place is getting the same way.
Android market has poop scanners, fart apps, jiggly boob apps, really who but kids wants them anyway? Some people need to understand most people like standards and want standards.
It is not censorship. only a government can censor. It is a business decision apple has made. I do not get the Apple bashing at all. There is always someone to hate, IBM, MS, Apple, next it will be Google, then tomorrow some one else..when will it end?
Hey, don’t knock good morals and clean living.
It’s immorality and sexual perversion that makes a nation crumble from within.
Android Market or should it be 100% free and open as long as it isn’t racist, pervert and derogatory
Interesting remark in the article…free speech is free speech, even racist and perverted speech. You cannot have it both ways now. It is a two way street. So which is it? who decides standards then? apple? Google? You? Your kids?
Looks like someone wants to draw a line at racism, why? Whats wrong with derogatory? Who decides? You? Me? Better think about this. Do you really not want standards?
Would one really want a nazi organization putting up hate apps? i don’t think so. I pretty sure no one wants that. Lines have to be drawn, somewhere.
all i have to say is FUCK APPLE WITH THEIR BITCH ASSES THEY READY TO GET FUCKED BY ANDROID
Really intelligent comment
@Mike/Joshua
Shut up.
I guess joshuas life has been ruined by lack of boob apps on the apple Store i guess.
I would buy that app on android, maybe they should shift focus to android?
All that I see this being is a Pr move by Apple. Unless they start blocking Safari and all other browsers on the iPhone. It looks to me they want the world to see them politically correct. They could careless about their consumers.
I will say though that the android market is growing and will surpass apples’s. But in this case think numbers don’t matter. I hope that android market surpasses apples bcus developers have embraced android and not bcus it is flooded w pointless apps. Maybe google should take a look at low ranking and flagged apps in order to funnel these out. This approach would be much better than apple’s since it would enpower users and force developers to meet certain levels.
I, for one, appreciate that Apple would take such measures. If you want yet another opportunity for your children to take pix of their genitals and spread them all over the internet, than go ahead and support Android free apps that do it.
Porn is a right, okay. Why the hell shouldn’t Apple have the right to choose not to allow it to be part of its +150,000 apps?
Apple = Dictatorship
The thing that’s most worrisome about this isn’t that Apple is censoring the apps that they’re allowing, it’s that they did it completely without warning. There are individual developers and companies whose entire businesses are built on top of the App Store, and Apple is giving them a big middle finger by pulling their entire revenue stream out from under them. Plenty of the apps that were pulled probably only had one or two things that needed to be adjusted to be deemed acceptable, and yet, Apple didn’t bother to inform them of the change ahead of time. Every developer who has any kind of paid app submitted to the App Store has reason to be scared.
One day when Apple falls. All of us who have hated them forever will be laughing. All of the idiots who give in and by anything that is shiny and made by Apple will finally figure out why we all hate Apple. But, until then I guess Apple will keep on making there EXTREMELY thin products until they make a invisible laptop.
I am definitely pro-Android, but Google’s Market needs some serious fixes if it is to become as popular as Apple’s. Android’s strength is also it’s weakness: openness. There is so much junk on the Market that care needs to be taken to ensure that users can optionally filter and narrow down sufficiently to find the software they want.
For a start, themes should not be visible in the Market at all unless you have the application installed, and these themes should be accessed only through the associated application’s page. That would address much of the Market glut.
Apple may or may not be shooting themselves in the foot here. It’s important that Google leverage these opportunities for Android without making the platform weaker.
i dont care about the sexual things as long as those gameloft and ea 3d amazing games are being released im chillen..I wish google would be push more for these big developers to make these games for android because they really are amazing..the free apps are nice..but i am perfectly fine with paying for a great quality app/game…i’d love to get rid of my ipod and just have my nexus one, but the apps :/..so apple can remove these apps for all i care they still have a great app store…and apple is not going down…and im not an apple fanboy..ive been with android since the day the g1 came out and went to the google ion, hero, and now nexus
iAmish ?
I hear Apple is releasing a wooden iWidget to demonstrate their puritan sensibilities. You can get it in White (milk paint) or Maple.
All you Apple haters….. you realize that if Apple “fails” there really isnt anything out there to push Android.
As long as I have a choice, I want Apple to do well in order to push Android.
COMPETITION IS GOOD.
CHOICE IS GOOD.
All of you people must be nuts. You missed the most important point in the entire article: This tiny, simple little app made $300,000!!! Holy crap! I’m going to learn to code!
bobby, you won’t get these games because android OS only has a small footprint in which to cram the programming onto the phone and not the storage card. Unless that is fixed, you will never get the quality apps for the games.
supposedly they are thinking about changing this but who knows when, if ever they will.
@bobby
gameloft makes massive amounts of mediocre licensed games that are never updated. Enjoy your crappy games and Nazipod.
I’ve read some strange theories why Apple is cracking down on the bewb apps ranging from paranoid government conspiracies to Apple trying to dictate morality. Apple is a corporation, and as such, they exist to make money. It’s reasonable to assume that this decision is profit-motivated. The most likely scenario is that Apple is taking out the trash and will be pitching the iPad to the educational market. Colleges and other institutions will be more receptive to the iPad if textbooks don’t have to compete with jiggling bewb apps. My guess is that since Windows Mobile 7 won’t suck, they might copy Apple and make their own iPad clone, pitch it to universities and maybe have the same restrictions on mobile applications. Android, being a generally user-supported, open-source platform, will never have those kind of restrictions and will be the platform of choice for people that need to have mobile pr0n. Google’s Android app store should have NO filtering of any kind whatsoever, letting the end user filter his own content. Any filtering, whether it targets derogatory content to religion, race, or political affiliation is a slippery slope and could be seen as hypocritical move on Google’s part.
If iPhone users want mobile pr0n, they can jailbreak their phones. Point, click, done.
I wouldn’t worry too much if Google did restrict the apps available in the market, as Android allows you to install apps from elsewhere. This is one of the major differences between the iPhone and Android models for the end user: an iPhone customer can only install Apple-approved apps.
This explains why Apple is able to have such tight controls in its App Store, and why Google can’t. If Apple pulls an app because it doesn’t meet their moral standards, no iPhone user can install it. If Google were to impose moral censorship, non-Google app stores would appear for the Android platform.
As it happens there is already the MiKandi store for Android which specialises in ‘Adult’ apps. Not that I’ve tried it…
just another reason to add to the list for my boycott of apple and all apple products. this is just ridiculous.
If it’s true that Android is so free, and so open that they will take anything, and completely uncensored means that Android has got to be great news for all of the perverts out there! I can see the ads now “Android… the home and your one source of perverted, and anything goes apps!”
I have read through these comments. Heard a lot of “only government can censor” wrong. Any person or buisness can. Also “its a buisness” yeah it is but I can’t even count how many times iv heard apple talk about being there to provide a great product and that they care about the people. Not everyone will agree on standards. But we agree there should b sum. Everyones diffrent. So in the end it should b the individual that decides what is good for him. And know one else. We can watch our kids and filter our own content apple. If u can’t watch ur kids or filtet ur own content then u shouldn’t b an adult. U don’t like what I said [email protected]. bring it.
@Bill
Developers have been able to place and run things from the sd card for awhile now. There’s really no limitation to that now.
Wobbling boobs doesn’t appeal to me, not because they’re kinky, but they’re considered a silly gimmick app. It’s OK for those who wants this app. That’s called FREEDOM.
I am AGAINST censorships. Who do they think they can decide that we can’t decide for ourselves?! I just hate all those silly “political correctness” claptrap and all those barmy “Health and Safety” regimes on certain issues (including wearing a safety goggles when placing a Blu-Tak on the wall (yes, it’s true, according to one local council)!
Give the General Public a break! Let them choose what they want on their mobiles.
@@ ROB I know this is alittle off subject but I talked to a Verizon rep today and was told Android OS is going through some problems…..have you heard anything about this? This would make sense beingmy Droids been alittle buggy. You know anything about this Boss? Please answer this…thanks much much
I don’t want the Android Market censored but HOLY CRAP I’d love to see it organized better. :/
@james
ok, how do i put apps on my sd card and run them? My phone cannot be rooted.
Has Anyone searched for Grindr on the app store? Go ahead and do that. . . . . i’ll wait and stay here while you do . . . . did you do it? . . . It’s called “Grindr” . . . now ya got it? . . . okay now search for it . . . did ya see that? Jason, Dale, and Derek. Oh my. Yeah i’m just a little confused at how it is still running. . . . back to your Apple bashing Andro-boys. . . .
Apple designs their product, apple designs the appstore, apple decides what is ok to be IN their store. What’s the problem? Not that I think apple removed all of these apps purely on moral grounds but if they did, good for them. Would anyone be upset if they removed an app that depicted images of American flags burning or planes flying into buildings? Certainly not. The fact that such filth is tolerated by any means in our society is evidence that we are certainly not free. We are enslaved to our lusts and evil desires.
Any form of censorship is bad.
I get it when parents are trying to protect their children form certain perversities and violence but then again that’s very subjective as not every child is of the same mental age.
If there is a rating on it or a guideline then that should be enough for people to warn them before viewing the content.
I can’t decide if these restrictions are more like the US Constitution, the Taliban, or the Mormon Church?
Hey, why be surprised by the conduct of Apple’s censorship dictatorial policy. Point your fingers right to the top of that organization. The biggest fascist himself. Steve Jobs. The man who abused the hell out of the first programmers who worked for him, calling them names at the same time drooling with apple juice frothing from the corners of his mouth. Typical of a corporation bent on controlling the world. Shame on Apple for controlling everything that comes across their way. The iphone is good, but Android will be better. Time will tell and so will the competition. You know what happened to the Nazi’s, the same will happen to Apple. Its the American way. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. With a prurient nature blowing our sails.
I would like to see Android market and browser have setting options for USER selected filtering of racy content. My 7 and 9 year old kids often play with my Droid and I let them download and install apps.
Apple does care about it’s people. When i had a problem with the app store, i called apple, problem with my ipod or iphone, apple, problem with itunes, apple. They were always there and fixed what ever issue i had. Call google. ask for tech support. Go ahead. let me know how much google cares.
i called Google because of bogus charges thru Google checkout, emailed them, many many times, first got no response, then automated response, finally an email said there was no problem. but there was, i was billed for all my apps twice. I called google. They have people to answer the phones to tell you that they do not provide support via the phone. Yea, Google cares. I had to file fraud charges against google with my bank for God sake. WTF?
We’ll see,
let’s take a look at this subject again in 2 years time shall we…..When the HTC..Oops, err…I mean Google phone, fades into history and takes it place in the ‘iPhone Killer’ garbage can with all the others…
Let’s also discuss this again when Android users start installing spyware, malware & viruses from unchecked apps, that need processor choking anti-software to protect the OS from.
Google Android is a response to Apples dominance. The iPhone and it’s OS were game changing innovations, the Google Phone and Android are not, just followers.
Look through history, it’s usually the leaders & innovators that stand out, not the followers.
So Android users…Party on!
I fear however, that you’ll be the ones with the ‘Big Boys’ hangovers and the useless lumps of grey ugly plastic.
shame on apple for controlling their own company? WTF…
Look, a lot of you may be kids, so i understand that you may not realize what it is like to run a company, make a payroll, take care of stock holders, etc etc, all the while makeing a profit. It’s a business decision, apple is not here to make a social statement for your benefit. look, anyone can decide not to do business with any company for any reason they choose. say you don’t like company x because they hire minorities, or company y because they hire bald people, or company z because they hire blondes, it’s your decision, but it does not make them evil because you don’t like them.
if this is the hill you want to die on, fine, i did not realize these issues were so important to people. everyone is allowed to have their cause, i guess hating apple can be one, after all it is a free country.
Good for Apple! As a parent with young children I was very alarmed by the amount of smut and trash that was readily available to my kids with little ability to block it. I’m glad they are taking these steps.
@bill
the main part of the app gets stored on the phone and rest of its components on a folder on your sdcard
@kyle
gameloft games are crappy for android, but not for the ipod..they have great graphics and are updated when needed (assasins creed, need for speed etc)
i dont know why theres so much hate towards apple. If you like their products, dont buy them, but don’t be arrogant about it. Google is open, Apple is not, get over it. Apple can control what apps go in THEIR store just like you can control who you allow in your house. Apple is not a dictatorship because you don’t have to go with it but they have much better customer service than google and a much more organized appstore.
I personally prefer Android over Apple’s OS just because android has more capabilities and imo looks much better than iphone os, and ive been with android since day one, but i prefer the apps available on the App Store over the Android Market. Google is open, Apple is not, get over it. Apple can control what apps go in THEIR store just like you can control who you allow in your house. Apple is not a dictatorship because you don’t have to buy their products.
@ mike you really think that makes a country crumble, look at all the muslim countries/gov’t that do not allow a women show her skin that have crumbled( ie.taliban). i highly doubt showing iwobble is going to make america crumble
are some of you even serious? I understand this is an Android fan site but as a user of both phones, the app store on the iphone has so many things, that Apple is doing us a solid on removing the super retarded and useless sexual apps. One developer had 500 variations of one dumb app, I can’t even imagine how many people like him are out there.
whatever. we all know apple is unfair with how they operate their app store. it ranges from censorship (yes its censorship because they make you think you have all these choices when you buy their product and you assume that as an adult YOU get to decide to avoid boobs or dive into them but then you really don’t get that choice)like this, to killing apps that would compete with their own products.
but that’s besides the point. if you actually purchased any smart phone on your own you’re an adult, which means you have the ability to decide whether or not you want to PAY for a boob app.
unless mommy n daddy bought you an iphone in which case yea, they probably don’t want you looking at boobs. but maybe they shouldn’t give their kids a mobile internet portal that they can use to look at boobs (and worse) anyplace they want, app or no app.
so basically apple’s shooting themselves in the foot to a degree. its not like every iphone owner’s throwing it in the trash, but they are pissing off the boob crazy, freedom loving segment of their customer base. and that also affects the bottom line.
i just feel like if you’re paying good money for phones, and service, and apps; why do these companies have to tell you what you can enjoy? everyone knows it’s ridiculous. RIDICULOUS.
oh and @ whoever said this happened the day 16 mostly islamic countries got app stores: wow! thats crazy lol!
@zahoor sadiq LOL…that’s like your favorite sports team losing in the big game and you saying, “we’ll get them next year”. If you have to count on Android to evolve 1-2 years from now in order to “beat” out iPhone OS of today, then you are truly not grasping the bigger picture. Sure, Apple censored 5000 apps. How in the world is that going to cause Android to beat Apple? Apple created the App Store and is the main reason why the iPhone is doing so well. The iPhone is the reason why Google and many other companies started to COPY Apple’s business model. The only way I see Android beating out Apple is for Steve Jobs to BUY the Android OS.
@Johnathan Learn the meaning of a word before posting because all you look like is an internet troll. A dictatorship is defined as an autocratic form of government in which the government is ruled by an individual, the dictator. Bobby’s correct. You don’t HAVE to buy their products. Of course, since you probably can’t afford them, you don’t have that problem.
no flash in the browser, cant have the word android in the app store, no bikinis. Apple sounds like there are freakin communists. Whatever jobs, all i know is that its a big yes for Android.
What a load of bull…… Seriously app grow up!
If anyone’s interested Android has a “boob-wobbling” equivalent called andwobble and theirs a free version :D
Back in the old days the battle between BetaMax (Sony) and VHS video standard. Betamax lost because Sony didn’t allow Porn to be published on their system. Even Betamax ws technically the better system.
Apple can censor what they want. Porn/sex has always been a huge impact on any medium:
Paper, film, photo, LP, CD, Video, CDROM, DVD, Internet and in the future the AppStore!
If android want to be a big success, the app store should be as diverse as possible.
I like the iPhone and all BUT I hate proprietary dongles. They probably make more money selling chargers and display adapters than anything else.
Anyways, boobs or no boobs I’m not getting an iphone because of ATT. Id probably like an iPod touch to play the games but that’s it.
When android gets flash player the game will change (provided the content providers adapt to flash mobile – no mouse hover event)
My only complaint about android (moto droid):
If google doesn’t support tasks, music, photos and videos in the cloud with over the air sync they should release a proper sync tool for linux/mac/windows if they want the phone to have mass appeal.
I don’t know what you’re complaining about… it’s just, that Steve Jobs just found out, that women have boobs! That’s a discovery equal to the discovery of America. Regrettably, he also found out, that he does not like the boobs he discovered, because they are not user friendly and Apple-cool enough. That’s why…
I am absolutely positive, that if boobs were made with HTML 5 o another progressive technology, Jobs would revise his decision. But they’re made of cells! What an outdated technology!
LMFAO Apple execs are a bunch of prudes! They are really trying hard to make their iPhone into a kids toy. It is really easy to make the phones completely censored for adult material by default and have adult content activated at the store if an adult is buying it. So Apple won’t let you see adult stuff, even people in swim wear or any skin. Then they are also protecting their customers from evil FLASH so that they do not watch Google owned Youtube. Too ridiculous.
I don’t care much, cause I’m an Android fan and getting either the HTC Desire or Sony Ericsson X10 in a months time.
I know adults use the phones, too, but we have to realize how many teens have the iphone or the Droid. Would you want your teen to have access to stuff like that? Not me. It’s sad that people get so upset about apps like this being removed. It’s a pathetic display of the self-gratifying, self-centered world we live in. Go to the mall or anywhere else in public and see how many teens and younger are on their phones. Like you don’t have a million other places where you can see stuff like that. I love my Droid buy I won’t get one for my kids BECAUSE of apps like this. If you make your decision between the Droid and the iPhone based on these type of apps, you probably need counseling.
Actually, I’m a bit freaked out by the fact that someone’s 13 year old kid that just got bought an Android phone could go ahead and download porn apps.
Perhaps people should just be given the option to opt in/out of sexual content. I’m not planning on downloading any porn apps, but me and my friends had a good giggle at Dildroid!
I am going to have to side with Apple on this one. If people want that crap, let them get it elsewhere, but they have a right to make sure their App Store has some level of standards. With the world seemingly accepting anything as “ok” nowdays, it’s kinda refreshing to see a company say “hey, enough is enough”.
I love all the people here talking about, “oh this stuff is readily available for my kids.” Hello, if you were watching your kids, then you wouldn’t need to have Apple blocking adult applications from them. Does the iphone have parental controls? If not, wouldn’t it be better for apple to introduce parental controls instead of blocking every adult app?
At the guy saying to search for grindr, what’s the problem with grindr? That it’s for hooking up, or that it’s for guys to hook up with other guys? I kinda didn’t really see your point.
@Mike C
You realise, of course, that part of the point is that on the Apple platform you cannot get anything “elsewhere”. It’s the apple store or nothing.
I’m really not bothered about whether it is adult material or something else. The fact is that Apple are performing censorship and have screwed many of their customers and the businesses that have helped make them successful by building on their app store.
@Bill – you have a blinkered point of view. You are correct that Apple have made a business decision. However, it is still censorship. Individuals, groups, and companies are all perfectly capable of censorship as it has nothing to do with government and everything about the restriction of information. Hopefully you will be able to understand this point, as it is a simple one.
Further, setting up Google as a strawman to attack doesn’t really change the fact that Apple didn’t care when they destroyed people’s livelihoods/businesses by deleting apps without any warning or consultation. All you’ve shown is that Apple have good end-user customer service and Google don’t.
No images of women in bikinis (Ice skating tights are not OK either)
What if you were a woman who’s a fan of woman ice skating and wanted an app that had pics of your favorite ice skaters in their outfits or whatever? Would they not allow it?
The Wobble iboobs app is so silly I don’t see why it should be removed from the App store. As long as it conforms to the rules and doesn’t do anything malicious it should stay
funny how all the parents on here are talking about their lil kids and oh how bad these apps are. i have a question, actually two….. are you a parent? because if you are then ITS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY!!!!!! next question…. WHY DO YOUR LIL CHILDREN NEED A CELL PHONE!!! censorship is censorship – don’t we live in a free country, oh waiiitttt i forgot its all a facade.
oh and on top of that, THEY ARE JUST BOOBS _ YOUR LIL KIDS USED TO SUCK ON YOURS ANYWAY!!! hahahaha
Well, i think apple has done a good thing as far as im concerned. I hate scrolling through the android market and seeing apps about “asian babes” or other sexual stuff. Im an adult, and no im not a parent, but i dont need my phone feeding me free pornography, or perverted apps…i think if people want that kind of junk, make a seperate market and put all that in there…that way i can enjoy my market experience without seeing the word boobs every other app…i have a pair of my own, and i dont need a picture of someone elses displayed on my phone…
I’m glad Apple has the decency to keep the garbage off their devices – that is their right and I respect them for it. If Google and Verizon (or other carriers) decide this garbage belongs on their devices, then I will not be purchasing from them. Can’t these people do something constructive with their talents?
I’ve been thinking about this a lot. I think any app store needs to be completely open, as long as the software doesn’t harm the phone or the network.
It’s time we start treating smartphones like the computers they are, and give users full control over their environment. All devices should have sideload capabilities, and no user or seller should be denied an app he or she wants or needs because some reviewer got up on the wrong side of his bed that morning.
Apple is abusing their power in the marketplace by deciding what apps do and don’t go in the app store. By making it impossible for users to side-load apps (at least without a $99 developer subscription and a Macintosh computer), Apple has basically become the only one who can decide what software is run on the iPhone. They can (and do) pull or refuse to approve apps on pretty arbitrary grounds. My biggest gripe was when the podcast downloader got denied; we still don’t have a real podcast aggregator on the iPhone; the one built in to the iTunes store doesn’t let you browse any URL, doesn’t allow you to subscribe to podcasts, and it’s limited to 10 MB.
How can you form a business strategy around a product when the product can get yanked at any time? How can consumers rely on a platform when the sole vendor for that platform can suddenly make software unavailable? How can corporations deploy that device internally when some app they depend on could suddenly be rejected from the app store?
A more fair approach is to do three things:
1. Allow any safe app in the store, period. The only apps that should be rejected are apps that either lie to users about what they do, spy on users, or somehow harm the device. For example, a game that contains zombie code that could performs DOS attacks would be prohibited.
2. Categories apps based on adult content: we should have 3 levels of “consenting adult” apps. Level 1 should be for apps that may contain “incidental” content, such as browser apps or apps like Craigslist. This is an app that could still be used by a kid or a teenager, as long as they’re careful. Level 2 should be for anything with explicit content that wouldn’t make it in to the current app store.
3. Allow for tagging and filtering of apps. Developers and users should be able to tag apps for quicker sorting and searching. There are other propblem areas in the app store: obnoxious adware products are the top of my list right now, and a well managed tagging system would go a long way toward mitigating that problem. I think all apps should also have either a free trial or a simple to use 24 hour no questions asked return window. I’m not the only person who’s been ripped off by a crappy app that doesn’t really do what it promises (or doesn’t even work at all.)
@tom thumbs up! your talk makes sense.
Why does Apple feel the need to only censor sexual apps? How many games are available on the Apple store that include extreme violence? Our society (primarily the US) gets so worked up over sex compared to violence. Man, we are bunch of prudes.
@Tom, RSS Player Podcast Client?
Apple is being Prudent not Prude
I think apps like that are pretty ridiculous, and juvenile, and I’d never use them. On the other hand, I really object to someone who says, “This offends me so nobody should be able to see it.”
It’s Apple’s app store. They can do what they want up there. But what’s the alternative if you disagree with Apple and their closed system policy?
Simple. Don’t buy iProducts.
Bend over Apple fanbois, your dictator is going to do you doggy-style!
Apple, rotten to the core. Fanboi losers!
Well as I see it even if Google didn’t want pornographic content… since. They have an open platform SOMEONE else like say Mikandi could provide the adult apps. However seeing as Apple doesn’t seem to have the same plan, to be open, I think you would need as least a choice and some sort of verification of age to access such aps. But not just complete censoring.
Smartybollox wrote on February 21, 2010
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Oh please. If the iphone was so great, where was picture messaging for it? Why were there so many many posts when Pandora was made available to the iPhone from owners whining “I love pandora, but I hate that the music gets interrupted if I want to send a text, open another app, blah blah blah”
The iPhone is pretty, easy enough for a 5 year old to use (is that REALLY a plus?!?), and….well, that’s about it.
Remember how Ford made cars available to the everyday joe, because they were functional, fairly inexpensive, and ‘reliable’? Does that mean Ford remained the innovator so many years later? Or was it improved on by other car manufacturers?
Unless you’ve pulled the notification blind down to access a phone call already in progress, while checking your notes on a sticky pad, getting a number from a text message, used navigation while driving (pumping through your car speakers) while playing Pandora or Slacker or LastFM you really have no freakin clue as to how limited the iPhone is.
Get this iphone fanboys:
The iPhone / AT&T brags you can surf the net while talking on the phone, BUT Android allows you to do that too IF it had a different carrier. That does not make the iPHone itself special.
AND
Android (Droid) can multitask, and it has nothing to do with the carrier…the iPhone cannot.
So essentially AT&T’s commercials are not supportive of the iPhone but their network, and Droid Does.
Apple is censoring their app store, no question about it. And typical, is its supporters defending it, because they’re so brainwashed into thinking it’s either this way or that way (I can run either this app, or that app) when in fact you can have it both ways by doing what Tom posted.
If the iPhone is for the unwashed masses (anyone, even a FIVE year old can use it!!!drool), then Android is for the more sophisticated users.
Eat it apple.
Google does this is its search by allowing you to set a strict/moderate/none content setting. If visitors to the App Store, Market, etc. had the ability to filter, then people could make their own decisions. If you don’t like what you see, change the channel.
Does multi touch work with the iBoob app?
Censorship!
censorship |ˈsensərˌ sh ip|
noun
the practice of officially examining books, movies, etc., and suppressing unacceptable parts : details of the visit were subject to military censorship.
Like it or not, Apple is in the business of censoring apps, and they’ve made it clear that they have the power to uninstall anything at anytime on the device you purchased.
To those of you that run around claiming moral high ground on this, the issue is that many people are shocked when a company begins to remove previously approved software from their devices. Yes Apple has the right to do what ever they want with their device, and Google can (and will) remove any app from their store that they want to.
The big difference is that Google allows for 3rd party marketplaces to be installed on their device, and Apple doesn’t.
Why are teens and children at risk from adult oriented apps? Because their parents made the choice to allow them a mobile device which can access them. Does a child really need a mobile that will do anything more than phone calls and text. No they don’t. They barely need that.
If kids weren’t given these devices then parents wouldn’t have to worry about what they were using them for.
It’s sort of like handing your child a handgun and then demanding that stores stop selling bullets because your child has a gun. Or giving your child a car and demanding gas stations stop selling gas because your child has a car.
The way I see it Apple was forced to censor the app store because irresponsible parents were allowing their children unrestricted access to the app store.
Way to go.
I’ll admit that I’m an Apple fanboy through and through…or, at least, I was… I’ve never been a fan of their closed computing environment on the iPhone (and now, the iPad), but it served my needs very well so I didn’t feel it was worth complaining about overly much.
Drinking the kool-aid? Perhaps.
Succumbed to the Apple RDF? Almost certainly.
…but this prudish censoring of apps reminiscent of 17th century colonial America is just too much for me. I can no longer stand behind a company that assumes this level of control. Until Apple reforms their policies, they won’t get another cent from me.
What’s up with the image illustrating this article?? It looks like something a sex-pest prisoner might scrawl using blunted crayons to pass an afternoon. Creepy.
Back on topic – it seems entirely reasonable to me that these apps should be pulled. Apple are a private business and as such have no obligation to maintain freedom of expression (which is an overly grandiose phrase to use in the same context as an app that lets you jiggle boobs about). Who buys these apps anyway? That’s right, teenage boys, so maybe Apple have a point. . .
I think everybody should start reporting apps,music and movies that have any skin showing (Books thats covers have skin depicted as well) saying they are to sexually arousing ;)
Apple need to let more apps onto the store e.g. Opera.
Apple’s new ‘overtly sexual app’ policy doesn’t come as a surprise. They’re too big and mainstream as a company to cater to the adult space. We actually applaud Apple’s efforts to be more clear with their policy regarding sexual content. In fact, we’d like to thank them! After all, Vegas wouldn’t feel like Vegas, if we didn’t have Disneyland for a comparison.
In lieu of their recent decision, we actually received an influx of new developers registering on MiKandi – The World’s First Adult Only Mobile App Store on Android devices. Many more have expressed their interest to port their recently banned adult apps over to Android (can’t wait to see all the goodies!). Later this year we’ll be available across multiple platforms (Jailbroken iPhone at the top of the list).
For those interested, this is a great alternative market place for adult app content. We don’t have censorship or heavy restrictions like other App Stores. As long as it’s legal, it’s good to go. So for those that have had apps rejected from Apple’s App Store, you’re more than welcome to publish your content on MiKandi! =)
Keep up to date at http://www.blog.mikandi.com or follow us on Twitter: @MiKandiStore
MiKandi – The App Store that treats you like an Adult