Swimwear seller hit by Apple's removal of 'sexual' apps - Page 2

That's kind of the point: There are no other legit sources for apps.

IMO, Apple set itself up for this sort of thing when they decided to be a sole supplier of apps. It forced them to either allow anything/everything, or to pick and choose.

If Apple would allow third parties to supply apps, many problems would go away.

Seems silly to me to begin with. Why do companies so desperately need a specialized app just to sell their own stuff? No wonder the App Store is becoming impossible to navigate with so many unnecessary apps cluttering it up. Unless it does something more than just a website would -- for instance, letting you put a swimsuit directly onto a picture you've taken with your iPhone seconds before -- I don't see the need.

I think Apple is the victim of their own success. They set themselves up as the gatekeeper of all applications on the iPhone & iPod Touch. The product became wildly successful (as I'm sure Apple hoped) but they also got flooded with apps. How many thousands of people would it take to review every app from every kid in a basement with $100 to drop on a Apple Dev. license and a girlfriend or wife willing to pose for a few naughty pictures - or one could even steal them off the Web. And who is Apple to dictate that selling naughty pictures that one has full rights to is not a legitimate app?

I don't think Apple thought their cunning plan through all the way. Perhaps they're happy letting big well-known brands/corporations sell content while barring little guys from selling the exact same thing. But that's really sleazy IMHO.

I think a good solution would be for Apple to do a mea culpa and open up app distribution to developers directly. Keep the AppStore for "mainstream" applications from bigger developers that Apple has time to review but let people sell their own apps. Make the AppStore the Walmart for iPhone apps - most of the time, most of the people can find what they want there, but for specialty items you'll have to go elsewhere.

Apple will lose some quality control there, which I'm sure will irk them. But I think the iPhone application space has grown too big for them to shepherd.

- Jasen.

In related news "Tiger Woods PGA Tour by EA Sports" game app is still on the iTunes! So let me see if I get this new Apple-speak...

a wholesome, attractive lady dresses in a bikini for a sensuous photo shoot for a clothing retail outlet app gets pulled

BUT

a lying, cheating, sex-addict, who I am sure got paid for the use of his name... "prostitution" anyone?... and probably gets a royalty for each one sold of a game app of a pervert and his putter is still on iTunes!

There may have been over 5000 apps dumped but the biggest losers are Apple and the censorship nut jobs. That's it... they're just losers.


Sorry Apple but you lost me on this one!

Would you buy a Sony TV if it only allowed you to view Sony channels?

After all, Sony has a right to protect their business as well as a responsibility to their stockholders. They shouldn't allow their TV enterprise to be ruined by objectionable stuff...

This reminds me of when our idiot IT guy was advising folks on how to get rid of spam from their inbox. One suggestion he had was a rule to trash anything with "sex" in the title.

A secretary asked what would happen to email which mentions Middlesex County. He turned red and stammered.

Are you as out of your mind as Phil Schiller? Why shouldn't they have the opportunity to make money off an app like everyone else?

This isn't even a question! It's Apple being absolutely inappropriately draconian and ridiculous!

Playboy is OK, by Schiller's words, because it's an established brand. That is the LARGEST chunk of horse **** EVER to come out of that man's mouth in a public fashion. As an investor, I'm seriously considering this man's sanity.

Ah, you must remember, the one Lord God Mr. Jobs knows what's best for you and your eyes - do not resist and you must allow him to decide what's best for you.

I loved iTunes and my iPod Touch, and spent hours a week messing with some of the more popular apps out there. But I eventually got tired of someone else deciding for me what I can and cannot download, that I could not change my battery by myself, and later decide that no, I did not "need" a camera on my new iPod or on the iPad I had planned to buy.

My nephew now has my iPod and I'm perfectly happy with "another name brand" player - one who's boss doesn't decide for me what's best. Perhaps if more users (or more importantly, more outlets that are making apps for the iPod) decided to go with those other Gods, then Lord Jobs would realize it's not his place to make those decisions for us. Just my opinion.

This is EXACTLY why I am getting closer to getting rid of my iPhone on a daily basis. I don't have a problem with AT&T. In fact, I'm looking forward to the improved performance with the offloading of a crap ton of customers when someone else gets it.

However, Apple is becoming more of a political parent than a quality manufacturer. This is ridiculous. First and ENORMOUS point....

You lost ALL credibility when you removed smaller apps but left the Penthouse app (which incidentally BLATANTLY violates the "silhouette" rule...) and the Playboy app, which EVERYONE knows is an adult magazine. How much more "overt" do you get than something that EVERYONE knows. (Yes, even the kiddies they're trying to protect know what it is.)

Second, I got the iPhone for what it could do. Because there WERE no limits. Well, there goes that one. Now that i know what we're doing on them is being policed... the potential is going down hill fast. i mean, what's next? seriously. Applications that have racy jokes in them?

Third, it's not their place to decide what apps i should and should not be allowed to have on my phone. I'M A FRAKKING ADULT! If i want porn, i should be allowed to have it! If you're worried about the kiddies, then build in some form of parental controls into the App Store and the iPhone OS. Don't tell me I can't have what everyone else would let me have.

To quote a friend of mine... "... Everyone thinks they're so wholesome, but really, their business practices are WAY more restrictive and Nazi-like than Microsoft ever was." And I have to whole-heartedly agree at this point. "I love their products, but as a business, they're just as greedy and monopolistic as the next." EXACTLY, JON!

If they're going to be asinine about crap, I will say they at least need to be consistent about it. They've shown a complete lack of consistency when it comes to their app store, over and over again. That's right. This isn't the first inconsistent issue, by a long shot.

If you think this opinion is harsh... well... reality is hardly ever subtle.

Do you really think this is Apple's final move in dealing with the crap on the app store? I know most of you think that APPLE (or as you put it... Steve Jobs) is all knowing and that they surely anticipated all future growth and movement before it was ever made available for public use, but I'm sure they are developing and changing as this whole thing rolls out.

I don't like the openess I have in viewing this smutty apps because I want full choice in not seeing them. I have clicked on what seems to be a totally innocent app only to find slutty garbage inside! I wonder what my son has looked at.

Ahhh -remember the days when Apple had Ellen Feiss as its spokewoman? Now that was pornographic!

you know you can still access the internet if you really need to jack off to porn that badly.

Ok. Correction to the following italicised comments.... There ARE Parental Controls. You can start by using them. They're not perfect and need a LOT of improvement but... start there...

Then this is why they need parental controls, not just taking everything off. I can understand the issue with accidentally fidning things that you don't want. that goes to show a needed inprovement in catagorizing and approving apps. With parental controls, or some form of "filter" that you can turn on that won't show those types of apps, well... that solves that problem.
However, I don't want to see religious apps, but am forced to see them when searching apps and such. I've even looked at a few that I didn't realize were going to be as religious as they were. Are you saying it would be ok to just remove those from the app store because I want the choice to NOT see them?

You can see where this becomes sticky. It becomes an either "Do it for all, or do it for none" scinario.

My point is not that I WANT "smutty" applications. I just feel I shouldn't be kept from having them just because someone doesn't want them. There are other ways to keep people from getting them.

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Playboy is OK because it makes Apple money... "...greedy and monopolistical..." Yup. That's what it comes down to. The little guys can't bring in enough money for Apple to keep their apps in the store. The big "established" names can.

Talk about horse sh**!

There go my hopes for that Wicked Weasel iPhone app. :'(

Yes. There are other ways to get what you want for your iPhone, but there are also other phone manufacturers that I can switch to. Hmm.

A possible reason why Apple is banning certain racy apps and not others is it's catering to the big media to get their content on the iPad.



http://www.businessinsider.com/apple...-y-apps-2010-2


Small fish beware. Apple is sliding out of control down the slope of censorship.

I do have to agree here. Those types of apps shouldn't have made it to begin with. Instead of developing an entire app... FREAKING DO IT IN A WEB PAGE! Have we forgotten that the iPhone has web access? not EVERYTHING has to be turned into an app.

If i ever want smut on my iPhone, i can get it much easier via a mobile web page than searching for it and downloading an app for only 6 freaking pictures. WTF!

Why yes, they do.

They also have a moral and ethical responsibility to apply their rules fairly and evenly for everyone. When Maxim, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, Victoria's Secret, Penthouse, and Playboy are removed, then the field is fair.

Until then, it's simple reeking of hypocrisy. Plain and simple.

From the New York Times, Phil Schiller:


Apple still allows the SI Swimsuit app and the Playboy app... and the Victoria's Secret app. Talk about being hypocritical.






Yay for sticking up for the big guys and pissing on the little guys, Apple!

This analogy doesn't work since Sony does not provide, market or host any of the content. Apple has chosen a business model that is more problematic because they host and market the content for apps.

I sell iPhones and iPods and when a parent comes in to say "How can my 10 year old get games on here" and I say "Its easy - look at the popular free apps in the top 25 free apps section Apple provides" and the parent sees 2 boob apps and one about creative positions it looks like Apple is not doing its job to market appropriately for a huge portion of its potential customer base.

From the OS 2.0 intro they made it a point that not all apps would be allowed. I think a better way of categorizing and limiting access would be a better solution to blanket denial, but there is no doubt that something needed to be done.

People will get over this. That swimsuit app will be allowed back in. This will be non-news in a month when all those that have complained about not being allowed content realize that Safari is still there and this is just about Apple making a good choice.

I also agree that it is pretty stupid to leave in the apps that have bigger names - unless they lock them down better.

Yikes, I smell a class action law suite, Apple is going to get blasted for giving special treatment to "established" brands.

The more that is released on this the more it's obvious that what Apple is attempting to do is being approached all wrong. THE COMPLAINTS ARE BECAUSE APPS ARE STILL VISIBLE EVEN WHEN AGE RESTRICTION IS SET!! Apple has created a PR nightmare for themselves, they fumbled the ball on this one & I actually hope they get raked over the coals for once.

I hope someone from Apple is listening cause here is the fix:
Make the age restriction more prominent in the setup & fix the app store so that restricting by age appropriateness doesn't just restrict purchase but also visibility of an app!

Also, give categories to ratings so that a parent can also block things based on more than just what you deem is age appropriate. (ie, partial nudity, blood/gore).

You do all that Apple & you will fix the problem overnight!

The issue is specific to what actually appears in the app preview & how restricting by age appropriateness doesn't change visibility of the app & app preview. So it's worse than your accusation, it's plain old bad design of the age appropriateness restrictions!

Totally agree on your point about special treatment to "established" companies, Hope that one bites them big time.

Amen! Absolutely on the nose!

Agree 100%. This should be a no-brainer for Apple. How they missed this is beyond me.

Ahhh, you're right. Changing the age restriction DOES NOT prevent them from being viewed. I can see why parents would be a bit upset at that one IF they properly setup the controls. I'll edit my post.

Apple, FIX IT!

Perfect answer to a... um... sticky problem?!

Not only that, but if they do fix or enhance the parental control, then what? Do they slowly start allowing the "overtly sexual" apps back in? After they said they weren't going to allow them?

I've always been a great supporter of Apple but I can't believe the knee jerk reaction they've had to this. I think we're still not getting the whole story. And the comments by Phil Schiller regarding "established businesses" or whatever is just mind boggling.

Haha, exactly. It should be a simple coding change to allow the parental controls to not only block installation of the apps, but block them from being viewed at all. Ok, maybe it's not exactly "simple", but Apple has plenty of smart people on staff.

Then everyone would be happy. Pervs can have their boobies, parents can block the boobies, and Apple can still make money off the boobies.

And then Apple can tell parents to SHUT THE EFF up if they complain because there are Parental Controls in place to block such content.

The folks at Apple aren't stupid as some here have insinuated. With very high probability, they likely concluded they will sell more, not fewer, iPhones if they don't allow the App Store to become a big porn shop.

Aybody out there would call me the ultimate Kool-Aid-drinkin', Apple-Fanboy... so just saying, also as an APPL stockholder... this is an absolute PR disaster! hezekiahb has it right. Apple must fix the App Store.
After that, any developer found mis-categorizing, or wrongly rating their App, is then and only then thrown out... and possibly banned for a short period of time, say 6 months.

Developers have made the iPhone what it is, and have leveraged the ability to sell Apple's Mobile devices, and keep them with a pretty strong lead into the future. However, p*ss them off enough... and they'll leave for someone else's products.

With that said... I've had my strong suspicions that a number of unscrupulous developers... or just kids... were "gaming" the store in the first place. You can't tell me that their isn't a heck of a lot of "cr*p" in that 170,00+ number they like to throw around. Needs some "weeding out".

It's like taking all of the China-trinkets and knock-offs, and throwing 'em haphazardly around in Nieman Marcus. Not good merchandising or store plan.

And yes... if ya absolutely gotta have "it"... there's Safari. Although I must admit, there's a "gotcha" from Apple there too because Flash does not work.

More than "a few" kinks Apple has to work out I guess.

They certainly do have some store issues in that regard, but with the growth they've experienced I do have to wonder how many people are working in that department and how many of them all new to Apple.

Can the Apps be set to multiple categories? That is something I wish iTunes would allow for music genres but don't so I have to imagine that they only let devs choose one category. As others are saying, having an adult section that only appears for users who have allowed it in the account settings would be great.

Completely different topic.
Toshiba DOES decide what is included on their computers when sold and Microsoft DOES decide what goes into their OS.
Apple is the source of the apps. Toshiba and MS are not the main source of 3rd party apps.

Too funny....

Personally I don't really care about any of the apps that got banned or any of the ones that were allowed to stay but I find it hilariously funny that people actually think it's a PR nightmare! hahahaha.

Guys, seriously, how in the world is this going to be a PR nightmare when the general public reads "Apple removes 5k overtly sexual apps."? Seriously! Even if the title reads but still allows the 99 cent playboy app it isn't going to matter. Who, going forward, is the biggest buyer of iPhones? Parents for their kids who've grown up on iPods. You really think the iPhone is going to lose out to Android when the parent goes and looks at controls and availability of smut? Sure, there's a 99 cent Playboy app with a few body parts covered but compare that to all the open smart phones - they are just layered with smut! Same thing happens w/ torrents - go to a torrent site and find the top, say, 20 downloads. I'd bet at least 15 of them are smut.

If you want smut take to the web - you shouldn't have to sort through it when searching the app store for, say, games or something else. Apple might get a stern look from some people but the end result for Apple is a large net gain.

If you still think it's a PR nightmare you've got your geek/nerd goggles on - you need to think "average dumb consumer"...

EDIT: Case in point from CNN's main page "Apple bans most sexy iPhone apps" - from the average joe schmo consumer standpoint that's nothing but a good thing.

Not having Flash is a total non-issue when it comes to internet smut. The iPhone is so popular there are dozens of free sites that are H.264 compliant. And, ya know, for images just do a google search.

This and many other reasons to short Apple !
Apple lacks a respect of other people's creativity.

Seriously? What if the next step is they ban, religious apps so they dont offend any religious groups? or Liberal or Conservative apps so they don't offend any poltical views?

Censorship is Censorship. People are upset because they (grown adults) are being told what they can and cannot see by apple.

Maybe you don't use those aps. Good for you. Did someone tell you not to use them? No, you made that choice.

Just because you don't use an app, doesn't make it useless to others, the fact it is highly downloaded verses your apps, would actually make your apps, less desireable. Should they be banned because some thinks they are useless?

Apple made this problem by making itself the exclusive dealer in apps, if there were other avenues which wouldn't make thier iphone a paperweight, people would use those other avenues.

Don't try to justify thier business practices with your moral values, because they could just as easily turn the other way and make you the next victim.

He's actually defending this? WOW.

This is getting freakin' ridiculous! Blocking an app that sells bikinis? Seriously?

Who complained about bikinis, anyway? Some puritanical (literally) f-wads with a website and big mouths? Bikinis? Seriously?

Now, granted, I'm not into girls in bikinis, but I sure as heck am not offended by them. And they're everywhere on TV. Seriously, check out that Hard Rock Rehab show, and other reality crap. Jeebus!

I think Apple may have to backtrack somewhat on this. Girls in bikinis and guys in speedos should be allowed. Said girls and guys being nekkid and/or doing lewd things, well... that's different. The difference being that I can go to any random beach and see the girls and guys in bikinis and such, but I don't expect to see the lewd stuff.

Yes, I realize other people's moral limits are different than mine, but COME ON! BIKINIS?!?!