Unless you’re someone who’s surgically bonded your iPhone to your hand, chances are that sooner or later you might misplace or have stolen your lovely iDevice. When it happens, your concerns will likely be with the safety and accessibility of your priv…
After purging over 5,000 “overtly sexual” apps from the App Store over the last few days, Apple’s head of worldwide product marketing has come forward yet again to defend the company’s decision.
The New York Times has a detailed report on the latest App Store scandal, which began somewhat quietly last Wednesday with the removal of a seemingly innocent app called Wobble iBoobs and quickly escalated over the weekend with the removal of over 5,000 apps which Apple deemed too sexy for their store.
In an interview with Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of worldwide product marketing, the executive noted that over the last few weeks a “small number of developers” had been submitting “an increasing number of apps containing very objectionable content.”
“It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see,” Schiller explained.
Of course, since the App Store doesn’t allow nudity to begin with, Schiller’s comments might echo last summer’s Google Voice controversy, which saw the denial of Google’s own app as well as the withdrawal of a trio of third-party apps — an injustice that, months later, still has yet to be turned around.
In the case of the current controversy, while sexy apps from smaller companies such as Sexy Scratch Off — which shows a woman whose dress can be removed at the swipe of a finger — have been removed, others from big-time publishers such as Playboy and Sports Illustrated remain in the store. “The difference is this is a well-known company with previously published material available broadly in a well-accepted format,” Schiller said in defense of that decision.
“At the end of the day, Apple has a brand to maintain,” Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster told the Times. “And the bottom line is they want that image to be squeaky clean.”
Fred Clarke, co-president of Sexy Scratch Off creator On the Go Girls, went from 50 successful apps over the weekend to zero on Monday. “I’m shocked,” said Clarke. “We’re showing stuff that’s racier than the Disney Channel, but not by much,” noting that his company had been earning thousands of dollars a day from the App Store with no complaints since the apps went live last June.
“It’s very hard to go from making a good living to zero,” he said. “This goes farther than sexy content. For developers, how do you know you aren’t going to invest thousands into a business only to find out one day you’ve been cut off?”
Schiller says that he feels Clarke’s pain: “We obviously care about developers, but in the end have to put the needs of the kids and parents first."
The iPhone’s most elusive app to date is about to sweep back onto the scene — but don’t look for it in the App Store, and you won’t even have to jailbreak your device to get it.
Google Voice remains one of the most controversial apps for the iPhone. While Google themselves had Apple slam the door in their face before they even got to the App Store, a couple of small developers did manage to bring Google Voice to the iPhone, albeit briefly.
In addition to Sean Kovacs’ excellent GV Mobile (which is still available for jailbroken devices), developer Riverturn was also there early on with VoiceCentral. Both apps were pulled from the App Store on the heels of Google’s own denial, and the resulting firestorm even set off an FCC investigation that is still ongoing.
None of this sat too well with Riverturn (check out that full story here), so they’ve set out to change the rules by coming up with VoiceCentral Black Swan. They call it “the next revolution in iPhone applications,” meaning it’s not tied to the App Store nor is it a website optimized for the iPhone (which Google has been rumored to do for Voice since they were shut out). Riverturn calls Black Swan a feature-rich “weblication” that enables you to view and manage your Google Voice data just like a native iPhone application, combining the device’s easy-to-use interface with the convenience of an always-up-to-date web application.
Among the features promised for Black Swan are a native iPhone look & feel, the ability to sync Google Voice data (including importing Google Contacts), offline access to Voice data, the ability to listen to Voice messages and read transcriptions and even swiping to delete calls, voicemails or SMS conversations.
Black Swan is currently in a very limited beta, but if you already have a Google Voice account you can sign up to be part of the beta program or just to be notified when Riverturn begins accepting new users. Of course, an existing GV account is required, as well as an iPhone or iPod touch running iPhone OS 3.0 or higher. We’ve already registered for beta access, so stay tuned to this channel for more on Black Swan.
