Ars coverage of the latest App Store censorship
Ars coverage of the latest App Store censorship nails it, with some good references on the back store as well.
There are two much simpler ways for Apple to address apps that contain explicit or otherwise objectionable material that should satisfy every party involved, including Apple, developers, children, parents, and other App Store users. Apple could improve the Parental Controls and its associated ratings to classify any apps that might cross the line to a specific category, such as “adult.” Then allow those apps to be filtered from browsing and search results. Parents can limit what their kids might see, and those that object to such apps can simply be none the wiser to their existence.
Alternately, Apple could allow users to load apps from any source, as Google allows on Android. The App Store then becomes a place for those that prefer a curated, vetted source for apps, and users that don’t mind walking on the wild side can look elsewhere. Parental Controls could even have an option to prevent “side-loading” third-party apps.
Personally I pray for the open deployment option at some point. That in my opinion is the root cause of a lot of this trouble and would go a huge way to alleviating many of the issues and hesitations I have about writing software for the iPhone/iPad OS.
Posted on: February 23, 2010 – 3:33 PM
Hi. My name is Mike Zornek (
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