Cult of Mac

Complaints from women are behind Apple’s recent purge of sex-themed apps, Phil Schiller told the New York Times.

Philip W. Schiller, head of worldwide product marketing at Apple, said in an interview 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,” Mr. Schiller said.

Aerial footage of Apple’s massive data center in rural North Carolina clearly show how large the $1 billion complex is.

Shot recently by a local realtor, the footage shows a massive facility the size of a shopping mall.

Experts note that Apple’s data center will be among the largest in the world, rivaling centers run by internet giants like Microsoft and Google. The unusual size of the data center suggests that Apple is investing heavily in cloud computing. At 500-000 square feet, the facility is five-times the size of Apple’s West Coast center in Newark, Calif.

Apple has said little about the complex, except that it’ll be its east coast data hub.

The aerial footage after the jump:

Samsung over the weekend unveiled five lenses for its recently introduced NX10 camera. The lenses are small enough to fit on the NX10, often described as one of a growing number of compact EVIL cameras with Electronic Viewfinders and Interchangeable Lenses.

Available in the first half of this year, the lenses include the following: 18-55mm f3.5-5.6, 20mm f2.8 “pancake”, 60mm f2.7 macro, 20-50mm f3.5-5.6, 18-200mm OIS f3.5-6.3. (The lenses join the 30mm, 18-55mm, and 50-200mm lenses introduced at the CES.)

Apple’s App Store Porn Police or, perhaps the Puritanical Posse, if you prefer — has its work cut out if it’s to make Steve Job’s new decision stick and ban “overtly sexual apps” on the App Store.

As a previous post pointed out, some culling of the filth and froth has already begun, invariably taking down relative innocents in its wake. But the images posted here, snagged within the past half hour from the iTunes menu of available titles, give an idea of how thin the ranks may have to become before Apple’s online emporium has as squeaky clean a catalog as some might want.

Tellingly, too, it will be interesting (as some comments to the ongoing SEXGATE coverage have pointed out) whether Playboy and Sports Illustrated will ever be deemed too “overtly sexual” to have a place at the App Store table.

Hypocrisy, is thy name Apple?

We kick-off the last week of February with two hardware deals and one software bargain. First up is a Mac Pro for $2,649. The desktop unit has 4 cores and pumping at 2.66GHz. Next is a fresh batch of App Store freebies, including geoLocals 3, a location-based search search application. The final top deal is the CiragnoTV Mini USB media device. You can take video stored on USB or a memory card and display it all either on a TV with HDMI or a simple AV connection.

As always, for details on these products plus many others, be sure to check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page right after the jump.

UPDATE (23 February): The Simply Beach developer just emailed us to say that “Apple appear to have quietly reinstated the Simply Beach app this evening”. He notes that neither he nor his customer received any communication whatsoever from Apple.

Our recent articles on Apple’s decision to ban “overtly sexual apps” have caused plenty of arguments in the comments. Some (including your correspondent) think Apple’s being ridiculous, overbearing and taking a dangerous path in initiating a blanket ban on even extremely mild content, such as images of women (or, er, men) in bikinis. Others claim Apple should be applauded, and they can’t wait to see the back of apps with sexual content, no matter how mild.

However, Apple’s stance hasn’t only affected the likes of iWobble, as Andrew Long of software development company Exploding Phone explains: “One of our customers has fallen foul of Apple’s new puritan crusade—the crazy thing is, the customer is an online beachwear retailer, Simply Beach, that happens to sell bikinis via an online store and the accompanying iPhone app that we developed for the company.”

Andrew notes that Apple removed the app without warning. On Friday, Simply Beach received an email from Apple about the decision to remove any overtly sexual content from the store and that included the Simply Beach application. “The email also made mention to numerous complaints they had received from customers regarding ‘this type of content’ and implied it was these complaints which had led to the changes,” says Andrew, adding that his customer initially thought this was a hoax.

“Personally speaking, I think the decision is ludicrous, but to be honest not much that Apple does surprises me any more,” says Andrew, stressing that his views don’t necessarily reflect those of his customer. “As an iPhone developer you have to be prepared for the goalposts to shift unendingly and be as dynamic as you can in changing to meet the new way of life.” However, in this case, Andrew thinks it’s clear the content is not ‘overtly sexual’: “Apple has clearly been overzealous and inconsistent in trying to rid the App Store of ‘bikini blight’. It makes a mockery of the rating system, too, which is surely there to ensure that questionable content doesn’t get into the wrong hands.”

To add insult to injury, Andrew notes that his customer sells some of its goods through an Amazon feed, which is still available through the Amazon iPhone app. “And I’m sure if you searched that app for more fruity items, you’d find many images available which are much worse by the average person’s moral compass.”

At the time of writing, Apple hasn’t responded to our request for a comment. We also note that there’s not a total bikini ban—you can still get the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, perhaps because Apple didn’t want to piss off Time magazine? (Hat tip: Nicole.)

Apple ranked third in a recent BusinessWeek customer service survey, jumping from last year’s 20th spot. Like 2009, however, the company had high marks for “quality of staff” and “efficiency of service.” The Cupertino, Calif. company trailed No. 2 USAA, an insurance company, and No. 1 L.L. Bean.

Dell, the only other computer maker to reach the list’s top 25, was ranked No. 23.

Just like my fascination with the bulbous iMac G3 series, I tend to be fascinated by the shapes of gadgets, and in my explorations at the local Berlin flea market, I have a habit of picking up delightfully non-conformist pieces of obscure and obsolete retro technology, never quite knowing what I’m going to do with them.

That’s why I love this guide over at Unplggd explaining how to convert a vintage 8-track player into an iPod speaker dock.

It’s not really very hard: all you do is take an 8-track cassette adapter, plug a regular cassette adapter into it, and plug in your iPod.

It’s intuitive, but not particularly ingenious or elegant. The real reason I’m delighted with this DIY, though, is because I just picked up almost that exact same 8-track player a couple of weeks ago, and now I can turn it into something more useful than an overly precious conversation piece. If you’re over 30 or 35, you’ve probably still got an 8-track player just like this in your garage: do some digging, and you’ll probably find that you can do the same.

Apple has produced two new television commercials aimed at disputing rival claims the smartphone cannot accomplish everyday tasks. The two commercials – On Hold and First Steps – attempt to show consumers the iPhone and the AT&T wireless network are up to the job.

In On Hold, an iPhone owner receives an electric bill by email. After placing the call and being put on hold, the person downloads a game and whiles away the time until an operator is available. The commercial is seen as Apple’s way of showing the iPhone’s exclusive network, AT&T, can handle voice and date simultaneously. In a series of ads, rival carrier Verizon had claimed the iPhone was unable to juggle voice and data at the same time.

In the competitive rush to win over students and parents by providing the latest technology, one university is letting freshmen decide between an iPad and MacBook Pro.

First-year students at George Fox University in Oregon have been handed personal computers along with their orientation packets for the last 20 years. The devices are included with tuition.

School officials admit they don’t know how much help an iPad will be for trig or anthropology homework.

“The trend in higher education computing is this concept of mobility, and this fits right in,” Greg Smith,  the university’s chief information officer, said in a press release.

“At the same time, we realize there are a number of uncertainties. Will students struggle with a virtual keyboard? Can the iPad do everything students need it to do when it comes to their college education? These are the kinds of questions we really won’t know the answer to until we get started.”

So the school will offer both in fall 2010. Some majors, like film or engineering, may need the extra power from a MacBook pro. But the school also reckons that if the student already has a laptop, an iPad might just be the ticket.

“How the numbers work out will be interesting, but no matter what I think we will see many iPads, iPhones and iTouches throughout the undergraduate population,” Smith said.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen the iRush to get students involved with the iPad before it even comes out — tech-happy Abilene Christian University, where the students already go to iPhone dev classes and have been given iPod Touches since 2008, is already working on an edition of the school paper for Apple’s latest device.

According to Macworld, Apple CEO and founder Steve Jobs is slated to be honored with the Jim Henson Celebration Honor, an annual award given out by the Jim Henson Company to acknowledge people who “reflect the core values and philosophy of the legendary Jim Henson and the company he founded.” Core values like loving cookies, bottlecaps, pigeons and monsters, one hopes.

According to the announcement, Jim Henson feels that the honor should go to an individual, organization or product that makes the world a better place by inspiring people to celebrate life. A co-founder of Apple, Jobs has led the company and the creation of its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, iPod media player, iTunes media store and Mac computers.”

Jim Henson’s daughter and current CEO Lisa Henson explained the decision further: “Steve Jobs has continuously broken new ground with technologies that allow existing media in all forms to be easily enjoyed and also by providing fantastic tools for artists, photographers, musicians and filmmakers of all skill levels.”

In some ways, it seems a bit strange — Steve Jobs’ flavor of creativity and imagination is vastly different than the messy, colorful and googly-eyed insanity of the Muppet Workshop — but Henson himself was an model for Apple’s 1997 “Think Different” campaign. Perhaps the difference between the two individualist imaginers isn’t so different as it first appears after all.

When CBS CEO Les Moonves Thursday told analysts episodes of “certain shows” would be sold for $1 on iTunes, then a network spokesman emphasized no deal with Apple had actually been signed, it only reinforced the skepticism silently being voiced toward the Cupertino, Calif. firm.

Caught between the anticipated ire from affiliates for selling popular programming online and the siren song of Apple customers with 125 million credit cards, networks don’t want to say ‘no’ – not just yet.

Ever since the iPad’s January 27th announcement, the big questions have been when Apple will actually start allowing customers to pre-order their new tablet, especially given a mid-to-late March launch.

We may now have our answer. According to a rumor on the AppAdvice, a reliable source is telling them that Apple will allow people to pre-order an iPad as soon as February 25th… in other words, this Thursday.

If Apple does start pre-orders on Thursday, we can probably expect the WiFi iPad to be sent out and sold live starting on March 26th, 2010. As 9to5Mac notes, Apple tends to sell new products on Fridays, and the 26th is approximately sixty days from the iPad’s announcement.

Of course, the iPad still hasn’t been approved by the FCC quite yet, so whether or not this rumor turns out to be true depends on whether or not we see the iPad bubble up in the FCC’s database before Thursday. Still, it feels about right: Apple needs to start pre-orders soon to make their March ship date, and since I’ll be on an international flight this Thursday, this historically lines up with my own admittedly anecdotal rule that Apple will always start selling or allowing pre-orders for new products I want to buy from them when I am physically, geographically or financially incapable of doing so.

What it is: Zinio, in partnership with major publishers of traditional books and magazines, offers subscription-based digital content over the Internet and via its iPhone/iPod Touch native app available free in the iTunes AppStore.

Why it’s cool: Zinio has spent the past 10 years helping people get digital access to the traditional magazine content they already love. Now, at the dawn of Apple’s iPad era, Zinio is poised to offer some of the most compelling content iPad users will see on the device — and just may help save the ailing traditional publishing industry in the bargain.

Many have wondered about Apple’s model for distributing e-reader content — how it will look, what it will cost, and what Apple’s percentage of the revenue take will be — when the iPad makes its market debut in March.

Jeanniey Mullen, Zinio Global Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, told us in a wide-ranging conversation at Macworld earlier this month such concerns make no difference to her, since Zinio’s own model will remain platform agnostic. “Our most important relationships are with publishers and readers,” she said. “Zinio revolutionizes the reading experience and we’re excited about iPad’s potential for making that a great mobile experience” but the company doesn’t sell its current content through the App Store and that won’t change when the iPad comes along.

What you are looking at is a screenshot of the contents of the iPhone OS 3.2 SDK, and those circled files? Look at their names. That’s just About as clear an indication as there can be that a forthcoming iPhone, the iPad or both will be able to make video calls.

That’s not all. 9to5Mac has also dug up some references in some of iPad’s telephony applications of imbedded video chat strings.

Nicole reported on Friday that sexy apps have been pulled from the App Store, and I followed up over the weekend with Apple Censorship Reaches New Level of Stupid: Daisy Mae Pulled (FNAR!), a story about Robotron-style shooter Daisy Mae being removed because—horrors!—it has shocking content such as innuendo and a women in a pair of short shorts.

According to the developer of Wobble (which Apple seemingly considers an utterly filthy, disgusting and horrible app that enables you to add wobbly bits to any iPhone picture, which therefore has the potential to bring down civilisation as we know it, and not—as you might have thought—a little bit of harmless fun), prudes the world over will be delighted by the finer details of Apple’s stance.

After speaking with Apple, Wobble’s creator reveals that he spoke to Apple and was told what is now banned:

1. No images of women in bikinis (Ice skating tights are not OK either)

2. No images of men in bikinis! (I didn’t ask about Ice Skating tights for men)

3. No skin (he seriously said this) (I asked if a Burqa was OK, and the Apple guy got angry)

4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs (yes – I am serious, we have to remove the silhouette in [the Wobble pics shown above])

5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex – all banned

6. 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!)

7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content (not sure how Playboy is still in the store, but …)

This explains why Daisy Mae got the boot—even if you ignore the ‘bikini’ rules, it would have breached rules 5 and 7. In other words, even innuendo is too strong for Apple when it comes to sex. We’d best set fire to Duke Nukem, GTA, The Sims, and a whole bunch of other games, then, including Vancouver 2010.

What this doesn’t explain is how Playboy’s so far escaped the ban, nor why Apple’s doing this in the first place. The App Store has a ratings system in place. Sure, it’s somewhat broken, but it’s at least there. There’s no reason why Apple can’t just enforce a 17+ rule for apps of this type and get on with things as usual.

What seems more likely is that Apple is using the claim that many people (who, frankly, need to get a life) have complained about ‘sexy’ apps (which, presumably, includes ones that aren’t actually sexy in the sense that normal people would use the word) to create a ‘safe’ (read: sanitised) environment for advertisers and education. In the former space, it’s clear advertisers—particularly in the USA—are often against being aligned with sexual content, no matter how mild. In education, there have already been cases where schools have ditched plans to provide students with Apple handhelds, due to them enabling access to smut. That said, with parental controls in every device and App Store ratings, Apple’s current decision seems absurd in the extreme, not least because the app that provides the fastest access to sex, sexual content, bikinis, innuendo, anything arousing, and implications of sexual content is Apple’s own Safari.

The newly released Breathe Sleeve has been cleverly designed to let the heat produced by your laptop radiate through the ventilated walls of the sleeve. And heat, as we know, can be very detrimental to the life of our laptop battery.

This one puts the “cult” back in “cult of mac:”  someone is auctioning off a broken piece of glass from Apple’s Fifth Avenue store on eBay.  It’s a step from the retail locale’s elegant glass staircase, to be precise.

“They replaced it with a new one after a customer dropped a Snapple bottle on it and cracked it. I picked it up before it could be thrown out over a year ago, figuring it’s a collectible.

Continue reading

UPDATE: The gentleman in the video above is Daniel Eran Dilger, author of the Roughly Drafted blog referenced in the post below. I regret any confusion my failure to identify him may have caused. – Lonnie Lazar

Don’t just take Steve Jobs’ word for it. Full-time Flash developer Morgan Adams articulates good reasons why Flash should never come to Apple’s iPad and anyone interested in the Apple-Adobe conflict on the matter of Flash would do well to pay attention to his commentary.

Adams, an interactive content developer, wrote to the Roughly Drafted blog to explain in terms more measured than those used by Mr. Jobs with editors of the Wall Street Journal last week why Flash won’t ever work well on any mobile touchscreen platform:

It’s not because of slow mobile performance, battery drain or crashes. It’s because of the hover or mouseover problem.

Many (if not most) current Flash games, menus, and even video players require a visible mouse pointer. They are coded to rely on the difference between hovering over something (mouseover) vs. actually clicking. This distinction is not rare. It’s pervasive, fundamental to interactive design, and vital to the basic use of Flash content. New Flash content designed just for touchscreens can be done, but people want existing Flash sites to work. All of them—not just some here and there—and in a usable manner. That’s impossible no matter what.

Adams goes on to detail several fundamental incompatibilities between touchscreen operating systems and Flash content on the web, showing why current Flash content can never work well on a touchscreen platform.

In addition, workable alternatives exist for delivering the video content many wrongly believe is unobtainable without Flash, according to Adams:

imagine my embarrassment as a Flash developer when my own animated site wouldn’t work on the newfangled iPhone! So I sat down and made new animations using WebKit’s CSS animation abilities. Now desktop users still see Flash at adamsi.com, but iPhone users see animations too. It can be done.

UPDATE: Daisy Mae has returned to the App Store. It is unclear what if any changes have been made to the game. The game is currently rated 12+.

Nicole posted on the 19th that Apple is pulling ‘sexy’ apps, due to deciding that it’s operating out of a fictional puritanical Victorian utopia, rather than the USA. While Apple’s making the case by saying it doesn’t want porn on the iPhone, it’s now decided that ironic cartoon smut within a videogame is also a step too far. Yes, Touch Arcade reports that IUGO’s Daisy Mae has been unceremoniously pulled from the App Store, because—SHOCK!—it features a sassy cartoon woman with a penchant for short shorts as the lead character. Seriously.

***SARCASM WARNING!*** You know, Apple should really deal with this by coming up with some kind of system on the App Store for rating content, so you know whether an app is suitable for someone of a certain age. That would deal with games like this that you don’t want to warp fragile little minds (even though they almost certainly wouldn’t, because any kid with an iPhone who wants to look at boobs just needs to use APPLE’S OWN SAFARI)! ***END OF SARCASM WARNING!***

So, iPhone developers, the message is clear: don’t have any women in your apps unless they’re covered in some kind of burqa-style clothing, otherwise Steve and Tim and Phil will kill it until it’s dead (with virtual knives, guns, bombs and death-rays, all of which are fine, unless they are associated with any kind of vaguely risque clothing that’s within forty feet). And don’t even think of a game startting Jessica Rabbit, unless you turn her into an actual rabbit.

While Apple has relaxed its grip on a few things recently, no, the image above isn’t a sign that One Infinite Loop has let all hell break loose.

Apparently, it’s an example of an alternate-reality iPhone the friend of blogger Steve Cassidy over at the UK’s PC Pro bought for £25 (about $38) — in a pub, no less. The dual-SIM, dual-battery thing apparently looks and feels much like an iPhone (apart from the icons, which look too bizarre even for a jailbroken unit), says Cassidy, down to the “iPhone” and Apple logo emblazoned on the back.

In the 1980s, a Mario-like platformer was reportedly brutally slain by Nintendo lawyers. Two decades later, the game has made its way to iPhone and iPod touch (and, presumably, Nintendo’s lawyers have chilled out a little). The game in question: Giana Sisters. Cult of Mac spoke to Nico Kaartinen of developer Bad Monkee about how and why a cult 8-bit classic was remade for Apple handhelds.

It’s time for our weekly digest of tiny iPhone reviews, courtesy of iPhoneTiny.com, with some extra commentary exclusive to Cult of Mac.

This time, we review Card Shark Solitaire Free, DigiDrummer Lite, Dog Piano Jr, easyBeats LE, Met Office, Revs!, Rudolph’s Kick n Fly, Spoke Groove Machine Free, Trace, and Twin Blades.

Joby, maker of the Gorillapod flexible camera tripod, Thursday unveiled two more innovative products for photographers seeking the best shot in trying circumstances. The Gorillapod Magnetic flexible tripod is perfect for those times when you just can’t find a flat surface for a traditional tripod. Meanwhile, the Ballhead X for Gorillapod Focus will help professionals when that standard tripod would fail under the weight of a heavy body plus zoom lens.

The Gorillapod Magnetic tripod is equipped with magnetic feet, along with the usual flexible legs. This permits you to shoot from a metal bar – even a tree limb. The Gorillapod Magnetic can support camera or mini video cameras weighing up to 11.5 ounces. Yet, the tripod itself weighs only 2.5 ounces and is just six inches tall; just right for the crowded gadget bag and long treks. The tripod will be available in April, according to the company.

We close out another week with a trio of Apple deals. First up, the Apple Store is selling a 27-inch iMac powered by a 3.06GHz Core 2 Duo for $1,449. Next is another round of App Store bargains, including the RemixMonkey Pocket DJ application for your iPhone or iPod touch. Last on our list of top deals is the iHome, a pair of 15w stereo speakers for your iPod.

Along the way we’ll take a look at more Apple hardware (like Belkin’s car stereo kit for your iPhone), software (such as EasyBurner 3 for your Mac) and storage options.

As always, for details on any of these items plus many others, check out CoM’s “Daily Deals” page after the jump.