Well, what do you know. Special thanks to my Online Journalism professor for pointing out this development–maybe Apple got wind of Stoneback’s article and decided to change their tune?
For the curious and not-currently-at-their-desks, the app provider is Grindhouse Mobile, who provided the image accompanying this post.
Australian monthly gaming magazine The Escapist published an article by Robert Stoneback last Tuesday about Apple’s stance on pornographic apps on their iPhones. The article speaks for itself, but to summarize, Apple wants no part of it.
If this sounds hypocritical to you, you’re not alone. Stoneback and a source quoted within the article point out the obvious fact that the Safari browser iPhones come equipped with allows unrestricted internet access, which means users can download as much porn as much as they want regardless. Stoneback seems to imply during the article’s introduction that this is just a continuation of mainstream game consoles avoiding sexually explicit software to maintain a family-friendly image, but notes that independant developers are finding ways to subvert this. Apple itself introduced flagging and parental control options with its third OS update, opening up the possibility that it may reconsider its position. Stoneback himself sounds hopeful that such an action on Apple’s part could open up a new platform for and completely revamp the adult video game scene.
On a related note, that wasn’t the first time the iPhone was in the news last week for being capable of revolutionizing an existing technology. The New York Times ran an article about its use as a cheap alternative for text-to-speech technology, written by Ashlee Vance. Current government-issued communication aids are tough on insurance, bulky, and generally inconvienient; the iPhone and relevant software, by contrast, costs about $4,650 dollars less than the least expensive models and can do everything the government-issued hardware can. There’s a catch, of course–the insurance companies refuse to cover the cheaper alternative.
