But Apple did admit that the standards would evolve, citing that when iTunes first launched it didn’t sell any music with explicit lyrics.

LOL @ “explicit lyrics”, is that pathetic moral panic still around?

Although I’ve heard that Wal-Mart only sells Bowdlerized versions of CDs.

Why is everyone rolling over and accepting the iPhone? This is exactly what we strongly and unanimously opposed on the PC when they called it “trusted computing:” the combination of hardware and software that makes it impossible for third party vendors to create applications without the approval of the hardware vendor.

And to add insult to injury, the hardware vendor has taken it upon itself to discriminate not just based on application quality, compatibility, or even protection of their existing revenue streams, but based solely upon their definition of objectionable content.

Apple has, with this action, managed to hit pretty much every single point on the checklist of evil.

Oh, but it’s just a phone, don’t take it so seriously! And the interface is just so much better than everything else! And it’s just so stylish! Clearly, Apple can do no wrong.

I don’t own anything Mac and never will as long as they keep acting like this. Who buys a device they can’t actually make their own?

Lots of people apparently…. Sad.

You can also make a laundry list of iPod offenses. But without going into those, I see this as another example of vertical proliferation leading to corporate censorship.

the shepard fairey poster was created in the russian constructivist style. many prominent russian constructivist artists taught and worked at the bauhaus, but were persecuted and eventually shut down by fascist nazis. socialist realism is a style of art that communists under stalin proposed to replace the “decadent bourgeois art” of constructivism.

so, shepard fairey and obama = not fascist, but last time i heard, moralistic censorship (like what apple is exhibiting in this case) was one of the core tenants of fascism…

Should be plain and obvious, #1 Geekman even got in first with it and we’re still talking about fascism and censorship.

This will take $ away from Apple, and I’m sure there is a big crossover of Gadget-buyers and South park fans. Simple.

Shameful that they aren’t coming out and saying this – they are pretty straight forward when it comes to denying apps because they replicate functionality of the device as-sold, or compete with services sold with/for the device.

An app that acts as a portal for a free SMS service would be declined, even though you can click through in Safari and use it there.

Again, seems straight forward and obvious. Writers and journos know not to accept Apple’s official line on anything (see: Jobs’ illness, MSNBC reports vs Gizmodo’s), why take it so willingly in this instance?

but really it is again about control…
having SWF and FLV files running on the iphone would have a whole bunch of content playing on the iphone which apple and their app store would have little control over…

dang but why do I still want to get an iphone

gaaahhh

(err sorry had several glasses of red wine…)

and how amusing my recaptcha is
“press impaired”..
haha

I own an iPod Touch and I like using it. But I also know fascism when it’s right in the palm of my hand. Super-efficiency in a very streamlined package with moralistic limitations is always a harbinger of a fascistic streak.

Shepherd Ferry’s Obama poster is the most fascist image in politics since the imagery of the Third Reich. Notice that anyone? Or am I the only one? Not a chance. Obama’s people call themselves a ‘standing army.’ Get it?

Is it unpopular to think of Apple and Obama posters as fascist?

Simple, streamlined, bold, controlling. We are truly deep in it and don’t even know it.

The problem is: I really love good interface design, and they’re the best, so I’m torn apart between getting their products and putting up with exploding power supplies, ridiculous hardware locks, bad LCD screens and BANNED SOUTHPARK APPS (that’s new to the list!)… or looking for slightly less polished alternatives. How annoying.

Matt and Trey: Screw you guys, we’re goin’ home.

re: your characterisation of an iconic image as used in the American electoral process as “fascist”;

Irony is not a vitamin supplement.

Jobs may go the way of Scott Tenorman for all I care.

However, there’s not really anything stopping them from producing a technical answer to this issue: Create the gradation for the apps store and have program producers classify their offerings.

Anything that can touch an arbitrary resource on the Internet or on another person’s computer will, of course, be unsuitable for minors.

– As an aside, independent from the argument I am making above, I will make an observation: There is some rather explicit content available on the iTunes Store that is not classified as such; There is even explicit porn.

Blanket censorship by an authority is never the answer. Parents need to be involved in what their kids are doing, watching, and listening to.

This isn’t really a huge shock though. The hideous obsession that Apple have with vertical integration made this sort of thing pretty much inevitable, really.

Apple has been screwing with us for so long, but somehow, its a poison we want to indulge in. Their marketing is so awesome that they literally seduce people into buying products that allow them to control them by the beck. Ever seen their keyboard-less laptop? If that becomes big, I think I will finally lose any hope for humanity’s intellect.

Hate to have to toot my own horn, but you guys really need to go back and read my comment at #1 before voicing your outrage about censorship.

This is NOT about moral censorship. Apple is an urban-California company, they’re not Wal-Mart. The “this App may be offensive to some viewers” is a line that sounds completely foreign coming from their mouths.

HOW can they SELL South Park in the iTMS and not distribute an App that allows people to get South Park for free? THINK about it, the answer is pretty obvious.

I personally feel like Apple is the girl that’s cheating on me.

I refuse to be abused like this APPLE!!!

We are breaking up soon.

In the words of the great Inyego Montoya “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”

Fascist is not a German word.
Fascist is not the same as Nazi.
Fascist is a word coined by Mussolini.
Fascist is not a fashion sense.
Fascist is not a racist agenda.

Fascist is applicable when the FCC walls off Apples garden FOR THEM.