I love how everyone is applying emotional reasoning to a corporate entity.

One porn app sold to a 12 year old, or one with one 16-year old girl’s phot would cause enough liability to take a bite out of their apple.

It’s about the liability, something you have to consider when your pockets are as deep as Apple’s.

A slippery slope argument goes like this: Apple has censored the app store. It’s just a matter of time before they censor Safari and then eventually they will censor the entire internet.

What Rob is saying, is that it is pointless to ban unsigned apps in the app store to avoid teh pr0n because Safari can be used on the same device to get all teh pr0n one could ever want. So it is questionable that this is their primary motivation for mainting complete control over all app content on the device.

The iPad seems like an AOL device. Lame.

If apple chooses not to sell porn themselves, that’s fine. They aren’t required to, any more than any other shopkeeper. [...] Apple isn’t responsible for the Internet because it offers a web browser, but they are responsible for content in their own store.

Huh? I think you’re missing what is being argued about. Apple was asked why you couldn’t download *other* applications, outside of the app store, outside of Apple’s control (like you can on the Android). They weren’t asked why there weren’t porn apps in their app store.

Apple said that if they let you download other apps, then kids would download porn. Rob pointed out that kids can already download porn in the iPad.

No one is suggesting that Apple should offer a porn app on its store.

To institute a more extensive password/identity system on the NSFW stuff would be a doddle. Parents of young children could disable it permanently on first boot-up, other people might have to jump through an extra hoop if they suddenly find themselves yearning for porn.

Unless their objection is actually ‘You can download them’ and not just ‘your kids can download them’ this isn’t an objection at all.

If apple chooses not to sell porn themselves, that’s fine. They aren’t required to, any more than any other shopkeeper. Comparing selling porn content to distributing web browsers is ridiculous. They aren’t the same thing. Apple isn’t responsible for the Internet because it offers a web browser, but they are responsible for content in their own store.

This is the thing most of you ignore.

Maybe it’s cause you like spending your saturdays on your knees, taking your PCs apart and putting them back together again, trying to find the right chemistry of supposedly compatible products that are actually compatible.

Me, I’m making music, designing websites, etc. I don’t like to spend hours and hours customizing my computer. I like to take my computer and make stuff.

So maybe you like to rage on iPad stories to prove how smart you are, how much more adept at computer usage than the average luddite. Rock on, man, you rule!

Meanwhile, the rest of the world appreciates Apple’s stuff because they’re control freaks, they don’t release stuff that doesn’t work and let the consumers beta test it, they don’t let an army of lazy programmers put crap up for sale that crashes other apps, and they don’t make stuff that is ugly.

That, for me and many other people is well worth the premium. I make my living all day every day on Apple products and frankly, if they tripled the prices I would pay them. Having spent years working on PCs running both Windows and Linux, it’s a privilege to work on Jobs’ machines and if that makes me a fanboy, I guess I’m a (rather old) fanboy.

Meanwhile, as long as they maintain their iron fist of control (and, as an owner of Apple stock, I hope they do) their products will continue to function as intended and they will sell truckloads of their beautiful stuff, including the excellent toy known as the iPad.

If Apple wants to try and censor a free and open web, however, it will require some help from the government, and they will both run into that pesky little thing we call the First Amendment.

There is nothing freedom of speech related, really. A given company can simply decide not to offer that part of the internet to you. (Today they don’t offer any part of the internet that relies heavily on Flash for example). Then it’s up to you to decide if you want to buy that company’s device and the content they offer.

It’s not a first amendment question though. Everyone has a right to say things. You don’t have a right to hear what they say on all media platforms. The government doesn’t have the right to censor most things. Companies do have the right to censor their offerings.

I don’t think the dedicated wailers/gnashers are going to be able to appreciate that, but thank you for adding some reason to the debate.

Insisting that apple allow every and any app that comes along to be installed on the device they designed and made served by their own store is unreasonable, and a violation of apple’s right to sell whatever kind of product they want.

No one is insisting on anything. People are just saying “This device….it actually sucks bad because of the limitations. Don’t buy it!”.

Apple is saying “Hey, but it’s for your own good, because we care”.

Rob is saying “Hey Apple, nice lies! I’m gonna explain to my thousands of readers why your reason is obviously a lie, so people can see that your product is very limited and designed to benefit the Apple mothership, not the user”

Then the fanbois (this is where you come in) are saying “but its Apple’s product and blah blah blah. Here, but look: here are examples of other scummy companies doing bad stuff, so Apple should be able to too! apple rulez forever!”

You shouldnt have to jailbreak something to make it do what you want. A tablet PC is 1000 times better than this ijunk, and that is all people are saying. Get it?

Bullshit. It’s all about making 30% off of every app sold. That’s it. Control the device and control the content and control the pricing. It’s what every profit focused entity wants. Just admit it already Jobs.

The real reason for the “iPhone walled garden” is far more illusive and difficult to explain.

Apple’s mission, (that is, Steve Jobs’ Apple) has always, ALWAYS been to deliver a quality user experience for computing. And Steve feels that the iPhone is NOT a personal computer. Yes, it runs programs and games and copies and pastes and has an IP address and yadda yadda yadda. But it is, first and foremost, a phone. And when someone calls your phone, you expect it to work.

Windows computing has proven that the average user is not good at maintaining the health of their system when a whole bunch of crapware is available for them to install. Viruses and adware run rampant, and needless trinkets like “Bonzo Buddy” degrade stability and performance so that the user and have a little animated monkey in their taskbar.

Steve doesn’t want iPhones crashing, failing to receive calls, performing sluggishly, full of malware, etc. Because when that happens, the dumb users aren’t going to say “Golly, I shouldn’t have put so much crap on this thing”, they will say, “This stupid iPhone sucks!”

So, at the expense of your digital liberties, Apple delivers a quality mobile experience. Say what you will about it, but you can’t argue with the facts: Users Are Stupid.

I know: I’m an IT Manager.

You are glossing over the fact that the only reason Apple is responsible for app store content is because they designed it that way. They could have left the platform open to all developers and applications and left it at that. Instead they are going pay people to decide for me whether the fart app or the titty app is worthy enough for me?

No thanks.