Iron Ink Media: Inked Up

We aren’t sure how accurate this is, but we’ll run with it anyway because it’s what we do. And a lot of other people are running with it too. And we all know that if someone else does it, then it’s perfectly ok, regardless of what it is.

Ok, but seriously, there are rumors that Apple CEO Steve Jobs replied to a customer email (he responds to customer emails?) by saying that if someone wanted porn, they should just buy an Android.

Matthew Browning, the customer, emailed Jobs regarding Apple’s blocking of an app by satirical cartoonist Mark Fiore.

Browning wrote: “I’m all for keeping porn out of kids hands. Heck–I’m all for ensuring that I don’t have to see it unless I want to. But…that’s what parental controls are for. Put these types of apps into categories and allow them to be blocked by their parents should they want to.”

That makes enough sense. But Jobs supposedly responded by saying that Apple has some moral responsibility to its customers. Whatever.

“Fiore’s app will be in the store shortly,” Jobs wrote. “That was a mistake. However, we do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone. Folks who want porn can buy and [sic] Android phone.”

This is all well and good, but does anyone realize that you have a Safari (or Opera) browser right on your iPhone? You know you can go to whatever website you want, right? Why all the fuss about having porn in apps? Just friggin’ go to a website on your phone!

Finally, you can Digg stories on your iPhone. The popular website Digg.com, which tells you whether your story is great or crap based on how many people vote good or bad on it, has released its free iPhone app in the app store.

Once you launch the app, you’ll immediately be able to browse the popular stories on Digg.com. They also make it really easy to like or dislike a story. Just tapping a link launches the story inside an in-app browser. And then, a bar below contains thumbs up and thumbs down buttons so you can let everyone know what you think of that person’s journalism.

One of the downsides, however, is that you can’t comment on any of the stories. For that, you’ll need your regular computer. Or, you can probably just go to Digg.com on your iPhone’s Safari browser and comment there is someone has sufficiently pissed you off to the point where you just need to tell them how you feel.

Opera said on Tuesday that they have submitted their new mini browser to Apple’s app store for approval. This version was originally shown at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February.

Tor Odland, head of communications at Opera, said he thinks that the app will approved because they already have 50 million users and the browser offers increased speed when compared to Apple’s Safari. Still, will Apple let another browser compete with their very own Safari on their very own iPhone?

We tend to doubt it, but stranger things have happened.

But it seems that it is indeed faster. Apparently, they use a proxy server to compress web information before it is downloaded onto the iPhone. Makes sense. Maybe Apple should be taking notes.

It seems like there is a reason that iBoobs got kicked out of the Apple app store. It would seem that Apple has some new rules that are really clamping down on anything remotely adult oriented. The app store is family friendly and that’s the way it’s going to stay apparently.

So, here are the new rules that the developer of iBoobs got directly from Apple:

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 this pic)
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 site is great. It’s called FreeAppAlert.com and it lets you know about newly free apps. It’s easy to go check out all the free apps in your app store on the iPhone, but this site lets you know which formerly paid apps have just become free to the masses.

Definitely check it out. We think we’ll add it to our blogroll.

People were already getting heated about the app store approval process, but add in a little religion and watch out! The latest idea that didn’t make the cut is “Me So Holy.” PC World explains,

Developed by Benjamin Kahle, the Me So Holy app allows users to snap a mugshot with their iPhone camera and then crop and scale it to replace the face on various religious figures, including Jesus. Khale says that Apple rejected his app because it contains objectionable material.

Kahle’s question, “is religion really to be placed in the same category as these violent apps? Sex, urine, and defecation don’t seem to be off-limits, yet a totally non-violent, religion-based app is.”

Heck, even the baby shaker app was approved for a bit until too many groups complained publicly. The saga continues.

We’ve spent a lot of time complaining about the app store approval process. But after reading about this case on TechCrunch, we can’t point the finger in that direction. Kuan Yong created a Twitter app (do we really need another?) called Tweetspotter but received a notice saying:

Hello Kuan,

Your application, TweetSpotter, cannot be posted to the App Store at this time because it does not achieve the core functionality described in your marketing materials, or release notes. Applications must adhere to the iPhone Human Interface Guidelines as outlined in iPhone SDK Agreement section 3.3.5.

The user could not sign in with the demo account provided, please see the attached screenshot. In addition, though multiple Twitter accounts were used, the user still could not sign in. This review was conducted on iPhone 3G running iPhone OS 3.0 Beta 5.

In order for your application to be reconsidered for the App Store, please resolve this issue and upload your new binary to iTunes Connect.

Should you require more assistance with resolving this issue, Apple Developer Technical Support is available to provide direct one-on-one support for discrete code-level questions. Please be sure to include any crash logs, screenshots or steps to reproduce this issue in your request.

It turns out the coding was fine, but Twitter was down for a scheduled maintenance so no one could sign in. With the number of apps that have to go through the approval process, we don’t blame the reviewer for not knowing Twitter was down. The developer should have thought about that in advance, and if you’re submitting an app you should too. And, as a savvy TC fan commented, the app should have had a more specific error message signaling Twitter was off-line.

It looks like Apple finally caved. We knew if anyone could turn up the heat, it would be Trent Reznor.

Reznor’s NIN iPhone app was recently rejected, and he was not happy about the vague reason Apple gave. After expressing publicly how he felt, via the NIN message board, Apple reconsidered. The tech-savvy Reznor announced the approval via Twitter:

@trent_reznor: NEWS FLASH: Apple has approved the NIN iPhone app update. Should be live in a few hours.

@trent_reznor: The NIN iPhone app is unchanged, the “issues” seem to have been resolved.

This makes me smile. Wired is reporting that Nine Inch Nails front man and creative entrepreneur Trent Reznor created an iPhone app that Apple rejected. Reznor, not known for being shy and politically correct, let Apple know he was pissed by posting on the NIN message board. He feels his app was rejected because a song you could stream through the app contained one curse word. Here are some (non kid-friendly) snippets of his post that Wired has put together:

“‘The Downward Spiral,’ the album, is not available anywhere in the iPhone app,” wrote Reznor. “The song ‘The Downward Spiral’ I believe is in a podcast that can be streamed to the app,” he continued. “Thanks, Apple, for the clear description of the problem — as in, what do you want us to change to get past your stupid fucking standards?”

“You can buy ‘The Downward Fucking Spiral’ on iTunes,” he continued, “but you can’t allow an iPhone app that may have a song with a bad word somewhere in it … Hey Apple, I just got some spam about fucking hot Asian teens through your e-mail program. I just saw two guys having explicit anal sex right there in Safari! On my iPhone! Come on Apple, think your policies through and for fuck’s sake get your app approval scenario together.”

We’ve reported in the past that Apple’s approval process can be confusing, and that developers are demanding better explanations of why their apps are rejected so they can fix them. It’s only a matter of time until this situation boils over, and Trent Reznor could be the one person who can blow the lid off.

Trent Reznor is bummed out about the Apple approval process

Less than two weeks ago we posted about the Apple iTunes store approaching the one billionth app download mark. Well, today looks like the day they will reach that goal. With the download counter working like mad, there is only a little time left to enter to win the top prize.

How fast are people downloading apps around the world? Let me put it this way. During the time it took me to put up this post, more than 30,000 apps were downloaded. Insane.