While it has been ruled that jailbreaking your phone is not an illegal act, Apple plans on keeping a watchful eye on those individuals that decide to do it to their iPhones, if a recent filing with the patent office is any indication. A patent filed by the company called "Systems and Methods for Identifying Unauthorized Users of an Electronic Device" details a number of ways to detect hacking, jailbreaking, unlocking, or the removal of a SIM card from a phone.

Further, the patent details a method for "taking a series of geotagged photographs with the in-built camera and e-mailing them to Apple in order to identify" the user as well as some other far-fetched methods like "voice-print analysis to identify legitimate users" or the "use of a heartbeat sensor." While much of this sounds like a bad sci-fi movie about a big brother government agency tracking users, it should at least bother users that the patent specifically mentions jailbreaking in its langauge.

Source: bit-tech.net

It was a different scene today at the Shenzhen, China-based Foxconn plant, which employs over 300,000 workers who assemble everything from iPhones to video game accessories. Today Foxconn held a rally designed to promote living and loving life and to generally boost the morale of workers - who only a few months ago were as unhappy as a worker can be in a plant that expects the average employee to work 80 hours of overtime a week.

Just a few months ago morale was so low that more than a dozen employees committed suicide, prompting the company to install safety nets on the top of its buildings. But more importantly, it made the company face the reality that productivity has to be balanced with the well being of its employees. Read More

A longstanding loophole that has allowed mobile application developers to avoid submitting their wares for classification in Australia has been vowed to be sealed up by the country’s Labor Party.

The Australian reports that the issue is on the agenda of the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General meeting, which was postponed three weeks ago due to the looming state elections (that take place on August 21).

Labor’s Brendan O’Connor, and Minister of Home Affairs, said that he was, “… concerned about the classification of games playable on mobile telephones and had put the wheels in motion to address this with his state and territory counterparts.”

Meanwhile, a Sydney Morning Herald story notes that such submissions could cost developers between $470 and $2040 per entry, which didn’t sit well with some creators.
Read More

Former Apple global supply manager Paul Shin Devine plead not guilty Monday in the U.S. District Court in San Jose, California. A bail hearing is scheduled for Wednesday. Devine was indicted by a federal grand jury last week on 23 counts of wire fraud, money laundering, conspiracy, and accepting kickbacks, according to court documents obtained by C|Net.

Devine also faces the wrath of Steve Jobs; Apple has filed a civil suit against him for allegedly accepting more than $1 million in bribes from suppliers over the past few years in return for inside information that was then used to give those companies a better position in bargaining lucrative contracts.

Six Asian companies were named in the indictment including Kaedar Electronics - a division of Asus owned Pegatron (Taiwan), Singapore-based JLJ Holdings's Jin Li Mold Manufacturing, Singapore-based Glocom/Lateral Solutions and Fastening Technologies, Taiwanese company Nishoku Technology and earphone and headset maker Cresyn. Read More

The Library of Congress’ Copyright Office looks into the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) every three years in order to ensure that its harms are “mitigated.” The latest such inquiry has led to the establishment of legal protections for those who choose to jailbreak their cell phones, as well as for those who break protections on videogames in order to “investigate or correct security flaws.”

An AP story stated that the triennial investigation offers exemptions to the DMCA in order to “ensure that existing law does not prevent non-infringing use of copyrighted material.”

Other exemptions handed down included: Read More

Matmi founder Jeff Coghlan said that "Apple would be crazy" to block the use of middleware from iPhone development, while Unity's David Helgason saying that Apple CEO Steve Jobs doesn't understand how games are made.

Following comments in his talk at the Develop conference yesterday, Coghlan told GamesIndustry.biz that the same risk applied to every other third-party tool.

"It's not just Unity - I could work with Torque, they could pull it. What hope have developers got? Obviously banning middleware is crazy. Everything has got some element of middleware. That's the issue."

Unity CEO David Helgason says that Apple is still approving 1.5 unity-based games for the App store, but was concerned that Apple is banning use of all third-party middleware tools. Helgason also added to recent comments in a keynote at Develop where he said that "Steve Jobs doesn't understand games." Read More

A group of Taiwanese scholars are asking Foxconn Technology Group to end what it calls its "rigid and inhumane" management style at its massive manufacturing facility in Shenzhen, located in the southern part of China. The facility, which houses more than 300,000 people, has been under scrutiny after a string of suicides took place at the plant. Foxconn manufacturers iPods and iPads for Apple, and computers for Dell and Hewlett Packard.

Taiwanese scholars and labor activists have been critical of Foxconn's excessively fast assembly line and forced overtime policies. Foxconn has denied these allegations for years, but under pressure from business partners and the government, it recently announced two raises, more than doubling the basic worker pay in Shenzhen to 2,000 yuan ($293) per month.

Social scientist Yang You-ren at Taichung's Tunghai University began the Taiwan petition drive earlier this month in response to recent developments at Foxcoon. He and fellow academics say that they are appalled by Foxconn's labor policies. Read More

The latest edition of LA Times technology blog makes a valid point about Apple's presence at E3: their really wasn't one. No big presser, no games on the show floor, and very few third-party titles being shown at any booths. That doesn't mean that game publishers and developers aren't developing the games, it just means that they apparently didn't think it was all that important to show them off, I guess.

Two big publishers - EA Mobile and Disney Mobile had small presences by the Times' accounting but they were mere afterthoughts to spaces dedicated to games like TRON, Battlefield, Medal of Honor and Epic Mickey. But it really brings in to focus the fact that Apple doesn't "seem to" care all that much about gaming.

Disney Mobile sees the iPad and iPhone market growing and wants to be in the space: "In their overall budget we're much smaller, but I think it's something that Disney really sees as big and growing," Disney Mobile's Tom Smith told the LA Times. "They want to be there. They want to be showing all of these great brands on these great devices." Read More

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has officially opened a probe into the possible security breach of AT&T's web site that exposed sanative iPad user data. According to published reports, a security hole in AT&T's web site exposed iPad user email addresses.

On Wednesday, AT&T acknowledged that a security hole in its website made it possible for iPad users' email addresses to be revealed, but claimed that it fixed the security problem by Tuesday. Apple is not publically commenting on this story. Read More

Are you a Mac or PC? Do you use Steam? Well the results of Valve’s annual hardware survey reveal that some Apple models outgun Windows-based PCs in a number of areas. While a majority of Windows PCs have 2GB or 3GB of memory, 53 percent of Macs sport 4GB of RAM. The survey also found that 17 percent of Windows PCs used a single CPU, while over 90 percent of Macs running Steam utilized a dual-core. As for internet connectivity, 65 percent of Mac gamers reported download speeds over 2Mbit compared to under half of Windows PCs.

But PC gamers shouldn't feel too bad because in one of the most important areas for gaming - graphics cards - Mac computers were found to be severely lacking; 32.5 percent of Macs featured decent graphics capabilities, while the top six Windows GPUs reported were all found to be capable of handling most games.

Source: Engadget

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is looking into claims that several Apple stores in New York City discriminated against Asian customers trying to buy iPads prior to the system's launch in other regions outside the United States.

According to Politico, a Queens Assemblywoman tipped off the AG's Civil Rights Bureau after her constituents complained about being a asked series of unusual questions while trying to purchase multiple iPads. The inference is that Apple Store workers seemed suspicious of these purchases and - perhaps - suspected that some were being sent to China. Keep in mind that this allegedly all took place in early May before the iPad was available outside the United States. The stores where this happened were the flagship stores in Soho and on 14th Street in Manhattan. Read More

The Wall Street Journal looks into the "dark side of phone apps" in a new report about the lack of app vetting in Google's Android and Apple's iPhone app stores. While they don't cite too many examples, save some questionable banking apps that Apple banned, the paper solicits the opinions of nameless FBI and security professionals who are "concerned" about malicious software making its way into these stores and in turn on consumers' phones.

As more companies, government agencies and regular consumers use wireless devices to engage in commerce and share private information, the "bad guys" are finding new and creative ways to steal from them and profit from it.

The paper, speaking to "someone familiar with the matter," reports that the FBI's Cyber Division has begun working on these kinds of cases - specifically apps designed to compromise banking on cellphones, as well as mobile "malware" used for "espionage by foreign nations." The FBI has a standing policy that bars its employees from downloading apps on FBI-issued smartphones. The Air Force has a similar policy. Read More

Google joins the BAN-wagon with Apple in removing Tetris-like games from its Android app store, according to Ars. The Tetris Company, which handles licensing for the popular franchise created by Alexei Pajitnov, has sent a DMCA takedown to Google, who in turn has eliminated all Teris-like games from its store.

35 Tetris-like games have been removed from the Android market - even though many of them didn't use any art or knock off names that might trick users into thinking the games were the "real deal."

Tetris Company's challenge to these games, according to ARS, is that they "infringe on the game's trade dress, which is protected under the Lanham Act" (see bitlaw.com for the actual law). Trade dress relates to the "likeness of a product" and deals with copy cat products that might be confused with the real product.

The official game created by EA sucks, says Ars. I'll take their word for it.

Speaking at the All Things Digital conference this week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs described the Foxconn facility in China where 10 workers jumped to their deaths as "a pretty nice place." Jobs defended the conditions at the plant, saying that it is not a "sweatshop," but did concede that the recent tragedies at the plant were "troubling." Here's a quote:

"You go in this place and it's a factory but, my gosh, they've got restaurants and movie theatres and hospitals and swimming pools. For a factory, it's pretty nice," he said.

Apple says that it, like other companies that use the Chinese manufacturing company to make products and components, is closely monitoring the plant's practices. Read More

Foxconn is, at least publicly, taking a beating from its clients - whose ranks include Apple, Nokia, Sony, Nintendo and more. Today Nintendo, Nokia and Sony announced in separate statements that they are conducting investigations into reports concerning a number of suicides that have occurred at several Foxconn facilities in China. Companies like Nintendo and Sony use Foxconn to manufacture products and components cheaply. The company owned by Hon Hai Precision Industries employs approximately 430,000.

Some reports have suggested that many of these companies are aware of the low pay, pressure, and bad working conditions that employees of Foxconn face; after all auditors and other company officials frequently check on production quotas and other matters that affect their supply chains.. Earlier in the week Apple, Dell, and Hewlett-Packard issued statements saying that they take working conditions "seriously" and plan to do their own investigations into these matters. Read More

According to a search warrant unsealed by a San Mateo judge today at the request of multiple media outlets lead by the Associated Press, Apple pressed local police to investigate the loss of a next-generation iPhone a day after photographs and details appeared on Gawker Media's Gizmodo web site. Apple told investigators that the prototype was so valuable that a price couldn't be put on it.

This meeting, which took place April 20, involved Apple attorney George Riley (hired gun), Bruce Sewell (Apple SVP General Counsel and Secretary), Rick Orloff (Apple Director of Information Security), and San Mateo County Sheriff Detective Mathew Broad - assigned to the Rapid Enforcement Allied Computer Team (R.E.A.C.T.) Task Force. While a lot of the details in the search warrant can be considered "the gospel according to Apple and REACT," the main thrust of it is that Apple claimed the publication of photos and info related to the iPhone 4G prototype were damaging to the company, and -no doubt presented with a sense of urgency - and that trade secrets were revealed. Read More

Following up on this morning's story about Apple facing a possible antitrust probe, we draw your attention to this story over at ChannelWeb; it reveals that the maker of the iPhone and iPad may make changes to the language in the application developer agreement to dodge any such investigation. How it would do that and still maintain its stance on third-party development software is anyone's guess. Read More

The New York Times is reporting that Apple may find itself the target of an antitrust probe soon. According to a New York Times report this morning, both the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice are considering whether or not to initiate an antitrust probe over Apple's recent restriction of developers writing apps for its iPhone operating system using third-party software.

Both agencies have apparently received numerous complaints about Apple’s new iPhone policy, according to an anonymous source close to the matter. The NYT article points out that "discussions" don't always lead to investigations.

The potential antitrust probe seems to be related to changes to its iPhone software developer kit. The changes, implemented with the release of the new iPhone 4.0 operating system, revealed new rules disallowing apps from the iTunes iPhone and iPad store that are built using third-party programs. Read More

Research agency Millward Brown has released its annual list of the Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands (PDF).
 
The top five overall in the BrandZ Top 100 are probably not too surprising; Google tops the list, followed by IBM, Apple, Microsoft and Coca-Cola. Nintendo checks in at number 32 and Intel is at number 48, while Sony is number 94.

The report also broke out a section specifically for videogames. It was noted that the category was down 3.0 percent in year-over-year results, a shift blamed on the economic downturn. In a bid to spur fan-boy debates perhaps, specific game machines were also ranked by brand value, with the Wii taking the top spot, followed by the Nintendo DS, the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PSP and PlayStation 2.
Read More

Want to learn more about U.S. health care reform in a simple program with a quiz-like interface? There’s an app for that.

People Operating Technology has launched the free iPhone & iPod Touch application Death Panel in the Apple Store. Promised to be “100% non-political,” the app’s quiz questions and facts are fed by data collected from the White House website, StateHealthFacts.org, the NCHC.org, and FactCheck.org.

Players take the role of an office holder who “must stand on a virtual platform and answer questions correctly about health care from an anxious public.” Twitter and Facebook integration lets users share their scores too.

People Operating Technology co-founder Jason Petralia stated, “Mobile technology provides a fascinating medium though which businesses and other organizations can gain mindshare. We made Death Panel to shed some light on a hot topic in a compelling way.”

Death Panel also contains a Geo-locational who’s who of congressional members, showing their home state, political affiliation and lobbyist funds received.

A new Adult Swim-branded iPhone/iPod Touch app from Turner Broadcasting System and the Cartoon Network has office desk jockeys attempting to off themselves in the fastest way possible utilizing a variety of bloody and violent (and amusing) means.

TouchArcade describes some of the action from 5 Minutes to Kill (Yourself):

You can staple your forehead, drink toilet water, pee on computers, and countless other things. The amount of objects that you can interact with and the objects that can be combined with others for even more lethal damage is pretty amazing.

5 Minutes to Kill (Yourself) is on sale for $2.99 in the iTunes store, though purchasers must be at least 17 years of age to grab the game. A free Flash version of the game is also available on the Adult Swim website.

TouchArcade also has a video embedded on its page featuring gameplay from the touch-enabled title.

I wonder how the Classification Board of Australia would rate this one.

Australia’s Classification Board wants to extend its sphere of influence to mobile applications.

Classification Board Director Donald McDonald (left) has written to Commonwealth Censorship Minister Brendan O'Connor on the issue and also relayed his concerns to a Senate Estimates Committee, expressing his unease that:

Some so-called mobile phone applications, which can be purchased online or either downloaded to mobile phones or played online via mobile phone access, are not being submitted to the board for classification.

The delayed rating of World of Warcraft down under—it took five years for the title to receive a rating—apparently spurred McDonald’s interest in rating mobile content, reports Australia’s ITnews.

A Classification Board spokesperson clarified that McDonald’s rating talk was referring only to “mobile applications which are computer games.”

Apple currently governs its own content on iTunes, but said that if changes needed to be made, “We do what the Australian Classification people tell us to do.”

In rating any mobile content, the Classification Board said it would “apply the National Classification Code, the Classification Act, and the Guidelines for the Classification of Films and Computer.”

|Via Edge-Online| Thanks Ryan

Although EA's exclusive licensing deal with the NFL and NFL Players Association has outraged some gamers and even sparked a class-action lawsuit, it appears that, while negotiating with league, the game publishing giant neglected to wrap up the mobile device rights for NFL games.

By way of example, BitMob points out that Gameloft has released NFL 2010 this month for iPhone/iPod Touch. Screenshots for the $7.99 App Store download clearly show actual NFL team and player names. The game appears to be available for non-Apple phones as well.

It seems quite puzzling that EA would let development rights for any platform slip away, particularly for the popular Apple platforms.  

-Doug Buffone, ECA intern

The top dog at U.K developer A-steroids, creator of Underworld: Sweet Deal for the iPhone, is worried that his company's game is going to be rejected by Apple over its drug-dealing theme.

As readers may recall, this is a bit of an ongoing saga. GamePolitics reported in December, 2008 that A-steroids had renamed the game, originally called DrugLords, in an effort to avoid an App Store ban. A few days later, an Englishwoman who lost her daughter to heroin abuse called upon Apple to ban the game, whatever its title.

Apparently the issue is still up in the air, based on an e-mail GamePolitics received today from Andrey Podoprigora, Head of Studio for A-steroids:

We have recently released our first game on the AppStore - Underworld: SweetDeal. The game was previously known as DrugLords, location-based MMO about dirty trade...

This week, we have submitted the game in it's original drug-trade setting to the AppStore. We were hoping that after the iPhone 3.0 came out with it's parental controls improved, there is a chance for the game to finally come through.

Now, we have got an update from Apple, saying they require "unexpected additional time for review". Which is sort of bad because we are already familiar with responses like that - in December, 2008 this led to months of silence and then ended up as a reject. Would be sad if it means nothing changes in Apple's app reviewing policy.

The recent discussion concerning the ESA's desire to have its rating organization, the ESRB, evaluate game content for the iTunes App Store brings a number of questions to mind:

1.) Why?

Having watched how corporations, lobbyists and their related entities do business for some time now, I'm too jaded to believe that ESA/ESRB wants to jump into rating App Store games for the good of society or because it's the right thing to do. This would, after all, be a significant commitment of ESRB resources. Generally such things happen because there is revenue to be made or there's power to be grabbed.

Despite its present chaotic nature, the App Store is a rising star in the game space. Getting in on the ground floor would be a coup for the ESRB. Apple has a lot of money, too, and the ESRB is paid a fee by the developer/publisher for each game it rates. Despite my cynicism, ESRB spokesman Eliot Mizrachi told me that it's not about the Benjamins:

ESRB is a non-profit organization funded by the revenue generated from the services we provide the industry.  Given our highly discounted rate for lower-budget games, rating mobile games is not a financially attractive proposition; however we believe making ESRB ratings available for those games would serve consumers well.  Parents are already familiar with ESRB ratings and find them to be extremely helpful in making informed choices for their families.  
 
To be clear, our desire is to see Apple integrate ESRB ratings as an option in its parental controls and display a game’s rating (if it has one, the ratings are voluntary after all) in the App Store or on iTunes prior to purchase, not to require that every game available via an iPhone carry an ESRB rating (just as not every piece of video content available will carry an MPAA or TV rating). 

 

Apple’s integration of ESRB ratings into its parental controls for iPhone games would afford parents the ability to block those video games that carry an ESRB rating utilizing the same tool they are being offered to block video content that has been rated by the MPAA or carries an official TV rating.  It’s about giving parents the same ability to do on the iPhone what they are being offered with other entertainment content and can already do on game consoles and other handheld game devices.     

2.) What would it cost?

I asked the ESRB what it costs a developer/publisher to have a typical console game rated?  Would the cost to rate an iPhone game be less? Mizrachi said:

Our standard fees for getting a game rated cover the costs of providing that service.  However, to make accommodations for lower-budget product like casual and mobile games, several years ago we introduced a highly discounted rate - 80% less - for games that cost under $250,000 to develop.  We believe most iPhone games would likely be eligible for the discounted rate.

3.) Isn't this a lot of extra work for ESRB?

Mizrachi was asked whether the ESRB has the capacity to handle an influx of iPhone games for rating. His response:

ESRB has seen increases in rating submissions each year since its founding and has always been able to keep pace.  We have rated more than 70 mobile games to date and will undoubtedly rate more in the future as the market grows.  Consumers of those mobile games that have been assigned ESRB ratings should have access to rating information, and if parental controls are available, the ESRB rating should ideally be operable within that framework. 

4.) If the ESRB plans to do App Store games, what about Xbox 360 Community Games (soon to be known as Indie Games)? 

I also asked Mizrachi about the indie games on XBL. Wouldn’t they seem to be a more natural focus for the ESRB before targeting iTunes? Mizrachi said:

Once XNA games graduate to XBLA they are rated by ESRB... ESRB isn't "targeting" iPhone games.

5.) Who would pay for ESRB to rate App Store games?

Not the creators of $0.99 games, for the most part. They are apparently not making significant revenue. Apple has a deep pocket, of course, although they are not the creator of the games for sale on the App Store. Perhaps the larger industry players such as EA, Namco, etc. would foot the bill for their games. They are already accustomed to dealing with the ESRB.

6.) If only some games are rated, why bother?

But then again, if only the commercial game apps from major publishers are rated, how does that stop your kid from downloading Baby Shaker or Hot Dog Down a Hallway? The foundation for the retail employment of ESRB rating is its ubiquity. Major retailers won't carry non-rated games. Thus, parents have a reasonable expectation that their 12-year-old will be turned down if he tries to buy GTA IV. If not all App Store games are rated, such an expectation is not applicable. So, what's the point?

Hopefully we will learn more about the ESRB's plan as we go forward.

The ESA & ESRB (which is owned by ESA) have recently begun a push to bring the videogame industry's content rating system to that wild frontier of gaming known as the iTunes App Store.

The ESA plan has now received support from a rather unexpected source.

Dr. David Walsh of the National Institute on Media & the Family has weighed in with an endorsement of ESA boss Mike Gallagher's offer to have the ESRB rate App Store games. In a statement released late on Friday, Walsh said:

Michael Gallagher deserves considerable credit for his foresight in identifying the latest challenge for parents, the gaming industry and the ESRB. As gaming technology continues to advance and games become more accessible via online downloads and phone applications, parents will need new tools to keep inappropriate games out of their kids’ hands.

 

Gallagher took a great first step offering to work with Apple to ensure inappropriate content does not make its way into kids’ lives. I hope Apple accepts his offer and reaches out to other organizations like the ESRB and non-industry groups who are concerned about this issue and can offer valuable insight.

GP: As GamePolitics reported last September,  the National Institute on Media & the Family was the recipient of a $50,000 grant from the ESA Foundation.

Do games on the iTunes App Store need to carry ESRB ratings?

In recent times there have been a number of questionable developments in regard to iPhone apps. Some were banned that perhaps shouldn't have been. Others were cleared for sale despite containing questionable content.

Kotaku reports that ESA boss Mike Gallagher would be open to working with Apple on rating App Store games:

We’ve been down this road before, the entertainment software industry, we know how this goes and it’s wise for (Apple) to make steps in that direction so that this is addressed up front and there is an environment that is hospitable to children and families. It would be wise to do that, we would welcome the opportunity to work with them, we are reaching out to encourage that.

 

That doesn’t mean that every entrepreneur, every software engine that is able to write code and put up an app on the App Store is going to go through this process it simply says that if a game is rated it needs to pass through and be filtered appropriately by the controls that are on the iPhone. That would be a big step in the right direction and it is virtually friction free.

GP: While App Store offerings clearly need some kind of coherent rating system, it's unclear whether the ESRB is the right vehicle. As Gallagher notes, there is a high volume of games on the App Store. If all are not to be rated, of what value is a rating system? Who decides which games need to be rated? What is the ESRB's operational capacity to absorb App Store games into its workload?

Not mentioned by Gallagher, but clearly a factor, are the fees paid by developers to the ESRB have games rated. As GamePolitics reported just yesterday, most App Store games are not making money. Will small-time developers of $0.99 games who are hoping to catch lightning in a bottle on the App Store participate in a rating system which requires them to fork over to the ESRB up front? It seems unlikely.

While stories of striking App Store gold abound, a successful iPhone developer writes that the market is over-hyped and under-performing.

Using his STROMCODE blog as a platform, developer Rick Strom complains that even some best-selling apps generate very little return for their creators:

With two apps on the [Top 100] paid charts, one would assume I’m rolling in dough... 

The reality is much more startling.  In order [for Strom's Zen Jar app] to place #34 on the social networking charts, you need 30-35 downloads a day.  At the standard app store pricing of .99, and after Apple takes its cut, that means your app needs to bring in a little over $20 a day to chart at that position... 

 

So what does this all mean?  Well keep in mind there are over 36,000 apps in the app store.  If the apps on the category charts are doing those sorts of numbers, what do you think the rest of them are doing?

Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.   The aren’t selling at all...

 

The app store isn’t a sane marketplace at all, any more than the lottery is...  

Inexplicable content decisions continue to be made by the people running the iTunes AppStore.

In the latest example, Apple has banned a new version of Metaversal Studio's Hot Dog Down a Hallway game due to sexual innuendo. However, an earlier version was previously approved and remains available - double entendres included - for $0.99.

As reported by the Boston Globe:

In the game, players try to launch a hot dog down a corridor lined with various hazards. Players earn "achievement" awards, which are described using suggestive slang terms.

A shaken baby game gets cleared for sale, but an official Nine Inch Nails app is rejected because users might hear some bad language from the 1994 album The Downward Spiral. Never mind that the album itself is readily available from the music side of the iTunes house.

Such are the vagaries of life on the iTunes AppStore, where an ESRB-like app rating system seems increasingly preferable to the hodgepodge system now in place.

While NIN frontman Trent Reznor (left) is not the first to vent about the AppStore situation, he may be the best-known celebrity to call Apple out. In his rant, Reznor even managed to pull Wal-mart and Grand Theft Auto into the mix:

Thanks Apple for the clear description of the problem - as in, what do you want us to change to get past your stupid... standards?

 

And while we're at it, I'll voice the same issue I had with Wal-Mart years ago... Wal-Mart went on a rampage years ago insisting all music they carry be censored of all profanity and "clean" versions be made for them to carry...

 

NIN refused... My reasoning was this: I can understand if you want the moral posturing of not having any "indecent" material for sale - but you could literally turn around 180 degrees from where the NIN record would be and purchase the film "Scarface" completely uncensored, or buy a copy of Grand Theft Auto where you can be rewarded for beating up prostitutes. How does that make sense?...

 

Come on Apple, think your policies through and... get your app approval scenario together.

Thanks to: Longtime GP reader ZippyDSM...