Apple banned the Wikileaks iPhone app, determining it could hurt people, or is illegal, or both. The company didn't actually specify why 73 million iPhone owners are forbidden from using the app, but did coyly hint at the reason.
Dmitry Medvedev, the "elected" president of Russia, is touring Silicon Valley companies this week. At Apple tomorrow, say Russian reports, the Mac enthusiast will get a pre-release iPhone 4 as a personal gift from CEO Steve Jobs. Appropriate.
Apple has proclaimed an iPad "revolution," and has already picked the winners and losers. Banned in its cultural shift are literary illustrations of gay couples making, and of Ulysses. Allowed are heterosexual couples making out and swimsuit editions.
A British fashion magazine has reportedly dubbed its iPad issue "the Iran edition" due to the requirement to remove nipples and other body parts to get content on Apple's tablet computer. Call this the "Apple chilling effect."
Apple believes it has a "moral responsibility" to patrol content on the iPhone. That apparently includes heavily watering down a guide to New York's gay culture, as one author just learned.
Apple banned a third prominent cartoonist from its app store, citing mockery of Tiger Woods and a policy against "ridiculing a public figure." If we're to let Apple censor our news, we should familiarize ourselves with the company's whims.
Click to viewApple has been trying to keep scantily-clad women out of the iPhone app store. It's a hypocritical crackdown, with apps from Playboy and Sports Illustrated given a free pass. And it's going to ruin the iPad for magazine content.
