Porn in Apple's App Store? Keep Dreaming

For a minute there, it seemed like hell had frozen over.

You saw the headlines, right? "Uncensored Playboy Magazine Coming to iPad." "Playboy Coming to the iPad Despite Apple's Porn Policy." "OMG, Apple, Say It Ain't So!"

Okay, I made that last one up. But you get the idea: When word started spreading that Playboy was bringing its full monty to Apple's famously chaste App Store, something seemed amiss. How could Apple, the company that's made a spectacle out of censoring its mobile app selection, allow -- gasp! -- naked women onto its virtual shelves?

The answer: It couldn't. It isn't. The whole story was one big misunderstanding.

The Playboy-on-the-iPad myth started with the bathrobed one himself, Mr. Hugh M. Hefner. Hef (just a little nickname I made up for the guy) sent a tweet on Tuesday announcing that new and old issues of Playboy would become available on the iPad in March. He followed up by saying yes, the content would be uncensored.

Hef wasn't lying. He just wasn't stating what many folks figured he was.

Playboy, in actuality, is creating a new "Web-based subscription service" that'll be "iPad-compatible," a spokesperson for the publication has clarified. The service will be able to "utilize iPad functions," she says. It's not immediately clear what those functions might be, but we can only hope they involve multitouch gestures.

As for the App Store itself, Playboy is working on an app -- but it'll be a non-nude version designed specifically to meet Apple's rigid guidelines, according to the spokesperson.

So yes, it appears Apple's App Store will, in fact, remain porn-free. Good thing, too: Otherwise, it might have become incredibly easy for people to find photos of naked ladies on those Internet-enabled devices.

Whew.

JR Raphael is a PCWorld contributing editor and the co-founder of geek-humor site eSarcasm. You can find him on both Facebook and Twitter.

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Apple's iPhone 4 Screw Job

Apple has been notoriously antagonistic towards do-it-yourselfers, preferring their customers have their equipment serviced through the company's official channels. The Cupertino company may have found another way to foil these handy folks: using rare, hard-to-find screws.

Called "pentabular" screws, their pattern looks similar to a Torx screw, yet different. The best way to describe it probably is flower-shaped. Drivers for these screws aren't readily available -- making it more difficult to perform DIY repairs.

Pentalobe screws are nothing new for Apple: they first appeared on 2009 MacBook Pros to secure the battery, and are currently used to attach the case to the chassis of the MacBook Air. Kyle Wiens at iFixIt, who was first to publicize this issue, accuses Apple of doing this "because [the screw] was new, guaranteeing repair tools would be both rare and expensive. Shame on them."

He says the screwhead is new, and up until recently the only company with the right tools to remove them was Apple itself. Which would mean you'd be visiting Apple for any repair, no matter what it is. Cracked screen? No more saving money by getting the parts from a third party.

In true capitalist style, iFixit has used their post to sell an "iPhone Liberation Kit," which includes a pentalobe screwdriver and two Phillips head screws to replace their harder-to-remove cousins. It costs $9.99.

Is Apple within its rights to keep do-it-yourselfers out of its devices? I'd say yes. While I guess you could make the argument that its improper for the company to do so with its computers (which would essentially force obsolescence), with phones the devices were never meant to be upgraded.

What are your thoughts. Is this a screw job on Apple's part?

For more smart takes on technology, visit Technologizer.com. Story copyright © 2010, Technologizer. All rights reserved.

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Apple's App Store Hits 10 Billion Downloads

After two and a half years (or so) of existence Apple's iOS App Store has seen 10 billion downloads.

To celebrate, Apple is handing out one $10,000 iTunes gift card. Folks were entered into the drawing by downloading an app from the App Store or visiting Apple's website between January 6 and the download of the 10 billionth app.

Contest aside; this marks a huge milestone for Apple and the storefront launched a few years ago to go along with Apple's iPhone SDK.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs first publicly demonstrated the then-new App Store in March of 2008 along with the iPhone 2.0 software, calling it "an application we've written to deliver apps to the iPhone."

And deliver it did.

It took nine months to reach one billion downloads and a little over a year to hit two billion. All the while Apple collected a nice percentage of revenue from each app that was sold.

Many developers made a pretty penny in the App Store, too.

Movies by Flixter, the fifth most downloaded free iPhone and third most downloaded free iPad app, was created by Jeffrey Grossman, a sophomore at Carnegie Mellon University. In 2008, Flixter acquired the app from Grossman for an undisclosed amount. Grossman was also given a consultant position at Flixter while attending school. Not too bad for a college student.

Not everything about the App Store was pretty.

Everyone remembers the 2009 Google Voice debacle, in which Apple rejected Google's official app from showing up in the App Store. The move inspired the FCC to look into Apple's vague app approval process, which was frequently criticized.

Last September, Apple finally demystified the approval/rejection process by releasing App Store Review Guidelines. In November, the official Google Voice app finally made its way into Apple's store.

It goes without saying that the App Store has been a huge success for Apple and its wide selection of apps is arguably one of the biggest things standing between the iPhone and its competitors.

But that may soon change.

The Android Market is gaining ground quickly. In December 2010, AndroLib reported that the Android Market had more than 200,000 apps. That report came just two months after Google announced it had 100,000 apps in its market. PC World writer Daniel Ionescu projected that the Android Market could overtake Apple's iOS App Store by this spring if growth continues at the same rate.

Something tells me that Apple isn't too worried about that. After all, it just opened the App Store for Mac and will soon be able to provide Verizon customers with all their app needs.

Check out PC World's All-Time Apple iOS App Favorites slideshow.

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