iPhone developers angry as Apple purges adult apps

ChilliFresh was among developers to find their app banned Developers have expressed anger at Apple's decision to ban some adult-themed applications from its iPhone.   Thousands of apps with adult-themed content have been removed from the store since Friday although some, such as one from Playboy, remain. Apple has said that certain apps were removed following customer complaints.   Developer Jon Atherton is angry that previously-approved apps have been pulled, and accuses Apple of "experimenting with our livelihoods".   Apple said it had to respond to its customers. "It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see," Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of product marketing, told the New York Times. Knee-jerk reaction When asked why some apps with adult content had remained intact he said that Apple took into consideration how "well-known" companies were as well as whether they had "previously published material".   ChilliFresh is an Australian company that creates apps for the iPhone, including the recently banned Wobble, which allows users to add 'wobble' functionality to pictures of women's breasts. "I'm now worried the eco-system is run by puritans and is not fair to all players," developer Jon Atherton said on its website. "And worst of all it is not a secure source of income. It can drop to close to zero if they decide to change the rules," he added. The firm was making £320 a day out of its apps, a figure which has dropped to £5 since the ban, he said.   "On Friday evening we got an e-mail out of the blue which basically said, thanks very much but we don't want you any more. Apple said it was removing all overtly sexual apps," he told the BBC.   He said that if Apple was serious about protecting young customers it should allow parents to set controls for devices. He called on Apple to publish its new guidelines so that developers were clear on what they could and could not do as well as to clarify why not all sex-related apps are affected by the ban.   "My view is that this is a knee-jerk reaction. Apple is very controlling. These apps are getting popular but the apps store doesn't have an adult section," he said.   "I'd have thought there was a technological way of fixing the problem rather than pulling the rug out from under people's feet," he added.     BBC to offer iPhone apps for news and sport Many news organisations already offer iPhone apps The BBC has announced it will offer iPhone applications for its news and sport content from April. The free apps will be followed by versions for BlackBerry and phones running Google's Android software.   The BBC said they had been developed because more people use "sophisticated handheld devices" to view content. Several other news organisations offer iPhone apps, including Sky and the Daily Telegraph - which are free - and the Guardian - which costs £2.39.   Analysts at research firm CCS Insight said the apps would "increase tension between publishers of paid-for content and those reliant on other revenue".   The news industry is currently struggling to find a business model for the digital world.   "Whilst the BBC's impulse to enter an already crowded news and sport apps market place is understandable, the move belies the fundamentally competitive nature of the Corporation's approach to new services," Emily Bell, director of digital content at the Guardian, told BBC News.   "Applications are a long way away from being 'broadcast' media, and, unlike the web, they form a market which the BBC is seeking to disrupt."   In addition, she said, the "considerable cost" of developing apps for all platforms meant the BBC was in "territory most publishers could not afford to inhabit".   But Erik Huggers, BBC director of future media and technology, said the BBC audience "want to access the digital services that they have paid for at a time and place that suits them". "Today's announcement means that we are catching up with our audiences," he told the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.   'Open platforms' The news app, to be released in April, will offer content from the BBC News website, including written stories, correspondent blogs as well as audio and video. Users will also be able to send comments and pictures directly to the newsroom.   The BBC said the sports app will be released in time for the World Cup, which starts in June, and will initially focus on football.  Our approach has always been simple: web equals mobile; mobile equals web  Pete Clifton, head of editorial development Read Pete's thoughts in full It will combine content from the BBC Sport website and 5 Live radio, including live commentary and scores, and will allow fans to watch sports matches live on their phone.   The apps will be updated later in the year to include more content, including Formula 1.   A different version of the apps will be offered to international audiences, supported by advertising.   The BBC said it was also considering releasing apps later this year for its popular iPlayer service.   The on-demand video and audio player serves up 20 million requests for TV and radio programmes every week.   The BBC has said that it will initially focus on building applications for the iPhone but follow with applications for Google's Android operating system and RIM (BlackBerry).   It said it would also "work with other providers to enable these applications on their mobile devices".   However, the organisation did not mention specific plans for an app for Symbian, the world's most popular smart phone operating system.   According to figures from analysts CCS Insight, Symbian software is used on 47% of all smartphones.   BlackBerry accounts for 21% of the market, compared with Apple's 15%, Microsoft's 9% and Android's 5%.   The BBC does however already offer a BBC iPlayer app for certain Symbian phones.   Jim Killock, of the Open Rights Group, said that the BBC should concentrate on developing "open platforms" rather than building apps for closed systems such as the iPhone.   "That way everyone can access the content regardless of what device they are using," he told BBC News.   Several unofficial apps already exist on Android handsets and the iPhone.

The morning after the tablet

In Silicon Valley yesterday, all eyes were on Apple, its boss Steve Jobs, and the unveiling of a new product - which meant that they were not, alas, on the president giving his first State of the Union speech.

Here, it was all about the "State of the Slate"; the slate, as many of you know, is another name for a tablet computer, and the phrase is my lame attempt at a topical quip.

Talking of names, the now-unveiled tablet is called the iPad, a name that has been causing quite a bit of female mirth.

If you are of a sensitive nature, please look away from the next few paragraphs. On Twitter, this Fast Company headline was tweeted like crazy: "Apple's iPad name not the first choice for women. Period."

The New York Times notes that it was not just women who were surprised by the choice of name from a company that plans things down to the very last detail.

The newspaper said that when PR and social media professional Peter Shankman saw the name on television, he was taken aback. "I'm waiting for the second version that comes with wings," he said.

Moving along.

The secrecy surrounding the iPad was phenomenal. Usually, companies dish out up-and-coming products to a select legion of reviewers and industry influencers so that they can try them out and, come press time, talk about them in a considered and knowledgeable fashion.

That didn't happen with the iPad. The first time anyone outside of Apple got to play around with the device was after Steve Jobs' presentation in a room next to the Yerba Buena centre.

We had an hour or so with the machine, and on hand was a host of Apple employees to help us get to grips with this new "third category of computing" that Mr Jobs is trying to promote.