Comments on: Apple’s family values

By: paul

paul — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 07:34:11 +0000

I once read that one of the reasons why VHS beat Beta was because Sony didn’t allow the distribution of porn films in Beta. So be careful, Apple, sex and porn are powerful market drivers…

By: plasteroid

plasteroid — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 12:46:37 +0000

i’ll ne’er be able to afford to touch one of those (the machingen thingy), but the picture was delish(your outfit)… who new i’d fetishize a zipper?

By: johnson

johnson — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:49:27 +0000

“Jobs replied, ‘There’s a porn store for Android… ‘”

When did Steve Jobs start doing PR for Google? He should get a raise. My next phone will run Android.

By: scout 86

scout 86 — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 16:06:10 +0000

Thanks for again putting a spot light on the hypocrisy of the corporate mindset. That Apple aka. Steve Jobs would use the PTC to tke a swipe at the competition says it all.

By: L.

L. — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 11:19:14 +0000

Well (at the risk of sounding technologically ignorant, may I say) … I’ve only had MS PCs in the past – but now want something more mobile than my little laptop – and was seriously considering buying either an iPad or at least an iPhone – until this sex-negative b.s. – I’m not spending my money on a product that will attempt to relay someone else’s personal subjective morality over my sexuality, thanks Apple – so, see, they’ve lost at least one sale and one customer with their sex-negative talk …

By: James

James — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 23:39:45 +0000

it’s foolish, i love how violence is ok but sex is a no no

By: David

David — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 20:30:04 +0000

Apple is really, really making me sad as of late. I love their products: their laptops are the best out there, the iPhone is as essential to me as oxygen, and yes… I even bought an iPad and Apple TV.

But I also make a conscious effort to patronize sex-positive businesses and entirely avoid sex-negative businesses. Apple seems hell-bent on identifying themselves with the latter. Between the purge of apps a few months back and this most recent conference, I’m not entirely sure I want to support their business anymore. Factor in stories such as Apple banning the South Park app that let you watch episodes for free because it was “too graphic, and inappropriate for Apple audiences”, all while iTunes continues to sell South Park episodes for $2 a pop… then I lose even more faith in the company.

So I do not want to support Apple’s sex-negativity anymore. Unfortunately, I may be too invested in hardware and software at this point to switch back to PC’s anytime soon. What is a person to do? Can someone tell me some horrible Microsoft stories, so I’ll at least sleep a bit easier knowing I don’t have a choice?

By: Asehpe

Asehpe — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 13:07:00 +0000

Not being an Apple fan (PCs are fine, thank you), I tend to find this kind of attitude quite off-putting. What does Apple get out of doing things like that? An expanded market share? Hardly. Some sense of moral security? Given the ubiquity of internet porn, not at all. So unless it’s some sort of control fetish (and again, given the availability of internet porn, control of what?), I really can’t explain it.

My only question would be, is it just Apple, or is this American culture — this curious mixture of ‘sex is good but it is also bad’ that makes everybody more than a little nervous?

By: Prashant

Prashant — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 06:52:22 +0000

On a lighter note, is it safe to assume that Steve Jobs is a prude?

By: violet

violet — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 03:27:11 +0000

Ryan, we’re friends! I just don’t forsee us spending an evening eating chocolate, drinking wine and watching Heathers together (a la us VB’s). we’re not *that* kind of friends :)

You hit on exactly the problem with Jobs using porn as a foil, both for their own business decisions and against competitors. It either reveals ignorance about how his own products work in the space they occupy (Internet), or it makes him look like Apple is trying to pull a fast one about controlling user experience.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 02:05:45 +0000

What, we’re not friends, too? :)

Seriously though, it was a cop out, and a pretty transparent one at that. We all know that right out of the box, the iPhone / iPod touch / iPad can instantly and easily access the largest porn store in the known universe: the web. And guess what, despite their various parental controls, Apple’s devices have absolutely zero built-in method for preventing minors from accessing stuff on the web their parents don’t want them to see.

Porn is just an easy scapegoat kept on standby for any situation where Apple doesn’t want to admit that publicly that it must have complete and total control.