Who do you think you are?!
Steve Jobs was recently quoted saying:
we do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone. Folks who want porn can buy and [sic] Android phone.
Who does he think he is?!
This statement really gets me started for a few reasons. First, since when do we believe that the hardware and OS manufacturer should control every piece of software available to our device? If anyone should be calling the shots here it should be AT&T as it is their network that is controlling the flow of data. Apple shouldn’t have a single say in anything other than how the OS and hardware will play together.
Second, who is Steve Jobs to tell me (or anyone) what content is appropriate on my phone, computer, iPod, etc.? I mean seriously would anyone accept this statement from Steve Jobs if he were talking about an iPod, or iPad, or Macbook Pro? Honestly, why is it then that we accept this for the iPhone?
Sidenote: Technically this does hold true for the iPod Touch and iPad as they run the same OS, and thus are limited to the same apps (oh and there is no option for Third Party app stores).
What if tomorrow Steve had a revelation that we should no longer have golf games on the iPhone? What if tomorrow Steve decided that we shouldn’t allow access to MySpace or Facebook on Macs?
This is where things are heading, if they aren’t already there. The iPhone users have given in to the man*. They have given all the power to a single entity.
Simply because of statements like those made by Steve I am a user of Free and Open Software. I can run what I choose, when I choose, and where I choose. If I want porn on my phone (still not sure why anyone would want this) I have that option!
I think it is time for the sheep to realize they are drinking the Kool-Aid. You are letting Apple tell you what is ok and what is not ok. You are being held back by the same people you are paying to move you toward the future.
How much did you pay for your iPhone? According to ATT.com you will pay from $200-$400 depending on the phone and plan you purchase.
Let me ask this, would you ever spend $200 on a DVD player only to be told it doesn’t play R rated movies, because Magnavox didn’t think them appropriate? What about paying $15/month for HBO and Sunday nights the screen goes blank on HBO because Comcast doesn’t like Big Love?
What I am saying is this, if you allow Apple the right to control what you can and can’t have on your device, you are throwing away all the freedom and rights our forefathers have fought their entire lives to protect.
hey bro
i dont like the whole privecy thing either but hes right on this. you shouldent allow porn on anything. what if the kids see this? even if you think its not a good idea you should at least renonce the makers of the porn in the first place, especially if you are working on bettering yourself in the Church!!
Porn is not the issue here, and I am sorry if I made it seem it is. The problem here is the freedom, or lack there of. People are allowing Steve Jobs (Apple) to control the freedom of the market. The freedom and direction of applications in the market. Porn is just an innocent (or not) bystander in the war on freedom.
The funny thing is that through blocking porn Apple has blocked access and distribution of many other perfectly fine applications and materials. This is a common problem when censorship is controlled by a governing body and not by the parents who are ultimately responsible for the children.
I do not want the government, Apple, or any other governing body to tell me what I can and can’t install on my phone. I want the freedom to choose. I want the freedom to take the opportunity to teach my children that I think porn is a bad thing, or to install an app that is blocked simply because a bad four letter word exists in it.
What I am trying to say is that I don’t want anyone telling me what I can and can’t do, but I don’t mind them saying you should or shouldn’t do it, but it is still ultimately my choice.
As for the Church? I will assume you mean the LDS Church and their stance is the same, that while porn is bad, and should be avoided, but ultimately it is still YOUR choice.
I think the concern is what qualifies as “porn”? There are some pretty bad things found on Facebook, YouTube and MySpace. Will all of these sites be blocked as well?
That is right. Porn is not the issue. The issue is regulation of what is allowed on an iPhone. I hope everyone embraces Open Source and does move to an Android based phone.
Imagine if I want to take an apple product and write a program for it… for example: Lets say I have a cheap iPad (no 3G service) and lets say I’d like to get online from anywhere using my Android phone. I could probably write a hack to connect my iPad to my phone over BlueTooth. And I could write an app for my Android phone to Proxy the network connection.
If I even so much as try to submit an application like that to the Apple Store it will get shot down right away, because they want me to fork out the dough for the 3G version.
Robert — Blocking sites on the web browser is not what Apple is doing, although one would think they’d do something like that if they were really fully worried about Porn being seen on the iProducts.
They are really only using Porn as a scape goat for blocking out hundreds (possible thousands) of legitimate applications for their platform that they simply don’t want to allow in for their own personal reasons. Steve Jobs is no fool and brings up the blocking of porn just like any politician will decry child abuse, or drugs. It is all a show, smoke and mirrors, to throw people off the trail.
What they are trying to hide is the simple fact that they are not an equal platform, and they don’t care what people want. Apple is only concerned with the bottom line, and their reputation.
A good example is the dashboard program that Rich Hong developed for the new iPad. People who knew about the project were raving about it and how much they wanted it. Apple didn’t care for the product because it is “contradicting the iPad’s user experience”. Really what it did was fill in a gap that Apple has missed. But they don’t want people to know they missed a gap. They don’t want people to be able to download a dashboard for what is supposed to be a product that has no need for a dashboard and a management of the software on the system. Apple didn’t want the iPad to look broken.
Apple is not worried about our morality, sure they say they are but they aren’t. They are worried that some one somewhere might have an app that will offend someone else and there will be a news article about the iPhone being a porn haven. That might tarnish their image.
We are a free country, we were built on the idea that we should have control of our own lives, including our products and the software we install on them. I just want to see people have the freedom they think they deserve.