For all that Apple's iTunes App Store has done to provide iPhone and iPod Touch uses with cheap games and gadgets to justify the expense of their new toy, the virtual merchant is pretty far from a smooth-running operation. App-developers frequently complain that Apple's approval process is too slow and too byzantine, with rejections handed out almost arbitrarily. Case in point: Nine Inch Nails' "nin: access" app, which has been available a few weeks now, offering fans "mobile access to the multimedia and community features of nin.com," including news, blogs, message boards, and streaming music from Trent Reznor's archive of live performances and remixes—all for free. Over the weekend, Reznor's team attempted an update to the app, which was rejected by the iPhone Developer Program for containing "objectionable content." Apparently, someone at the IDP noticed that some of the songs available for streaming on "nin: access" contain dirty words. At present, the app is still available for download in its original form, presumably with some of those filthy, filthy songs included; it's only the update that got caught and stopped. And of course Nine Inch Nails' "explicit" music and videos remain for sale at iTunes. How much longer can Apple try to keep the App Store completely family-friendly before they realize their moral high ground is, so to speak, "the fragile?"
Join the discussion...