Apple released guidelines for determining what programs can be sold on its App Store, online after more than two years of complaints from developers that the company’s policy was secret and capricious.
The guidelines go a long way towards addressing many of the complaints, here however, there are still a number of grey areas.
Apple is clearly, and thankfully, reaffirming its stance on adult materials. While many argue that content is a personal choice, there is not a current solution in the market to allow parents to make the decision regarding what their children seen. For those that are out there Apple points out, “We have lots of kids downloading lots of apps, and parental controls don’t work unless the parents set them up (many don’t). So know that we’re keeping an eye out for the kids.â€
It’s unclear what the company’s long term plans are, but they have taken a strong statement with the new guidelines about the current line on the App Store.“Apps containing pornographic material, deï¬ned by Webster’s Dictionary as ‘explicit descriptionsor displays of sexual organs or activities intended to stimulate erotic rather than aesthetic or emotional feelings’, will be rejected.â€
Note that Apple does draw the distinction between general freedom of speech and the App Store in the guidelines. The guidelines say “We view Apps different than books or songs, which we do not curate. If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song, or create a medical app.”
While everyone might not agree with Apple’s guidelines, it is good to see a company willing to step from behind the curtain and outside of legalise to give us their clear (and sometime humorous) opinions.
- “We have over 250,000 apps in the App Store. We don’t need any more Fart apps. If your app doesn’t do something useful or provide some form of lasting entertainment, it may not be accepted.â€
- “We will reject Apps for any content or behavior that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court Justice once said, “I’ll know it when I see itâ€. And we think that you will also know it when you cross it.â€
- “If your app is rejected, we have a Review Board that you can appeal to. If you run to the press and trash us, it never helps.â€
If you’ve been reading technology publications over the past few weeks, viagra approved
you have at least heard about Oracle suing Google for patent infringement related to the Android operating system. Some reports claim that there may have even been direct copying from Java.
We would like to draw your attention to the article How Oracle might kill Google’s Android and software patents all at once by Daniel Eran Dilger of the blog RoughlyDrafted Magazine. The article is a little long and covers a lot of areas, but he raises some interesting parts in the discussion. If you’re not overly familiar with the background of the story, this article will give you a better basis.
NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center celebrated its 50th birthday in Huntsville, sickness
with a small ceremony last week.
President Dwight Eisenhower first dedicated Marshall on September 8th 1960. Marshall has contributed or lead almost every American space milestone from the early Gemini rockets to the solid rocket boosters that have lifted the space shuttle for decades. Today, more than 7,500 people work for Marshall and its related contractors in Huntsville.
US marketers surveyed in June 2010 by PRWeek and MS&L Group believed mobile social would have important consequences for their brand. Asked which social media efforts would have the greatest effect on their company, see
17% said more usage of social media on mobile platforms and a further 12% cited uptake of mobile location-based social networking.
Read the full article on eMarketer.
Download the report (PDF)
Press Release:
Washington, try DC (September 14, melanoma
2010) – TechAmerica Foundation today released a report based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data that shows the U.S. high-tech industry added 30,200 jobs between January and June of 2010, a 0.5 percent gain. The report looks at four sectors within the high-tech industry: tech manufacturing, communications services, software services, and engineering and tech services.
“Though the tech industry was among the last to feel the effects of the economic downturn of 2008 – 2009, it was not immune to job loss and is only slowly showing signs of climbing out of it,†said Josh James, Vice President, Research and Industry Analysis, TechAmerica Foundation. “Tech employment as of June 2010 stood at 5.78 million, compared to 5.99 million in January 2009. So there is still a way to go before we’ve made up for lost jobs, and continued recovery is by no means certain. With job growth in three of the four tech sectors, we remain guardedly optimistic.â€
“As one of the last industries to feel the effects of the recession, the technology industry is now appears to be slowly turning the corner with the rest of the economy,†said TechAmerica President and CEO Phil Bond. “We have weathered the storm better than most. From its position embedded in every other industry, technology remains the best hope for driving robust recovery across the economy. America can only realize the full promise of an innovation recovery with smarter public policies focused on developing and attracting the best talent, investing in research and development, and growing and securing our information infrastructure.â€
The technology industry continued to add jobs until the last quarter of 2008, by which time much of the rest of the private sector was already well into recession.
Over the most recent six months, high-tech manufacturing in the United States once again added jobs, reversing the downward trend. Technology manufacturers added 9,100 net jobs in the first half of 2010, for a total of 1.24 million tech manufacturing jobs in June – a 0.7 percent gain.
Two of the three high-tech services sectors added jobs in the first six months of 2010: software services (+14,200) and engineering and tech services (+29,700). Communications services, which includes Internet and telecom companies, shed 22,800 jobs from January to June of 2010.
On a year-to-year basis, from June 2009 through June 2010, tech lost 72,800 jobs, a 1.2 percent workforce decline. Over the same time period the U.S. private sector shed 334,000 jobs – 0.3 percent decline.
All data are compiled from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Employment Survey and are preliminary, subject to revision, and not adjusted for seasonal variances. This report is not comparable to TechAmerica Foundation’s annual Cyberstates or Cybercities reports.
This report, as well as all installments of the TechAmerica Foundation Competitiveness Series, can be downloaded for free at: www.techamericafoundation.org/
About TechAmerica Foundation
TechAmerica Foundation educates industry executives, policy makers and opinion leaders on the promise of technological innovation to advance prosperity, security and the general welfare. Launched in 1981, the foundation is a 501c(3) non-profit, non-partisan affiliate of TechAmerica, the leading voice and resource for the U.S. technology industry. It disseminates award-winning industry, policy and market research covering topics such as U.S. competitiveness in a global economy, innovation in government, and other areas of national interest. The foundation also organizes conferences and seminars to explore pertinent issues with government and industry representatives and to share the foundation’s findings.