There's more App Store news around the web in the last few days. Apple has come under fire for a few more App Store issues since the whole "Google Voice Debacle". Here's the links:
Apple's New Low [via Engadget] - Apple has denied a dictionary named Ninjawords because it featured "obscene language". Shit and fuck are in my vocabulary, so why not in the dictionary? Fuck that shit.
No Kama Sutra For You [via Ars Technica] - An ebook reader app gets denied for making the Kama Sutra available.
But they've also made a few good rejections. They've finally rejected the god-awful apps from an Indian dude and his app sweat shop. Basically, he was making apps that aggregated articles from the web, violating thousands of copyrights in the process. Check it out here.
This is a funny time for an Apple fanboy. I'd like to disagree with all the haters, say "they just don't get it". But with increased success comes increased scrutiny. The more people that are using your products, the more problems are going to arise. Apple is at a crossroads and are having growing pains. Do they become completely closed, like Sony? Yeah, how's that working out? But you have to protect your assets, even if it pisses a few people off.
Apple keeps breaking Palm's ability to sync the Pre using iTunes. This is a good move. Apple is not stopping people from using their DRM-free songs on their Pre, but just stopping Palm from spoofing the vendor ID and making iTunes believe it's an iPod. If Palm wants to make a syncing app for the Mac, more power to them. RIM did it for the Blackberry. Word has it that the app is pretty nice, too. RIM has earned my respect with this move. Palm is trying to get bought out. Get on it, Dell!
Apple has a real opportunity to get some of those haters back on their side with Spotify. Spotify is a streaming audio subscription service ($15/month) that allows you to cache streamed songs for offline use. Similar to Pandora, except for the offline capabilities. They want to release a free iPhone app. This will be a direct competitor for iTunes. If they allow it, they risk losing $$ to this service. If they deny it, they risk losing users. It's a total "damned if you do/damned if you don't" situation. It will be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks.
*Edit: Added the above paragraph about Spotify.*
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