Apple has had a change of heart and decided to allow an iPhone app that offered access to the Kama Sutra.
Apple on Thursday notified the developer that it had rejected the e-book reader app because it deemed the content available on Eucalyptus as "objectionable." As it does with all books available through the app, Eucalyptus downloads a text-only version of the ancient Indian book on sexuality from Project Gutenberg.
The Kama Sutra does not come installed on the app; as with any book title, users must search for the book and download it. The baffling thing in this case is that the book is available on the iPhone using other e-book readers available on the App Store.
Then early Sunday, Apple changed its position and accepted the app after discussions with Eucalyptus developer James Montgomerie, the developer wrote on his blog:
Earlier today I received a phone call from an Apple representative. He was very complimentary about Eucalyptus. We talked about the confusion surrounding its App Store rejections, which I am happy to say is now fully resolved. He invited me to re-build and submit a version of Eucalyptus with no filters for immediate approval, and that full version is now available on the iPhone App Store.
When the App Store was announced in March 2008, Apple said it would vet every single application submitted to the App Store and approve or reject applications based on the company's internal standards. However, Apple has a mixed record on apps that win approval.
Last month, the App Store approved an application called Baby Shaker, the object of which was to stop the incessant crying of an infant pictured onscreen by violently shaking the iPhone, at which point two red "x" marks appear over the baby's eyes. After a wave of protest, Apple removed the app.
In March, Apple reversed itself and accepted a popular Twitter app for the iPhone and iPod Touch that gives users access to the Twitter Trends section, which displays the most frequent topics or words on Twitter at any given moment--including swear words.
In the past, the company has also banned a book from the App Store for using dirty language, yet approved a fast-growing category of fart-related applications, leaving many to wonder exactly what sort of standards are used to evaluate iPhone applications.
There's some speculation that the Kindle for iPhone app may have sparked the lawsuit.
(Credit: CNET)Earlier this month Apple got hit with a lawsuit over an "exploding" iPod Touch. Now it appears to be getting hit with a suit over the exploding e-book market.
A couple of blogs, including Apple Insider, are reporting that a Swiss communications firm, Monec Holding, has filed suit in a Virginia district court. Monec accuses the iPhone maker of "patent infringement, unfair trade practices, monopolization, and tortious interference for allegedly treading on its January 2002 patent No. 6,335,678 titled 'Electronic device, preferably an electronic book.'"
We've never heard of Monec, but the mission statement on its rather austere Web site claims it's "a leading innovator for mobile, globally usable communication solutions...with user-friendly products and pioneering solutions, Monec provides companies and users with secure, wireless access solutions which offer highest degree of flexibility, functionality, speed and independence."
Apparently, last year Monec also sued HP for patent infringement.
Apple Insider says Monec's beef centers on "Apple's move to distribute digital book reading applications through the App Store, which it subsequently sees as an endorsement by the Cupertino-based company that its touch-screen handset can serve as a capable eBook reader."
According to Monec, that violates a patent it filed for a "lightweight" electronic device with a "touch-screen" LCD display having the "dimensions such that (...) approximately one page of a book can be illustrated at normal size, this display being integrated in a flat, frame-like housing."
It's unclear what exactly set off the lawsuit but there's some speculation that it may have been prompted by Amazon's Kindle for iPhone e-book reader software appearing in Apple's App Store--even though Apple has had other e-book reader applications in the App Store for a while.
Apple had no comment about the lawsuit. How about you?
Could Apple have an e-book reader in mind with the 10-inch screens rumored for a large-scale iPod Touch?
(Credit: CNET)More Apple tablet/Netbook rumors surfaced Wednesday as one Apple watcher wonders what the company is doing with all those books.
Reuters is reporting that Apple has ordered 10-inch touch screens from Wintek, a contract manufacturer in Taiwan that makes the touch screens used in the iPhone and iPod Touch. The screens are expected to be ready by the third quarter of this year, setting the stage for a possible late 2009 introduction of the long-rumored Apple tablet and/or Netbook.
But one interesting possibility for that rumored device comes from longtime Apple writer Andy Ihnatko, who is wondering if Apple has some sort of Kindle clone in mind. Ihnatko told Newsarama that he has heard several times that Apple has been receiving truckloads of books--actual real paper-bound books--at its headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. He cautions that this doesn't "rank as high as a rumor, but it's an interesting story that I keep hearing."
The thinking is that Apple is scanning the books as to have a library of electronic titles available when it decides to launch an e-book section on the iTunes Store, perhaps accompanied by the iTablet or MacTablet Pro or whatever Apple appears to be cooking up in its labs that isn't quite an iPhone, and isn't quite a MacBook.
When Apple allowed Amazon to develop a way for iPhone users to get access to Amazon's library of e-books, it appeared the company was ceding the mobile computing e-book market to Amazon. Apple CEO Steve Jobs has dismissed the e-book reader and market in general, declaring last year that "people don't read anymore." But as has been pointed out many times before, Jobs is notorious for turning his nose up at a new product or concept right up until the day Apple ships a similar product.
Apple has taken a cautious approach to the fast-growing Netbook market thus far, saying that it is monitoring the situation but expressing concerns at the design trade-offs and low margins of most Netbooks.
However, it does seem people are interested in something that falls between a smartphone and a laptop, and if Apple was able to integrate a portable tablet computer, gaming machine, and e-book reader all in one using the maturing iPhone OS X operating system, it would be able to justify a higher price for that gadget and therefore better margins than the rest of its competitors.
roundup Got an iPhone or iPod Touch? Amazon's new Kindle for iPhone app lets you use those gadgets to read electronic books.
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Amazon offers e-books on Apple devices
Free application will allow users of the iPhone and iPod Touch to read the same e-books, magazines, and newspapers that are sold to Kindle users.(Posted in Digital Media by Steven Musil)
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See also:
• Authors Guild: Contracts forced Amazon to flip on Kindle
• More heady Wall Street predictions for Kindle 2
• IBM voice ace: Kindle no threat to audio books
• Full coverage: Kindle 2 unveiling and launch
• Review: Amazon Kindle 2
• Photos: Amazon Kindle 2
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