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Wednesday, May 01, 2013
The Internet is age-restricted
I was playing with my iPad, installing various apps from Google. Among which was Chrome, the Google browser for the Internet. So imagine my surprise when the Apple App Store warned me that this content was age restricted for 17+ audiences. I wouldn't have considered a browser to be a particularly offensive app!
On second thought of course there is a justification for that move (I mean beyond Apple trying to put obstacles into the path of a competitor): If you have an Internet browser, you can access all sorts of offensive material. Old meme, "the Internet is for porn". And however "clean" Apple is trying to keep the contents of the App Store, once the customer accesses the Internet with his iPad, all bets are off.
So in the case that parents gave junior an iPad with parental controls set to prevent him from watching stuff he shouldn't see, it would make sense for that restriction to block installing a browser app. Just hope that the parents were clever enough to also block access to the pre-installed Safari browser. And that junior isn't much better at turning off restrictions than the parents are at turning them on.
- posted by Tobold @ 11:10 AM Permanent Link
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That's just Apple trying to eliminate the competition, like MSFT hiding portions of their Win 95 and Win 98 code so competing browser developers wouldn't know about it.
If hypothetical junior doesn't have the tech savvy to view the forbidden, I'd put money on it that he soon will. Ahh, what a motivator!
We all remember being young, yes?
Well. Maybe not all of us were scamps.
We all remember being young, yes?
Well. Maybe not all of us were scamps.
Fun stuff ... seems like everyone is trying to kill the open net and bring the world to a walled garden. I hope the days will come when unlocking devices on the end user request will be mandated by law. Then we will have none of that crap. Just sideloading and not bother using their crappy store at all.
Apple's iOS allows you to set passcode-protected parental restrictions for the built-in Safari browser, but not for any downloaded browsers:
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4213
Hence it makes sense to rate other browsers as 17+. Whether either solution (restrictions or ratings) can be circumvented by a horny teenager is another matter entirely. At least it's not entirely trivial to break passcode protection.
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4213
Hence it makes sense to rate other browsers as 17+. Whether either solution (restrictions or ratings) can be circumvented by a horny teenager is another matter entirely. At least it's not entirely trivial to break passcode protection.
Apple does it for all browsers and a ton more. It's not like Google who just buried iTunes results for months before they were recently caught—that is some legitimate evil.
Say what you want about them. but at least Apple isn't making any of their money selling their user's personal data.
Say what you want about them. but at least Apple isn't making any of their money selling their user's personal data.
# posted by 
: 1/5/13 22:32
: 1/5/13 22:32
What amazes me is how these guys get away with anti-competitive stuff far worse and more blatant than anything MS did.
> Apple isn't making any of their
> money selling their user's personal
> data
They don't need to do so. And they can't too. Because they usually ask a LOT of money for their products.
Instead, Google is surfing the "free with ads" policy. So you can use a LOT of amazing products at the cost of some advertising here and there (and sometimes no advertising at all) without spending a dime.
Of course WE are the product, but do you really feel better/smarter if when you give out an insane amount of money for a shiny Apple device?
In reality, it makes no difference. We're always milked to death, in a way or another.
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> money selling their user's personal
> data
They don't need to do so. And they can't too. Because they usually ask a LOT of money for their products.
Instead, Google is surfing the "free with ads" policy. So you can use a LOT of amazing products at the cost of some advertising here and there (and sometimes no advertising at all) without spending a dime.
Of course WE are the product, but do you really feel better/smarter if when you give out an insane amount of money for a shiny Apple device?
In reality, it makes no difference. We're always milked to death, in a way or another.
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