from www.theregister.co.uk - Applications for Windows Phone 7 won't contain porn or decapitation - but while the rules may be limiting they are public, unlike Apple's.
Microsoft has published complete details of the application submission process for apps developed for Windows Mobile 7 (pdf), and porn is definitely out along with big nasty violence. But what's lacking is the Apple clause that lets companies change the rules on a whim which has rankled with so many, including these protesters who took their demand for iPad porn to the streets:
Microsoft is being pretty explicit about what it will allow in applications, and won't be having any "Images that are sexually suggestive or provocative... provocative images that reveal nipples, genitals, buttocks, or pubic hair". Also banned are depictions of "Decapitation, impaling, blood splatter/blood spurting/blood pooling... Exploding body parts... Guns/weapons pointed toward user/audience." Killjoys.
Games will have to get a recognised rating, from the ESRG, PEGI or USK. Applications that rate below a 12 will be permitted without additional scrutiny.
Links to other application stores are verboten, but alternative music download sites are allowed as long as Windows Phone Music Marketplace is included as an option.
In-application advertising is, unsurprisingly, permitted as long as it conforms to Microsoft's existing guidelines.
There are lots of clauses about defamatory and copyrighted content, as one would expect, but what's missing is Apple's catch-all clause which says Cupertino can reject any application without explanation, which should give developers some confidence.
That's assuming there are any developers; there still aren't any Windows Phone 7 handsets to play with, and the demonstrated feature set is unimpressive compared to Apple's iPhone 4 and even what Android is offering these days. Having proper submission rules is a good thing, but it's going to take a lot more than banning porn to get developers excited about creating applications for Windows Phone 7. ®
from www.tgdaily.com - Were you looking forward to purchasing an adult entertainment app for your brand, spanking new Windows 7 phone? Well, too bad, because Microsoft has declared its Windows Phone 7 marketplace a "porn-free" zone.
The announcement hardly comes as a shock, as Microsoft is well known for its infamous ban on porn in the current Windows Mobile marketplace.
Perhaps not unsurprisingly, Fleshbot’s Lux Alptraum has dubbed the latest pr0n Prohibition Act an affront to the entire adult entertainment industry.
"There's no question that the move is a slap in the face to the adult industry (whose products, one might add, have probably helped to sell a few smartphones), there's also the uncomfortable matter of censorship in any form," Alptraum mused.
"But are you, the consumer, greatly affected by the ban on adult apps? Do Apple and Microsoft's puritan attitudes have you running for the more open (and thus pornier) pastures of Google's Android universe?"
My answer?
Hell, yeah! I’ll take Android's open ecosystem and minimal (Google) censorship any day!
Who wants to be constrained by corporate drones content to do nothing but sit in an oppressive walled garden and watch the grass grow?
Not me, and probably not you either.
