Apple yanks 1st porn app from iTunes
The first porn app ever to go up for sale on iTunes may be the last.
Apple has confirmed it pulled the Hottest Girls app from its iTunes store shortly after the app was updated with images of nude and topless women.
"Apple will not distribute applications that contain inappropriate content," said a public statement from Apple first issued Friday.
"The developer of this application added inappropriate content directly from their server after the application had been approved and distributed, and after the developer had subsequently been asked to remove some offensive content. This was a direct violation of the terms of the iPhone Developer Program. The application is no longer available on the App Store."
Apple updated its OS 3.0 iPhone software earlier in June to include parental controls that restrict some applications to people over a certain age. That led to widespread speculation online at sites such as MacRumors.com that the door would soon be open to porn.
Last Wednesday, Hottest Girls began boasting its "completely naked pics," billing itself as "the first and only app with nudity." The first version of the iPhone and iPod Touch app was released in May, and included photos of scantily clad women, but none who were naked. The app, available as of last week for download to customers 17 and older for $1.99 on iTunes, claimed to have more than 2,000 images of "the finest looking girls" that would be automatically updated periodically.
On Thursday afternoon, a note posted on the website of Hottest Girls developer Allen Leung said that the app was "temporarily sold out" as the servers distributing the app were crashing due to high traffic. However, it promised the topless images would still be there when sales resumed.
Apple has banned a number of applications in recent months that could potentially tarnish its image, including one from the band Nine Inch Nails and another featuring the South Park cartoon. In April, the company also pulled the plug on the "Baby Shaker" application, which prompted numerous complaints. The app let users shut off the sound of a crying baby by shaking their iPhone vigorously.