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Blackberry Apple

RIM Trying To Woo Customers With Porn, Gambling Apps? 157

Posted by timothy from the what-kind-of-job? dept.
AZA43 writes "Everybody knows that BlackBerry-maker RIM is hurting these days. But is it hurting enough to try to attract new customers with the promise of porn and/or gambling apps? A new rating system added to RIM's BlackBerry App World store suggests that it just may be that desperate. The new 'Adult' rating covers, 'graphic sexual content, graphic nudity,' 'graphic violence,' and gambling apps 'as permitted by law.' And that suggests RIM will allow this kind of content into App World, in stark contrast to Apple's no-porn-on-the-iPhone stand."
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RIM Trying To Woo Customers With Porn, Gambling Apps? More

RIM Trying To Woo Customers With Porn, Gambling Apps?

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  • I dunno, are they? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jhoegl ( 638955 ) on Friday February 24, 2012 @07:00PM (#39154517)
    Why are you asking a question... isnt reporting supposed to answer questions?
    It is like when the news asks "Why are gas prices so high?" and then never answer it, but instead focus on the woes of the common person having to pay $200/week because they opted in on that oversized pickup that made their penis seem bigger.

    Rant Off....

    • What about the poor folks like me, having to pay $100 a week because we got one of the tiny non-phallus-enhancing ones?

      It sucks for everyone.

      On the bright side, my non-compensation helps me compensate. It's kind of a reverse psychology :P

      • Except for me because I ride the bus. My transit costs total to 30 dollars a month exactly. Get with the program.

        • Re:I dunno, are they? (Score:5, Funny)

          by ColdWetDog ( 752185 ) on Friday February 24, 2012 @09:08PM (#39155281) Homepage

          You must have a tiny penis, then.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hldn ( 1085833 )

          and except for me because i ride a bike, my transit costs total to 0 dollars a month exactly. get with the program.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by AK Marc ( 707885 )
          About $200 per month public transport to get me there in only 5 times the time it takes to drive it. And I've been stalked on public transport more than once (as a young teen riding alone and an adult getting on only after seeing me on the bus, then getting off at my stop, conspicuously in the middle of nowhere (think North by Northwest, but with a single store I worked in right there.

          It's cheaper, faster, and safer to drive.

        • Not all of us have the luxury of public transport. Hell, housing prices in this area are so inflated some lower income ($45K or less) people have to drive at least two hours each way just to be able to qualify for housing.

        • Comment removed based on user account deletion

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by segin ( 883667 )
          But how would I keep a job if I couldn't get there on time?
      • You apparently opted to live nowhere near your work. Gas is cheap if you're not driving an unreasonable amount.

        • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

          by Larryish ( 1215510 )

          Now somebody will make an adult app called "Rim Job".

        • Out of curiosity, do you move every time you start a new job?

          • Probably not.

            Incidentally where I live is almost dead between the two places I've worked since moving here.

            I'm looking to move again though. Too many low income neighbors, and the only practical path to work is a traffic nightmare.

        • You apparently don't live in / around a city. You have the issue of paying several times more in rent / mortgage to live in the city as well as having to deal with the higher crime and traffic or you live in the suburbs and have to drive further (if you work downtown). Then there's the whole issue of if you change jobs, your new job might be on the other side of the city from where you live and it's stupid to move every few years (if you work in an industry with that amount of turnover in where you work).

    • To hell with that - they forgot an even bigger question:

      What in the unholy hell are all the BES admins going to do about this? Upgrade their server (bleah), or pray for patches, or build a ginormous blacklist, or...?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by jhoegl ( 638955 )
        Why answer something that may be inconsequential, since the question is still out there if RIM will do this or not?

      • To hell with that - they forgot an even bigger question:

        What in the unholy hell are all the BES admins going to do about this? Upgrade their server (bleah), or pray for patches, or build a ginormous blacklist, or...?

        I suspect BES admins will use the existing policies to deny users permission to install applications.

        Any shop that's got pornanoia will already have architecture in place to filter content the hypothetical BBBoobies app will need to reach. Because accessing web content is all done through the BES MDS, it won't really be any different.

        Any shop that allows their users to do whatever they want probably won't suddenly change.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      It's okay. Apple -> no adult == Censorship! Oh noes!

      RIM => Adult okay == Woo custom with porn!

      So, um. What are we happy with?

  • Uhhhh (Score:5, Insightful)

    by M0j0_j0j0 ( 1250800 ) on Friday February 24, 2012 @07:00PM (#39154525)

    Why not! are they like a catholic company or something!!

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Exactly. And then there is Apple.

      Steve Jobs: I don't want porn on the iPhone, but I'll fuck over anyone who gets in my way and sue the little guys into oblivion if they so much as think of getting out of line.

      Which is more obscene?

      • People think not having porn in the App Store is the big issue. But no, people generally get porn on a web browser, not in an app. So the real obstacle in the way of porn on the iPhone is the lack of a Flash, as most porn sites still use Flash Video.

        However that's becoming less of a differentiating point, given that Android is dropping Flash too.

        The porn industry will always find a way though. I'm sure there are specialist iPhone and Android porn sites.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by stanlyb ( 1839382 )
        So, you have a choice: Either fuck and have BB, or be fucked and have iPhone......
        Is this really a choice?

    • No, that would imply nude pictures of little boys. And I don't think they have that yet.

    • Playbook will now cum with a dildo since pricing down wasn't enough and the name of the device would then be plently justified.
  • I'm not even sure App-facilitated access to porn would be even a latent concern for me the next time I buy a smart-phone. What could compete with the glory of undulating breasts in 1080p?

  • Huh? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Why would that be "desperate"?

  • Porn app on the iPhone? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, 2012 @07:03PM (#39154551)

    I know my iPod touch had a porn app... it was called Safari.

  • Porn on Blackberry (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Giving a new definition to RIM job.

  • I hope the gambling apps will be tested to be fair (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Friday February 24, 2012 @07:05PM (#39154565)

    I hope the gambling apps will be tested to be fair and 100% legal in areas as permitted by law.

    Now why can we in the US have legal on line sports betting?

    • Um, you can't. It might be available to you, but so was online poker at one point. The legalities either haven't been pushed through the courts or, more likely, the feds have not decided to exert their immense pressure on these on line betting places.

    • I hope the gambling apps will be tested to be fair and 100% legal in areas as permitted by law.

      If by "fair" you mean "heavily weighted in the favor of the company who runs it", I'm sure your hopes will be satisfied.

  • no-porn + app store lock in = anit trust
      MS and apple look out.

    • Antitrust does not and has never meant "it doesn't have all the options I want". One of the criteria monopoly tests is that no substitutes exist. Since Android does have that option, you are out of luck trying to argue that in court.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by toriver ( 11308 )

        At least if you side-load apps. Google's Android Marketplace terms also ban porn, but are enforced after the fact, it seems.

        • Yes but crying "anti-trust" because MS or Apple wants to impose conditions you don't like is not understanding what the term means.

  • Sign of the End approaching (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ackthpt ( 218170 ) on Friday February 24, 2012 @07:08PM (#39154593) Homepage Journal

    I usually associated the impending death of shopping centers with the presence of video stores, like Blockbuster. Dollar stores are also a sign things are less than fashionable in the prospective renter department.

    RIM going in this direction is effectively encouraging undesirable, unfashionable business, which could be their death knell. Sure, there's a market for such things, but it's not going to be in the board room, sensitive as business is regarding Harrassment claims.

    • Sure, there's a market for such things, but it's not going to be in the board room, sensitive as business is regarding Harrassment claims.

      It's better that they be upfront about it, so that this stuff can be properly filtered out, than to do like Apple and still allow soft porn/adult content without labeling it as such [apple.com].

      • Android's got all sorts of very dodgy sounding apps in their market, promising naked girls and whatnot. I've got no interest in downloading porn apps for my phone, so it'd be a definite development if they were in their own searchable section which I can ignore. I don't want to come across all "think of the children", but it is embarrassing when these apps show up in a list when little kids, or your grandparents, or your boss, are looking.

  • I'm going back to the Blackberry now that amateur hour [mobileindustryreview.com] is starting!

  • A new low (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Are you fucking serious? Porn? Just because there is an adult rating you equate it with porn?

    Why not just change the name of this site to the "Apple Felcher's Worship Site" and get it over with?

    • Why not just change the name of this site to the "Apple Felcher's Worship Site" and get it over with?

      Because only a small minority here are Apple felchers/worshipers. They are a vocal minority, which the rest of us generally equate with fanboys, fanatics, trolls and the brainwashed, which is why we generally don't get bent out of shape when they present their distorted views of what technology is or should be. Are you a Crackberry addict, or RIM-jobber? RIM is dying and desperate, which was the point. Congrats on feeding the trolls and Jobs-wannabes.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Blackberry's thought process (Score:5, Funny)

    by dontPanik ( 1296779 ) <ndeselms AT gmail DOT com> on Friday February 24, 2012 @07:19PM (#39154669)
    Yeah? Well, I'm going to go build my own mobile marketplace! With blackjack, and hookers! In fact, forget the mobile marketplace!

  • freedom (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Lehk228 ( 705449 ) on Friday February 24, 2012 @07:21PM (#39154673) Journal
    blackberries have had "sideloading" and ability to load audio files as ringers and chimes since forever, they have always been more respecting of personal freedom, i can load any compatible and signed OS image regardless of what my carrier wants bundled. only thing i could ask for would be the ability to load OS images signed by other parties/ untrusted keys and simply have the security chip authenticate only against things that recognize the other signing keys as meaningful

  • Double standards (Score:5, Interesting)

    by fiannaFailMan ( 702447 ) on Friday February 24, 2012 @07:33PM (#39154763) Journal

    Slightly on topic, I always wondered why "sex and violence" are mentioned in the same breath so much. It's usually by people who have hang-ups about sex. They want to portray sex as a bad thing, so they always bracket it in with violence which is unquestionably bad. It's a bit like Sen McCarthy who tried to smear the Screen Actors' Guild by repeatedly asking "Have you ever been a member of the Communist Party or the Screen Actors' Guild", implying that the two were related. Or like clueless bookstore managers who group Sci Fi and Fantasy in together as if they're the same genre.

    However these people do more than consider sex and violence to be equally reprehensible, they actually consider sex to be worse than violence. Hence it's okay for a TV show to show someone getting their head sliced off and blood everywhere, but God forbid if anyone should get a glimpse of a nipple, vagina, penis, and other such parts of the human body which (practical though they may be) are evil! Murder? Fine. Lovemaking?! Think of the children!!

    I'm speaking of American TV of course. Other parts of the world have less Victorian attitudes to sex.

  • Poker, oh yes! (Score:3)

    by Lawmeister ( 201552 ) on Friday February 24, 2012 @07:35PM (#39154787) Homepage

    I would love to be able to play on PokerStars or BC's PlayNow.com while watching TV - no longer hindered by cables or relatively unwieldy laptops.

  • With a brand name like that, it was only a matter of time, really.

  • Apple's no-porn-on-the-iPhone stand

    A quick GIS shows that there's at least one instance of porn on an iPod stand [crushable.com].

  • Bah (Score:3)

    by no-body ( 127863 ) on Friday February 24, 2012 @07:53PM (#39154891)

    Article smacks right into the tormented relationship of people with sex (power and money).

    Got nothing else to worry about?

    Good that the page has a thumb-down button.

    RIM is a Canadian company - people may not be as burdened there

  • Desparate or Freemarket? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bityz ( 2011656 ) on Friday February 24, 2012 @08:03PM (#39154955)

    Normally /. is up in arms over any attempt to censor developers. Now somebody is saying "we won't censor developers, but we will make it easy for users to self-select" and they're getting trashed for it.

    Seems a little hypocritical.

  • Lame story (Score:5, Funny)

    by Tridus ( 79566 ) on Friday February 24, 2012 @08:04PM (#39154957) Homepage

    What, you mean some company doesn't impose their pathetic puritanical standards on their customers? OMG alert the presses!

  • One Word . . . . (Score:5, Interesting)

    by wirehead_rick ( 308391 ) on Friday February 24, 2012 @08:22PM (#39155033)

    Genius.

    It seems the power of porn and technology has been underestimated over and over.

    Porn drove the Video Cassette business and is probably responsible for VHS defeating the superior Beta format.

    It is also probably responsible for the huge early popularity of the Internet.

    Barring backlash from prudish regulators this move can't be underestimated . . .

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mitreya ( 579078 )

      Porn drove the Video Cassette business and is probably responsible for VHS defeating the superior Beta format.

      I hear that "superior" Beta format also lost because it was more expensive and would (for a while) insist on 60 minute limitation to avoid compromising quality. Even when movies clearly needed more than 1hour. "Technically superior" and "worth the price for a buyer" are rarely the same thing.

      • Could very well be. I never owned Beta and Sony has been known to add a premium to their price tags.

        I can say I never saw a Beta porn tape. But again, I never owned Beta . . .

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by toriver ( 11308 )

      No, VHS won because it was cheaper, was used by more manufacturers (hence choice) and you could fit a 90-minute movie on a tape. The porn myth is not relevant for success in the majority market.

  • Idiots, those over payed executives surely do not have expendable income to spend on fucking & gambling! This is the best idea I've ever heard come out of rim so far.

  • Seems like FUD (Score:5, Informative)

    by whisper_jeff ( 680366 ) on Friday February 24, 2012 @09:01PM (#39155257)

    I posted this elsewhere in the discussion but it might get buried and missed. While the article has an interesting graphic which describes an adult rating that clearly includes porn ( http://blogs.cio.com/sites/cio.com/files/u80/BB_AppWorldRatings.jpg [cio.com] ), the actual RIM dev blog ( http://devblog.blackberry.com/2011/11/blackberry-app-world-content-ratings/?CPID=TWDNPI&Date=113011 [blackberry.com] ) has an entirely different graphic ( http://rimdevblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/app-world-content-rating-1.jpg [wordpress.com] ) which _prohibits graphic sexual content._

    I don't know about you but I think I'll take my information from the actual source and chalk this article up to nothing more than FUD...

  • CIO.com losers (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 24, 2012 @10:05PM (#39155627)

    Dear CIO.com - I just wanted to take this opportunity to welcome you to the electronic age and to the Internet. Just a tip for you that pornography and gambling (the work of the very devil himself) is readily available on nearly every open and closed platform, mobile or fixed that exists today.

    I can appreciate your wanting to elevate your cute little website by attempting to cast RIM in a bad light as Research in Motion is already in the media quite a bit lately. You may as well jump on the bandwagon as it's fashionable to kick someone while they are down it seems. Too bad Microsoft wasn't doing this on their Windows Phone platform too so you could shit on both companies at the simultaneously and be a real champion!

    Excellent move stating that you admit to not seeing any apps of "that" nature, and that you think it's "good" that the company is not restricting apps based on content. By doing this, you have successfully convinced me that you are an unbiased contributor that has nothing personal against RIM. I trust you have no ulterior motive at this point - thank goodness you made those comments, I feel much better about your impartiality now.

    I wanted to thank-you for crow-barring a quote from Steve Jobs into an article related to RIM. It's really important to always compare what everyone else is doing against Apple. It was a real eye opener knowing that the immortalized Steve Jobs is still protecting all of us users by not permitting pornographic or gambling applications on our phones - what a terrible world it would be if I could play cards or see some tits on my phone. Steve Jobs, thanks for looking out for us.

    Mr. Sacco, admit it, you have an iPhone and love it don't you? Fact is, RIM now has a mechanism in place where content can be classified and filtered according to the user. My cable company has pornography channels, but you need to be of age to access those channels. I applaud BlackBerry in not restricting what can be delivered over the App World just because some religious or enlightened asshole has a problem with gambling or porn.

    By the way, the BlackBerry PlayBook is great as you can watch porn on it, spunk on the display and easily clean if off.

  • well, didnt RIM really develop 'push' technology? :)

  • if a company allows customers to buy apps from providers, given that both parties are fully aware of what is sold and how much is paid.

    When i buy a device, i don not hire a nanny. At least i cant remember having signed a contract which forces the manufacturer of my phones to watch over my habits.

    If we decide that gambling apps are bad due to the addiction they may cause, lets make a well-defined law about it. If we can not show that then *please* let the customers buy it. If we can show that porn causes rap

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