"The entire back catalog as well as new issues of Playboy magazine will become available on the iPad in March 2011, Playboy founder Hugh Hefner revealed via Twitter.
Furthermore, Hefner confirmed on Twitter that Playboy will be coming to iPad in its uncensored form, which makes sense, as we doubt many would be ready to pay for a watered-down version of the magazine."
Which is certainly true. But Steve Jobs has been very emphatic that porn and sexually explicit material will never be allowed on iTunes. Full frontal nudity, as in Playboy? That would seem to go against Jobs' policy. The Playboy app that's now available does not have any nudity in it.
Yet Hefner seemed pretty certain. He didn't say "We are working on getting Playboy available..." He said it "will" be available.
So which is it? Will Apple lower its standards? While Playboy's a big company, they seem to be losing some of their clout (I could be wrong, but that's the impression I get). Are they convincing Apple to make allowances for them, with the proper safeguards to prevent minors from getting access? I'm honestly not sure exactly how they would do that.
As Mashable points out later in the article, what does this mean for the future of adult material on the Apple platform? Is this the thin end of the wedge that will ultimately allow other age-restricted material onto iTunes?
And is this a good thing?
Personally, I don't think it's a bad thing as long as they don't allow it to be a slippery slope. If something's available down at the local gas station, I don't mind it being on the iPad (as long as they have effective ways to restrict it, which as I said, I'm having trouble imagining how they would do that). I do think they should keep sexually explicit apps out of the store, though.
That's a bit different.
Anyway, it will be interesting to see whether this really does come out in March.
Will you buy it? Just for the articles, I mean?
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