iPhone developers angry as Apple purges adult apps
Developers have expressed anger at Apple's decision to ban some adult-themed applications from its iPhone.
Thousands of apps with adult-themed content have been removed from the store since Friday although some, such as one from Playboy, remain.
Apple has said that certain apps were removed following customer complaints.
Developer Jon Atherton is angry that previously-approved apps have been pulled, and accuses Apple of "experimenting with our livelihoods".
Apple said it had to respond to its customers.
"It came to the point where we were getting customer complaints from women who found the content getting too degrading and objectionable, as well as parents who were upset with what their kids were able to see," Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of product marketing, told the New York Times.
When asked why some apps with adult content had remained intact he said that Apple took into consideration how "well-known" companies were as well as whether they had "previously published material".
ChilliFresh is an Australian company that creates apps for the iPhone, including the recently banned Wobble, which allows users to add 'wobble' functionality to any picture. The firm markets the app by suggesting people can use it to wobble women's breasts.
"I'm now worried the eco-system is run by puritans and is not fair to all players," developer Jon Atherton said on its website.
"And worst of all it is not a secure source of income. It can drop to close to zero if they decide to change the rules," he added.
The firm was making £320 a day out of its apps, a figure which has dropped to £5 since the ban, he said.
"On Friday evening we got an e-mail out of the blue which basically said, thanks very much but we don't want you any more. Apple said it was removing all overtly sexual apps," he told the BBC.
He said that if Apple was serious about protecting young customers it should allow parents to set controls for devices.
He called on Apple to publish its new guidelines so that developers were clear on what they could and could not do as well as to clarify why not all sex-related apps are affected by the ban.
"My view is that this is a knee-jerk reaction. Apple is very controlling. These apps are getting popular but the apps store doesn't have an adult section," he said.
"I'd have thought there was a technological way of fixing the problem rather than pulling the rug out from under people's feet," he added.
Scammers exploit Apple iPad fever
Security firms have come across attempts to subvert search engines to catch out those seeking more information about the tablet.
Those who follow rogue links are re-directed to pages that scan their computer looking for loopholes and vulnerabilities.
Some scammers are using these to peddle security software and others are trying to steal valuable data.
Apple attack
Before and after the launch of the tablet computer, terms such as "Apple" and "iPad" were among the most popular on search sites and micro-blogging services such as Twitter.
Symantec said it had seen hi-tech criminals tuning booby-trapped webpages to show up near the top of search results when people go looking for more information.
Those visiting such webpages risk losing personal data, Symantec researcher Joji Hamada warned in a blog posting.
Looking for search terms such as "Apple Ipad rumor" or "Apple Ipad size" led people to sites peddling rogue security software, he said.
Methusela Ferrer of software firm CA said she had seen so-called "scraper sites" change to take advantage of iPad interest. Scraper sites are automated pages that grab or "scrape" information from news sites and other sources and combine them to keep their pages at the top of search results.
Scraper sites often sell their services to cyber criminals who create viruses and code to exploit vulnerabilities in browsers and other programs.
She said she had seen a sophisticated site that tuned its attack depending on whether visitors were using an Apple machine or a Windows PC.
Mac users got sent to a site that tried to entice them to use a credit card to pay for pirated movies. On another site users got sent to a site peddling fake Mac security software.
Another iPad-themed attack sends visitors to a site that poses as Google's search page and manipulates the results people see.
To avoid falling victim to hi-tech scams, security firms say people should ensure their machine has all the latest operating system patches, has up to date security software, uses a firewall and exercise caution when visiting unfamiliar sites.
Newsworthy events are regularly targeted by cyber conmen. For instance, the earthquake in Haiti has prompted some to try to trick people into handing over donations to conmen rather than charities.
Big events also often trigger a rash of e-mails that travel with booby-trapped attachments. Those opening the attachment often find their computer is hijacked by a virus and can mean credit card numbers and valuable logins are stolen.