geekosystem

For years Apple has really gone out of their way to try to prevent porn from tainting their products, so it's almost karmic that the launch of iTunes in Russia has been plagued with links to pornography and escort services. It's very unlikely that Apple has somehow relaxed their policy on adult content to this extent, and the mistake has already been explained by a bug. Sorry, Russia. You'll just have to get porn on almost every single other site on the Internet, just like the rest of the world.

We here at Geekosystem know that everyone enjoys free stuff from time to time. Sometimes it doesn't even matter what that free stuff is; the fact that it's free immediately makes it worth having. It's for this reason that we'd like to point your attention to Apple's App Store as Carmageddon, the violent vehicular combat video game, has just released for iOS. In accordance with the developer's previous statements, the game will be free for the entire rest of the day.

As a company, Apple is very finicky about the content they allow onto the iOS app store. Even if an app makes its way through certification, there's always the possibility that somebody might realize that it may raise some eyebrows and get taken down. Case in point, it took Apple less than an hour to find and remove In a Permenant Save State, an interactive story following seven factory-workers who commit suicide and their journeys into the afterlife. Though Apple didn't state a reason, (they rarely do) it isn't exactly a stretch to say that Apple had a vested interest in taking the game down: The game, labelled "a serious [mobile] game", was directly inspired by real-life suicides at Apple's Chinese manufacturing partner, Foxconn.

Everybody has an app store nowadays. No one sells "software" anymore, it's all apps. That being the case, you can't really be surprised that Microsoft has had a Windows app store in the works for a while now. They only recently shared the details, however, and they've taken a slightly different approach than the other app stores out there. Mainly, their focus seems to be on prioritizing the developers' wants and needs. Oh, and also the minimum app price is $1.49. Ain't no 99 cent apps here.

Windows 8, the simply-named successor to Windows 7, has been making the rounds lately and seems to be a step in an appropriate direction for the once-king-but-now-threatened operating system. The increasing prevalence of Apple computers in the past few years has put the fire under Microsoft and now the tablet revolution brought on by the iPad is changing the game even more. Microsoft, it seems, is adapting well to the pressure. That is, Microsoft is not releasing another Vista disaster.

Perhaps the most unique, standout feature of Windows 8 is that it's a tablet OS. But it's also a desktop OS. But it's also a tablet OS. That is to say, if you have Windows 8 on your tablet, it will be the same as Windows 8 on your desktop. It supports traditional touchscreen gestures like swiping to change windows and multi-touch, but also standard mouse and keyboard equivalents like alt+tab.

This weekend, Apple's App Store celebrated surpassing 10 billion downloads and was running a contest in which the downloader of that landmark app would win a $10,000 iTunes gift card. If it sounds too good to be true, well, tell that to the lady who agreed with you. When Apple called her to tell her about the prize, she cursed at them, insulted their mothers, and hung up on them. Okay, she only did the last one.

One day after the launch of the Mac App Store, the above graphic--which can be seen on Apple's website--takes on a whole new meaning: The Mac App Store has been cracked, allowing users to pirate any app found in the store after installing a crack called "Kickback." Read on past the jump for details.

The Mac App Store launched earlier today, bringing the relative ease and slight addictiveness of obtaining programs the iOS way to Apple's computers, finally allowing OS X users to nickel-and-dime our e-wallets to death the way all those iPhone and iPad users get to. Upon browsing the store, in the midst of the obligatory litany of throw-away games and limited demos masquerading as free games lies a decent amount of extremely worthwhile and critically acclaimed games -- something most platforms don't generally accomplish at launch.

Leave it to Apple to try to one-up CES without even attending: The Mac App Store went live this morning, before its anticipated launch time of 1pm this afternoon and before the electronic show's post-Ballmer-keynote debut. The Mac App Store launches with over 1,000 apps, including such Apple stalwarts as its iLife and iWork software suites and such newcomers to OS X as (yes) Angry Birds, which we told you was coming to every platform ever. There are also a decent assortment of free apps, including a Twitter app, Evernote, and free games. (Still waiting on a desktop Shazam, though.) I'll confess that even as someone who runs a geek website, it took me a few minutes to figure out how to get the Mac App Store up and running on my computer.

The long-awaited white iPhone 4 has finally made an appearance via an official Apple channel. However, you can't order it just yet. The latest update to the Apple Store app, which dropped last night, lists the white iPhone as available for in-store reservation at local Apple stores.  However, attempting to reserve it triggers an "item not available" notice. It also appears on the Apple Store's website alongside the black iPhone 4; both are priced from $199 for the 16GB model and from $299 for the 32GB model. One eagle-eyed TUAW reader spotted it on Vodafone's Portugal store website (for a jaw-dropping 670 Euros!) although it's also listed as "sold out" there. So: There's not yet a way to preorder a white iPhone 4 just yet, but all signs point to its imminent release. (MacRumors via TUAW)

Hackers have targeted Apple's App Store and iTunes before, but this most recent wave of iTunes fraud stands out for its brazenness. As recounted in a series of posts by The Next Web this past weekend, an obscure app developer named Thuat Nguyen suspiciously managed to nab 40 of the top 50 slots on the iTunes book store bestseller list, apparently by hacking iTunes users' accounts and using them to purchase his books. iTunes users reported that between $100 and $1400 had been illicitly taken from their accounts and used to purchase unwanted apps.

After loads of speculation about Apple's sudden, sweeping ban of more than 5,000 sexually suggestive iPhone apps -- ranging from pornography to pictures of women in bikinis -- the company's head of worldwide product marketing, Philip W. Schiller, has explained where Apple is coming from. In an interview with the New York Times, Schiller says that 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" led Apple to institute its ban on sexually provocative iPhone apps. Why, then, did Apple give racy Playboy and Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue apps free passes, even as they shut down an app from a swimwear vendor that featured women wearing the bikinis they were trying to sell?