According to Engadget, Amazon has remotely wiped copies of George Orwell’s classics, 1984 and Animal Farm from Kindles, refunding the purchase price of affected users.

We’re not yet certain, but users of the iPhone Kindle app are probably similarly effected.

It remains unlikely that Amazon broke into any houses, repossessed any copies of same, and left change on the bureau.

By contrast, when Apple removed NetShare from the App Store, already purchased copies remained — and remain to this day — on the devices of whomever purchased them.

Takes a lot of wrong to make App Store policy seem right these days, so way to go, Amazon. You’ve either redefined ownership in the DRM age, or broken faith with any customers thinking of owning any more Kindle content…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Amazon Remote Wipes Kindle Copies of 1984, Animal Farm — Redefines Irony

Note: We know Vimeo isn’t iPhone friendly. We wish it were. Help us all by writing your favorite video sites and content producers encouraging them to use iPhone friendly formats for videos about iPhones.

Cali Lewis tweets:

This iPhone 3GS Rig is on my wish list as soon as an iPhone or Touch does 720p

We bet Matt wants one. Us too.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Friday Fun Video: ZGrip iPhone Stability System

Macro.org, from the developer behind Tumblr and Instapaper, has a post up highlighting the latest App Store controversy — that all web-embedded apps must be rated 17+ and now don’t get Promo Codes — and comes to this conclusion:

Apple thinks reviews can take 8-30 days and web-capable apps need nudity warnings and the management interface can be buggy as s**t and they don't need us to be able to reach them and nobody really needs to take any of this very seriously. Because it's working for them. They're making a killing taking their 30% commission on the 1.5 billion copies of $0.99 top-25 games that they've sold. Who cares if the App Store discourages good developers from putting serious effort into it? Apple doesn't need to care. And, clearly, they don't.

The whole post is definitely worth reading, and brings to mind the classic riff — “any incompetence sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from malice”.

Here’s the the thing, though: Apple is not only serving developers. They’re being served with lawsuits. And their hyper-vigilant legal departments are no doubt saying — perhaps rightly — that if someone uses a Twitter client that embeds a WebView and happens to see the f-word or a nipple, they’ll sue Apple.

Ridiculous, sure. A poor solution, of course. But it’s the kind of rolling triage Apple seems to be doing as the App Store grows beyond even their expectations.

Don’t get us wrong, all the problems marco.org mentions are real, frustrating, and need to be fixed yesterday. For Apple to force 17+ Ratings on these apps, and remove Promo Code functionality, is intolerable — and we wonder why Mobile Safari, Mobile Mail, iPod, etc. aren’t forced to pop up the same warning under that logic.

It’s entirely Apple’s fault, setting themselves up as editors to the App Store, and then not implementing the policies or staff necessary to keep up with the content requiring editorial approval.

But we don’t think Apple doesn’t care. They surely do, and will no doubt continue to make slow, steady improvements and address developer and user concerns, while at the same time making other clumsy and what look like bone-headed decisions and mistakes. Lots of them.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Developer: Serious Doubts About App Store, Does Apple Care?

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Rene showed off the Plantronics Voyager PRO Bluetooth Headset and Dieter rocked the Griffin PowerJolt Reserve Backup Battery

News

• Apple releases iPhone 3.1 Beta 2
• iPhone 3.1 Beta 2 Breaks AT&T Tethering Hack, Allows Wi-Fi Testing, Intros Augmented Reality APIs?
• Apple also releases iTunes 8.2.1 and…
• iTunes 8.2.1 kills Palm Pre sync dead!
• iTunes Goes Back to the Future with D45s - 2 Songs, 1 Lower Price
• App Store One Year Later: 65,000 Apps, 100,000 Developers, 1.5 Billion Downloads
• Apple Trumpeting iPhone App Store a Gut Punch to Microsoft and Verizon?
• Rumor: $800 iTablet to Use Custom Apple Chipset?
• TiPb iPhone App Picks of the Year!
• Hockenberry on How the App Store has Changed, and What Still Needs to be Changed
• iPhone 3GS Doesn't Support HSUPA for High Speed 3G Upload
• iPhone 3.0: HTTP Streaming Media
• Will Apple's iPhone Surpass Nokia by 2012?
• Google Announces Chrome OS, Should Schmidt Leave Apple Board?

Help and How-to

• iPhone 101: How to Access More Than 180 Apps or WebClips via Spotlight on iPhone 3.0
• iPhone 101: iPhone Connection Speed Symbols from O to E to 3G (or an Airplane)

Forums

• iTunes 8.2.1 Update Breaks Palm Sync, AT&T & MMS, Palm Users, New Applications

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Thanks to the the iPhone Blog Store for sponsoring the podcast, and to everyone who showed up for the live chat!

Our music comes from the following sources:

• I Called You — iPhone Remix by Pete Leidy
via Sneakmove iPhone Ringtone Challenge

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb Presents iPhone Live! #19 — Pre-Sync Down!

Is this a triumph? Portal running on an iPhone? Not really, according to Gizmodo:

The video says the demo was made using the Unity Engine, which means they took some Portal assets and made a small demo with them. They didn’t take the full game and squish it onto the iPhone; what you see is probably the entire thing. There’s no way the Source Engine is running on the 3G. Maybe the 3GS, but not the 3G.

Not yet! But we figure they’ll keep on trying until they run out of cake… or Valve pulls an ID an actually releases a game for the new 40+ million unit iPhone/iPod touch platform. Right Valve?

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Friday Fun Video: Portal Played on iPhone

TUAW reveals that since Promo Codes don’t show ratings information, Apple is simply excluding any app that’s rated 17+ from the Promo Code system , including any app that embeds a web browser or 3rd party content system which may provide a gateway to a naughty word, the Kama Sutra, or offensive lyrics.

We’ll just add this to the list of things we’d adore Apple to fix, and now…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

No Promo Codes for Apps Rated 17+ — Including Browsers?!

Apple has let iPhone, iPod touch (and Mac) developers know that World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC 2009) Sessions are now available for purchase via developer.apple.com:

Watch Apple engineers deliver in-depth technical information on the technologies that power iPhone OS and Mac OS X from the Worldwide Developers Conference 2009.

In addition to the session videos, you'll also receive access to the presentation slides and sample code so you can make the most out of each session.

After your purchase, download the videos through ADC on iTunes, then take them with you on your Mac, your iPhone, or your iPod touch to view anytime, anywhere.

Costs are $299 each for iPhone or Mac sessions, or discounted to $499 for both.

See the iPhone session list (PDF link) for info on what’s included.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

WWDC 2009 iPhone Developer Sessions Now Available from Apple