Re: [PLUG] [OT] Watch those apps! Especially when it comes to Smurfberries.

[Randall A Sindlinger <rsindlin+plug@seas.upenn.edu>]

On Tue, Dec 21, 2010 at 01:02:36PM -0500, Edmond Rodriguez wrote:
> [OT] But I think you'll enjoy this one sent to me from a friend.
> 
> http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101220/ap_on_en_ot/us_apple_expensive_smurfberries

What amazes me is no one seems to know about and/or use the 
"Enable In-App purchases" option on the iPhone.  And even
articles like this fail to mention basic controls like that.

<rant>
Quite frankly, I feel like those parents got what they deserve.  It's
a good wake-up call that the parents need to pay much more attention
to what their kids are doing online and/or have a talk with them
about using these devices (essentially setting an "acceptable use"
policy).  20 years ago, every house telephone could dial 1-900 
numbers, too.

Our daughter uses my wife's iPhone all the time for games.  She 
knows not to "click" on adds, or click on "get the full version
now" or to click on the things in games that cost money or take
you out of the game (eg, TapFish, TapBird, Tap(InsertNoun) to
their website which may not have appropriate content.  If she
does accidentally, she closes out of it immediately, before it
even has a chance to finish loading.

Even with the controls that Apple offers for iTunes and iPhone,
I'm still markedly disappointed with it.  We have the iPhone
set to only allow apps for 4+ (the strongest restriction).
But that only prevents *installs*.  You still see *all* apps
when you do a search, and you can read all about the app and
see all the screen shots.  The same is true for iTunes - you
can see all of the content available - artists, song names,
album covers - you just can't _buy_ them.

As far as I'm concerned, that's very poor.  Good controls
would make the controlled experience transparent, or nearly
all but so; especially from a company that is reknown for
its engineering of the user experience.
</rant>
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