nudity

Apple has for some reason seen fit to approve an iPhone app that helps nudists find one another. Developed by Simply Basic Software, AANRmobile is the official app for the American Association for Nude Recreation, which says it boasts up to 50,000 members and more than 260 resorts nationwide. That's a lot of skin.

The app isn't that scandalous, really. It has no images and no links to images of nudity, which, based on the nudists I've known in Olympia, Wash., is perhaps a good thing.

It does include an FAQ regarding recreational nudity (which I … Read more

Playboy plans to bare it all anew in March with a Web subscription service that offers the full catalog of the venerable men's magazine.

The news was revealed yesterday by none other than the magazine's famed founder and bon vivant, Hugh Hefner, though it turns out that Hef's tease was a bit astray off the mark. In his Twitter feed, Hefner declared that all issues of Playboy, past and present, would be coming to the iPad--and that they'd be uncensored to boot.

That last comment naturally triggered some questions. Apple is notoriously strict about what type … Read more

We've been accused (and mostly guilty) of saying a lot of heinous things on The 404, but we refuse to just rest on our laurels and accept these recent allegations of AGEISM. The accusation actually comes at a good time for the show, since the majority of the episodes this week have dealt with censorship, video game ratings, parental responsibility, and childhood development--why not throw ageism into the mix?

We intercepted a Call-From-The-Public from a 50-year-old man who jokingly accused us of being ageist, and we're not! The fact that Wilson appears to be 48 but is actually only 25 should be enough, right? I guess it doesn't help that the first story of the day is about Martin Cooper, the inventor of the cell phone, who thinks that modern handsets are just "too complicated."

Cooper is a former Motorola engineer who's credited with inventing the handheld cellphone back in 1973. He isn't too happy about the current state of mobile handsets and actually imagines a future with "a number of specialist devices that focus on one thing that will improve our lives." Um, Mr. Cooper--we understand that it's been awhile since you were in the mix, but certain things have come to light...maybe we should start here.

After giving a brief rundown of each of our cell phone histories, we segue into the latest iPhone app to hit the streets, and big surprise, it's based on the wildly popular Girls Gone Wild series.

The GGW iPhone game is basically just a photo library of the starlets you see on the GGW TV show, but the game is a "test of resistance." In other words, the app asks you random trivia questions while attempting to distract you with 80 pictures of beautiful women in "warm weather clothing." Since this is the iPhone App Store, don't download the game expecting to see nudity, although it has been given a 17+ rating for suggestive themes.

Plenty more stories to get to, including a very awkward voice mail in Calls From the Public, and more details about Tony Hawk's appearance Monday, November 16. Have a great Wednesday, everyone!

Last week, I wrote about The Godfather II game, which features topless women. I argued that the nudity was unnecessary and gratuitous.

After reading through the story, some readers debated whether in-game nudity objectifies women. Both sides make a compelling argument.

One reader, "CrimsonCantab", said "female nudity...is unneeded and degrading to women. Pornography is shown to have many negative side effects, like reduced fidelity in marriage. There's already too much of it on the Internet, and I find it harder and harder to be a gamer when games are headed in the same direction."

"Renegade Knight," on the other hand, wrote that "the problem isn't the nudity so much as the reaction to it. Clearly, it's a problem for some people."… Read more

EA sent me a copy of The Godfather II for the PlayStation 3 last week. A Godfather trilogy fan, I was excited to see how the game would turn out.

After escaping from Cuba, I was ordained the Corleone family's New York boss and set out to take over some turf. The first place I was told to capture was a bordello. I had to make it clear to the owner, through violence, that I was now in-charge. After a short drive, I walked through the "front" business and proceeded into the brothel. I was greeted by a woman offering me sexual favors. But there was something special about this prostitute. Unlike the dozens I'd seen in the Grand Theft Auto series, this one was topless.

It wasn't the first time a woman has been shown nude or partially nude in a video game. Nudity in gaming dates back all the way to the Atari 2600 when Mystique, a "Swedish Erotica" video game developer, started making adult titles for the console.

Since then, nudity of some kind (breasts, buttocks, or full frontal), has remained an infrequent occurrence in the industry. The vast majority of games containing nudity have been released on the PC, but some titles have found their way to consoles (here's a full list).

So, The Godfather II isn't unique. But nudity played an important role in this game. In fact, it was its only memorable feature.… Read more

Wow, that was fast!

I contacted Photobucket parent Fox Interactive early Thursday to find out why the site censored a bunch of photos of babies in diapers posted by diaper company Good Mama Diapers. In separate e-mails, a Fox spokesman and Photobucket customer support said the hundreds of photos were deleted because they depicted "nudity" in violation of the site's terms of use.

Hours later I received word from Good Mama Diapers that Photobucket admits that it erroneously dumped the photos.

"My team has reviewed the images that were tossed in your account and it was … Read more

Updated 3:15 p.m. PDT with Photobucket acknowledging its error and restoring removed images.

Photobucket is removing photos of babies in diapers from the site, saying they violate the terms of service because they depict "nudity."

Diaper company Good Mama Diapers sponsored a diaper photo contest on Photobucket and posted hundreds of photo submissions on the photo-sharing site over the past 10 weeks or so. On Wednesday, Jessica Thornton of Good Mama Diapers logged on to the site and noticed they were all gone.

Thornton e-mailed Photobucket customer support to find out what happened. She got a … Read more