[UPDATED] Adult content coming to the iPad?

Hugh Hefner tweeted something yesterday that was quite interesting. Don’t worry, there’s nothing NSFW about it:

Big news! Playboy–both old & new–will be available on iPad beginning in March.

While it’s unclear exactly what the Playboy app will include, it’s not hard to imagine. The company’s current iPhone app includes no nudity… just lots of articles and some photos. People buy Playboy for the writing… right?

Of course, under the existing iOS App Store guidelines, nudity and adult content are forbidden. Its also unclear if Apple is changing this policy, or if Hugh has been granted special status. Since Apple has been seen as overly-strict and playing the “morals police” when it comes to iOS apps, this would be a pretty big shift for the company. I for one don’t mind Apple being the morality police for the App Store. Mobile Safari is just a tap away, and there’s literally no limitation on what people can put on the Internet.

I don’t think Apple is going to start allowing porn apps all over the place, but it is a slippery slope.

So to speak.

Update: According to Gizmodo’s Brian Barrett, the content Hugh tweeted about will be online, not in an app:

Turns out Hef wasn’t talking about an app after all. What is coming to the iPad isPlayboy’s custom website. That is to say, a subscription service that you access on your browser, with pages formatted to be iPad-optimized. You’ll still be able to access the entire history of the magazine in a much more convenient environment than that 250GB hard drive, although there’s no word yet on how much you’ll pay for the privilege.

Article Via Apple Insider

Stephen Hackett, formerly a Lead Mac Genius at Apple, now spends his days running the IT department of a large non-profit in Memphis, TN. He writes about Apple, design and journalism at forkbombr.net. Like all twenty-somethings, you can find him on Twitter. Oh, and he has a dogcow tattoo.