If anyone needed another reason to choose a Droid over and iPhone, how about this, Apple has decided to ban most sexy apps from the app store. First of all Apple has never let any app with nudity into the store, so it’s not a matter of removing and banning “vulgar” apps, no, this is banning apps that show people in bathing suits, stuff we all see everyday on TV or at the pool. According to the CNN story, this is a “quick glimpse” at the new rules from Apple:

1. No images of women in bikinis (Ice skating tights are not OK either)

2. No images of men in bikinis! (I didn’t ask about Ice Skating tights for men)

3. No skin (he seriously said this) (I asked if a Burqa was OK, and the Apple guy got angry)

4. No silhouettes that indicate that Wobble can be used for wobbling boobs (yes – I am serious, we have to remove the silhouette in this pic)

5. No sexual connotations or innuendo: boobs, babes, booty, sex – all banned

6. Nothing that can be sexually arousing!! (I doubt many people could get aroused with the pic above but those puritanical guys at Apple must get off on pretty mundane things to find Wobble “overtly sexual!”)

7. No apps will be approved that in any way imply sexual content (not sure how Playboy is still in the store, but …)

I can understand them not allowing the hardcore stuff, or even R rated nudity, in the app store, but not allowing some photos of bikinis seems a little harsh. And as we have all read on the interwebs, Safari is still there, and that’s all you really need to find the photos you want, like midget hermaphrodites ensued in some “interspecies erotica”.

Click here to take advantage of that, makes me wish my wife’s plan was up.

I got the Motorola Droid Multimedia Docking Station for Christmas, my wife got lucky and happened to be in the store as the guy was stocking the shelves, I guess they were a hot item this year as pretty much everywhere was sold out. I really like this dock, it feels very sturdy and well made, comes with another cable and charger and works very well. I actually replaced my alarm clock with it. So now when I wake up I can see the time (obviously) but it also shows the local weather, which you can touch and open up the forecast for the next few days, then you can decide if you want to get up or stay in bed. It also has a slide-show option to show all your pictures. It is also nice if you want to watch a movie as it holds it at a good angle. The one big option, for me at least, is that I would forget to charge my phone sometimes so the battery would die, always when I needed it for something. Now, though, since I put in in the dock every night, I know it will be charged for the following day. I wouldn’t mind getting some more to have one in other rooms of the house where I frequent.

Many folks who are new to the Droid might not know how to go about getting files to their phone. With the excitement of having a new toy, and I include myself here, we may fail to read everything before jumping in and playing. So for any of you out there curious as to how to do it, we start with number one:

1. Mounting the Droid via USB. When you plug your phone into your computer, you may wonder why it doesn’t show right up as a drive for you to send your files to. The reason being, you need to mount it first. In order to this, you need to open up the notifications at the top of the screen, either by touching and dragging it down, or selecting the menu button at the bottom of the phone ( the one with all the lines) and selecting notifications. Then, when you select where it says ‘USB connected’ you can mount it. It will then show up as a drive letter for you to do what you want. Once you’re done, just go to the notifications and choose to ‘Turn off USB Storage’, then hit ‘Turn Off’.

2. Opening Recent Programs. If you hold down the home button for a few seconds you will notice a list. This list shows the last six programs you used. It works from any screen and is handy when switching back and forth from one or more. Like if you are browsing the internet and listening to music you can go back and forth without hitting the back button a few times and finding the program icon and choosing.

3. Adding Contacts. An easy way to add someone’s number or email to the contacts is to click and hold on it. You will then get an option to add the item to your contacts.

4. Voice search. Another way to open the voice search, as opposed to hitting the mike picture which is by the search bar, is to hold down the magnifying glass button for a few seconds. This works no matter what program you are in so you don’t have to hit the home buttong and get the the one at your home screen.

5. Hiding the onscreen keyboard. Sometimes when using the onscreen keyboard it may be in the way. You can hide it by touching it and flicking it down. It will slide away and can be brought back by selecting a text field.

6. Copy and Paste. To copy a single word, just double tap it to select it, then hold for a few seconds and you will get a menu where you can choose to copy it. This doesn’t work everywhere though, just where the text is editable. If you want to copy not editable text, or more than one word, use the external keyboard. Hit the shift key, which is the arrow pointing up with a line over it, right next to Z, and slide your finger over the text while still holding shift, this will copy it to the clip board. You can them paste it where you want by just holding on that area for a few seconds.

7. One touch dialing. If you have a number you call a lot you can set it up for one touch dialing. On your home screen touch and hold an empty space and you will get a menu. Choose shortcuts and you an choose Direct dial. There are other options as well. I do warn you though to be careful. I have called people by mistake with this. I had a number on my main home screen and hit it when placing my Droid into the dock. I also called once when swiping to another screen and held just a bit too long, rather than scroll I placed a call. Luckily they were just family members and it wasn’t late.

8. Special characters. If you need a special character, like Ű, just press and hold the letter for a bit a more options will appear. This works for both the virtual and the physical keyboard.

9. turn on or off your GPS or wireless with one click. You can hold and press an empty space on the home screen, or choose the menu button and select add, to add widgets that will allow you one touch power control of wireless or GPS. There are other widgets too and more get added with certain apps from the market.

10. Set Mp3 as a ringtone. You can make any music file on your phone a ringtone by selecting the menu button when listening to the song and choosing to set as ringtone. You can also download Ringdroid, a free app from the market. This allows you to cut out just a section and use that as a ringtone.

11. Quick silence mode. You can put your droid into slice quickly by swiping the unlock bar to the left rather than the right.

12. Save pictures from the internet. You can save a picture from the internet by holding the picture for a bit and selecting to save it

13. Website shortcuts. Like the widgets and direct dials, you can also add a bookmarked site to your home screen for one touch viewing.

14. Folders. Use folders on your home screen to organize programs. From the menu button choose add and folders. You can rename them by opening the folder and holding on the name at the top for a few seconds.

15. Keyboard shortcuts. You can bring up various applications by hitting the search button (magnify glass) and letters. These can be customized by choosing hitting the menu button from the home screen and choosing – settings>applications>quick launch

search + e: email
search + y: youtube
search + b: browser
search + c: contacts
search + g: gmail
search + l: calendar
search + p: music
search + s: messaging

As you can see, lots of these deal with pressing and holding something which brings up an alternate menu, try it on other things and see what you find.

Do you have any other tips or tricks?