Apple has finally allowed pornography into the iTunes App Store. The application, called Hottest Girls, costs $2 and includes "2200+ images of topless, sexy babes and nude models".

UPDATE: TechCrunch is reporting that Apple has pulled the app from its App Store, stating, "it appears someone over at Cupertino [has] ultimately decided to reject the first such app." The removal of the app is only a temporary one, according to the app's developer. Allen Leung, developer of Hottest Girls, posted on his web site that his app is "temporarily sold out" due to overload on his image server.

*UPDATE #2: Apple has reiterated its policy against pornographic apps and is taking credit for pulling the app. Leung has subsequently removed his claim of being "sold out." More details in our followup story: Apple: No Porn Allowed in iPhone's App Store

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Why has Apple, a company which banned an e-book application from the same store because it could be used to download the Kama Sutra, suddenly started selling smut? Because the 3.0 iPhone software update now allows age restrictions for applications. Also, when I downloaded the application to test it, a new alert popped up asking me if I am over 17. I said yes.

The application itself is terrible. Four photos are shown on screen at once and tapping one will pull a full sized version from the server. From here you can look at it or save it to your photo-roll. There is no slideshow to display a progressive striptease of the same model, so you are limited to one picture at a time before you have to navigate back to the main screen, which shows a lack of understanding as to how a porn app should work. You could of course just use the application for downloading and view the pictures later in the Photos application.

You can, however, pick a category. On offer are Popular, Asian, Blonde, Brunette and Swimsuit. This is a little less specialized than what you will find on most porn sites, and it is also distinctly softcore: while there are nipples to be seen, that's about it. A smartly-worded Google image search would do better if you're looking for titillation.

The most interesting part is the social media aspect, or at least a crowd-sourcing one. When you view a picture full-size you are asked to rate it as either good or bad. Supposedly these ratings will steer future updates, which will be free and pushed directly to buyers.

This is certainly an interesting move from Apple. One of the main reasons for not buying porn on the internet (apart from the vast range of free content) is fear that the purveyors will rip you off if you give them a credit card number. With the Apple Store, your stimulation is just an easy, automatically-billed click away. This first foray is quite awful, but you can be sure that there will be more, and better, very soon.

Product page [iTunes]