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9 Banned Apps: 3. Google Latitude

3. Google Latitude
The defense: Mighty Goog’s latest foray into the world of social networking uses GPS to pinpoint your location and broadcast what you’re doing to your other buddies on Latitude.
The complaint: Apple reportedly “asked” Google to make the app Web-based instead, “to avoid confusion with [Google] Maps,” since Latitude relies on the same interface and data. You know, it’s for your own good.
Fairness of the judgment: Apple must believe its customers have learning disorders, as anyone who would get confused by an app they installed themselves would probably have trouble operating an iPhone anyway. Or a phone for that matter. Or a toaster. Anyway, aside from that silly explanation, Apple has contradicted itself on this one, as it has since opened up Google Maps data to be accessed by other applications, letting anyone create an app that could effectively do the same thing — for example the bizarrely specific Kondom Localizr, which allows Swiss users to locate places to pick up condoms.
Likelihood of appeal: For now, Google’s Latitude lives on as an iPhone-friendly Web app, which Apple is unable or uninterested in blocking, so we’re stuck with a hung jury. But if Latitude becomes a hit in the future, it may well force Apple to cave.

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