NYPost.com blocks iPad Safari, says you need to go buy the NYPost App

The News Corp.-owned New York Post started blocking iPad readers who use Safari today.  Instead of showing content on the iPad, it gives a link to the NYPost App with the following statement:

Thanks for coming! NYPOST.com editorial content is now only accessible on the iPad through the New York Post App. If you are a current New York Post App subscriber, please visit the App Store and download the latest version to access NYPOST.com through the INDEX. If you are not a current New York Post App user and would like to subscribe, please download from theApp Store. Thank you.

Subscriptions run $6.99 per month, $39.99 for six months or $79.99 for the year, with no option for single-issue digital purchases.  News Corp also launched The Daily magazine earlier this year, the first Tablet-only daily magazine.

If the NYPost wasn’t total garbage anyway, I’d be upset.  Hopefully the backlash from this move discourages others from copying this game plan.

Interestingly, Skyfire and Opera Mini still work (below).

The Post also works on Android Honeycomb tablets as well.  Clearly, Apple isn’t going to be happy about this.  David Winer writes as much:

Okay this is bad. This is breaking the web. If no one used the iPad it wouldn’t matter. But lots of people use it. 

I wonder how Apple feels about this? I can’t imagine they like it. I can see the ads now. “Get an Android tablet to read the web.”

Perhaps just being able to hide the fact that I am using an iPad running Safari in the Prefs would be enough.