Well, that's just Smurfy! Apple reportedly talks to Capcom about Smurfs' Village

uh no. In fact just the opposite. In app purchases were added in part to allow free apps to have free elements and paid ones. It was, in fact, Apple's hope, that 'lite versions' would die out and be replaced by free/in app upgrade versions

Referring back to my old versions of the agreement it looks like the only restrictions were unlocking functions outside of your app and unlocking content that would expire at any point.

Uh no. You're wrong.

http://gigaom.com/apple/apple-allows-iphone-in-app-purchases-for-free-apps/

When does it end? The parental controls on iOS is great compared to what I have seen on the past. I would prefer if they work on stuff limit time based limitations. That is a feature I would pay for in iOS5.

If you are really a concerned parent you would have checked your phone for certain feature blocks before handing over to a child. I have a teen and a 4 year old. Teen has their own iPhone (inherited iPhone 3GS) easy solution. Have it sync to their own account with no credit card on it. She gets gift cards and used to get an allowance via iTunes (great feature) until I saw her buying stuff just to waste the money. The 4 year old gets to use my iPhone. Restrictions was the first app I looked for when she asked for it. in-app "Purchase" is the first item I disabled and then went on to disabled Deleting Apps knowing that she could easily delete apps.

It never ends as long as there are developments in teh ecosystem, from either the Developers' end or Apple's. That's the nature of computers, it's a constant back and forth. If Apple can thwart jailbreaks with every update (and detect jailbreaks with new updates on iBooks), they can toss us the occasional bone to add reasonable protection against costly (monetary or non-monetary) mis-uses.

It wouldn't even need to be as elaborate as to offer multiple time spans - immediately or after 15 minutes as now, just something. And not even to protect against mis-use by kids. When I got my iPhone I immediately turned off in-app purchases so that my own errant taps wouldn't cost me money. I would also appreciate it from the standpoint of safer app-store browsing after purchase.

And as for kids, I also have a 4 year-old. She has her own iPod touch. I've locked it down as much as I can (in-app purchases off, adding and deleting apps off), but I don't want to set her up with an email address so she can have her own iTunes account. She doesn't need such things yet. So it has my info on it. Thankfully the issue of in-app purchases hasn't come up yet as I don't relish the thought of having to choose between making the purchase for her and then telling her she has to wait 15 minutes, or having to watch over he shoulder for 15 minutes, or risking further purchases. I would very much like this 15 minute window closed, or at least have the option of choosing for myself to close it, and avoid these worries.

This is not unreasonable.

There are in app purchases that make great sense. Like if I download the free version of a game, let me unlock the rest with an IAP rather than have to start all over with a brand new game AND the annoyance of having to delete the freebie to reduce clutter on my device.