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Apple Balks, Finally Relents, At Possible User Queries of Dictionary App
Geoffrey.landis writes with a snippet from CNET reporting another example of offputting treatment at Apple's App Store: "'In this case, it's a dictionary app called Ninjawords (so called because ninjas are 'smart, accurate, and really fast') that was rejected three times over the course of two months, mostly because 'objectionable' words could be looked up and found in the dictionary's search function, Gruber reported.' PCWorld also reports the story." Note that the app was eventually approved, but only after a few go-rounds and changes.
I for one welcome our new censoring . Switching to google android in 5 4 3 2 1.... complete
So now I'll just have to Safari to look up the meanings of dirty words.
some people still think about the children.
Does anyone actually care about these apple app stories?
Users and devs both know what their getting into, when they jumped on apples' locked down platform.
Everything that followed was inevitable.
Is the solution to censor the applications to which adults have access, or is the solution for parents not to give expensive iPhones to their immature children ?
Pirates work at the Apple App Store.
"Common sense will be the death of us all"
If you RTFA, it says the app wasn't approved until the 'objectionable' words were removed from the dictionary. And then it was slapped with a 17+. But I'm a charitable fellow, so I'll give Apple the benefit of the doubt and assume that the 17+ rating was a dadaist statement on literacy and education in 21st century America.
Could someone please explain Apple's rationale for their extremely conservative (and stupid) position on keeping everything suitable for a 6 year old? Why not let everything in and have parental controls if they're so concerned? I mean you can surf porn sites with the built in safari browser, so they should allow all 'look up' type apps with that same rationale, or ban safari or censor its web access.
I'm surprised they haven't banned Brushes because you can draw naked ladies with it.
Well, in any case, my iPhone is still slated to be pounded into ground glass as soon as my contract is up. Pretty much had it with the thing.
I don't know if I should be saddened by the fact that all these stories about Apple Store rejections mean more publicity for a company such as Apple (under the principle that no publicity is bad publicity), or be pleased by the fact that the danger of developing for a closed platform is being so widely exposed.
"In prison you just have to shut your eyes and take it. Here you have to shut your eyes and give it."
Who appointed Apple to be the legal guardian and nanny of iPhone users? Are they going to block internet access to http://dictionary.com/ because you can look up words like "motherfucker" there too?
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
STOP trying to talk common sense into Apple.
Let them reject tons of useful applications for stupid reasons such as a user actually being able to type "nigger" into a text box on a phone that they own.
It will only make Android a more attractive platform.
"Why yes, I do have a dictionary application. They don't have that on the iPhone? Hmm, too bad."
Prior restraint on applications is bad for the same reason that prior restraint on speech is bad. Freedom ain't free.
Do all text fields in iPhone have the functionality of not allowing the user to write "objectionable" words as well? Because, you know, what if somebody posted a comment like "I hate those iWhores!" on Slashdot. That would be real shame.
Ezekiel 23:20
I wonder if you can look up the word: MONOPOLY!
If someone is looking up a word, don't they already know about it?
If it is a "bad" word, the dictionary ought to tell you, in addition to the definition, that it is not a polite word.
Even my paper dictionary has "fuck" in it. My kids know all the "bad" words, and they know when not to use them (when their mother is around.)
Does the iPhone prevent them from browsing urbandictionary.com?
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
That reminds me of when I was a kid and I would go to the library and look up "dirty" words in the dictionary. Learning that 'vagina' is in the dictionary is comedy gold to an 8-year-old...
http://twitter.com/OLDTELEGRAM
Even with all the stories about how this or that app has been banned by Apple's app store, I still want an iPhone. Ahhh, the power of It Just Works.
If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
Somebody submit a "soup" application, and have Apple reject it.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
From TFA ,"The list of omitted words includes some which have utterly non-objectionable senses: ass, snatch, pussy, cock, and even screw."
There is just so much crap involved with the app store, when the FTC come down on Apple it will be well deserved, unless they manage to bride their way out.
Apple isn't just the new Microsoft. Apple is the new Mary Whitehouse and Thomas Bowdler.
Apple is just like any other corporation. Wow, who saw that coming?
I, for one, wish that the fanbois would just shut up about Apple's supposed superiority. You get what you pay for, Apple costs more, it ought to be better. Better != Divine.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Lots of kids have these... almost every kid wants one for christmas. Cheap & free games, email and text messaging. It's not as if adults don't know these words already. Apple distributes the apps and is culpable for their content, as they are collecting the money. You bet their not going distribute "objectionable material" without some sort of filters or working rating system - nobody wants to end up in Federal Prison either.
I said no... but I missed and it came out yes.
Alright, inquiring minds want to know just who at Apple looked up all these words to see that they were actually in this app in the first place? Who has that dirty little mind to look up all these naughty words -- and is still allowed to work at bright shining, purer than Ivory Soap Apple?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
"Apple requires you to be 17 years or older to purchase a censored dictionary that omits half the words Steve Jobs uses every day."
I support the FairTax www.fairtax.org
Redefining English since 1984
After bricking unlocked iPhones, kicking applications off the iPhone store that might even slightly compete with iTunes in the far future and charging developers for the privilege and filing a wave of patents on basic well-known computer science, Apple Inc. today filed a Form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission declaring that it was openly adopting Evil(tm) as a corporate policy.
"F*** it," said Steve Jobs to an audience of soul-mortgaged thralls, "we're evil. But our stuff is sooo good. You'll keep taking our abuse. You love it, you worm. Because our stuff is great. It's shiny and it's pretty and it's cool and it works. It's not like you'll go back to a Windows Mobile phone. Ha! Ha!"
Steve Ballmer of Microsoft was incensed at the news. "Our evil is better than anyone's evil! No-one sweats the details of evil like Microsoft! Where's your antitrust trial, you polo-necked bozo? We've worked hard on our evil! Our Zune's as evil as an iPod any day! I won't let my kids use a lesser evil! We're going to do an ad about that! I'll be in it! With Jerry Seinfeld! Beat that! A**hole."
"Of course, we're still not evil, we said so," said Sergey Brin of Google. "You can trust us on this. Every bit of data about you, your life and the house you live in is strictly a secret between you and our marketing department. But, hypothetically, if we were evil, it's not like you're going to use Windows Live Search. I mean, 'Bing.' Ha! Ha! I'm sorry, that's my 'spreading good cheer' laugh. Really."
http://rocknerd.co.uk
Maybe Apple should ban the phone application in the iPhone since users are currently able to communicate bad words.
Wow, dozens of comments so far on this one and I'm the first smug G1 owner to point out how open the Android system is. Did I mention it was open? open, open, open
If Apple were to get away with censorship, and no one complained, who might follow Apple's example? Maybe the Bing-a-lings who run Microsoft? And, if no one objects to MS censoring what MS customers can see on the net, then who is next?
Yeah, I know, lots of people don't buy the slippery slope arguments. Buy it or not, give it some thought.
The developers who are fighting Apple on this are doing us all a service, believe it or not.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
They their app store screening operation has becoming more like communist.
someone could enter 8008S on it, think of the children!
I'm a developper of ZenTap (video), it isn't dictionary (basically is text editor) but one of it's abilities is the text prediction.
Apple rejected one of the first versions (called FastMail) of zentap because they found some "bad" words in the predictions.
And what I've done to fix it? Nothing
I resubmit it without any changes but in the submission form there are a section(Application Rating Detail) where you have to mark things like:
Marking the diferent categories automatically are changing your app rating.
In my case I had to mark Profantiy Infrequent (this increased my app rating from +4 to +9) and it was accepted (don't look for ZenTap in Itunes, it isn't available yet).
There are no more alternatives if you want work with Apple.
Since the author of NinjaWords submitted it to AppStore, I think he wants to makes some money from it.
This is quite unethical, because it's basically a dump of wiktionary: http://en.wiktionary.org/
(the dumps can be downloaded freely)
and frankly, it's not the best dictionary on the Web (see for example http://www.tfd.com/ )
A free offline Wikipedia already exists for the iPhone:
http://collison.ie/wikipedia-iphone/
So, I really don't see the point of this application.
Is it so lame that it needs so much PR ?
Apple should not even allow such applications to be sold !
!
A dictionary that is missing the most commonly used words!
Foresighted U.S. Censorship for the Knockout
I am the author of the until recently reasonably successful application Dictionary. Apple required censorship to allow Dictionary to be posted. This was back in December 2008. The full text of the rejection notice was:
"Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple's reasonable judgement may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users."
The screenshot provided with the rejection notice should the same type of words as in the OP. Again, words you had to search for to find.
More recently, Apple decided that because Dictionary provides uncensored access to Wikipedia, it must carry a 17+ rating. The text in this case was:
"Dictionary allows unfiltered access to Wikipedia, which includes frequent mature or suggestive themes. Applications must be rated accordingly for the highest level of content that the user is able to access."
As an app developer, this kind of behavior on Apple's part is very frustrating. Apple have fallen off their rocker, IMO.
This summary is way too forgiving!
Apple went crazy with this one, far more than they have before.
The summary says: "Note that the app was eventually approved, but only after a few go-rounds and changes."
Yeah, the few go-rounds and changed included *Completely removing* words apple didn't like, including the word "ass" among other things.
Note that the developer already went out of their way on the very first version of the program to prevent offensive words from coming up as suggestions for other things - i.e. typing "fuc" did not bring up "fuck" as a suggestion, you had to already know a profane word in order to see its definition.
Apple still rejected it even with those modifications, and didn't approve it until certain words were completely removed, including fuck, shit, etc AND the developer had to give their program a 17+ age rating!
This goes beyond apple's normal bullshit into a whole new level of bullshit.
-Taylor
Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
If the bible belt prudes hadn't asked for this no one would ever have thought of this. If nothing had been banned in Boston we wouldn't be seeing crap like this. Remember that someone had to think like this or this would never have happened.
Ask the idiots that are still trying to burn books for their content. You guys have the wrong bad guys here.
We need to look at a society that thinks that bad words are no good for kids and so we must ban them so that we can claim we are responsible parents and not have to actually parent them ourselves. There are devices for sale Target that will censor DVDs for you on the fly taking out every bad word and all the violence and they sell these pieces of crap. So quit blaming Apple and go after the real bullies, the so called moral majority which is neither.
Why bother
Reposted from the story site:
shbc123 says:
Wed Aug 05 13:24:53 PDT 2009
Re: Apple Screws Up Again, Censors iPhone Dictionary App
Should Apple not also censor what music can be placed on iPods? If they're truly doing this to maintain the sanctity of their phone, how can they justify allowing objectionable music on their music players - what music is able to be placed on iPods should also be dictated by Apple. What about on their computers themselves. Why don't they prohibit any objectionably programs to be installed on their Macintosh computers? Perhaps the next release of OS X should implement another level of parental controls - Apple controls, which would supersede parental controls.
And then there's the claim that they reject certain apps because the provide features similar to ones already built in. Forgetting the fact that the user has already purchased the device, why can't a user decide for themselves who's implementation of a given feature they prefer? Following the same logic as above, why doesn't Apple police Macintosh applications? Firefox? Forget it, it provides functionality that's already available in OS X in the form of Safari. And again, what of their iPods. Why doesn't Apple police music available on their music players? So you want to listen to Pearl Jam AND Sound Garden? Sorry, Apple has determined they're too similar so you'll have to choose one.
I'll admit to never being much of an Apple fan, but I must say I've really enjoyed my iPhone. But this nonsense must end. If it doesn't by the time my AT&T contract is up, I'll be shopping for a nice new Android phone. Thank you Apple. My first experience as a customer is quickly turning sour.
Two links to add infested mass-media blurbs both quoting the same blog entry by John Gruber, but no fucking direct link to that story. Boo to Apple, Hurray to Slashdot for sticking it to Corporate America?
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
+1 Sarcasm or +1 Insightful?
The best way to predict the future is to invent it
Turns out the Nazi party was involved in some very bad things a long time ago, so to prevent our children from being exposed to such hateful thoughts or ideas that might scar them for life and expose them to lawsuits, Apple has decided to ban all apps involving Nazis.
That includes soup apps.
I have downloaded the Xcode development environment, and lately I've been working on a cool idea for an iPhone app. The more stories I read like this, though, the more I'm wondering whether or not I want to bother.
I've already been jerked around by Apple in regards to this. I have a coworker who, when he found out that I can develop software, agreed to pay for my enrollment in the dev program in exchange for helping him out with some coding. So he bought an enrollment package for me, we filled out the info, and the next day, I got an e-mail from Apple saying that because my application and payment information didn't match up, I had to provide them a notarized copy or a government-issued photograph to prove I am who I claim that I am. I sent them back an e-mail saying that I didn't feel comfortable providing them my personal information, that nowhere in the terms I agreed to did it say that such documentation was required, and that if they want to send me a letter or call my phone to verify my information, I'd welcome the opportunity to do so. They have yet to reply back, so tomorrow, I'm probably going to ask for my coworker's money back and just register myself under my own company's name instead.
So developer-to-developer, I can't help but wonder, is it worth it? Sure, there are stories around of people making a million bucks off of $0.99 apps, but the kind of stuff I have in mind is niche-oriented, and I don't plan to be a millionaire; it's more of a hobby than anything else.
I have an iPhone and I love it, but I don't like the thought that I can't install stuff that I might want because Apple says so. I really don't like being jerked around as a developer and told what other people can and can't run of mine that I write, especially when there's no danger of causing the system to crash or anything like that.
I can't help but wonder if Apple keeps jerking developers around like this if eventually they'll give up and move on to another platform. Apple is customer-focused, and that's great, really, it is. But at what point will they realize that they need developers on board too, just as much or more than we need Apple?
Can't one of you techi types make it so I can upload a song to my iphone that engages the other functions? ??
My guess is apple reviewers have a list of words in a file (that only the lawyers are allowed to read). Then they take the compiled app and do something like
strings NinjaDictionary.app | grep --file=naughtywords.txt
If it returns something, then click the INSTANT BANISHMENT OF DOOM button. The app never even has to be run! They can probably ban 2000-3000 apps per day this way, and they probably get a bonus.
In all seriousness, my guess at the problems with Apple is a bad metrics or punishment/reward system for the reviewers. Reviewers probably don't get any benefit for approving, but if they approve an app that gets them in trouble later, they get punished.
For those who are interested, there is a fine little FREE app called Dictionary! (previousy Dictionare) for iPhone/touch that features all the dirty words you could ever want. Its entries are not hugely detailed, but when you want an uncensored definition, it's the way to go. For example, when I fill the search field with "fuck" it gives me entries for 'fuck', 'fuckup', 'fucker', 'fucking', 'fuckhead', 'fuck all', 'fuck off', 'fucked-up' and 'fucking(a)'. Frankly, I find all of these wonderful descriptors for Apple's retard-power over the App store.
Quite apart from the inanity of a bowdlerized dictionary, Apple is so inconsistent.
I have 3 different dictionaries on my iPhone (yes that's weird I agree) all of which have the words that Word Ninja was required to remove. I have the same words in the dictionary that came with my Mac.
This feels to me like some application reviewer at Apple that either has issues of their own, or who really doesn't understand the rules.
Clearly Word Ninja have a case to answer about Apples inconsistency.
btw it took me back to the happy age of 12 checking out all the 'dirty' words in the dictionary
This was maybe news the first two or three stories, but now it seems there is a "ZOMG Apple censors Iphone app" every week. It's the same story every time and we have all read it already. If the goal is just to keep reminding people that Iphones are a locked-down platform, then Slashdot is the wrong audience, because everyone here already knows that and there's no need to remind us. And Slashdot stories won't reach the people who actually buy Iphones and even if they did, those people would think thing along the lines of "Oh well, it's a Slashdot story, we all know Slashdotters are a paranoid bunch, and there's no way that something so outrageous could be true in any case."
Exactly.... I want my child to see as much of the world as possible. Look at the starving kids in Africa, look how stupid that guy looks when yelling profanities (and watch how I better handle the situation), look at the "gross" and "objectionable". And read every damn book that has ever been banned.
That's all good, but... goatse?
Censoring content such as Goatse may be a well-intended attempt to shield society at-large from the darker alleyways of humanity, but to accomplish this by means of centralizing restrictions on content and communication is very dangerous, as it replaces lost innocence with lost liberty.
Dear iPhone users and Developers: You have been ignored. Don't blog about it, don't whine. If you are an iPhone only developer and your app was rejected without any meaningful reason, bad for you...
Next time, have decency to ship same application for Symbian userbase, Windows Mobile and even J2ME. Yes, the "cool platform" choice of you have tendency to reject applications and even have capability to kill them remotely. Now, it is not that cool or trendy, head to http://www.forum.nokia.com/ . There you have access to 100M potential users. Or head to http://www.getjar.com/ and see what are you missing.
Right now, writing this message, I see this Google Ad at top
"Unlock i`Phone -
Millions of Satisfied Customers Unlock Your i`Phone Now!
www.Unlock-the-iPhone.com"
Expect something good from that platform especially for development?
Push for urbandictionary to add an obscene alternate definition for "Apple". Someone above mentioned words like "screw" were removed from this app so I'd like to see what happens then...
My webcomic
I have the Dictionary.com app on my iphone. I was never prompted for age appropriateness, and my dictionary has all the words listed above. Is it censorship, or Apple favoring one app over another?
Who has that dirty little mind to look up all these naughty words -- and is still allowed to work at bright shining, purer than Ivory Soap Apple?
They probably hired a linux contractor for a day.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Ironic because NeXTstep's unabridged dictionary application allow you to look up the words "fuck," "shit," etc.
Has Apple lost its mind? Maybe it's just a bunch of over zealous self-righteous assholes working at the iPhone App screening department. I like Apple, but its behavior recently just goes to show that any company with a lot of control and influence on a particular segment will do everything it can to maintain that control and influence. I am less likely to purchase Apple stuff nor recommend their products to others.
Apples new uber secret project leaked 'iCensorship' its guaranteed to be all the rave and you wont even know why! 'iChina ,iIran, iPropaganda iControl'
Next..coming soon to a app store near you....wait ...wait ....'iHypocriteZ' this new app will automatically log you in to twitter as if you were in Iran to confuse the goverment and for the first time ever in a iPhone it will run a background prosses to help China censor google, and yahoo/bing.
Its a brave new world Mr. Orwell.
You can look up the word 'shit' in the Dictionary app and it not only returns the definition but also several useful examples of speech including 'to get one's shit together'. I don't remember what other unsavory words I've looked up there, but I'm pretty sure there were a number of them. How, exactly, is this Ninjawords thing any different? Is the Dictionary app just a database of Merriam-Webster or something?
http://daringfireball.net/2009/08/phil_schiller_app_store
When I was around 9 or 10 years old I was a naive little kid with very religious parents. My older brother was moved out by then and I was shy so I had few friends at school, so I had no one to learn any of those "naughty" things from. I remember hearing the words "shit" and "fuck" over and over and really being distressed at what it meant. I knew were naughty words and didn't want to ask my parents. I felt like my few friends would make fun of me if they knew I didn't know. So what do you think I did? I turned to my family's dictionary. I can't tell you these days whether it was advertised as an abridged dictionary or not, but I can tell you how frustrated I was not to be able to find the words "shit" or "fuck".
Censoring stuff just hurts kids, especially those who already have the most issues and likely no one else to turn to when they need to understand something society finds "naughty". Don't censor reference material, Apple.
Apple has dozens if not hundreds of people working in the app approval department - and some of them are pricks.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
I'm curious how they converted Wiktionary into a format usable for this project. Lots of people use Wordnet because there's already a SQL version so it's easy.. I would love to use wiktionary but I couldn't figure out how to turn it into SQL. (I made a site that lets me create vocab quizzes for students using words I select, but it employs Wordnet, which does kind of suck.) I should mention that the answer could be obvious as I just code LAMP as a hobby, but I would love to know how to do it.
how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?