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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.
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 ?
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.
some people still think about the children.
Absolutely. Don't want a kid hearing anything objectionable! In the interests of reaching this wonderful, Utopian, and completely achievable goal, I suggest we also ban children from all other sources of possible profanity, such as:
using the Internet,
playing video games,
watching TV,
going outside,
being around strangers,
being around their parents and other relatives, and
being around all other children, those vile little deviants.
Also, remove 'objectionable' body parts...
don't forget objectionable thoughts, lobotomies for all!
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.
Apple isn't just the new Microsoft. Apple is the new Mary Whitehouse and Thomas Bowdler.
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.
The only way to raise a properly educated, informed, and morally "good" kid is to introduce them to the horrors of the world and let them decide what actions and materials are best for their life. If they have never seen the bad, they cannot appreciate the good.
No comprende? Let me type that a little slower for you...
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
Who appointed Apple to be the legal guardian and nanny of iPhone users?
To be fair, the iPhone users did.
Which is why I don't have an iPhone.
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?
Who appointed Apple to be the legal guardian and nanny of iPhone users?
I was going to say Jennipher Dickens, except Apple was applying rejection terms to applications from the start before Baby Shaker(*) made it to the store. But I think you can hold her responsible for the ramping up of the rules.
And the kinds of rejections we see now indicate to me that there are people on the approval panel inside Apple protesting these rules by making these sorts of ridiculous rejections to pressure Apple with bad press to let up.
(*) And a misunderstood "game" it was: it intended to educate that it is very easy to kill a baby with very little shaking, so don't shake them! Better to learn that lesson safely on your iPhone than with a real baby! A shame the publisher is too cowed to explain it.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
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?
What's seeing goatse going to do, turn them into sexual deviants? Burglars? Murderers? Liars? Will it even give them nightmares? No, it won't do any of those things. Everyone seems to accept ideas about what kinds of things harm children on faith, without worrying about how.
Property is theft.
Will it even give them nightmares?
Actually, it very well might do that.
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.