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.

Comments

Great...

[hezekiah957]

So now I'll just have to Safari to look up the meanings of dirty words.

What is the solution ?

[Tsiangkun]

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 ?

Re:What is the solution ?

[Hatta]

The solution is to tell Apple to fuck the hell off.

Relents?

[jpmorgan]

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.

Re:Good to see

[iamhigh]

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.

Android = Open

[blackfrancis75]

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

Re:Just who do they think they are anyway?

[EvanED]

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.

Re:Good to see

[shutdown -p now]

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?

This article is too forgiving.

[Facegarden]

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