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Apple's Schiller Responds To iPhone Dictionary App Fiasco
beef curtains writes "Phil Schiller, Apple senior vice president of worldwide product marketing, responded by e-mail to a blog post discussing Apple's rejection of a dictionary app. If Schiller's e-mail is to be believed, it offers an interesting perspective on this whole issue. He said, 'The issue that the App Store reviewers did find with the Ninjawords application is that it provided access to other more vulgar terms than those found in traditional and common dictionaries, words that many reasonable people might find upsetting or objectionable. ... The Ninjawords developer then decided to filter some offensive terms in the Ninjawords application and resubmit it for approval for distribution in the App Store before parental controls were implemented. Apple did not ask the developer to censor any content in Ninjawords, the developer decided to do that themselves in order to get to market faster. ... You are correct that the Ninjawords application should not have needed to be censored while also receiving a 17+ rating, but that was a result of the developers' actions, not Apple's.' PC World has an article summarizing the drama-to-date, the blog post, and Schiller's response."
If they'd been called PuppyWords, then I'm sure the approval process would have been much easier.
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Because a dictionary getting any age rating is a good idea how?
Apple didn't force him to censor the app. The developer "voluntarily" did it. Of course, it was his only option if he wanted to get it published...
They were partially right though:
From TFA, a quote by the president of the company making the dictionary
17+ ratings were not available when we launched, which means at that time, it was simply not possible for our dictionary to be on the App Store without being censored. Given the options of censoring or sitting on the side lines while our competitors ate our lunch, we chose to launch.â
what slang words were actually in question?
it sounds like it's not just george carlin's seven words you can't say on TV.
details?
A dictionary corrects misspelled words, it doesn't write them.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
It provided access to other more vulgar terms than those found in traditional and common dictionaries, words that many reasonable people might find upsetting or objectionable.
words I often find upsetting and objectionable:
censorship
groupthink
DRM
paternalism
authoritarianism
proprietary
patronizing
Thus I have an Android phone. Though it had to be rooted too. But at least when I try to install a program, it asks for my permission rather than the other way around.
But don't worry, he wouldn't be lying this time...
The program also included a feature that crippled the "suggestion" function in such a way that made it was impossible for someone to look up a vulgar word unless they knew what that word was and typed it out in its entirety. Shouldn't that be enough to merit acceptance? Free speech anyone?
All these negative Apple iPhone stories are just fuelling the fire. I've been playing with Android on my recent phone. I bought a HTC Hero two weeks ago and can't find any fault with it. If you've ever held off smart device development then I would encourage you to get in the the Android stack.
I would like to be able to comment on the Apple development process but I can't really.
There is something that feels 'so right' in having access to all parts of the device that I've bought which makes Android so appealing.
in the long run, we're all dead anyway.
The developers may have 'chosen' to censor their work, but only because it was the only way their work could exist at all. That's still censorship.
Apple claiming that the developers chose to do it is like saying someone chose to jump in front of a bullet that was aimed at their child. Yes, they chose to... But it's hardly their fault.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
'The issue that the App Store reviewers did find with the Ninjawords application is that it provided access to other more vulgar terms than those found in traditional and common dictionaries, words that many reasonable people might find upsetting or objectionable. ...
I'd like to see Schiller respond to the developer's allegation that the reviewers sent screenshots of specific common swear words - fuck, etc. explicitly typed in by Apple employees.
Schiller's denial is so vague as to be a non-denial - note he doesn't actually specifically say which words they were rejected for, just hints that this was really quite a dirty, unsavoury dictionary and had no place on a nice store like ours. His implication does contradict the message sent to the developers, which homed in on quite common words which belong as slang in a normal dictionary.
Much like the Kama Sutra rejection, this brings home how farcical Apple trying to be gatekeeper and arbiter of taste on the app store really is. They should give up now before their reputation sinks under the weight of their hypocrisy - every week I hear of a new stupid and arbitrary decision by their app store reviewers.
The Google Voice one was worse than this though - at least these guys got a reason which made some sort of sense.
Blackadder said it best :
Samuel Johnson: Ah, I see you've underlined a few (takes dictionary, reads): `bloomers'; `bottom'; `burp'; (turns a page) `fart'; `fiddle'; `fornicate'?
George IV: Well...
Samuel Johnson: Sir! I hope you're not using the first English dictionary to look up rude words!
Edmund Blackadder: I wouldn't be too hopeful; that's what all the other ones will be used for.
You just got troll'd!
Schiller's response is an attempt to evade the issue that Apple censored the application in the first place. Turning around and trying to claim that the developer censored themselves after being censored is an expert spin, but complete bullshit nonetheless.
Keeping dictionaries away from children is always a good idea. Nothing good ever came out of letting children use dictionaries.
You just got troll'd!
How old is the youngest IPhone user you've seen? For me its 15. No elementary school kid needs to be running around with a $100/mo bill and an expensive phone. By 12, most kids already know these words. Who is this censorship for?
All this is beside the point that this kind of stuff should not be censored in a dictionary anyway. The sheer idiocy of this fiasco amazes me.
Obviously the dictionary he's using has a rather different definition of reasonable people than mine does.
Mine says reasonable people aren't upset by words, especially the ones they write themselves. Reasonable people also have no expectation of going through life without encountering something they might find offensive, as they know that that idea itself is offensive to some people.
Why can't we, as a group, start using the names of idiots like that as slang for 'offensive' things? Like ...
Schiller - verb: To use ones tongue to clean a toilet bowl.
Intelligent Design - noun: The act of writing ones name in faeces.
Break out the smelling salts, I think I just saw the word "piss" in Ninjawords!
What?
Yet Socrates himself is particularly missed.
A lovely little thinker but a bugger when he's pissed.
The majority of the ongoing debate over the App Store is that the reviewers seem whimsical or even downright malicious and inconsistent in their ratings, rejections, and reasons for rejection. You can't eliminate malice, but you can seriously reduce incompetence by making it a more open process. The developers here will (likely) be familiar with practices such as code reviews and bug tracking. In this instance, if Apple were to have provided clearer information, to replicate all of the issues they felt were present in the dictionary, this might not have been blown up into the situation we have now. While the dictionary would still have been censored in the interest of pushing it to market as soon as possible, it would have been a more precise change (as opposed to blindly self-censoring). Apple probably isn't responsible for reviewing applications in minute detail for each an every swear word--but establishing an issue tracking system opens a communication channel with established ways of resolving conflicts and receiving feedback. Apple appears to be moving toward a more level treatment of applications, but they have a long way to go and plenty of great options. Also, is this NinjaWords app by the same people as the NinjaWords website?
If the dictionary app was rejected on the basis that it proved access to dirty words, does this mean that Safari is the next to go? After all, it only provides access to the entire Internet, where I'm sure a few dirty words and even porn could be found.
*I've probably left a couple of inconsequential things out, it doesn't matter.
... inconsequential things such as the Camera. [red face] but you know I mean.
"words that many reasonable people might find upsetting or objectionable"
These are not reasonable people. These are people looking through a dictionary in order to be offended.
Fuck those people. Shit piss fuck cunt cocksucker motherfuckers.
How old is the youngest IPhone user you've seen? For me its 15. No elementary school kid needs to be running around with a $100/mo bill and an expensive phone. By 12, most kids already know these words. Who is this censorship for?
It's for two groups of people: parents groups who might protest this despite it being quite far from a real issue as you pointed out, and Apple's PR department that would rather nip it in the bud than face what is apperantly impossible: trying to sell a product through parents to their kids while telling the parents that they're responsible for being parents rather than the product.
Uhm, but it's a dictionary... You have to search for fuck to find the definition of fuck in the first place!
Sounds useless anyway.
I downloaded some apps for awhile, but now there's only two that I actually ever use. RSS reader (Byline) and Twitter client (Tweetie).
It's pretty daunting these days to look for things on the App store. It's choked with crap. I am glad they didn't bother posting this thin, useless app
It's pretty tiring reading all these iPhone owners crying about how their device is locked down. Apple is not a monopoly. Their vertical model seems to be turning out fairly usable, innovative products. Please don't fuck this up. My phone has never crashed and I'd like to keep it that way
Apple does some cool stuff for OSS. Check this out. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clang . Not to mention making a reasonably UNIX compliant operating system. (Disclaimer: I don't currently have any other Apple products besides the phone.
Long live the BSD license
You left out George Soros and fluoridation.
I apologise in advance for the bad language but in the interests of having a complete public record on Slashdot, here's a list of the words and phrases that Apple censors from their iPhone dictionaries:
---
Reality Distortion Field
egomaniac
vendor lockin
exploding iPod
making unfreedom hip
iCon
backdated stock options
Lisa
fanboyism
---
There you go. I feel dirty now, and shall wash my keyboard out with soap.
Your problem is that you probably don't live near enough or don't know the wingnuts that ARE requiring this kind of censorship. Sadly your education and intelligence are sufficient to realize that this kind of censorship is both useless and offensive to the rest of the sane thinking world. But since the bible belt does have a lot of people in it and we want their money too...
To date I fail to see any average good done by any religion in the world. At one time or another they have impeded the development of civilization, technology or social interaction on a less than war like level. But if that's your thing, go right ahead and practice. I'm tired of having other peoples standards and morals shoved down my throat.
Such is the world we live in.
Why bother
Schadenfreude becomes you.
But seriously can't we just get along. pardon gagging there for a second.
Why bother
Only if you look them up, fool!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
So there's a question about the authenticity of this e-mail. Yeah, it's hard to verify by itself. What the Apple guy should have done is respond by a link to a YouTube video of him reading his e-mail aloud. That might authenticate him a bit more firmly. I'm sure he could make one easily from his MacBook since it just works.
Oh, wait, YouTube is a Google site!
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
...with a $100/mo bill...
Everyone seems to quote this number but every time I look at my bill it's only $75. Did I con AT&T or what!?
Don't forget: Newton.
I'd Mod you Insightful+1, but now I've gone and posted here instead.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
Does Safari need a 17+ age limit to be used? Will it be removed from the iPhone and iPod Touch? From Mac OS X? It can access even darker places outside there in the virtual world! Oh my godness! :-O
Canadian App store users, try this: search for "redskins" As in the Washington Redskins NFL team.
In each of the resulting 7 or so apps, each of their descriptions has Redskins censored, i.e. "R*****ns."
(Non-Canadians can verify this by downloading either Pandora Box or AppMiner apps, which download app lists for each country separately, and setting them to use Canadian currency)
Native American sensibilities is one thing, but censoring the name of a recognized sports team is pretty damn ridiculous. This raises a question: what was the process for getting it censored, and who demanded it be censored?
The world is in a sad state if a grouping of words could be so upsetting...
Also, I do not believe that there is not a human left alive on the face of the planet that has not heard a "swear word" Almost every language has the equivalent of fuck. Anyone over the age of ten has heard the word from someone other than a relative and most of those people have had the inclination to use the word.
but can I zing the next person who decries the fact the parents are not being responsible for the activities of their children?
Parents cannot win here; Slashdot or the world in general. Because on one hand we have people who pummel them for every inaction and then turn around and berate them for any infraction their kid does.
Parental Controls do not affect those who do not use them. They however do affect what those of use responsible enough to adhere to a self described sense of morals but live in a world where such control is considered an infringement on some mysterious right thereby imposing such control on us outside of our domain.
In other words, either provide the means necessary for parents or anyone in general to filter the content relevant to themselves or those in the protection else suffer the decisions of others over the content you have available.
Parents would have an easier time if people quit moving the line.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I don't think you people realize just how close we came to having an app on iPhones that contained vulgar words.
Disaster was narrowly averted.
These things start innocently enough. A dictionary, for example, that defines the word "crap" and includes a phonetically-spelled pronunciation. Before you know it, iPhone users will be using those words, and then it's a straight path downward to public displays of affection between members of different races, laughter at fat people in stretch pants, and ultimately universal health care for everyone.
This is how societies are destroyed. I'm sure if you were to read The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, you would see that this is how it happened. And where is Rome today? "In Italy" you might say, but I mean the spiritual Rome of civilized behavior, regular bathing (for the upper classes) and great philosophers like Plato and Jesus.
Don't scoff. You look like you're getting ready to scoff, so just...don't. I mean it. I've had enough of you scoffers.
You are welcome on my lawn.
See, you scoffed and upset me and I didn't close my html tag.
This is what happens when vulgar words are potentially displayed on an iPhone.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Is there anything new in the article not copy-pasted from Daring Fireball? Apart from the adds, I mean.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
The full American Heritage Dictionary app has all of the seven deadly words (and more) stored on the ipod/iphone with audible pronunciation available with net access. Obviously there are different standards for different sources of apps.
Remember everybody....
Words are dangerous.
We can have games like Mafia Wars that glorify murder and crime for profit, but some things like common words for natural bodily functions or depictions of the human form are somehow "objectionable".
This is a peculiar puritanical society we have.
And yes, I am a parent. I'd prefer my child to not grow into an adult with a bizarre fetish triggered by a cultural taboo against healthy human behavior.
I just realized that making a game out of this would be fun. Steve Jobs could be the level boss and if you defeat him, your app gets accepted into the app store.
I wonder if it would be accepted.
I know how to create apps, but I don't have time for it this weekend so I'm putting it out there. Get on it Slashdot. Someone write this now.
Yes you do need to search and I don't believe Apple when they say they have done this.
Anecdote: When my daughter was in HS she came home one day and said her teacher told her that swear words are not in the dictonary. I grabed the family dictionary (a large 1980's Macquarie hardback). We looked up the word "fuckwit" and found it had a one word definition of "nincompoop". From that day forward my brother-in-law has been known to my kids as uncle nincompoop.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Morals?
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
Because a dictionary getting any age rating is a good idea how?
Apple isn't doing this because they think children shouldn't read dictionaries. In fact, any person of any age can run a 17+ app. The only limits are:
1. Parents can lock them out.
2. You get a warning, so that if you become offended, it's your own damned fault, not Apple's.
From Apple's point of view, this has nothing to do with dictionaries, it has to do with having an age rating system to begin with. Once you have such a system, and if the system is based, in part, on "vulgar" words, then dictionaries containing such words end up with an appropriate (under the rating criteria, at least) rating.
The only way to really end this whole mess is to do away with age ratings altogether, which is incompatible with Apple's intent for concerned parents (read: repressed fuckwads) to be able to buy their products without fear that it may despoil the minds of their children.
Ratings systems like these are inherently problematic, but given that, Apple really did act reasonably in this situation.
I have no idea what ninjawords is about (sounds completely irrelevant to me) but it sure got some serious exposure out of all this.
Dear Steve and Steve:
Seriously, this is beyond ridiculous:
* Anyone can receive e-mail that contains profanity and porn. Please remove MobileMail.app from everyone's iPhone.
* Anyone can access or stumble upon profanity, porn and more while web browsing. Please remove MobileSafari.app from everyone's iPhone.
* Anyone can download and purchase songs full of profanity and sexual references. Please remove the iTunes Music Store from everyone's iPhone.
Until you remove those three apps as well, it's obvious that you're full of iShit.
To date I fail to see any average good done by any religion in the world.
Then what do you believe in if you don't believe in yourself?
I'm not religious myself but I fail to see a belief system that really addresses the underlying philosophic and moral dilemmas and some people need comfort or answers, for those people faith might work.
We need a philosophy renaissance to specifically address the needs we've so far only successfully addressed with religion.
Quack, quack.
There were no parental controls when the app was submitted and there was no indication of a release date for parental controls.
Parents need to raise there children! Don't give the child a credit card and make sure you know what they load on the ipods. If for any reason anyone here thinks that parental controls will stop children from accessing inappropriate content then I have news for them... I have yet to see parental controls work. What parents need to do is raise their children. Yes I am a parent of three and all three are capable of bypassing the parental controls on almost all the devices. Because they can read!
When I was young ALL of this material was available. P0rn is not new. Dictionaries were always available. Encyclopedias had pictures. This is just the tame stuff. Talk to your child and communicate with them. Teach them how and what is important. Don't ever expect technology to do your job.
As for Apple. They have no explanation as to why they refused so they are inventing an excuse. Hindsight is 20/20 and Apple is offering a plausible explanation unless you ask yourself this. If the developer was told that it would be approved in 30 to 60 days why would the developer spend extra time and money correcting something that will be corrected?
Nothing prevented Apple from posting parental warnings on iTunes on "adult" material. Children are not issued credit cards therefore children should not have an iTunes account!!!! Therefore a parent is required to make the purchase! If Apple was concerned about the clients "children" they had every means possible to WARN the potential client that it contained ADULT material. If Apple is so concerned about the children then why don't they setup a children's iTunes store? Apple is not the peoples keeper and if you believe Apple's excuse then they are doing a horrible job because what I can get on my iPhone and my children's iPod, parental controls or not, is a lot worse than a few vulgar definitions. I am pretty sure most of us can too.
DRM? No thanks, I'll just get it somewhere else...
Just FYI, the iPod Touch is pretty much an iPhone minus the Phone, GPS and Compass*, and can run most of the same apps without any monthly cellular cost.
*I've probably left a couple of inconsequential things out, it doesn't matter.
YES but you need a credit card to buy on the iTunes store. Credit Cards are not issued to minors. Minors cannot purchase apps. If Apple was so concerned about the children it would have created a children's iTunes. If you can think of a simple solution to the children problem why can't Apple? Parental controls is an excuse to save face. I love Apple products it's just the Apple attitude that I can't stand. Unfortunately this is coming more and more from corporate America. For some reason corporate America believes that they still own the products they sell and the DMCA confirms it.
DRM? No thanks, I'll just get it somewhere else...
As for Apple. They have no explanation as to why they refused so they are inventing an excuse. Hindsight is 20/20 and Apple is offering a plausible explanation unless you ask yourself this. If the developer was told that it would be approved in 30 to 60 days why would the developer spend extra time and money correcting something that will be corrected?
Apple would never, ever tell some random developer when their next OS is coming out if it's not yet public knowledge. It's likely not even their high-profile customers were told the date until the WWDC keynote.
Your main theme here is that parents need to be more responsible. Well, the age rating system gives them a tool to help them do just that! For fuck's sake, what do you think the age rating system is for in the first place?
Any such system is going to be problematic, given the subjectivity involved. But given that Apple has chosen to go with an age rating system, their actions are fully consistent with that decision.
Isn't conversant with the OED.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Other smartphone developers don't seem to have such problems.
Oh, and I even know why. Because they don't have a single application store that they fully control (and thus bear responsibility for) as the sole method of distributing and obtaining applications.
I might agree with you if I knew what "good" means.
Or how to read.
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
There are Visa/MasterCard preload cards available here that anyone of any age can get. I'm quite sure a similar offer must exist in the US.
Because a dictionary getting any age rating is a good idea how?
You don't want kids to find out that Apple actually is a fruit.
May contain traces of nut.
Made from the freshest electrons.
The truth is he used it to decipher many of the emails he had in his in tray ... It shocked him so much that he decided dictionaries were a bad thing. (He probably concluded that the dic part was rude in its own right!
Apple users are after all religious users of technology. (Otherwise, they would be Luddites!)
I know slashdot is big on the groupthink, and apple is evil yadda yaddah, but has anyone bothered to look up words and see the different treatment of them?
Now I'm not saying that words per se are bad things (they're not, although I personally prefer to keep them out of regular usage for impact), but I can see how this dictionary might include many more vulgar words and expressions than a regular dictionary. I can also see how a parent could object to their kids downloading a dictionary with such an extensive ouvre of modern vulgar slang.
Let's say you're a parent, and your 10 year old (yeah you spoiled them a bit by buying them an iPhone, whatever, they did their chores, got good grades and are working it off mowing the lawn) asks you if they can download a dictionary app. Would you not be a little concerned if the dictionary was so heavy on modern swearwords? Would you expect this from a "dictionary app"? Wouldn't you expect that the urban dictionary app have a bit of a warning that it might be really offensive, racist, etc.?
Sure they'll learn all these things in due time, but I don't think innocence is such a horrible thing that needs to be stomped out. Kids should allowed to be kids.
As an Apple user I bless thee child, for thou art correct. In the name of the the father Steve Jobs, the Son Phil Schiller and the Holy Ghost Jonathan Ive.
In the beginning Woz created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness of big blue was upon the face of the dos. And the Spirit of Woz moved upon the face of the machines. And Woz said, Let there be light: and there was a happy startup chime, a little smiley Mac and light form a tiny glowing screen. And Woz saw the little smiley Mac, that it was good: and Woz divided the light from the dos. And Woz called the light a Mac, and the dos he called the evil IBM compatibles. And the evening and the morning were the first all night LAN party...
I'm really tired of "parent's / big brother's controlled" blips on TV shows, now dictionaries, what else, what is the reason - perfectly brain washed society, no "bad" words, gender / racial / religious / whatever "tolerant" dictionaries and at the end "official" vocabulary can be reduced to simple binary (yes/no)?
I think the very fact Apple responds to these kinds of seemingly silly kinds of claims and does so with minimal delay is very much telling of how thin of a line Apple treads with their business model.
...is to let me know that those are vulgar words, if I didn't know them before. To a non-english speaker it is not obvious that crap is a synonim for poop.
Parents need to raise there children!
Is the fact that you posted this in an article about a dictionary an attempt at irony?
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I was just about to point that out. Lots of kids have little cards that their parent load their allowance on these days. Saves worry about losing the money or it getting stolen by older kids, etc. Also allows parents to see where the money was spent. I do tend to think that this whole thing is rather silly, and Apple is being a bit high handed, but the credit card argument is bunk. There's about a dozen version of prepaid or debit type cards that kids have these days, and all work like a "credit card" to the iTunes system.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
My household has two of the things and our bill is only like $105. Not sure where these numbers come from.
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
My favorite is the definition of fuck-off in my unabridged Webster's dictionary:
"To leave forthwith. Usually imperative. Usually considered obscene."
I'm working from memory, so the quote may be slightly inaccurate.
They did put it in the front in a section called "addenda." So you won't find it if you just go to the main part of the dictionary.
YES but you need a credit card to buy on the iTunes store.
NO, you don't. You don't even need one to get an iTunes Store account. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2731
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
I don't give a shit, I want to know what ALL words mean, not just some of them. And as always, "words are only as offensive as the context in which they are used" - Dave Chappelle
Twinstiq, game news
Misquoted, that was Chris Rock obviously.
Twinstiq, game news
You're right, in fact we had better not teach them to read either, just in case they do manage to get a dictionary. Words are dangerous, any parent caught teaching their child to read should be locked up. After all, we must think of the children!
From TFA:
The issue that the App Store reviewers did find with the Ninjawords application is that it provided access to other more vulgar terms than those found in traditional and common dictionaries, words that many reasonable people might find upsetting or objectionable. A quick search on Wiktionary.org easily turns up a number of offensive "urban slang" terms that you won't find in popular dictionaries such as one that you referenced, the New Oxford American Dictionary included in Mac OS X.
I'm sorry, but Apples own dictionary app that will return the definition of the words "cunt" and "nigger", and I don't think there is anything more offensive.
If you get offended it's ALWAYS your own damned fault.
Not only did the developer censor himself all in the name of the almighty Dollar, he also sells a $2 app that does nothing but query Wiktionary.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
Guys if you so need to look up the definition of MoFo use safari on your iPhone it ships with it no need to install anything else.
I am a broadcast TV and media industry professional of more than 20 years and frankly all this gibberish about censorship is a joke.
From where I see it Apple is THE only communication device manufacturer ON EARTH with ANY kind of media and communications ethos or strategy. It is the most open accessible media strategy I know of.
For example the DRM you all moan about Apple has now ended. Apple was always against DRM (if you read up a bit) - it was just a strategy to help the record companies understand the business model for online music and it has been extremely successful.
Let's site some other examples of free and open media. Podcasting for example made accessible and common place largely due to Apple's influence. Now millions of people worldwide downloading millions of podcasts every week. Masses of free information from universities, news organisations, businesses etc.
Final Cut Studio - revolutionising the industry I work in as we speak. Bringing a much more affordable and accessible broadcast video edit system to anyone who has a message or a story to tell. 1/10th the cost of any of it's competition and frankly a better system.
Every single mac that ships has an edit suite on it - iMovie, iDVD, Garageband etc. 15 years ago a Journalist would have sold their grandmother to have such powerful tools on a consumer device.
This is clearly not a company interested in censorship - choosing if a single app is appropriate for kids to have delivered to their ipod/iphone - is not censorship. GET REAL.
Stop whining. Have a look at the bigger picture. :-)
If the app in question is indeed based on Wiktionary, then it's full of goodies like: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Dirty_Sanchez
Sadly, dirty sanchez is not in dictionary.com or m-w.com, so kids stranded with those conformist sources (or their printed equivalents) are missing out!!
When I read your column last night about the Ninjawords dictionary application I immediately investigated it with our App Store review team to learn the facts of what happened.
Let me start with the most important points - Apple did not censor the content in this developerâ(TM)s application and Apple did not reject this developerâ(TM)s application for including references to common swear words. You accused Apple of both in your story and the fact is that we did neither.
Ninjawords is an application which uses content from the Wiktionary.org online wiki-based dictionary to provide a nice fast dictionary application on the web and on the iPhone. Contrary to what you reported, the Ninjawords application was not rejected in the App Store review process for including common âoeswearâ words. In fact anyone can easily see that Apple has previously approved other dictionary applications in the App Store that include all of the âoeswearâ words that you gave as examples in your story.
The issue that the App Store reviewers did find with the Ninjawords application is that it provided access to other more vulgar terms than those found in traditional and common dictionaries, words that many reasonable people might find upsetting or objectionable. A quick search on Wiktionary.org easily turns up a number of offensive âoeurban slangâ terms that you wonâ(TM)t find in popular dictionaries such as one that you referenced, the New Oxford American Dictionary included in Mac OS X. Apple rejected the initial submission of Ninjawords for this reason, provided the Ninjawords developer with information about some of the vulgar terms, and suggested to the developer that they resubmit the application for approval once parental controls were implemented on the iPhone.
The Ninjawords developer then decided to filter some offensive terms in the Ninjawords application and resubmit it for approval for distribution in the App Store before parental controls were implemented. Apple did not ask the developer to censor any content in Ninjawords, the developer decided to do that themselves in order to get to market faster. Even though the developer chose to censor some terms, there still remained enough vulgar terms that it required a parental control rating of 17+.
You are correct that the Ninjawords application should not have needed to be censored while also receiving a 17+ rating, but that was a result of the developersâ(TM) actions, not Appleâ(TM)s. I believe that the Apple app review teamâ(TM)s original recommendation to the developer to submit the Ninjawords application, without censoring it, to the App Store once parental controls was implemented would have been the best course of action for all; Wiktionary.org is an open, ever-changing resource and filtering the content does not seem reasonable or necessary.
Talk about missing the forest for the trees.
No more AnonymousCoward. I'm pissed. Phil Schiller obviously has no clue what's going on. Bring in someone who understands that every aspect of the App Store is broken and how to fix it and FIRE THAT INCOMPETENT GOD-DAMNED FUCK ALREADY. Hell, I'll do it if they can't find anyone else. Matthew 23:24
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods