Just when Apple makes one fairly positive App Store move, then they hit us with another decision that clearly shows how ridiculous and badly broken the reviews non-process is. This decision is right up there in the Top 5 (easily) most incomprehensible App Store decisions ever.
They ‘ve censored a dictionary app, called Ninjawords. For containing ‘objectionable ‘ words that ALL dictionaries contain “ and to put a little icing on the cake, they ‘ve still branded the app with a 17+ rating even after the developers filtered out a number of words Apple objected to.
The excellent Daring Fireball has the whole very pathetic story, but here ‘s just a little slice of it:
But Ninjawords for iPhone suffers one humiliating flaw: it omits all the words deemed ‘objectionable ‘ by Apple ‘s App Store reviewers, despite the fact that Ninjawords carries a 17+ rating.
Apple censored an English dictionary.
A dictionary. A reference book. For words contained in all reasonable dictionaries. For words contained in dictionaries that are used every day in elementary school libraries and classrooms.
And a point of comparison:
Even Walmart, notorious for its censorship of ‘objectionable ‘ music and movies, neither restricts nor places warning labels on dictionaries.
Here ‘s another example of how dumb this decision is:
The list of omitted words includes some which have utterly non-objectionable senses: ass, snatch, pussy, cock, and even screw. (Ass and cock appear throughout the King James Bible.)
Daring Fireball ‘s Jon Gruber offers a perfect sum-up of what this decision means:
Apple requires you to be 17 years or older to purchase a censored dictionary that omits half the words Steve Jobs uses every day.
Check out the whole horrible story “ including details of an interview with the developer of Ninjawords “ at Daring Fireball HERE.
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TAGS: stupid App Store decisions
