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Great option for parents. Hope it is designed well so it can actually help parents that choose to implement it.
 
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Parents relying upon companies to parent for them win again and aggravate everyone else.
Uh, no. You do realize that the iPhone right now has parental controls that can be enabled, that they are not enabled by default and that the iPods had parental controls for some time now?

If you are not a parent of a child then this will not affect you so I don't see why you are getting worked up. It is still the responsibility of the "PARENT" to turn these sorts of features "ON" in the first place.

In a "NUTSHELL", the "PARENT" has to actively turn these restrictions "ON" for each device.
 
Im sorry, Steve doesn't like to use that word...

Would you consider changing the word 'penis' to:

1. Macintosh
2. Banana
3. Longhorn
4. Sofa
5. iTunes
 
Come one....

this is sofa king stupid. I thought this was going to scan images sent from one to another and then alert. Not just text... kinda dumb.
 
I don't get why people are so negative about this. It's a setting, it's parental control etc, not a standard.

Personally I would love this if I had kids.

I do have a kid and I'd feel like a total failure as a partent if I used this product.

I don't want to read their SMSs, but I'd love to be notified if they use certain words excessively so that I can have a talk about it with them without breaking their privacy (too much).

Well, now, see, THAT sounds like a wonderful product. Seriously. I'd love to get an e-mail saying "your kid used the F-word 300 times this week." Then, yeah, I'd chat with him about it. Ask if he'd noticd that he was doing it...start a conversation.

But that's not what the article is about. It's about outright blocking the words as they're sent. Not cool.

I don't get why people are so negative about this.

So to bring it back to your first question again... People are negative because the patent doesn't match the idea you came up with. It's something different.
 
Try reading the patent folks:

"The content of such a message is controlled by filtering the message based on defined criteria. The criteria may be defined according to a parental control application. These techniques also may be used, in accordance with instructional embodiments, to require the administered devices to include certain text in messages. These embodiments might, for example, require that a certain number of Spanish words per day be included in e-mails for a child learning Spanish. "
 
Ummmm

Im sorry, Steve doesn't like to use that word...

Would you consider changing the word 'penis' to:

1. Macintosh
2. Banana
3. Longhorn
4. Sofa
5. iTunes

How about 6. Steve

'My Steve is so broken from the work you did on it last night!'
 
wtf?!? too far in the consumer control department. Looks like a bit less fun between me and the girlfriend from that update onwards.

is anybody actually reading?

the feature is optional and will most likely be used for parental controls or by companies.

you and your GF will continue to have fun unless you are stupid enough to accidentally activate that feature.
 
Personally I would love this if I had kids. I don't want to read their SMSs, but I'd love to be notified if they use certain words excessively so that I can have a talk about it with them without breaking their privacy (too much).

Do you really think you can teach todays kids proper behavior by censoring a couple of words on their phone?
 
I guess this could be good news for businesses that might be looking into implementing iPhones in an enterprise setting.
 
Talk about stupid patents. This is by far the dumbest thing I have ever seen.


I don't get why people are so negative about this. It's a setting, it's parental control etc, not a standard.

Personally I would love this if I had kids. I don't want to read their SMSs, but I'd love to be notified if they use certain words excessively so that I can have a talk about it with them without breaking their privacy (too much).


Thankfully you don't have kids. Please keep it that way.
 
couldn't they just email the pics instead of texting them? there is an email app built into the iphone that allows you to send photos taken from your iphone, you know? /rhetorical question

edit: nevermind: not everyone has a smartphone! lol!
 
I'd love to get an e-mail saying "your kid used the F-word 300 times this week." Then, yeah, I'd chat with him about it. Ask if he'd noticd that he was doing it...start a conversation.

Yeah, nothing encourages a kid to talk like letting him know you're monitoring his conversations right down to counting occurrences of naughty words.
 
Do you really think you can teach todays kids proper behavior by censoring a couple of words on their phone?

No, but you can protect them from sending out profane stuff that will embarras or even harm them later when people find out (e.g. your kid wants to get a scholarship or join an orchestra).

Also you set an example what is ok and what is not ok. Smart kids will learn, not so smart kids will circumvent that filter and face the consequences eventually.
 
"I've heard that he's got a huge carrot."

"De wanna wanga?"

"Succuse my nubble!"

Oh, the possibilities.
 
unless this feature is completely optional, i don't like it.

Haha! I'm pretty sure it will be optional. I can't imagine Apple would implement this for all users everywhere and anywhere. Although the idea of Apple cleaning up our texts does make me laugh.

What do you reckon $%@# is in place of?

I cannot believe I studied for the math test for five **** hours and only got a C. Check out the attatched.​

Nope. Doesn't make sense.

I cannot believe I studied for the math test for five **** hours and only got a C. Check out the attatched.​

Nope, although the hours were likely ****.

I cannot believe I studied for the math test for five **** hours and only got a C. Check out the attatched.​

Nope. I'm stumped.
 
unless this feature is completely optional, i don't like it.

Of course it's completely optional, it's part of parental controls. I think it's a good thing. Allow parents to control their children. If parents can be held responsible for the actions of their children, anything that helps parents keep those actions under control is a good thing.

regardless if one likes censoring of texts I do NOT see how this can be a patent.

What is the invention here? Isn't scanning the text for keywords and then blocking it from being sent out a obvious thing?

Better than Apple patents it up front rather than implement it and have someone else sue them. The patent system is broken, as such, Apple has to patent everything.
 
Why so many negatives to this, is the majority of the macrumors readership made up of underage kids now? As long as this is optional and not something to add to the auto-correction software I think is good. Most probably, they will implement this in the parental control settings. If this becomes obligatory for everyone then it's a bad move... They will make this as an optional feature for parental control to keep kids on track and I think is good.
 
Of course it's completely optional, it's part of parental controls. I think it's a good thing. Allow parents to control their children. If parents can be held responsible for the actions of their children, anything that helps parents keep those actions under control is a good thing.

The only real way to control children is a lobotomy. Then you don't need the iPhone.

WIN.
 
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