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Apple Censors 'Ninjawords Dictionary' iPhone Application

the app itself looks somewhat unusual. The app examples and the description on itunes are mostly about killing, buccaneers and historical militant groups?!? And there is a real ninja lurking in the program.

WTF?

Looks like garbage to me. Maybe Apple is right...
 
Doctor Q said:
This is extremely draconian of Apple. I wonder if the bad publicity will get them to change their minds.

In the meantime, I guess Urban Dictionary isn't going to become an iPhone app anytime soon.
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My exact thought! I would love to see an Urban Dictionary App. I guess it'll never happen.

To the points about Apple's own dictionary on OSX being a point of contention, do you guys think that this indicates AT&T's involvement in the App screening process? Or that they had a stipulation in the initial contract saying that Apple had to act in this stupid manner?

It just doesn't make sense! Stop ******* things up Apple! You're making it hard for me to switch from Verizon which I was gonna do next month.
 
Must be Apple and AT&T

gabe90 said:
To the points about Apple's own dictionary on OSX being a point of contention, do you guys think that this indicates AT&T's involvement in the App screening process? Or that they had a stipulation in the initial contract saying that Apple had to act in this stupid manner?
month.
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Assuming these business follow some sort of logic, it has to be a combination of Apple and AT&T:

1) If the restrictions were removed, everyone would just use Skype, bypassing all the phone providers complex and expensive phone plans. Turning the phone network into a "dumb" data network, which the phone companies will stop at anything to prevent.

2) Approving some dictionaries with swear words, and rejecting other dictionaries with the exact same content? Sounds like a broken process plain and simple.

(For the record its the same with Chinese dictionaries! Some are approved and some of the better ones are rejected)
 
dejo said:
Sounds very similar to the hoops that my company, Another Roadside Attraction, had to jump through in order to get our craigslist app, [app]CraigsHarvest[/app], approved. It took over two months of back and forth with Apple to finally get it OKed. First, we had to remove the Personals and Erotic Services categories (this was back in December before craigslist moved Erotic to Adult and way before ratings; we've been allowed to include those in our latest version). That wasn't sufficient, though. We also had to prevent the user from using search terms of profane words. And we had to guess what that list of objectionable words was. Apple never gave us any direction as to what that might be, other than to provide specific examples of searches that weren't allowed. We could never get an answer to the question "what are all the other words you find objectionable?".
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You guys should have written John Gruber, and bitched loudly and publicly (it's not too late). This BS has to stop!
 
I was planning on...

I was considering switching from verizon to grab an iphone.

but then I started seeing how pathetically limp-wristed and maniacal Apple is handling every aspect of their phone.

**** that, I am fine with my samsung 4 year old flip phone. :cool:


stupid stupid stupid apple. I hope the iphone crashes hard.
 
This is the problem with censoring content--it's a slippery slope. What is Apple going to do, start removing rap and hip-hop songs and e-books (Catcher in the Rye, anyone?)? Heck, even at least one Joni Mitchell song has an f-bomb.

All Apple needs to do is make sure apps have the appropriate content advisories on them. The only apps that should actually be barred from the store are ones where the programming has a technical problem (and I would hope that Apple would work with the developer to solve it), where there is an IP issue, or where Google Voice is involved. No, wait, just kidding about that last one.
 
gabe90 said:
My exact thought! I would love to see an Urban Dictionary App. I guess it'll never happen.

To the points about Apple's own dictionary on OSX being a point of contention, do you guys think that this indicates AT&T's involvement in the App screening process? Or that they had a stipulation in the initial contract saying that Apple had to act in this stupid manner?

It just doesn't make sense! Stop ******* things up Apple! You're making it hard for me to switch from Verizon which I was gonna do next month.
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At least we can still access Uban Dictionary via Safari on the iPhone. They haven't taken that away from us yet! ;)
 
These rejections are getting a little ridiculous. While I'm not going giving up on the app store yet, I'm with Gruber here and it does make me stop and think "wtf is next?"

I really wouldn't go so far as to say Apple is draconian—that's a strong word. It seems a lot of times what gets approved is dependent on the reviewer, his mood, her moodswings, etc. Apple's management needs to tighten this process up. Jobs needs to smack some people around.

Everyone complaining here should also voice their comments to Apple, particularly the sjobs e-mail. Maybe something can be done... I see a lot of bitching on blogs but nobody mentions sending anything to a higher-up.
 
ouimetnick said:
Apple's own dictionary on OS X. has the definition for words like F*ck, a*s, b*tch and more. Apple must remove safari from the iPhone , as anyone can view porn and bad things on Safari on the iPhone.
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toddgarvin said:
So... let me see...
I can't view "dirty" words on my iPhone, but I can open the Dictionary app that comes with EVERY MAC and see all the "dirty" words I want??
Can Apple be any more hypocritical??
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rdowns said:
Then why do all Macs ship with Dictionary.app and all its "objectionable" words?
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To be fair, the dictionary in OS X is subject to parental controls. There is an option in System Preferences to filter out profanity. And Safari (on iPhone and OS X) is subject to parental controls as well.

It seems silly that a dictionary app is rated 17+, but I suppose I can understand that. Either that or provide parental controls within individual apps (which would be a huge headache to implement, and is probably unrealistic).

HOWEVER, if the app is rated 17+ then it should not be censored at all. It is what it is. The parental controls are in place for app ratings.
 
Doctor Q said:
The answer may come from the FCC.
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That assumes that AT&T will actually provide something beyond a non-denial response that denies involvement. I have a strong suspicion that AT&T is never going to admit to anything that would implicate wrong doing. I also think that Apple wouldn't either. There is going to be alot of he said she said that goes down to confidentiality agreements between the two companies.
 
Next thing you'll know, Apple will reject a medical textbook app because it talks about the anatomy of breasts, penises (sp?) and so forth or a recipe book that calls for chicken breasts because it contains "breast".
 
guzhogi said:
Next thing you'll know, Apple will reject a medical textbook app because it talks about the anatomy of breasts, penises (sp?) and so forth or a recipe book that calls for chicken breasts because it contains "breast".
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Apple does ridiculously key in on words out of context sometimes.

I remember a note posted in Apple's forum about the rural carriers' request to get access to devices like the iPhone. Because it's a formal document, it is called a "Petition to the FCC".

The post was deleted, because "petitions are not allowed in the forum". Right, legal petitions (requests) are the same as reader signature petitions in the eyes of the idiot Apple moderators.

Apple sure seems to hire some not-so-bright people for their store and forums.
 
I don't own an iPhone, but let me tell you, if I decided to pay over twice as much as I am paying now for my monthly bill, I would at definitely expect to be allowed to install whatever applications I want onto the device.

If they're gonna put some rating on it like a movie or an album they should at least allow it to be an uncensored version of the program.
 
not only does it have the word listed, but the free Dictionary.com App (which is great, by the way) also pronounces it for us! :D... i like hearing my iPod Touch swear!

This is solid proof that the app store is extremely flawed. in addition to this new dictionary being refused, while there is no porn allowed we have apps like "Bikini XXX" (or whatever it's called) making top 25 list. it's almost as if a conservative apple employee works on app store submissions monday and wednesday, while moderates work the remaining days. let's hope for apple's sake that apps are pre-screened with buggy software that makes these foolish decisions.
 

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pimentoLoaf said:
The gov't's investigation of Apple over App approval can come none too soon.
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I don't know what you expect the government to do. The App Store is a store owned by Apple, who has the right to control what does or does not appear in it regardless of how ridiculous some of their decisions seem, just like Walmart can decide not to sell certain movies/CDs/candy bars for whatever reasons they choose.

The only reason the FCC is investigating the Google Voice issue is because of possible anticompetitive practices by a communications company (AT&T).
 
admanimal said:
I don't know what you expect the government to do. The App Store is a store owned by Apple, who has the right to control what does or does not appear in it regardless of how ridiculous some of their decisions seem, just like Walmart can decide not to sell certain movies/CDs/candy bars for whatever reasons they choose.

The only reason the FCC is investigating the Google Voice issue is because of possible anticompetitive practices by a communications company (AT&T).
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Unfortunately that's true. The only options are to either jailbreak your phone or buy a competing product and help send a messaga to Apple.

People say that Apple should fix their App Store policies but I think they like it how it is. They have leeway to reject an app whenever they feel like it and some of these insane choices (mature ratings for apps that access a browser) seem to be mandated from people higher up. I'm personally getting sick and tired of updating my apps and continually getting this 17+ rating alert.
 
Oh shut the hell up already. All of a sudden you start to cry over a flipping app rejection?!
You folks need to calm your a** down and stop with all this high school drama.
But if you really feel the way you do, gone on to Android. Bye! Don't let the door hit your a** on the way out.
Besides, you're probably in that 16-24 demographic anyway. Yall jump ship in the blink of an eye like there is no tomorrow.
 
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