Apple Tries to Quiet Storm Over Ill-Advised Baby Shaker App

Lonnie Lazar ()

amd_baby_shaker.jpgIt took two days of people complaining, but Apple finally yanked Baby Shaker from the App Store on Wednesday – though the screaming and crying over why it was ever approved in the first place has probably yet to reach a fever pitch.

With nearly umpty-thousand applications now in the App Store and Apple fast approaching a billion downloads, it’s not unreasonable to expect that some things might slip through the cracks.

But, seriously, Baby Shaker?

Think I could slip my Shoot the President app past ‘em somehow?

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About the author

Lonnie Lazar

Lonnie Lazar is a writer-musician-web designer-attorney. He writes about Apple for Cult of Mac and Mac|Life, and about VoIP and telecommunications for Voxilla. Follow Lonnie on Twitter @LonnieLazar, join the Cult of Mac on Facebook, and find Lonnie's photos on Flickr.

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  • Robert

    Really? Equating shooting the president and shaking a baby? Not so much. Everyone needs to relax. It’s an application, it’s for fun. Maybe we should be a little more concerned with more important issues than an application that does no one harm, except for a digital baby. I’m glad they aborted the application though because there most likely would have been bitching for who knows how long.

  • http://www.foodorpoison.com Mark

    Since Apple maintains such tight control otherwise over the App Store, they have no excuse for allowing something like this to “slip…past ‘em.” And, a billion downloads is irrelevant–that’s an automated thing that in no way impacts Apple’s screening process.

  • http://www.iloveflycasual.com thelottery

    As much as I personally think a baby shaker app is ridiculous and in really poor taste, Apple is struggling with what they should and shouldn’t censor. Think about it in these terms: there are plenty of shooting games, fighting games, etc. that the general public takes no issue with, even though those games also depict illegal acts. What makes this app any different?

    I personally think Apple made the right call in yanking the app, but at the same time it further blurs the line of what should be considered acceptable.

  • Christine

    There’s a slight difference between a shooting game where you kill “bad guys” and simulating an action that can kill a baby. If one of the shooting games added a baby as a target I’d imagine that would raise questions as well.

    It’s disgusting that this was approved at all.

  • http://www.iloveflycasual.com thelottery

    Shooting “bad guys” is still illegal, Christine. FYI.

  • iFanboy

    I do like the drawing, though! Maybe ‘Baby Shaker’ should have been an app in which a baby suddenly starts crying, and by gentle rocking of the iPhone/iPod Touch, a random choice of tinkly, nursery music and lullabies comes on and the ‘baby’ stops crying and gurgles peacefully. There could be a number of these drawings, animated to show the baby turning over or sucking its tiny thumb.

    On a long journey, a mom or dad could have given MY* ‘Baby Shaker’ app to their little girl, for example… to distract her for a time. (‘Baby Wonder’ would be a ‘sister’ app in which the child ~ girl or boy ~ reads a story into the iPhone/iPod Touch… to another animated ‘baby’… which responds to words or sound waves.)

    Back to reality: In its present form, I say that app HAD to go!

    [*anyone can use the idea]

  • oomu

    this has NOTHING in common with a shooter game about bad guys and evil monsters. It’s just ugly.

    -
    a game about relaxing a baby would be logical and nice for kids.

  • Don

    “Shooting “bad guys” is still illegal, Christine. FYI.”

    Not always, Lottery. In fact, it very frequently is not illegal.