Cult of Mac: a blog about the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone - and the people who love them

18 comments

Hello.
What I understand is that the application got rejected because the F word appeared on one of the screenshots the developer uploaded to promote the app.

If this is the reason I think Apple did the correct thing.
I guess the developer would only need to submit a new screenshot without any offensive word to get the app approved.

joakod, on March 10th, 2009 at 11:40 am

Oh noes! Two examples of inconstant app rejections out of 20,000+ (as of last month) apps? The horror! I’m sure Steve himself personally inspects each app for awesomeness, not some lowly tech following some vague guidelines.

What’s with the storm in the teacup? “Oh Apple, you had better watch our or feel the wrath of your users.” B#&@%, please. News flash: Nobody gives a shit. Nobody also gives a shit about your twitter account anyway.

brian, on March 10th, 2009 at 11:43 am

@joakod—The dev has confirmed that the screen grab in question was sent to him by Apple. Apple rejected the app because they used it, saw a swear word, and deemed it offensive. The dev has since responded by sending grabs of every other Twitter client that show said swear word. Knowing Apple, they’ll boot all the other apps, too.

@brian—This is hardly the first time this has happened, and it’s becoming a trend. Apps are being rejected for no reason, while the App Store becomes a place where keyword spamming and bad nav are rife. I’d also hate precedent to be set regarding apps being booted for offensive content when the apps have zero control over said content. As for my twitter account, thanks for playing, but I never mentioned it once in the post. Bzzt!

Craig Grannell, on March 10th, 2009 at 11:51 am

Wow, how stupid.

How come they approve a thousand fart-noise-making apps?

Church of Apple, on March 10th, 2009 at 12:30 pm

If Microsoft tried to get away with what Apple does routinely (and this is just one example), they’d be lynched.

Mark, on March 10th, 2009 at 12:34 pm

@Craig—You missed the point: big friggin’ deal some app approval wonk made a mistake out of 20,000+ friggin’ apps. Also, you miss the point about the South Park app. Southpark is puerile at best and patently offensive at worst (I personally love that show). But… parents can turn off a kid’s ability to buy certain rated shows, but not apps. That’s a decent reason why to ban it. Why worry about the PR problem is some mothers-against-bad-stuff group goes on some televised rant about Apple perverting children! Much worse than pissing on a few twitterheads. Should Apple have a rating system for apps too? Sure. Pr0n could make them a killing, but I digress. Also, I played and won. You didn’t even have to mention it, your complaints about lack of oh-so-important Twitter app access outs you as a Twitter fiend. Like your 99.99% of blogs (and twitter accounts), you’re speaking to an empty room. There are tons of tech/apple/game/etc pundits so your blog probably gets lost in the static. Unless you grow boobs like that talentless attention whore your Wired editor seems to love (she got the cover for doing what?), you’re probably lost in the static and have a subscription count more death valley than silicon valley. An unfortunate side effect of this narcissistic tech culture of ours is the desire to post all of the boring details of our boring lives on the net for no one to see. Perhaps if you were a rock star or a jet setter, eating at the Slanted Door for lunch and Nobu for dinner, perhaps your tweets might be interesting, but “I just took a shit” and “I read email” or re-posting something you read on another site just aren’t interesting, bro.

brian, on March 10th, 2009 at 12:40 pm

If you’ve been around a group of high school kids in the last year (and aren’t one), you probably won’t find some forms of regulation absurd at all.

We’ve turned our young people into thugs and whores by being too permissive.

My hat’s off to Apple.

The Idiot, on March 10th, 2009 at 1:51 pm

This is getting ridiculous. Do they even have a ‘policy’ or does the approval just depend on who happens to be in the room at the time?

What specifically annoys me is the inconsistencies. I was happy when they were blocking all the ‘iFart’ apps… The store was a nicer place to ‘visit’. Then they approved those, yet they keep kicking back other applications that are actually worthwhile for ‘offensive content.

Idiots.

Duality, on March 10th, 2009 at 2:20 pm

@brian—Many thanks for putting me in my place. Rest assured that I’m now going to tweet to my ‘death valley’ followers about my floods of tears on reading your rant.

However, you still miss the fundamental point in my post. This isn’t about Twitter, nor is it about static. It’s about Apple booting an application due to there being swearing on the internet—and that is an absurd precedent to set.

@Church of Apple—Hit the nail on the head.

Craig Grannell, on March 10th, 2009 at 2:48 pm

So brian, I assume you’d be just as happy to see iPhone versions of Firefox, Opera, Chrome etc. rejected because they could potentially be used to access websites with nudey ladies on them?

Stu, on March 10th, 2009 at 3:05 pm

They couldn’t even make a funny fart video with the fart app. It all stinks. If ‘there’s an app for just about everything.’ How about an iPhone app to zap and delete those other useless apps? Meh.

fred edison, on March 10th, 2009 at 6:13 pm

Totally strawmanning the discussion, but try Twitterfon. I dig it.

phoenix, on March 10th, 2009 at 6:49 pm

Of course there’s not going to be an iPhone version of Firefox, Opera or (ha ha!) IE, but if Apple is going to be consistent, they are going to ban Safari as well. Someone might surf to a website like http://bynkii.com/ .

(No slight intended to John Welch. He just like to cuss a lot. )

Wes, on March 10th, 2009 at 9:48 pm

@ Stu—that straw man argument is weak.

@Craig—Not trying to be mean, just making an off-topic point. Everyone grousing about the what, but no one is thinking about ‘why?’ Apple is blazing new trails with the app store and are bound to make mistakes approving/denying tens of thousands of apps. That’s the reality. There’s no Steve Vader meanness or lunacy as suggested by commenters and the original post. You’re tempest in a teacup is silly. Maybe you’re doing it to drive traffic and attaboy or vitriolic responses, who knows? Back to Apple. I’m sure they have some small crew either approving or denying apps. My guess is: after some debugger or validator determines the code is safe, some wonk determines—in a few seconds, minutes tops—if the app is safe… “safe” being determined by some fuzzy guidelines that obviously could use work. C’mon guys, give it a rest.

brian, on March 11th, 2009 at 5:47 am

Craig, I’m glad you’re here to call them on this sort of thing. It’s ridiculous.

Matt, on March 11th, 2009 at 5:58 am

brian: In what way? You seem to be saying that Apple was right to reject a Twitter-related app because it could be used to access sweary content; how is that any different?

Stu, on March 11th, 2009 at 1:36 pm

Brian,

How foolish are you? Craig is playing his part providing constructive criticism. Without feed back such as his, the app store and many other products would end up sucking far more than they already do. I understand when you enjoy a product and hear a negative comment over something seemingly minuet, it’s very natural to take a jab. What you have to remember is that regardless of commercials, opinions or product quality; you the customer, are only worth as much as you contribute. Corporations really don’t care about you. If you buy their product and keep quiet, it’s perfect. Craig here is buying their product and addressing concerns. This will work in your favor especially in this case. I’m not sure if you understand what a problem censorship is and how fast it can take control. Craig, thanks for your input and Brian, if you don’t have anything positive or constructive to say, you might as well shut up.

Zac

Zac, on March 13th, 2009 at 9:43 am

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