Developers Sneaking Porn, Profanity Onto iPhone Via Easter Eggs
8:50 am, May 19th, 2009, Leander Kahney

CC-licensed iPhone homescreen screenshot by Blake Patterson.
Developers are sneaking Easter Eggs into their iPhone apps to get around onerous App Store restrictions, Brian Chen at Wired.com reports.
Programmer Jelle Prins’ song lyrics app Lyrics, for example, was initially rejected by the App store because it included songs with naughty words. Apple bans profanity, pornography and basically anything adult and fun.
But the Lyrics app will include swear words if you go to the About page and swipe downward three times. Up pops an option to turn off a swear word filter.
“Lyrics has slipped in a quiet ‘Screw you’ to Apple’s App Store gatekeepers — albeit one mumbled behind their backs,” Chen writes.
Has anyone else discovered undocumented features in iPhone apps? If so, leave them in the comments. A prize for the best one.
Posted by Leander Kahney in Apple, News, Software, iPhone | Comment on this article












There was the google one… Swipe down and you get Bells and Whistles in the Settings menu…
Darcy Taranto, on May 19th, 2009 at 9:09 am
F*c&ing “Duh.” Apple’s App Store probably seemed like a great idea at the time, but it became bloated and diluted with crap very quickly, and Apple hasn’t been remotely able to review and approve apps with any regularity or consistency at all. Horrible things have made it through, legitimate wonderful things have not (largely based on it impacting Apple’s own revenue or the revenue of AT&T).
smallerdemon, on May 19th, 2009 at 10:29 am
I still have no problem whatsoever with Apple censoring their marketplace.
The Idiot, on May 19th, 2009 at 10:41 am
This is pretty funny, glad to hear developers are having a little fun and thumbing their noses at the App Store gatekeepers.
iPhone Girl, on May 19th, 2009 at 11:27 am
Well, it did. Until you posted this…
Ryan, on May 19th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Last time I checked the biggest seller of porn in the world was AT&T. I wonder if Apple realizes this? Will they ban AT&T? Oh, wait, crap now we don’t have an iPhone platform…
Brandon, on May 19th, 2009 at 7:57 pm
@Brandon. Where’d you see that info about AT&T and porn? Any detailed stats? Can you post a link? Tx.
Leander Kahney, on May 19th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
Leander. I just typed at&t and porn in google and it came up with loads of results. So i dont think its that secret
Bernard, on May 20th, 2009 at 7:26 am
Personally, I’m grateful for Apple’s stand against pornography and inappropriate language. Not only for myself but for my kids and their Apple gear as well.
Paul, on May 20th, 2009 at 7:59 am
Google? What’s that? Just kidding. Guess I’ll have to do the legwork myself.
Leander Kahney, on May 20th, 2009 at 9:12 am
It would have been quicker for you to google it than type that message…
Tetra, on May 20th, 2009 at 2:41 pm
well now that you let the cat out of the bag, I guess people are going to have to get their iphone porn from sites like http://ipinkvisual.com
Margerine, on May 20th, 2009 at 4:30 pm
Well as a teen, I think porn and cursing should be allowed but Only in apps that you hav to pay for
David, on May 20th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
What happens to the developer once their Easter egg is found by Apple? Is the creator of ‘Lyrics’ blacklisted now that this is public info?
dan, on May 21st, 2009 at 6:03 am
This all started when that one app got banned from the appstore then they turned around and made an webapp version at http://www.onetapporn.com
dubz, on May 22nd, 2009 at 10:33 am