Josh Begley had a great idea on how to get people talking about the U.S. Military’s controversial use of attack drones. He created an iOS app called Drones+ that sends users a push notification every time a US drone strikes a target.
All those notification will probably get you thinking about whether drones are good or bad. The aim of Drones+ was to create a conversation using barebones information. It doesn’t contain nasty images of corpses, or a death toll meter. All the data comes from publicly available sources. It’s family friendly. But for some reason, Apple really doesn’t want iPhone owners to use it, so they’ve rejected it three times.
The first time Begley submitted the app, Apple told him it wasn’t “useful or entertaining enough.” He made some changes, submitted again and got rejected again. Then a few days ago he received his third rejection that says the app contains “objectionable” content.
Here’s how Wired describes Drones+:
When a drone strike occurs, Drones+ catalogs it, and presents a map of the area where the strike took place, marked by a pushpin. You can click through to media reports of a given strike that the Bureau of Investigative Reporting compiles, as well as some basic facts about whom the media thinks the strike targeted.
