Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: apple, censor, dictionary, parental, controls | Themes: Smartphones, Audio/Video Players, 3GSM
Instead, the dictionary censored itself.
One of the big stories about Apple's App Store approval process has been about an apparent censoring of a dictionary application. Apple senior VP Phil Schiller responded directly to the original report with an email explaining that censorship isn't exactly what happened.
The scrubbing of the Ninjawords app stems from the developer's desire to release its software to market as soon as possible – before Apple's iPhone OS 3.0 parental controls were available.
Had the developers waited for the parental controls launch in June, it would have been able to pass the App Store approval process with just a 17+ age rating. Instead, what ended up happening was that the developer scrubbed the obscene content in hopes to get on the App Store before the parental controls were implemented, but the original 17+ age recommendation stuck.
As upset as some people are over Apple's tight control over the content that goes up on the App Store, Schiller does confess that the company is always looking for ways to improve.
"Apple’s goals remain aligned with customers and developers — to create an innovative applications platform on the iPhone and iPod touch and to assist many developers in making as much great software as possible for the iPhone App Store," Schiller wrote. "While we may not always be perfect in our execution of that goal, our efforts are always made with the best intentions, and if we err we intend to learn and quickly improve."
-
Previous News Article
LG Watch Phone to Cost Over $1,000 -
Next News Article
Twitter, Facebook DDoS Targeted...
No they censored the Victionary
Apple didn't censor the dictionary, they just made it so parents wouldn't allow their children to download it.
Also in the news, Apple releases a new dictionary for the iPhone OS, with no age restrictions. Check out exciting words like F*ck, Sh#t, C&nt, previously unavailable on your iPhone!
*censorship added willingly by comment author
Apple Says it Didn't Censor Dictionary.
They just stop them from release it... several times...
Like google apps.
Apple is just an antitrust case.
They didn't censor it, they just denied it for having bad words. Nope, no censorship going on here...
Apple is like Officer Barbrady from South Park
"Nothing to see here!!!"
Yes, lets censor a dictionary, because it has some bad words in it. Because, knowing what something obscene means is harmful to children.
/sarcasm
17+ rating on a dictionary. Boobies are obscene. Watching people get shot, stabbed, and die is OK... so long as its not too gory, I mean, you wouldn't want to see too much blood in violent scenes would you?
Censorship is a freaking joke. I'm so sick of "political correctness" I could freaking puke. And, as far as I'm concerned, I'd rather burn my money than buy an Apple product.
SSUUUURRREEEEE
A dictionary is considered 17+ age rating? What the hell has our country come to when a dictionary is considered "adult" material basically.. "WATCH OUT LITTLE JIMMY THEM WORDS ARE BAD THINGS!"
If I go to the bookstore and let my kid try to buy a copy of Hustler the person behind the counter is going to stop them. If they pick up a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary they will not bat an eyelid. Even though it contains the words Fuck, Shit and Cunt.
Maybe we are looking at this the wrong way round, Dictionaries have been getting away with this for years, what we need to do is round up all the copies of the Dictionary and have them burned, preferable in public at large rallies, maybe in Nuremburg in Germany in the 1930's.
Of course this will leave lots of empty spaces on bookshelves, maybe we could replace them with copies of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.
Does it scare anyone else that stories like these are becoming daily events?
Take all the CCTV camera stories coming out of England (Cameras in 22,000 people's HOMES now!) and all of the nasty Patriot Act/MPAA/RIAA bullshit coming out of the States and add to it the tendencies of Apple and other multi-national corporations to make huge sweeping Orwellian decisions and I feel like more and more we're living in a Big Brother "Thought Police" environment...and we don't even know it yet...
they sky isn't blue and Steve jobs isn't the devil. they are still gonna take it away from 16 and under just because of a few words that they would use anyway
telim: this is a single phone and service... let's not blow this out of proportions... people are making it seem like this is the only phone available and the only software provider for phones available... just because it's the only one YOU wish to go to and use doesn't mean the rest of the world even cares wot goes on with it. it's apple's device.. let them do as they wish with it. you as a consumer should vote with your wallet... or don't... but stop whining and making this seem like a world shattering event.
i wonder, how many people actually buy their iphone outright? i'd bet it's very few to none, so none of these whiners really have a leg to stand on when they talk about unlocking a phone 'they bought'. till you finish the term length of your contract, you're renting to own!
So 95% of the people who "own" a house and have a mortgage are just renting? If you buy you computer using a credit card you don't own it? You can't upgrade it or decide to run Linux on it.
People wonder why lots of us have problem with Apple products. It's this crap and believe me we do vote with our wallets. Giving them a free pass by making excuses will just continue this trend. No company is beyond question.
Does it scare anyone else that stories like these are becoming daily events?Take all the CCTV camera stories coming out of England (Cameras in 22,000 people's HOMES now!) and all of the nasty Patriot Act/MPAA/RIAA bullshit coming out of the States and add to it the tendencies of Apple and other multi-national corporations to make huge sweeping Orwellian decisions and I feel like more and more we're living in a Big Brother "Thought Police" environment...and we don't even know it yet...
Doesn't scare me. News like this = more clicks = more money for Toms.
For me in the US, unless there's a new amendment, my actual rights, not privileges that people take for rights will remain. Of course, I predict that I will be downvoted until my comment is hidden, as although these people here talk about rights and ownership they don't respect the right for me to say my opinion, which just happens to be different than most people here.
my gaod censoring a dictionary ,wtf ???
First of all I am not an Apple "fanboi" nor do I own an iPhone or any other apple product. I could really care less about how they rate the software in the App Store. I don't understand how anyone can say Apple "censored" the dictionary when it clearly states that:
How often do the "17+" or "M for mature" ratings on anything get paid any attention. The only reason there are ratings systems like this are because we live in such a litigious (lawsuit-happy) society. God-forbid little Johnny, who somehow has his own iPhone, learns the formal definition of •°o.O Insert Choice Expletive Here O.o°• and his parents decide they're gonna try to sue the pants of Apple for being so careless with the content they provide to minors.
Once a company sets the precedent of censoring ONE THING....they then make themselves liable for every little piece of content they provide.
Waste of time and money and just another thing to bump up the price of already over-priced Apple products. Make an open platform, let people write whatever they damn well please to run on it and just charge them by the month. Oh yeah you could just hack your iPhone and do that now.
Don't give us that crap about a litigious society, Apple may have removed common sense from the Dictionary but if Mr & Mrs Goody-Two-Shoes take them to court the Judge would just say :-
"It's a fucking DICTIONARY, of course it has fucking swear words it! Get the fuck out of my fucking courtroom before I throw your fucking ass in jail for fucking wasting my fucking time!"
Maybe...
"obscene content"????
17+ age rating????
Dictionary???
HAS EVERYONE LOST THEIR MINDS!!!!
Forget about applications like Safari where you can go on the internet and look up porn, Dictionary must be stopped
The iPhone is a wireless device and almost every state in the Union has a law pertaining to such like the one below...make the deduction. Don't blame Apple, blame all of the religious freaks who are trying to push morality up our arse's everytime we turn around. Ahh...if we could only reformat them.
"The transmission or receiving of ... harmful material. Access to or display of obscene language and sexually explicit graphics as defined in section 2901.01 and 2907.31 of the Ohio Revised Code is not permitted."
So why isn't the same law applied to a paper Dictionary?
Simple answers, preferabley the truth please....
Because the data/information is not being transmitted. Once anything rides the Federal air waves then it is subject to Federal laws and the Feds don't like us to use inappropriate language, smoke what we want in our own homes, think creativly and out of the box, etc. A good example is TV and the "seven dirty words." Here is Carlin's take on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_Nrp7cj_tM
Which, oddly enough, is being transmitted over the airwaves, Lenny Bruce did time in jail for those words. But that still doesn't satisfy my confusion. If a bookstore can stop my kid from buying a copy of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition or the latest copy of Hustler, then why isn't the Dictionary subject to the same laws?
If someone tells me it's because even Federal Law isn't stupid enough to enforce the laws on something as obvious as a compendium of the English language, then that means that Apple is more inflexible than the Federal Government. God help us all.