Apple's new low: censoring a dictionary
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted Aug 5th 2009 1:03PM
posted Aug 5th 2009 1:03PM
Apple censored an English dictionary.
A dictionary. A reference book. For words contained in all reasonable dictionaries. For words contained in dictionaries that are used every day in elementary school libraries and classrooms.
But it's far worse than that.
Gruber went a step further and spoke with one of the developers, Phil Crosby, who had this to say on Apple's approach to the software:
In essence, you would have to already know the word in order to be able to look it up in the app -- your mind would have had to be already poisoned with the sinful idea."We were rejected for objectionable content. They provided screenshots of the words 'shit' and 'fuck' showing up in our dictionary's search results. What's interesting is that we spent a good deal of time making it so that you must type vulgar words in their entirety, and only then will we show you suggestions in the search results. For instance, if you type 'fuc', you will not see 'fuck' as a suggestion. This is in contrast to all other dictionaries we're aware of on the App Store (including Dictionary.com's application), which will show you 'fuck' in the search results for 'fuc', 'motherfucker' for 'mother', etc."
After three rejections, the forced removal of a number of "illicit" words (many of which are common and innocuous -- "ass" for instance), and a mandatory 17+ rating, Ninjawords was finally admitted into the App Store... three months after it was first submitted.
Look, Apple, you don't seem to get it. You may have admitted 55,000 applications into the Store with little or no problem, no bumps in the road, but it's these kinds of decisions which are quickly defining your policies -- and those policies seem like garbage to us. Censoring content, keeping applications out of your store which "duplicate functionality" of bundled software, and rejecting submissions for things like unsavory search results isn't helping to protect end users: it's making the company that asked everyone to "Think Different" look like a company that can't think at all.
apple you are ridiculous......noone can defend this move
Newspeak
Apple is try to become communism
Way to go Apple!
Well, I love apple... but truthfully, I'm stunned. This is a sad, sad day for me. I wish I bought a Pre
They might as well start rejecting apps that contain images of ugly people to preserve our children's eyes
While we're at it, lets shut off our phones while we're driving, regulate the images and notes on our iphones and deleting objectionable ones... better yet have them blow up and burn our cars to a crisp to teach us a lesson.
Oh, and while I'm at it, apple feel free to go into my phone, un-jailbreak it for my own good, and then raise my monthly for the extra services...
Unbelievable.
Don't mean to reply to myself.... but as an afterthought, next July my phone will either be a WebOS or Android. I'm done with this.
... I've waited 2 years now for multitasking... 2 YEARS...
*Sigh*
As a Pre owner, who's sister and 2 best friends all his iPhones, I'm rather happy with it thus far :P
I'm still hoping for a really groundbreaking Android phone someday, but I'm happy with my Pre, and hopeful for WebOs' future development. It's definitely on par with the iPhone, albeit they alternate strengths and weaknesses, the Pre's UI feels very natural re multi-tasking, moreso than any current Android phone or the iPhone.
Now if only they'd finish up and open their app store to third party apps >.
Hey ninjawords....If you're reading these comments, Blackberry needs a dictionary app. They're is only one in Blackberry App World but its 20 bones. And I'll be damned if I pay twenty bucks to look up the word "shit." Oh and bring on the naughty words as well, were all adults here.
That is what you get with a dictatorship like Apple. It can be great, and it can also be greatly oppressing...
I, for one, choose not to live on those terms.
Apple should go fuc themselves.
Sent by my iPhone
maybe they will, with a rolled up wad of cash that you've given them, laughing at you the entire time.
giant wad of cash, in your world
way to make up words for your comeback fail. i bet you would think its pretty giant if apple was "fucing" you with that wad.
Maybe, but I wouldn't let it get that far. In your world you could probably imagine getting talked into getting f'd by a wad of cash. I can't even fathom it. I like women. I would make a mama joke, here. But obviously a heshe by the name of Meat has to have a mom who is a cow, and I don't go there.
lol really? you didnt even try that time. hahahaha maybe you should buy an iphone app that just shows a pic of a middle finger and then point it at apple, that would show them, right? lol
lol...I forgot that I put 'sent from iPhone' in my first post. I don't really own a iPhone, and I don't have anything Apple at all (iPod, etc.). Now I get why you think Apple is going to shove a wad of cash in my nether region. I also spell impeccably, so this thread means nothing to me, whatsoever. SMD
hahahah wow, lol @ the ridiculousness. i don't own anything apple either, and i already know the definition of ass and fuck. so this thread means nothing to me either. I'm just here for the drama, wanna make out?
Those of us who aren't Apple fanboys, but actually keep an open mind about computers are...
...completely unsurprised.
Despite it's following by freewheeling anti-establishment opensource nerds, Apple is now, and always has been...monolithic, closed, proprietary, and arrogant.
(BTW, I'm a freewheeling anti-establishment opensource nerd...so I have license to say these things).
"Despite it's following by freewheeling anti-establishment opensource nerds..."
Woah, man. Woah. We freewheeling anti-establishment nerds follow LINUX on PCs and Android. We leave Apple for the pretentious, mindless, anti-establishment nerds.
Apple you fail! (And I'm a shareholder...)
bad apple
How 'bout this app for the pre?
I used to always look at Apple and the Mac brand as those for liberal, artsy, free thinking individuals going against the likes of Microsoft.
More and more each day that idea fades and I'm starting to think Apple is run by a whole bunch of ultra conservatve, right wing, Rush Limbaugh listening religious hardliners who have become so engulfed in their iPhone windfall that they lost sight of the things that made them unique and refreshing.
More and more I look at Apple and the iPhone with eyes of disgust. Just a year ago my sentiments were completely the opposite. I no longer care if T-Mobile USA sells the device. I don't want it and won't buy it. Android has my support right now and I'm excited about what that new OS has to offer mainstream in the future.
My thoughts exactly. I don't know who they're trying to please with these policies. I don't think most of their users are so closed-minded to think a dictionary app should not contain words that are acceptable in a paper dictionary. Is there some legal reason or government agency they have to appease with this ridiculous censorship?
+1! Exactly my experience. I was so excited when I offically beame a "Mac guy" three years ago. Now, I'm counting the days until I'll be an Android guy. I already switched to Ubuntu, and Android will be my next step to depart the Apple Kingdom and enter the beautiful world of open source.
Does anybody know what definitions were tied to these words? Maybe it was the definition and not necessarily the word entry -- with an app named "Ninjawords" it leads me to believe that their twist on word definitions is what sets them apart from traditional dictionaries.
lol really? you didnt even try that time. hahahaha maybe you should buy an iphone app that just shows a pic of a middle finger and then point it at apple, that would show them, right? lol
^^^ oops that was meant to go above
Try another dictionary? i used the Merriem Webster version an there is no censorship. its one app. get over it
Fuck Censorship and its Puritanical Terrorists!
Thoughts:
1. Webster.com not only defines the words, but provides instructional audio of how to pronounce them. (The voice doesn't sound entirely robotic and perhaps it's just me, but it sounds as if it enjoys itself when it says "cocksucker" and "motherfucker".)
2. Makes me sad to think about that famous one-run Superbowl commercial Apple aired before the first Mac came out, the one with the tagline "See why 1984 won't be like 1984".
3. It also reminds me how much I really wanted to 'fuc' the blonde lady hammer thrower.
*sigh*
I guess that's how things are going to go now. If your app gets rejected then it'll become news.
So in a way it's a boon to be rejected? Hm...
This is so typical for America today. Not just for Apple. Guns are not banned, but words are. Hilarious!
"it's making the company that asked everyone to "Think Different" look like a company that can't think at all." - - - Well Said!
Ive been saying for a very long time.... there was once a fruit that bore some great pies... now that fruit has soured.
Apple wants you to be a monkey..... MicroSoft says.... "You're a monkey"....here monkey... here's a computer.... and if you break it... well that's your fault... you're a monkey.. what do you expect from a monkey?
Apple on the other hand says.... "Be ... a monkey". Its cool to be a monkey...... And.... if you "Be a Monkey" we'll give you a fruit. AND THATS IT!. Just a fruit. And you can't do what you want with that fruit.... you can only eat it.... and you can only eat it our way.
No thanks.... I'd rather be a droid :) .... even if they are collecting all the information all over the universe.... at least I get to play with other droids that think :)
rejecting apps that duplicate functionality of bundled apps should get them in as much trouble as microsoft did for bundling crappy IE with windows...
+1
Reality to Mr. Topolsky ... Calling Joshua Topolsky ...
We wouldn't want a little dose of realism to color your judgment, now would we??
http://www.pcworld.com/article/169772/apples_schiller_responds_to_dictionary_app_controversy.html
Journalism follows up on its errors.
[... crickets chirping ...]
Duplicate functionality? What about all the weather apps! Are you kidding me?
Quite obviously, because Joshua Topolsky does not consider his work to be "Journalism" (Yellow, or otherwise), neither should anyone else? Simply an informed observation of Engadget's 'New Low' ...