Every time I think I’ve seen the most outrageous App Store rejection, I’m soon proven wrong. I can’t imagine what it will take to top this one.Apple requires you to be 17 years or older to purchase a censored dictionary that omits half the words Steve Jobs uses every day.
John Gruber, Ninjawords: iPhone Dictionary, Censored by Apple.
This is getting absolutely ridiculous. For starters, why impose a 17+ rating and parental controls if a word like screw can't get into a fucking English dictionnary?
Apple has a long history of being über arrogant and deaf to criticism when it has no competition, and this is a prime example of this behavior. It needs to stop.
P.S. Phil Schiller Responds Regarding Ninjawords and the App Store:
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. 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.
Turns out that Ninjawords had to censor some words itself in a rush to get the app out before parental controls where introduced on iPhone OS 3.0. But turns out also that other dictionnaries were previously allowed with inconsistent treatment.
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