Apple’s new low: censoring a dictionary

You know guys, you’re not really doing yourself any favors at this point. We’ve seen plenty of stories thus far detailing the company’s absurd, reactionary, and typically confusing application rejections or changes for its App Store, but the treatment given to dictionary app Ninjawords seems particularly telling. In essence, the program, a simple and fast reference tool — a straight-up dictionary — has omitted a handful of common words seen as objectionable by the Star Chamber of application reviewers at Apple HQ. What kind of words, you ask? Well, namely the same kind of words which you can find in any standard dictionary in just about any classroom in this country. John Gruber of Daring Fireball fame succinctly calls out what is patently obvious:

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.

Continue reading Apple’s new low: censoring a dictionary

Filed under: Cellphones, Software

Apple’s new low: censoring a dictionary originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

This post is tagged: app, app approval, App store, AppApproval, application, applications, apps, AppStore, Culture, Dictionary, iPhone, ninjawords, rejection