The intended-to-be-reliable dictionary, and the only reliable one so far for the iPhone, has been met with constant censorship, crippling restrictions, and now an adults-only rating. Never mind that there are dozens of other dictionaries approved for the app store with offensive content and inaccurate source material, Apple has now gone on to censor a freaking dictionary! And require it to be tagged as restricted to 17 and over. Censored words include ass (as in donkey) and cock (as in chicken). In a dictionary. The chicken says fustercluck.Ninja Dictionary had a simple and admirable goal—and word man that I am I would have paid happily for it. Matchbook Software describes the app as such:
Ninjas are three things:Alas, Apple appears to have no such aspirations.
1. They’re smart
2. They’re quick
3. They’re deadly accurate
Ninjawords is a dictionary for the iPhone built on these principles.
And if an Apple acolyte like me is getting all ranty, you know that division must be really effing up.
Maybe I could help. Maybe they are hiring. But would I really want to throw myself into that pit? Maybe, if the attitude was one of change and improvement. The silence from Cupertino says no.
Update: Engaget has more.
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.
As does Gizmodo: The Stupidest App Store Incident Yet: Apple Censors a Dictionary
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