Rejected iPhone App - Pull My Finger Makes a Comeback; Available on the App Store

November 2009

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The iPhone app - Pull My Finger which was rejected by Apple back in September due to "limited utility" has just made a comeback.

Apple has just approved the iPhone app and its available on the App Store indicating that Apple is either getting a little lenient with its restrictions or folks who are approving the apps are gaining some sense of humor.

The iPhone App developed by Air-O-Matic is based on the "Pull my finger" prank where the person playing the prank says "pull my finger" and then farts when it is pulled.

When Pull My Finger had got rejected, some folks had raised concerns regarding the "limited utility" reason provided by Apple for rejecting the app. Some had also questioned how iPhone apps like Koi Pond or the in-famous "I am Rich" app can get approved while the "Pull My Finger" app got rejected.

Sam from Air-O-Matic has provided Ars Technica some information to explain the reason for the rejection and the surprise approval of their iPhone app:

"They told me that they are going to start approving a whole new genre of apps, and that Pull My Finger will be the first to be accepted in this genre.

The very kind Apple Team Member told me that they didn't want to reject it originally, but that they were sorting out how this 'genre' of apps were going to be handled," he added. "She told me they'd be lifting the restriction on them, and more apps will follow that may have been previously not allowed."

However, it looks like for now Pull My Finger is currently categorized under "Entertainment" in the App Store. It is available for $0.99 and you can download it directly using this iTunes link.

You can checkout the demo of the iPhone app below:

I guess this means that we will see more of such tiolet humor iPhone apps getting approved. As you might expect, Sam from Air-O-Matic seems to think it is a good thing:

"Looks like Apple is loosening its restrictions a bit, and this only means great things for a development community that has been wondering if things were going to get better or worse."

I am not sure if it is a good thing or a bad thing. One problem you might have observed is that it is getting very difficult and cumbersome to find quality apps in the over-crowded App Store which has more than 10,000 iPhone apps.

Whats do you think?

[via Ars Technica]

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