It has been ages, since we wrote about an iPhone app that was rejected, removed or banned by Apple from the App Store. However, I had to write about this one as it takes the cake.
John Gruber of Daring Fireball just reported that Apple has rejected the latest version of Tweetie from the App Store because there happens to be a dirty word in the trend list.
Update:
Loren Brichter, developer of Tweetie has just twitted that Apple has approved Tweetie v1.3.
Tweetie developed by atebits, is one of the most popular Twitter clients for the iPhone and currently number 4 in the Top 20 paid iPhone Apps list under the social networking category.
Folks at atebits had recently submitted Tweetie v1.3 which included new features and bug fixes. But Apple has rejected the latest version because there happens to be a dirty word in the trend list as seen in the screenshot below.
If that's the reason then it's ridiculous on two counts; first, the trends feature is not a new feature in this version of Tweetie and second, the iPhone app is simply displaying the trends from Twitter which it can't (and ideally should not) control (you see the trending topics when you go to http://search.twitter.com/).
It means that iPhone developers will need to filter the content for such foul words before displaying it on the iPhone which doesn't make sense.
It's probably a mistake which we hope is corrected soon so that we can download Tweetie 1.3 and checkout the new features.
Thanks BastianGatten for the tip!
Update:
Loren Brichter, developer of Tweetie has just tweeted:
"Great news! 1.3 has now been approved! Alright Apple!
I imagine the update should propagate through all the iTunes stores by late tonight (PST). Look for it soon!"
Loren had resubmitted Tweetie v1.3 with the same binary. As I had mentioned, it seemed to be a stupid mistake and thankfully Apple moved swiftly to resolve the matter.
What do you think?
[via Daring Fireball]
HAHAA stupid apple thinks watchmen is a bad word LOL.
(Im kidding)
but I agree not to show the foul letter words in anywhere. they should try to filter out this kind of things before they can put this on app store….
If Apple is requiring that applications filter bad words, does that mean that the web browser should also be filtering bad words?
KUDOS to Apple! F- Atebits!
High five to Jay for the awesome come back. I wonder what Apple has to say to that
Ok i dont know were to post this so hopefully this gets directed to the right place but i found an awesome video of the iphone controling a formula one car. I think you have covered it controling the R/C but not the real thing, (second half of the video) and i havent seen this video on your site, correct me if im wrong but here is the link to the video
http://www.kontraband.com/videos/16478/Formula-Fun-Racing/
wow, this is pretty pathetic on apples part; I hope this gets corrected as im sure many many apps would fall in this category… there should be a clause that says "If content is user added/edited foul lang does not apply" Its not like there is any foul language in the coding of the program.
Overall make apple happy and put a setting in that allows you to filter out foul lang. That should please everybody.
Hey Kray-Z,
You can always send us an email at admin@iphonehacks.com
Btw, the phone in the video is a Blackberry Storm and not an iPhone
else I am sure we would have stumbled upon it.
As per this article:
http://www.intomobile.com/2009/03/10/vodafone-and-mclaren-f1-team-up-to-produce-amazing-blackberry-storm-video.html
Vodafone and McLaren teamed up to create the viral video for Blackberry Storm.
Pretty cool!!!
Oh wow. Couldn't apple have… I don't know… Censored it themselves? I mean seriously…
Couldn't they have passed the app through but just omitted the screen shot?
Wired is reporting that Brichter, developer of Tweetie says he won't back down because Tweetie is not at fault.
"I will not censor anything in Tweetie," he twittered. "Resubmitting with the same binary now."
It will be interesting to see if he will be second time lucky.
I think its a stupid mistake and we will see the update on the App Store soon. What say folks?
I think that Apple is infringing on Freedom of Speech with such censorship.
One of the better examples to showcase apples very restrictive rules are displayed in the Craigsphone app.
Download the app and go to:
Account < Adult Content Settings
to see what I'm talking about.
If your too lazy to do so, these are a few of the locked options.
The option to enable/disable profane text is locked in the 'off' position.
The option to enable/disable mature pictures is locked in the 'off' position
Now if I were a parent I'd enjoy this, but the fact is, you should be able to lock/unlock these yourself and the preferences are able to be protected by a password so why such restriction?
Furthermore; it doesn't do much good to do this because if I really wanted to, I could just go to Craigslist through safari and not have to worry about app restrictions so why does apple continue to restrict an application?
Sorry, I realize I got a little off topic because I believe we're discussing a screenshot that kept the app from the store but I just thought.
If apple really wants to be this way, why don't they go ahead and put these filters on safari? Heck, just go ahead and start building them into their PC's and Laptops. Its an exaggeration but it gets the point across.
Why censor developer apps when their own browser can go… Untouched?
they should remove safari from the iphone because i use it to browse porn. that is simply unacceptable.
Exactly my point. If they are going to censor applications which developers put a lot of effort into then why not censor their mobile browser? I mean, it's just stupid!
The problem with the approval process is that it is a manual process which is subjective so there are bound to be mistakes.
I think Apple needs to tighten the process a little bit as mistakes like these brings in a lot of bad publicity.
But tightening the process to prevent such mistakes would mean even more delays in the approval process.
LOL Egypt your hilarious
Hey Folks,
The good news is that Tweetie 1.3 has been approved by Apple after Loren Brichter resubmitted it using the same binary.
I have updated the post accordingly. Thanks for all your comments.
i dont understand did apple pass the update with or without the profanity?
There was no profanity in the app as such, the foul word showed up in the
trends feature.
So when the developer resubmitted it using the same binary, it was accepted
to some extent). I am sure the reaction it received
(probably the fact that the foul word did not show up in the trend feature
might have helped
across the blogosphere would have helped to some extent in pushing it
through a lot faster.
ok, wow I feel like a dumba**…. uhh can I like delete that comment and act like I never posted it??? LOL so the Storm has an accelerometer?? I didnt know that but then again I dont care enought about it to keep up on other phones. Oh and thanks for the email address.