Share
When it comes to the wealth of content on the App Store, approved downloads range from the practical and entertaining to the humorous and preposterous. However, every now and then, Apple’s stringent submission screening process fails to spot an application that’s simply disgraceful.
iPhone Baby Shaker application causes outcry. Image: cogdogblog/Flickr.
More pointedly, the Cupertino-based gadget and computer titan has moved swiftly to remove a truly tasteless application from its store that presented users with the task of violently shaking their iPhone or iPod Touch handset in order to stop the wailing sobs of an on-screen baby.
Needless to say, Sikalosoft’s ‘Baby Shaker’ game, which arrived on the App Store at the beginning of the week attached to a price of $1.40 USD, quickly saw Apple scrambling to pull its availability by Wednesday after it stoked the ire of users and prompted a wave of pointed complaints from children’s organisations.
“On a plane, on the bus, in a theatre. Babies are everywhere you don’t want them to be,” outlined the game’s description. “They’re always distracting you from preparing for that big presentation as work with their incessant crying.”
“Before Baby Shaker, there was nothing you could do about it,” it added. “See how long you can endure his or her adorable cries before you just have to find a way to quiet the baby down!”
Leading the negative outcry, the contentious application has particularly offended the National Center on Shaken Baby Syndrome in the United States, which has slammed Apple for permitted the application’s inclusion to the App Store.
“Not only are they making fun of Shaken Baby Syndrome but they are actually encouraging it,” fumed Marilyn Barr, founder of the Center.
Similarly, UK-based newspaper The Daily Mail reports that Shaken Baby Syndrome charity The Sarah Jane Brain Foundation has demanded “a personal apology” from Apple chief executive Steve Jobs (currently on medical leave).
Apple has not yet offered any official explanation as to how the application slipped unnoticed through its approval system. It has also not said how many people actually downloaded the application before it was pulled.
The Tech Herald: Student-made T(et)ris pulled from Apple App Store
The Tech Herald: Apple refuses App Store entry for South Park application
Interested in a more interactive TTH? Join our Facebook Group Want regular updates from The Tech Herald? Follow us on Twitter
Advertising
Comment on this Story