Flatulence application for iPhone rejected by Apple

 

You paid $500 last year, or $200-$300 this year for an iPod that was also a phone that was also a way to surf the web and utilize email... but can it fart?

Of course not. The iPhone can figure out the traffic for you, be your alarm clock, it can even help you schedule your day while syncing to your Outlook calendar. But no, it cannot rip one - virtually - for you if you want to get a cheap and easy laugh.

But alas, thanks to the visionary miracle of "apps", third-party software that iPhone users can download directly on their phones, if a farting phone is what you want, a farting phone is what you can have thanks to an app called Pull My Finger.

Unfortunately, the good people of Apple rejected the hilarious honking. Sam, the developer who doesn't like to reveal his last name, told Ars Technica that he was disappointed when he got the note from the iPhone team that said, "We have determined that this application is of limited utility to the broad iPhone and iPod touch user community, and will not be published to the App Store."

Sam said he had spent "tens of minutes developing this application" and thinks there's more behind the methane-simulation muzzling:

"The fact that it was rejected is a curiosity. As many people have pointed out on YouTube and other deeply philosophical forums, there seems to be a disconnect between Apple's message of allowing vulgarity in the iTunes store but not in the App Store," Sam continued. "Also, the message of 'limited appeal' to the iPhone community doesn't seem true. Our personal opinion is that some app reviewer at Apple is scared that Steve will be sitting at dinner, and will hear some awful sounds coming out of an iPhone at a nearby table. And that he will have the reviewer's head on a skewer for allowing it to happen". - Ars Technica

Apple recently removed their most expensive app last month when consumers complained that it lived up to its promise of not doing anything. The I AM Rich application cost $999 and simply installed a graphic on the iPhone to prove the purchase. Six people bought that app after it was approved for the App Store. Pull My Finger never made it into the store.

-- Tony Pierce