I Am Rich
What should have been pulled from the App Store for serving no purpose what so ever, German developer Armn Heinrich's app simply included a red gem in the middle of the iPhone screen that floated around and cost $999.99. In the greatest bout of absurdity, eight people actually forked out for it, which was clearly then time for Apple to step in and remove the nonsensical waste of cash.
Exodus International
The 'gay cure' app was yanked from the App Store after more than 150,000 people signed a petition to have it removed. The Exodus International app from the religious ministry of the same name offered users "freedom from homosexuality." It somehow managed to slip under the Apple radar, but once gay activists and the general public lambasted Apple for its existence, it soon disappeared.
Ghetto Tweets
An app that turns all your tweeting activity into street slang sounds great, but Apple didn't think so when people who had downloaded it began to complain about some of the racist nature contained in the app. It was subsequently removed, leaving us wondering how Stephen Fry's Twitter feed could have looked if it was given the Ghetto tweetment.
Prohibition: Dope Wars
Let's face it, with a name like that they must have been expecting it. The game of obvious drug-related connotations caused a little bit of a stir, and the game developed by Hardy Macia and Catamount Software was forced into lockdown due to its drug-dealing content. The developers resubmitted the app under a new guise, Prohibition 3: Candy Wars where you play a candy dealer in the summer of 2040 during the height of candy prohibition, making as much money selling fairy dust.
Tawkon Radiation Detector
Analysing the amount of radiation given off by your iPhone at any location, after weeks waiting on an approval from Apple, the Tawkon Radiation Detector was denied a place on the App Store with the Cupertino company claiming that the diagnostic tool of this nature would create confusion with iPhone owners from a usability perspective. We'd have to agree on that one.
Infitada
Swiftly removed after the involvement of the Israeli government, the Third Intifada app contained stories and articles that Apple deemed 'offensive.' The free application also contained links to websites that helped to organize recent violent clashes. Apple's response? "It violates the developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people". Yes, just a bit...
Obama Trampoline
To most, the thought of a cartoon resembling US president Barack Obama or a trouseless Bill Clinton jumping up and down on a trampoline is not surmount to raising the regulators alarm, yet developers Swamiware was forced to have their app removed from the iTunes app Store. On resubmission Swamiware decided to amend the game with paper bags over the politicans' heads, but we could still tell who they were under there.
Eucalyptus
Access to thousands of free books from the Project Gutenberg library sounds relatively harmless, but the fact that James Montgomerie's ebook reader program gave access to the Karma Sutra was enough for Apple to act. Montgomerie was quick to criticise the decision via his blog saying, "Eucalyptus itself doesn't 'contain' books any more than a newly bought iPod 'contains' songs." After much discussion, Apple did finally allow the app to go live.
ichatr
Essentially Chat roulette for ithe iPhone, unsurprisingly people who downloaded it used it lewdly instead of engaging in polite conversation with people from around the world. The official line was that users were exposing themselves during random video chat sessions would you believe. This is why we can't have nice things people.
Baby Shaker
"On a plane, on the bus, in a theatre. Babies are everywhere you don't want them to be!" Quite how the Baby Shaker app got past the Apple regulators and on to the App Store is anyone's guess but after first appearing back in April, it lasted just three days after a number of blogs and review sites understandably drew attention to its rather distasteful nature.
iSnort Mimics
This cocaine-sniffing sim has been nowhere near the family-friendly App Store but was roaming around unofficially for iPhone users to sample its powdery delights. Setting you back a whole five English pounds, as the website sums it up, "Be the envy of the in-crowd. Get ejected from nightclubs Shock and amaze your so-called friends. Get oral sex from Z-list celebrities."
Me So Holy
Suitably offensive on eligious grounds, the premise behind Me So Holy was to substitute a photo for the face of Jesus. The app unsurprisingly was blocked under the Section 3.3.12 of the iPhone developer agreement, which deems it falling under, "Obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple's reasonable judgement may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users." So basically no Jesus mocking allowed then.
