iPhone calculator app censors classroom BOOBIES gag

by Gareth Jones, revolutionmagazine.com 02-Oct-09, 10:58

LONDON - Remember at school when you entered '5318008' into your calculator and turned it upside down so it spelled 'BOOBIES'? Well, those halcyon days are now long gone thanks to PCalc, a calculator app for your iPhone with an in built profanity filter.

PCalc turns your iPhone into a fully functional scientific calculator complete with those all-important, but completely unintelligible ‘sign', ‘cosign' and ‘tangent' buttons.

However, in an effort to deter juvenile pranksters, PCalc has installed a profanity filter that senses when you're about to turn your iPhone upside down and blocks offending words with a ‘censored' message.

Apple's App Store is very strict about having inappropriate content in apps, and has already banned a number of free and paid-for downloads. Subsequently brands are highly cautious of their app receiving a 17+ rating or falling foul of Apple's scrutiny and being shut out of the App Store altogether.

The profanity filter is available in both the full PCalc app, as well as in the free PCalc Lite. It's Ideal for maths teachers and the very easily offended.

Comments

John Dick - 02/10/2009

What a ridiculous piece of news. What a waste of time and energy. Surely preventing boobies and boobs is the least of anyone's worries. To be honest I don't know what's worse the story or the fact I have been moved to write about it...

Gareth Jones - 02/10/2009

It's Friday. I wrote about it. you wrote about it. Job done, surely?

Sophie Paulin - 05/10/2009

I disagree, that is definitely not a ridiculous piece of news. I can remember endless maths classes where 'BOOBIES was the highlight, and what magical sums you could do to get there - I think it is sad it has been blocked. Surely there needs to be some fun in maths...we don't talk about all news stories in the office - but this one sparked a good conversation...

Robert Clements - 05/10/2009

Everyone knows how hard it is for apps to stand out... and when you think we have a dedicated app for this already it needs to do something extra special. i think Gareth's point is the fact an app has created a bit of an outrage buzz it has created awareness. P.s. i bet there is/will be an option to remove this filter which will create another story.