Worst App Ever

Apple pulled the plug on an application dubbed "Baby Shaker," which encouraged users to shake a virtual baby to quiet its cries. Two days after approving the 99-cent program, Apple responded to an outcry of complaints and removed it from the iPhone application store.



Apple representative Natalie Kerris confirmed that Apple had approved then removed "Baby Shaker" for sale in the App Store. But she declined to comment on why Apple took either step. She also declined to comment on how many copies of "Baby Shaker" were downloaded before the application was removed or whether its developer, Sikalosoft, faced any consequences for submitting the program.

Sikalosoft billed "Baby Shaker" as a way for users annoyed by real-life crying babies to take out their aggressions virtually. The application showed a drawing of a crying infant. To get it to stop crying, users were instructed to shake their iPhone. The shaking killed the baby, which then appeared with red "Xs" on its eyes.

"Babies are everywhere you don't want them to be! They're always distracting you from preparing for that big presentation at work with their incessant crying. Before Baby Shaker there was nothing you could do about it," Sikalosoft said on the promotional page for the game on its Web site.

Apple's iPhone application store has proved phenomenally successful. It now offers about 35,000 programs, and the number of downloads is approaching 1 billion, Apple reported Wednesday.

But the company has been guarded about the application approval process, and has drawn criticism for having arbitrary rules about what will and won't pass muster.

I don't blame Apple for this because this is the problem with letting user-generated content onto your system/device. For every hundred brilliant ideas like iFart, there's an asshole out there who does something like this. I would love to get the chance to shake/pound/beat some sense into the cockfaces at Sikalsoft.