Baby Shaker - Who would have thought it wouldn’t be a winner…

What a shock - it would seem that an app involving the aggressive shaking of a small baby isn’t on the top of every iPhone user’s wish list…the app, called Baby Shaker, has been removed from the AppStore faster than you can utter the words “whiplash and trauma” after the world’s population throws their arms up in protest.

Baby Shaker features a pencil drawing of a baby which is crying and the aim of the game is to shake the baby to stop the tears.� The game featured on the AppStore for only a few hours and was then unceremoniously pulled due to public outrage.

This isn’t new news…

The game is not the first, obviously, to be pulled from the AppStore for not living up to the Apple developer commandments - Baby Shaker is only the latest in a long line of hopeful apps that Apple has seen the back of…

But this is one of those unique times when Apple has actually had a realistic reason for pulling an app - most of the time Apple like to leave developers clueless as to why they have been unsuccessful with the AppStore.

South Park shot down by Apple

A great example of Apple’s weird point-of-view regarding AppStore applications is the South Park app - clearly feeling their presence with regards to the iPhone platform wasn’t solid enough with episodes available through iTunes alone, the guys behind South Park created an app that would bring together everything that fans have come to love from the South Park experience.

The South Park app would provide episode guides, streaming clips, news and wallpapers - everything you would think would fit in with the iPhone way of thinking - not a chance…

Despite getting as much money as they could from selling expletive-crammed episodes of the cartoon through iTunes they rejected the app due to its “potentially offensive” content…does that make any sense to you?

Comparing the two apps, South Park and Baby Shaker, it’s obvious why the latter didn’t last for more than the time it takes to visit the dentist, but what is the thinking behind the Apple rejection process?

What can you do?

So you can’t get into the AppStore with “potentially offensive” and violent material, we’ve moved on from that, but what can you get in with?� Not much it seems - either they have an excuse for not wanting it or they supply the developer with a generic� “no thanks” message…

If it isn’t too rude, then it’s too sexual or it’s ridiculing public figures…I won’t ask if you’ve played Obama Trampoline because you haven’t - it didn’t make it onto the AppStore because Barack Obama on a trampoline would probably induce a fever of chaos across the globe.

In the end, what are we left with?� Quite a lot really…after all the AppStore is full of great apps, some that can be useful, others that are daft and many more that just make you wish you hadn’t downloaded them.� Let’s move on from the Baby Shaker and take stock of what we can get!