"Baby Shaker" and iPhone

This is what you call a serious lapse in judgment.

Apple under fire over iPhone 'Baby Shaker'

Apple came under fire after an application for the iPhone called "Baby Shaker" was briefly approved for sale in the company's online store.

The program, which reportedly appeared in Apple's App Store on Monday and cost 99 cents to download, allowed a user to shake an iPhone screen to make a baby stop crying.

After enough shakes, the hand-drawn baby pictured on the screen stopped wailing and a large red "X" appeared over each eye.

Silicon Valley technology blogs reported that the application, from an outside developer called Sikalosoft, was pulled from the App Store several hours after Krapps.com, a website which reviews iPhone applications, revealed its existence.

Tens of thousands of applications for the iPhone have been created by independent developers, but Apple has strict control over which ones are featured in the App Store.

The Sarah Jane Brain Foundation, a New York-based group which seeks to prevent brain injuries from so-called Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS), strongly condemned the "Baby Shaker" application.

In a statement, it also demanded "a personal apology to parents of SBS victims and survivors" from Apple chief executive Steve Jobs.

"Apple, Inc., which notoriously and routinely rejects new apps from developers with a 'rigorous' vetting process, nonetheless apparently allowed this horrible application to be sold through its store," the Foundation said.

More details, from the Washington Times:

A torrent of outrage was unleashed against Apple Inc. on Wednesday after parents discovered that the company was selling a new iPhone application called "Baby Shaker," which encourages users to shake their digital devices to quiet down a screaming baby.

The application, available for 99 cents on Apple's iTunes Web site since Monday, was quietly removed Wednesday afternoon.

"On a plane, on the bus, in a theater. Babies are everywhere you don't want them to be," reads the product pitch from developer Sikalosoft. "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."

The application features lifelike drawings reminiscent of the 1950s' and 1960s' Gerber babies "to make those with a less than iron will fawn," the pitch continues. Red Xs appear over the baby's eyes after the device is shaken.

The pitch ends with a disclaimer: "Never, never shake a baby."

This is really sick.

The buck stops with Apple, but Apple isn't commenting.

From the Wall Street Journal:

Apple spokesperson Natalie Kerris confirmed in a phone interview that the Baby Shaker application had been removed from iTunes on Wednesday, but did not want to comment further on Apple’s standards or procedures for approving new applications.

An explanation and an apology from Apple is in order.