Ninjawords was a victim of unfortunate timing, originally submitting their app in May, before iPhone 3.0’s parental controls went into effect, and rather than wait for the controls to arrive at a then-unknown date, they tried to scrub the bad words to hit the store as soon as possible. Which wasn’t enough to get in without a rating, and by the time everything was resolved, their scrubbed app was in the store with the 17+ rating suggested by the reviewer. Apple, Schiller says, simply wanted the app to carry a 17+ rating, with the entirety of its Wiktionary-powered language content—clean, dirty, downright disgusting—intact.

It’s worth reading the whole letter from Schiller over at Daring Fireball, though the best part might simply be the fact Apple is listening, and they recognise that the App Store approval process has to improve. Of course, whether or not it actually does is another story. [Daring Fireball]

Gruber recounts the entire three-month odyssey, which began with developer Phil Crosby submitting his app in May. Ninjawords’ dictionary was rejected for objectionable content, with a screenshots of the words “fuck” and “shit” in the search results. The thing is, Ninjawords is designed so you have to explicitly search for them—typing “shi” won’t bring up shit, even though other dictionaries in the store will do just that. A third submission, with the bad words like “screw” and “snatch” filtered, had them rejected again—”cunt” slipped past their filter—with Apple telling the developer it would have to rated 17+ no matter what.

Adding insult to injury, when the developer decided to give in, censoring their dictionary and taking the 17+ rating, Apple wouldn’t let them simply change the metadata to have a rating, they had to resubmit the entire app code, sending them to the back of the queue for approval. Apple didn’t just gut a dictionary, they stomped on the developers throughout the entire contradictory approval process that had let through other dictionaries which even more “objectionable.”

Gruber sums it up best: “Apple requires you to be 17 years or older to purchase a censored dictionary that omits half the words Steve Jobs uses every day.”

I think it can be said that the App Store is actually making us dumber now. [Daring Fireball]

Still, it’s a neat design and is pretty unusual. Its shape and silicone waterproofness may even make it useful for sporty types. Available now, in brown, orange, black and white for US$189. [LEDwatchstop via Technabob]

The titanium model is capable of going down to 1,000 metres, as tested by their submarine robot in waters all across the world. Its mechanical automatic Jaeger-LeCoultre Calibre 979 innards are handcrafted, with 247 parts, 29 jewels and ticks at 28,800 vibrations per hour. While it’s not the most complicated watch in the world, which is one of the benchmarks of such a machine, it’s pretty much up there.

On its face you can find six levels of information, showing things like the dual time zone support, a 24-city selection disk for automatic time-zone adjustment, a split-level date display, and the operating indicator (which is crucial for diving). There’s also a depth scale situated in the outer ring, colour coded to highlight the typical depths of diving, from the 0 to 20 meters for a typical beginner (like me) to the 20 to 40 meters (which is the usual no-decompression-required depth for advanced recreational divers). The depth scale is connected with pinions to the membrane mechanism that measures the pressure, which is a Jaeger-LeCoultre patented system. The system doesn’t only react to water pressure: if you press your finger against it you will see it moving.

The watch is visually stunning, with the colour blue really giving it a beautiful accent. The blue is not a matter of design: it’s used because, at 30 metres below the surface, blue is the only colour you can distinguish thanks to water’s light filtering properties. However, the final effect is perfect.

The Master Compressor Diving Pro Geographic is available with articulated rubber bracelet (my favourite), as well as with titanium (if you really want it to last) and leather (if you just want to go around showing everyone this amazing beast). I know some people would say “so what, my Timex can do all this too.” So can the $400 Suunto. But to me, however, a perfect machine like this is worth every one of the $25,300 of its price tag.

And yes, with that price I will be stuck with the Mosquito for a very long time. [Jaeger-LeCoultre]

Giz’s resident boy genius Adrian has waxed lyricalabout similar watches before, but I just don’t get ‘em, I’m afraid. The Twelve 5-9 Q series is available in black and chrome and will be available in the first quarter of 2008. [Tokyo Flash via 7Gadgets]