Andy Ihnatko: The Seven Words You Can’t Say in a Dragon iPhone App

Andy Ihnatko discovered that the just-released iPhone edition of Dragon NaturallySpeaking won’t translate swear words:

Apparently, Dragon is perfectly fine with the concept of sucking (the Mets do it all the time, and most of those guys are millionaires). It’s also willing to give me the benefit of the doubt regarding a word that often describes roosters and what you must do with a revolver before you keep the little feathery bastard from ever waking you up before dawn ever again. But when you put those two words together, the Dragon collapses into the nearest fainting couch.

Bizarrely, it censors “motherfucker” not to “motherf*cker” but rather “m*therfucker”. I suspect their censorship routine simply strips out the first vowel.

Anyway, the question at hand: Was this Dragon’s own doing, or was it a demand from Apple?

★ Tuesday, 8 December 2009