12 ms·

Words Apple doesn't want you to type

19 points by MetallicCloud 13y ago

ComputerGuru 13y ago
Oh please.. So much grasping at straws for a story that doesn't exist!
sveme 13y ago
Just checked the German iOS, the words mentioned in the article - abortion (Abtreibung), rape (Vergewaltigung), virginity (Jungfräulichkeit), ammo (Munition) all work. The correct word is proposed after entering about five letters. Must be an Anglosaxon/American thing then, unsurprisingly. Any other data points?
- jvzr 13y ago
  In French, "avortement", "viol", "virginité", "munition" all get autocompleted. I don't see why the last two would anyway, it's not like we've have a strong stance on these matters. Abortion and rape are something else entirely, but I don't recall any company or even public servant going out of their ways to get us to be forbidden to talk about it.
- kragen 13y ago
  Maybe it's harder to type a common phrase that gets autocorrected to "Vergewaltigung" than to "rape". "Tape" seems like the most likely candidate: "Can you tape me during my performance?" Suppose you mistype that as "fape".
- SilasX 13y ago
  True, but that version also has the problem of forcing the user to express themselves in really long words ...
kenferry 13y ago
I can repro this, but I'm amused that the article thinks it's censorship. It seems transparently like an attempt to avoid common embarrassing autocorrects. See http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com
- stinos 13y ago
  seriously failed attempt then, or it was never there in the first place.. If you mistype a single letter eg abortiom, then how exactly it is embarassing to make abortion out of it?
- forgottenpass 13y ago
  I'm amused that the article thinks it's censorship. That would be amusing, if they actually thought that. But the article doesn't call it censorship. The EFF representative says that its unsurprising that such a censorious company also happens to sweep objectionable words under the rug.
kragen 13y ago
"Rape" is probably in order to avoid the things that show up on http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/tag/rape/ http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/tag/rape/, like "Lol he needs a new hose now. I duct raped it !" (http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/32070/the-damage-may-be-permanet/ http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/32070/the-damage-may-be-pe...), an error which you could easily imagine resulting in a call to the police, HR, or someone's spouse under slightly different circumstances. The others seem less likely to come up by accident, although apparently in http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/53824/shes-a-mess/ http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/53824/shes-a-mess/ the iPhone autoincorrected "hair" to "abortion". I have no idea how. I'm curious whether anyone can persuade their current-version iDevice to autocorrect "a nap" to "anal", as it's done in the past.
- SilasX 13y ago
  What's the worst that could happen from telling someone that you're "going to take anal"?
  - kragen 13y ago
    That's not too bad. But consider "My six-year-old finally got anal. I'm exhausted."
- jvzr 13y ago
  Isn't it widely accepted that most of these are fakes?
TomAnthony 13y ago
They state they tested 250,000 words then say 'abortion' isn't corrected as were 150,000 words. So, unless they've missed something from the article - that means there were 99,999 other words that also failed this test?
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
enraged_camel 13y ago
I've always found it annoying that my iPhone autocorrects "hell" to "he'll."
- SilasX 13y ago
  I think that particular case has less to do with it being hell and more to do with noticing a contraction -- it seems to use similar sentence structure heuristics to know whether to correct "its" to "it's".
  - caf 13y ago
    He'll know? Hell no!
- yen223 13y ago
  On the contrary, I always liked that my iPhone corrects "well" to "we'll", since I use the latter far more than the former.
  - enraged_camel 13y ago
    I actually use "well" far more often, although I could see certain demographics (i.e. couples) using "we'll."
marrs 13y ago
So what part of this is censorship? The iPhone's not preventing you from spelling those words correctly, is it?
likeclockwork 13y ago
Can't your add words to your dictionary on iOS?
ArekDymalski 13y ago
And I used to be mad at MS Clippy for trying hard to know better ...
yummybear 13y ago
I think it makes perfect sense. Imagine if autocorrect gets it wrong (and it often does) and puts "abortion" in the text message unintended. That could have severe consequences. "Honey, I think we should get the Aburtium(TM) anyways"

19 points by MetallicCloud 13y ago

Oh please.. So much grasping at straws for a story that doesn't exist!

sveme 13y ago

Just checked the German iOS, the words mentioned in the article - abortion (Abtreibung), rape (Vergewaltigung), virginity (Jungfräulichkeit), ammo (Munition) all work. The correct word is proposed after entering about five letters. Must be an Anglosaxon/American thing then, unsurprisingly. Any other data points?

jvzr 13y ago
In French, "avortement", "viol", "virginité", "munition" all get autocompleted. I don't see why the last two would anyway, it's not like we've have a strong stance on these matters. Abortion and rape are something else entirely, but I don't recall any company or even public servant going out of their ways to get us to be forbidden to talk about it.
kragen 13y ago
Maybe it's harder to type a common phrase that gets autocorrected to "Vergewaltigung" than to "rape". "Tape" seems like the most likely candidate: "Can you tape me during my performance?" Suppose you mistype that as "fape".
SilasX 13y ago
True, but that version also has the problem of forcing the user to express themselves in really long words ...

kenferry 13y ago

I can repro this, but I'm amused that the article thinks it's censorship. It seems transparently like an attempt to avoid common embarrassing autocorrects. See http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com

stinos 13y ago
seriously failed attempt then, or it was never there in the first place.. If you mistype a single letter eg abortiom, then how exactly it is embarassing to make abortion out of it?
forgottenpass 13y ago
I'm amused that the article thinks it's censorship. That would be amusing, if they actually thought that. But the article doesn't call it censorship. The EFF representative says that its unsurprising that such a censorious company also happens to sweep objectionable words under the rug.

kragen 13y ago

"Rape" is probably in order to avoid the things that show up on http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/tag/rape/ http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/tag/rape/, like "Lol he needs a new hose now. I duct raped it !" (http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/32070/the-damage-may-be-permanet/ http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/32070/the-damage-may-be-pe...), an error which you could easily imagine resulting in a call to the police, HR, or someone's spouse under slightly different circumstances. The others seem less likely to come up by accident, although apparently in http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/53824/shes-a-mess/ http://www.damnyouautocorrect.com/53824/shes-a-mess/ the iPhone autoincorrected "hair" to "abortion". I have no idea how. I'm curious whether anyone can persuade their current-version iDevice to autocorrect "a nap" to "anal", as it's done in the past.

SilasX 13y ago
What's the worst that could happen from telling someone that you're "going to take anal"?
- kragen 13y ago
  That's not too bad. But consider "My six-year-old finally got anal. I'm exhausted."
jvzr 13y ago
Isn't it widely accepted that most of these are fakes?

TomAnthony 13y ago

They state they tested 250,000 words then say 'abortion' isn't corrected as were 150,000 words. So, unless they've missed something from the article - that means there were 99,999 other words that also failed this test?

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

enraged_camel 13y ago

I've always found it annoying that my iPhone autocorrects "hell" to "he'll."

SilasX 13y ago
I think that particular case has less to do with it being hell and more to do with noticing a contraction -- it seems to use similar sentence structure heuristics to know whether to correct "its" to "it's".
- caf 13y ago
  He'll know? Hell no!
yen223 13y ago
On the contrary, I always liked that my iPhone corrects "well" to "we'll", since I use the latter far more than the former.
- enraged_camel 13y ago
  I actually use "well" far more often, although I could see certain demographics (i.e. couples) using "we'll."

marrs 13y ago

So what part of this is censorship? The iPhone's not preventing you from spelling those words correctly, is it?

likeclockwork 13y ago

Can't your add words to your dictionary on iOS?

ArekDymalski 13y ago

And I used to be mad at MS Clippy for trying hard to know better ...

yummybear 13y ago

I think it makes perfect sense. Imagine if autocorrect gets it wrong (and it often does) and puts "abortion" in the text message unintended. That could have severe consequences. "Honey, I think we should get the Aburtium(TM) anyways"