Apple probably wasn’t banking on a whole lot of controversy when it decided to allow anyone to add their own homegrown applications to their repository of iPhone applications, the App Store. But banking or not, they are getting it with one application which has outraged people all over; the Baby Shaker app (see video above) lets users shake a crying baby until it dies all in the name of fun. The SF Chronicle reports:

“Baby Shaker,” a simple app from Sikalosoft, was first released Monday for 99 cents. It shows pictures of babies with the sound of them crying and a stop watch. To stop the crying, you shake the iPhone hard and then little Xs appear on the eyes of the baby, who will presumably never cry again.

Apple apparently pulled the app sometime Wednesday afternoon after blogs and sites such as TechCrunch and Cnet caught on to the story. It’s hard to believe that this got through the iPhone app certification process in the first place.

According to The Chronicle, infant brain injury advocates are outraged. As well they should be. Child abuse is not a game.

Saul Hansell of The New York Times’ Bits thinks Apple was wrong to cave into pressure about this application. Read his opinion here.

What do you think? Was Apple right to let the app through in the first place? Or did they overreact when they pulled it? Let us know your opinion.

Via / SF Chronicle