Apple Rejects Radiation Measuring App?

People have known about smartphone radiation for a long time. Of course, there are always wild theories when dealing with these types of topics. Some people do prefer limiting the number of hours they expose themselves to the radiation coming from their phones. Better be safe than sorry, right? A company named tawkon has developed an attractive application for iPhone that demonstrates how much radiation is coming out of the device at any given time. The problem is Apple won’t be approving this application anytime soon.

While the iPhone does emit a certain level of radiation, those radiations are not enough to give iPhone users cancer. Not everyone reacts to this kind of information the same way though. Perhaps that’s the main reason Apple does not want to approve such an application, even though this app is very well designed and quite interesting. Here is what the company had to say about this issue:

We tried the front door via Apple’s App Store, including great discussions with senior Apple executives… ho praised our app functionality and graphic appeal, and explored various technical solutions with us to overcome API restrictions… But when Steve Jobs personally closed the front door with a curt 2-word email stating: “No Interest” … we were left with no alternative but to climb through the Cydia.

Those of you who still want to use this application will have to jailbreak your phone. Apple is probably overreacting to this application but this is not the first time it has rejected cool applications such as the one by tawkon.

We also find it strange that the Apple user manual instructs users to not hold the iPhone close to your head, but Steve Jobs is “not interested” in an app that shows real-time exposure. If he used tawkon he’d know that most of the time the iPhone doesn’t reach it’s maximum labeled SAR levels. However when it does, it’s very easy to lower exposure by heeding tawkon instructions – like “go back” to previous location, “activate speakerphone”, “hold your phone vertically” or activate headset while traveling fast, among other actions.

Regardless of what one thinks of the issue of cell phone radiation, there is no question apps such as these belong in Apple iOS Appstore. The developers have put a lot of effort putting this solution together. Let’s hope Apple sees the light and let the market decide whether this app is “interesting.”

What are your thoughts?