KEY POINTS:
Apple Inc CEO Steve Jobs has admitted the existence of a remote 'kill switch' that Apple can use to reach out and wipe applications from your iPhone or iPod touch.
The admission came in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, with Jobs arguing that argued
that Apple needs the function in case the company inadvertently allows a malicious program to be sold then installed into iPhones and iPod touches.
There is a concern ? imagine if you bought a little App and it was discovered it stole your personal data? You'd want it dealt with, forthwith.
'Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull,' Jobs said.
It is not yet clear whether this related to the 'Core Location blacklist' discovered by Jonathan Zdziarski or not. The blacklist feature was found buried within the iPhone OS Core Location framework by Zdziarski, but John Gruber of Darling Fireball believes the feature is more likely related to policing Core Location access: ie, that it is not a blacklist for disabling apps completely, but rather specifically for preventing any listed apps from accessing the Core Location API covered by the very strict rules listed in Apple's iPhone Software Development Kit guidelines.
Such a function, in itself, would raise potential dangers from malicious sources if it's not well-secured. Zdziarski reckons he was able to convince his iPhone's Core Location blacklist to terminate applications? but other developers have met his claim with some scepticism.
Whether or not the Core Location blacklist is part of the function Jobs disclosed to the Wall Street Journal, a kill switch mechanism buried in the iPhone and the iPod touch shouldn't be too much of a surprise. Back in March this year, when the App Store was announced, Macworld magazine reported that since each iPhone program is digitally signed by its creator, Apple would have the ability to 'turn off the spigot' and revoke programs that didn't meet its standards. Apple was open about this at the time.
There's also the question of what the concept of 'malicious' entails. For example, some people actually bought a hugely pricey picture of a jewel that did nothing. They may have even just clicked on the App to find out more about it, to discover they had actually bought it because one-click buying (iClick') was enabled. Yikes! Developer Armin Heinrich's joke is not considered that funny as a result. His 'app' was not an application at all, just a visual representation of a red jewel. Called I Am Rich, it appeared on the App Store at US$999.99, touted as 'a useless status symbol for the very rich'. It was yanked from the App Store after a few days with many understandably questioning how it was ever allowed there in the first place.
According to the LA Times, eight people actually paid for the 'application' before it was removed ? six from the US, one from Germany and one from France. One American at least is trying to get his money back via his credit card company.
Which does all beg the question ? how much does Apple make from App Store sales? Thirty per cent, with the rest going to the developer. Since Apple is selling an average of 1 million applications a day, this is a nice little earner, as you might say, for both Apple and for the developers.
That's a total of $30 million in sales over the first month, with big sellers including Sega's Super Monkey Ball game (over 300,000 downloads in the first 20 days).
But what do you think of Apple being able to reach out to your device to remove an App you may have paid for?
