Jobs confirms iPhone app blacklist feature
Straight from the horse's mouth: Apple's iPhones do indeed have the capability to check for, and potentially defang, software that Apple deems unfit for the iPhone.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs confirmed the existence of the so-called "kill switch" capability, following last week's ruckus over early reports of just such a function. The word from Jobs was tucked at the bottom of a story in The Wall Street Journal about Apple's hot-as-a-pistol first month of sales at its App Store.
The intent behind the capability is high-minded, Jobs said. Apple would need it in case a malicious program inadvertently were to be distributed to iPhones via the App Store.
"Hopefully, we never have to pull that lever," Jobs said, "but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull."
On Friday, John Gruber of Daring Fireball spoke with an "informed source" at Apple who confirmed the presence of a URL inside the iPhone's Core Location API that downloads a blacklist of applications designated as malicious. The URL had been discovered earlier in the week by independent iPhone developer and author Jonathan Zdiarski.
Jonathan Skillings is managing editor of CNET News, based in the Boston bureau. He's been with CNET since 2000, after a decade in tech journalism at the IDG News Service, PC Week, and an AS/400 magazine. He's also been a soldier and a schoolteacher. E-mail Jon. 
Of course it it is to control what people who bought this overpriced, underfeatured POS do with it.
I find it odd you'd waste your time commenting on a product you don't even own.
They opened the iTunes store because a lot of people were doing it anyways, why stop now? people could go back, although I understand them removing illegal applications.
Jailbroken apps from Cydia or Installer are immune... for the moment, but Apple can easily choose to disable that remotely as well if they so choose to do so.
It's just a continuation of cat and mouse for profit and control. Nothing new here.
Troll.
Pengunisto's comments can be treated with all the respect and honor that he deserves. Read his comments and make up your own mind based on that.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121842341491928977.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news
Now for those with even half a clue, the blacklist critter sits in the library that has to do with location awareness, which means that certain apps will not be able to get info from your iPhone about where it is located. It does not stop the app from working otherwise.
Read for yourself on the how and why: http://daringfireball.net/2008/08/core_location_blacklist
If Apple really wanted to kill an app, they'd simply revoke the digital certificate... come to think of it, doesn't Vista have something requiring digital certificates? (cue MSFT fanboys scrambling to explain that one, and watch as they do so very clumsily... (evil grin)).
/P
(also, WGA has been known to blast a legit computer or two...)
The evidence of your own posting doesn't really help your case here. You might try staying on the subject instead of trying to forward your agenda of hating all things Microsoft for the sake of your own ego.
Really. It's getting old. Try something new... like the truth.
- by tonybove August 12, 2008 11:52 AM PDT
- The iPhone app kill switch makes sense. It is an innovative approach to protecting a platform in this age of criminal conspiracies to steal your personal information. As an iPhone user, I feel more comfortable about using the product. As for having paid for an app deemed malicious by Apple, that's more of a business issue, not a technological one. I think it's cool that Apple can kill an app that may be wreaking havoc out there. For more of my view on this, see my blog.
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