Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Apple Can Remotely Disable iPhone Apps

Posted by Soulskill on from the they're-making-a-list dept.

mikesd81 writes "Engadget reports Apple has readied a blacklisting system which allows the company to remotely disable applications on your device. It seems the new 2.x firmware contains a URL which points to a page containing a list of 'unauthorized' apps — a move which suggests that the device makes occasional contact with Apple's servers to see if anything is amiss on your phone. Jonathan Zdziarski, the man who discovered this, explains, 'This suggests that the iPhone calls home once in a while to find out what applications it should turn off. At the moment, no apps have been blacklisted, but by all appearances, this has been added to disable applications that the user has already downloaded and paid for, if Apple so chooses to shut them down. I discovered this doing a forensic examination of an iPhone 3G. It appears to be tucked away in a configuration file deep inside CoreLocation.'" Update: 08/11 13:07 GMT by T : Reader gadgetopia writes with a small story at IT Wire, citing an interview in the Wall Street Journal, in which this remote kill-switch is "confirmed by Steve Jobs himself."

6 of 550 comments (clear)

  1. Re: CoreLocation by bursch-X · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh, come on don't you spoil our neat little flamefest based on mere guesswork and Anti-Apple bias with your boring and irrelevant facts, please.

    I mean this if Slashdot, if you want news, please go to CNN.com. Ah, damned, they don't want their stories being diluted by facts either...

    --
    There are two rules for success:
    1. Never tell everything you know.
  2. Re:It is a Core Location Blacklist by iminplaya · · Score: 5, Funny

    That'll be Slashdot's lack of unicode support -_-

    Jeeze! If we can put a man on the moon, you'd think that... Oh, nevermind...we can't even do that anymore either.

    --
    What?
  3. Re:Refunds by Chuck+Chunder · · Score: 5, Funny

    I still don't get why it was pulled.

    Probably for violating an Apple business method patent.

    --
    Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
  4. Re:It is a Core Location Blacklist by digitig · · Score: 5, Funny

    No, /. sucks. Try to point out the price of something in Euros. It won't work.

    "10 Euro".
    Hmm, seems to work here...

    --
    Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
  5. business method patent? by petes_PoV · · Score: 5, Funny
    What, you mean Apple have patented taking money from rich, gullible people?

    Hmmm, explains a lot - though I can see a lot of infringement cases come up. Including one against patent infringement lawyers. I wonder who'll represent Apple there?

    --
    politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
  6. Re:makes sense to me.. by eclectro · · Score: 5, Funny

    which allows the company to remotely disable applications

    You mean like what complete strangers currently do now on a windows pc?

    --
    Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"