Remember all the to-ing and fro-ing, rumourmongering and discussions about the iPhone kill switch discovered late last week with the potential to disable iPhone apps? No one was quite sure if was meant to give Apple ultimate editorial control over your mobile, or was just some throw away piece of code.
The answer? It looks like option one.
From an interview with Apple CEO Steve Jobs in the Wall Street Journal (it’s tucked away right at the bottom):
Mr. Jobs confirmed such a capability exists, but argued that Apple needs it in case it inadvertently allows a malicious program — one that stole users’ personal data, for example — to be distributed to iPhones through the App Store. “Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull,” he says.
Surely it’s more irresponsible to allow the program on the App Store in the first place? Is this Apple’s way of telling us its checks and balances aren’t as good as they should be?