Android So Much Of An iPhone Wannabe That It, Too, Has A Kill Switch

from the remote-disabling dept

There was plenty of attention a few months back when it was revealed (first by a hacker, then confirmed by Apple) that the iPhone contained a kill switch that could remotely disable any application. Nancy Gohring, over at IDG, has gone through the terms of service for the first Google Android-based phone and noted that it appears to have a remote kill switch as well, though at least it's upfront about it. You can understand why mobile operators might want this (for example, to stop a bandwidth hogging app), but it's still rather troubling that an app that you thought you had placed on your own device might be remotely deleted one day. If we've been able to deal with rogue and runaway apps on PCs for all these years, you would think that mobile operators would be able to deal with it as well.

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Killing The iPhone Kill Switch

from the inevitable dept

Well, it was really only a matter of time. After Steve Jobs confirmed that Apple had included an application "kill switch" in the new iPhone to disable any app it wanted remotely, someone was bound to kill the kill switch. And, indeed, apps are popping up that will let you disable the kill switch -- though only on a "jail broken" iPhone. Still, it does make you wonder how useful the kill switch really is when it can be so easily disabled.

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Is The iPhone App Kill Switch Really Such A Surprise?

from the this-is-Apple-we're-talking-about dept

There was a lot of fuss last week as some folks discovered a secret "kill switch" in iPhone software that allows Apple to retroactively "kill" an app that it allowed you to "buy" (but apparently, not really buy). Steve Jobs admitted over the weekend that the kill switch exists, with this gem:

"Hopefully we never have to pull that lever, but we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull."

Irresponsible? Really? That's why no other platform has a similar switch? Apparently, everyone else is irresponsible. The truth is more along the lines of this being a standard Steve Jobs offering, where he wants full control over how things are done -- even if it means removing apps you thought you had bought.

But the question is whether this is really a surprise or even a bad thing? While some are screaming "bloody murder" (or at least asking why people aren't screaming that), as others point out, if this is such a big deal, don't buy the iPhone. I agree that this isn't very smart on the part of Apple or Jobs. It certainly opens up an opportunity for competitors to point out that they don't maintain such a closed system, but it's hardly the end of the world. The more Apple makes decisions like this, the more likely people will be more open to alternatives that are coming to market -- and that's exactly what should happen. There's no "bloody murder" to scream. There's just a chance for the competition to come up with something better that doesn't give Steve Jobs the ability to pull a lever and make apps you thought you had bought disappear.

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