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Can Apple Remotely Shut Down iPhone Apps?

Apple has, apparently, included a system in the iPhone that allows for applications to be remotely shut down. The iPhone’s operating system contains a URL for a page that, it seems, may contain a list of blacklisted applications. For now, there’s only a dummy entry on the page, but it’s possible that Apple will add applications to the list if any iPhone applications are found to be malicious.

This is an interesting concept: letting the manufacturer of a device decide which applications you can use. If the applications are, indeed, malicious, this is probably a Good Thing, but what if Apple decides, for some reason, to blacklist applications that it may think are evil but you want to use? Just like the way Apple is removing applications from the App Store without even informing the developers… Some see this as a reason to jailbreak your iPhone, so you can have full control of what you install.

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