thepete.com
BossPrefs is a cool little utility that allows you more control over settings on your iPhone–and more settings to set, too. This latest version gives users a cool new button to press that claims it can beat the killswitch Steve Jobs says he has at Apple HQ, at the peak of Mt. Doom, in the heart of Mordor.
Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the gist of it is true–Jobs has admitted to having this killswitch ( http://thepete.com/…-my-iphone ) and therefore I’m mad.
I may not fully own my iPhone outright, yet, but when I forked over my $200 last month, I did not agree to Apple having the ability to reach onto *my* iPhone and turn stuff off. The ability for them to do this is positively anti-American.
Imagine GM being able to reach into your car and change the radio station or turn off the headlights or disengage the seat belts. I could be using my iPhone to call for help after an accident and he could go "hey, you’re using Fring, an app that lets you use Skype over the Internet connection on your phone! Not cool!"
He cuts it off and you’re left with having to redial the call for help–or worse if you happened to have canceled your voice plan.
Of course, they don’t *let* you cancel your voice plan and Fring doesn’t work on 3G iPhones yet, but you get my point.
After all, who is Jobs to tell me what I can run on my phone and what I can’t? Can I control what he has on his phone?
No, so that’s all there is to it. If I had the ability to wirelessly shut down apps on my own phone remotely I might not mind as much that he could do it to me, but, essentially, he has more power over something that sits in my pocket than I do.
Not cool.
Also, if he had only overtly warned us that he had the ability, I could have made the choice of whether to accept the killswitch or not, before I even bought the phone. Instead, it’s probably buried in the contract someplace.
Again, not cool.
So, enter the Boss Prefs app for jailbroken iPhones. If it’s to be believed, activating it shuts down Jobs’ ability to shutdown any app running on your iPhone that he doesn’t like.
THANK YOU, BOSS PREFS!!
We, the Jailbreakers, SOLUTE YOU!
OK, well, *I* solute you. I assume other jailbreakers appreciate it, too.
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OK, everybody knows there’s no such thing as bad publicity, so we know that no matter what Steve Jobs does Apple Inc. will probably only benefit from it, no matter how shortsighted, shallow and controlling it is.
