Will Steve turn off your iPhone apps? And what else is he hiding?

It’s always the way. You charge the space fortress, breach its defenses, set a bomb in the heart of the enemy base and then flee only to discover that your spaceships and weapons have been created by your enemy and he has the stop button to both.

Returning from the world of sci fi. You charge the corporate building, breach its sole security guard, set a virus using your iPhone and then flee only to discover you’ve raided Apple’s corporate HQ and he has a button to stop your virus.

And he does too.

According to Electric Pig:

If you’re poking away at your iPhone and your app suddenly stops running don’t complain to Apple, chances are it was Steve Jobs’ own doing after he confirmed Apple has the power to turn off iPhone apps at the touch of a button.

The kill switch is apparently for our benefit and is there to protect us from malicious programmes. Speaking to the WSJ, Jobs said: “we would be irresponsible not to have a lever like that to pull.”

It’s probably good that Apple have thought this through but it does give you a sense of the willies that one man can wield so much power – could he simply turn off all MS apps?