Back to jail for iPhones?
by Mike, posted on August 22, 2010
People with jailbroken iPhones may find their devices disabled, if Apple gets its way. That’s because the company has filed a patent application. Even though the United States government cleared the way for the devices to be jailbroken in the first place, the company is seeking to protect its assets, including not only the iPhone itself, but the iPad, too.
Although the patent application was made public Thursday, it was actually filed back in February, and according to the application, the company is seeking to identify stolen or jailbroken devices, as well as protect private customer data. One possible application is when a customer’s phone is reported stolen, the data could be moved to Apple’s servers, and then erased from the device, which of course would be disabled.
Apple could also apparently disable the jailbroken devices, and it could inform AT&T, who could then disconnect phone service. Either way, if this application is granted, it could grant Apple the exclusive power to disable both stolen and jailbroken devices.
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