If Apple makes a modified iThing decryption program to facilitate trying more decryption keys, that will affect all users of iThings.

Apple's current defense of one aspect of user's privacy would be admirable if it were the whole story. In fact, it is the exception among a long string of abuses.

The article mentions one of the malicious functionalities of the iPhone and the iBad: they are tyrant devices. This means they do not allow the user to run an operating system that wasn't signed by Apple. This gives Apple total power over the user.

Schneier says that "either everyone gets security, or no one does." For the iThings, it's the latter. No user of an iThing has security against Apple, because Apple can do any nasty thing whatsoever in the next "upgrade". It is infamous for mistreating its own users.

In general, no user of proprietary software has any security against the program's developer.