[iOSGuy]

Mike, this line is completely and 100% inaccurate:

"Private APIs do nothing that a third-party developer couldn't do in their own code, if they knew how to write it."

There are a million things under the sun that private APIs have access to that wouldn't be possible with the use of public APIs alone, good developer or not. Prime example: "UIGetScreenImage()". That function allows you to take a screenshot of the device's entire screen, your app, someone else's app, the home screen of iOS. That's a pretty big security hole, is it not?

There are countless examples just like that one hidden inside the private API bubble. Things the OS needs to function, (although the OS may not need that particular example anymore) but could cause massive security issues.