Power button not working

Visited family last week, an in-law has a gen 3 iPad that was very flakey. I finally figured out the power button wasn't working, it acted like the button was depressed all the time. Come to find out it isn't an uncommon problem. It was out of warranty, but encouraged him to make a genius bar appt and see if they'd help out.

Just got a text from him, says Apple installed an app that disables the power button - I've not heard of this. A search of the app store doesn't show anything. Is it something that only Apple techs have access to? He says it is all working as it should now. Anyone heard of this fix?