Tag Archive for ‘App Store’

David Heinemeier Hansson:

Credit for this amazing turn of events goes to Epic Games founders Tim Sweeney and Mark Rein, who did what no small developer like us could ever dream of doing: they spent over $100 million to sue Apple in court. And while the first round yielded very little progress, Apple’s (possibly criminal) contempt of courtis what ultimately delivered the resolution. Thanks to their fight for Fortnite, app developers everywhere are now allowed to link out of apps to their own web-based payment system in the US store (but, sadly, nowhere else yet).

This is all we ever wanted from Apple: to have a way to distribute our iPhone apps and keep the customer relationship by billing directly. The 30% toll gets all the attention, and it is ludicrously egregious, but to us, it’s just as much about retaining that direct customer relationship, so we can help folks with refunds, so they don’t tie their billing for a multi-platform email system to a single manufacturer.

➝ Source: world.hey.com

Eric Slivka, writing for MacRumors:

In the wake of yesterday’s court ruling in the dispute between Apple and Epic Games over Apple’s policies restricting developers’ ability to inform users about alternatives to making purchases through Apple’s in-app purchasing system, Apple has updated its App Review Guidelines to comply with the ruling. […]

Following the court ruling and with Apple’s policy changes, major app developers are already moving to make it easier for users to purchase or subscribe to content outside of the App Store, with Spotify already submitting an app update, Patreon indicating that it will do so, and ‌Epic Games‌ saying that it will bring Fortnite back to the U.S. ‌App Store‌.

It’s not clear how all of this will actually play out in practice, but it’s a step in the right direction for developers.

Apple really needs to get it together, though, and allow for apps to be installed from outside of the App Store. Continuing with the status quo will only subject them to more and more government scrutiny — forcing their hand on changes they’d rather not make.

If they want to have more control over the situation, they should just let us install apps from elsewhere. Even if it’s disabled by default and annoying to enable like it is on the Mac. At least then they’d have something to point to when the government comes knocking. The option is already available on Android and the majority of users still get their apps from the Google Play Store, which is evidence that a change like this on iOS is unlikely to have too much of an impact on Apple’s revenue.

➝ Source: macrumors.com

From the App Store description:

StikDebug is an on-device debugger designed specifically for self-installed apps.

I’m not sure how the developer managed to get this approved. But if you’re at all interested in sideloading on iOS and have been annoyed by JIT limitations, you should get this app while you still can.

I’m not familiar with all of the technical details of how it’s accomplished, but the app is open source. The setup process is quite simple — I was able to run through it in just a few minutes and had JIT enabled in DolphiniOS without any issues at all.

➝ Source: apps.apple.com

I used Provenance extensively back when I first started tinkering with sideloading. It would be great to have it available in the App Store — I’d put it alongside RetroArch as one of the best emulators on the platform. But Apple, being the Apple we know and love, has rejected Provenance from the App Store.

Hopefully the developer will be able to make some adjustments and get it approved soon.

➝ Source: mjtsai.com

Jason Snell, writing for Macworld:

The App Store era must end and the solution is already here.

It’s long past time for Apple to have open up iOS to applications from outside of the App Store. And now we have plenty of evidence to show that everything will be just fine if they do.

➝ Source: macworld.com

From the GitHub page:

Quickemu is a wrapper for the excellent QEMU that automatically “does the right thing” when creating virtual machines. No requirement for exhaustive configuration options. You decide what operating system you want to run and Quickemu takes care of the rest.

I’m looking for a way to run Things on a Linux machine. Because, despite my best efforts, I’m unable to find anything that comes close to the fit and finish of Things that’s also cross-platform. I figured running it in a virtual machine might be my best bet.

The instructions for installing macOS mentions that the Mac App Store should work, so hopefully this will do the trick for me.

➝ Source: github.com

Craig Grannell:

However, that UTM is now allowed but iDOS is not is indefensible. They’re both PC emulators. Apple has been inconsistent in the past with App Store rules and approvals, but this pairing is especially stark and egregious. At this point, I wouldn’t spend a single second developing an emulator for iOS. Which is probably how Apple wants it anyway. If I were the iDOS developer, I’d lob the app at AltStore and see what happens. Or, you know, just give up, like so many other ex-iOS devs I hear from these days have already done.

The App Store artificially limits the capabilities of our devices and prevents developers from even exploring entire categories of applications.

Imagine what our devices would be capable of if things were different — if you could install software on them like a computer. Rather than Apple leaning into the idea that they aren’t.

➝ Source: reverttosaved.com

This is the emulator to use. Delta, PPSSPP, and the rest are great, but RetroArch just supports so many consoles and offers every feature you could really want.

The only arguments I can see in favor of other emulation apps is that RetroArch isn’t great without a controller and it can be a little tricky to get setup. But I think most people would be better off watching or reading a guide and buying a Backbone One.

➝ Source: apps.apple.com