What’s sad about this is that without backups of the old App Store as it existed at that time, you can’t do much beyond playing with the calculator and notes apps.
Digital distribution and lock-in are a disaster for historical preservation.
> Digital distribution and lock-in are a disaster for historical preservation.
Agreed. This reality slapped me in the face quite hard after I was given an ipad 2 (circa 2011). I figured I'd use it as a couch-side device for spotify. Soon realized nothing worked on it, even with old version apps loaded. Server side shut it down.
I worked on a game called Minecraft Earth and it was a service-oriented game where you could collect things and play Minecraft in AR (fun project, not very fun game lol). It shut down a few years ago and we didn't get a chance to add an offline-only mode for even simple AR building, so now no one will ever be able to go back and play that game. It makes me really sad to see a whole product, a whole codebase just go poof.
If you're curious about emulating even older apple devices (Clickwheel iPod), I worked on an emulator for a few months called `clicky`. Very nifty project, given the weird and undocumented architecture of those early iPods
This is cool. For some reason Apple devices are particularly poorly represented in emulators when compared to other systems. The emulators do exist, and recently we've seen better options for the Macs from the 80s and 90s, but they are generally not as feature rich or well supported.
Pretty sure the "some reason" is just legal reasons. Afaik, Apple does not allow Apple software to be virtualized on non-Apple hardware. So while it may be technically possible, it may be legally questionable.
In my head, when I saw this post, I instantly thought "Time to Apple legal action.... 3, 2, 1...". But maybe I'm wrong or things have changed.
Apple's whole deal is that you either submit to their lock in, or you gtfo. The only way to make an ios app is to:
1) Spend $100 a year for the privilege of being allowed to access their app store
2) Buy several $1000 iPhones (you'll be expected to test on every model they currently support by app store reviewers)
3) Buy one $2000 macbook per developer that needs to work on the iOS app (build tooling only runs on macos)
4) Good luck if you want to integrate this with your CI! Either another mac mini ($1000) or a subscription to some service that does it for you. Forget about using your linux boxes that you use for everything else. Apple says no!
5) Everyone who needs to log in to the apple developer portal also needs an iDevice. Apple is so secure they only support their own proprietary second factor push messages to iDevices!
You can see why they don't allow emulators or virtual machines. Think of the sweet, sweet $$$ they'd be losing out on!
> For some reason Apple devices are particularly poorly represented in emulators when compared to other systems
Must be all that lockdown they do. Which is a damn shame, as some early iOS games and whatnot were actually really cool and no longer exist in a runnable form except on those devices (and that is assuming you already had them installed!)
> For some reason Apple devices are particularly poorly represented in emulators when compared to other systems.
Well, what would you use one for? Apple provides emulators for current iOS versions and the centralised App Store means versions of iOS apps for old OS versions aren’t readily available the way they are for Windows etc. Beyond maybe testing old versions of Safari it’s more of a historical curiosity than something with real use.
It’s kind of weird, given the number of user hours spent on, say, iOS 6 era Instagram, that we have no way of replicating the experience today.
infotainment|2 years ago
Digital distribution and lock-in are a disaster for historical preservation.
JTon|2 years ago
Agreed. This reality slapped me in the face quite hard after I was given an ipad 2 (circa 2011). I figured I'd use it as a couch-side device for spotify. Soon realized nothing worked on it, even with old version apps loaded. Server side shut it down.
darknavi|2 years ago
I worked on a game called Minecraft Earth and it was a service-oriented game where you could collect things and play Minecraft in AR (fun project, not very fun game lol). It shut down a few years ago and we didn't get a chance to add an offline-only mode for even simple AR building, so now no one will ever be able to go back and play that game. It makes me really sad to see a whole product, a whole codebase just go poof.
daniel5151|2 years ago
https://github.com/daniel5151/clicky
glimshe|2 years ago
binwiederhier|2 years ago
In my head, when I saw this post, I instantly thought "Time to Apple legal action.... 3, 2, 1...". But maybe I'm wrong or things have changed.
beeboobaa|2 years ago
1) Spend $100 a year for the privilege of being allowed to access their app store
2) Buy several $1000 iPhones (you'll be expected to test on every model they currently support by app store reviewers)
3) Buy one $2000 macbook per developer that needs to work on the iOS app (build tooling only runs on macos)
4) Good luck if you want to integrate this with your CI! Either another mac mini ($1000) or a subscription to some service that does it for you. Forget about using your linux boxes that you use for everything else. Apple says no!
5) Everyone who needs to log in to the apple developer portal also needs an iDevice. Apple is so secure they only support their own proprietary second factor push messages to iDevices!
You can see why they don't allow emulators or virtual machines. Think of the sweet, sweet $$$ they'd be losing out on!
bzbz|2 years ago
Likely because Apple themselves provide an emulator that accommodates most developers’ needs.
pmarreck|2 years ago
Must be all that lockdown they do. Which is a damn shame, as some early iOS games and whatnot were actually really cool and no longer exist in a runnable form except on those devices (and that is assuming you already had them installed!)
afavour|2 years ago
Well, what would you use one for? Apple provides emulators for current iOS versions and the centralised App Store means versions of iOS apps for old OS versions aren’t readily available the way they are for Windows etc. Beyond maybe testing old versions of Safari it’s more of a historical curiosity than something with real use.
It’s kind of weird, given the number of user hours spent on, say, iOS 6 era Instagram, that we have no way of replicating the experience today.
xvilka|2 years ago