App Store / Vectors: Canva
Earlier this month, Apple quietly adjusted its Apple Store review guidelines, adding new language specifically states, “retro game console emulator apps can offer to download games,” marking the first time the company has allowed emulators on iOS. Hooray! It didn’t take long for someone to take advantage of this new allowance….Story continues….
By: Jake Peterson
Source: Lifehacker
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Critics:
At WWDC 2007 on June 11, 2007, Apple announced that the iPhone would support third-party Ajax web applications that share the look and feel of the iPhone interface. On October 17, 2007, Steve Jobs, in an open letter posted to Apple’s “Hot News” weblog, announced that a software development kit (SDK) would be made available to third-party developers in February 2008.
The iPhone SDK was officially announced and released on March 6, 2008. The App Store was launched with the release of iPhone OS 2.0, on July 11, 2008. Apple requires all third-party apps to be downloaded from the App Store, with exceptions for ad-hoc apps used within enterprises. Developers must pay a yearly $99 fee as part of Apple’s Developer Program; if their membership expires, their apps are removed from the App Store, though existing users retain the ability to redownload the app.
Developers can release free apps, or paid apps for which Apple takes a 30% cut of proceeds. Developers earning less than $1 million in annual sales qualify for the App Store Small Business Program, with Apple only taking a 15% fee. Though iOS has far lower market share than Android, its app ecosystem has been described as superior, with higher-quality apps, and more iOS-exclusive releases.Android’s version fragmentation, less uniform hardware, and lower app revenues have been cited as key factors.
All apps must pass Apple’s app review process before being distributed in the App Store. Apple may also stop distributing apps it deems inappropriate. For example, in 2009, Apple rejected the Newspapers app due to The Sun’s “obscene” topless Page 3 girls.In 2018, Apple removed Tumblr from the App Store, citing illegal content, causing Tumblr to ban all adult content from their platform. The App Store’s review process has been criticized by developers as “frustrating”, “anti-competitive”, and “asinine”.
Users can also install native apps outside of the App Store through jailbreaking,or through exploits, such as TrollStore. Jailbreaking may cause security issues, and is not supported by Apple. As of October 2013, Apple has passed 60 billion app downloads. As of September 2016, there have been over 140 billion app downloads from the App Store.As of January 2017, the App Store has over 2.2 million apps for the iPhone.
Apple restricts the installation of unapproved third-party apps and does not allow full access to the iPhone’s filesystem. According to Jonathan Zittrain, the emergence of closed devices like the iPhone has made computing more proprietary than it was in the PC era. Jailbreaking allows users to install apps not available on the App Store, customize their device in ways not allowed by Apple, and bypass SIM locks without carrier approval.
Some jailbreak tweaks were later copied by Apple and implemented into iOS, like multitasking, widgets, and copy and paste. Apple attempted to use the DMCA to fight jailbreaking; however in 2010, the U.S. found jailbreaking to be legal.Jailbroken iPhones are at higher risk of malware due to Apple’s lesser control of the app ecosystem. In the United States, Apple cannot void an iPhone’s warranty solely due to jailbreaking.
Jailbreaks rely on exploits. Apple has improved the iPhone’s hardware and software security, making these exploits harder to find; as a result, recent iPhones cannot currently be jailbroken. The iPhone contains a range of accessibility features to support users’ visual, auditory, and motor needs. iPhones can notify users through onscreen banners, audio alerts, vibrations, or the LED flash; vibration patterns can be customized by users.
Since iOS 15, Siri can read notifications out loud through earphones, and, since iOS 16, through the device’s speakers. Users with motor needs can use Assistive Touch to customize the way they navigate through menus; it can assist users who have difficulties with some gestures, like pinching, and makes these gestures available by tapping on a menu. The user can create their own gestures and customize the layout of the AssistiveTouch menu. If the user has trouble pressing the Home button, it can be set so that it can be activated with an onscreen tap.
Gestures, like rotate and shake, are available even when if the iOS device is mounted on a wheelchair. Head Tracking can be used to control an iPhone using facial movements recognized by the front camera. Low-vision users can enable VoiceOver, a screen reader which describes what is on the screen, while Siri allows for hands-free interaction. The iPhone also supports wireless braille displays to help users read its interface.
Text can be enlarged system-wide. The Magnifier app uses the iPhone’s Lidar scanner to identify objects, for example doors, people, and objects, and can describe them to the user, as well as their distance. Door Detection can alert the user through sound, speech, and haptics. Hearing aids that are part of the Made for iPhone program can be controlled from an iPhone. These hearing aids also feature Live Listen, which enables the iPhone to act as a directional microphone, beaming its audio to compatible hearing aids.
Live Listen can help the user hear a conversation in a noisy room or hear someone speaking across the room. Apple built Live Listen support into all AirPods, which can also relay audio from a connected iPhone’s microphone. Closed captioning and external TTY devices are supported, while Live Caption can transcribe audio across all apps and display it onscreen. Sound Recognition can recognize surrounding noises, including door bells, kettles, water running, and babies crying, and notify the user with an onscreen alert.
Guided Access helps people with autism, ADHD, or sensory challenges stay focused on a single app. With Guided Access, a parent, teacher, or therapist can limit an iOS device to stay on one app by disabling the Home button and limit the amount of time spent in an app. The user can restrict access to the keyboard or touch input on certain areas of the screen.The original iPhone was heavily promoted before its official announcement, creating buzz and anticipation.
Upon its release, it was marketed heavily in television, web and print ads created in partnership with TBWA\Chiat\Day. The Apple ecosystem has been described as a key moat that increases iPhone brand loyalty. iMessage has especially been singled out, with its “green bubbles” phenomena. In iMessage, SMS messages from Android users appear as green bubble, rather than the blue bubbles used for texts from other iPhone users.
Group chats between iOS and Android are poorly supported; reactions display as text, rather than bubbles, and images are sent through MMS, which degrades image quality. Some teens have described being “ostracized” after switching to Android, awhich Google has labeled “bullying”.This has been described by critics as a key factor leading 87% of U.S. teenagers to use iPhones.
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