aderutter

rob53 said:

You’re right. What other features would you want on a laptop (and please don’t say touchscreen).

Well I’d like a touchscreen MBP - but only so I can use an Apple Pencil for ZBrush sculpting on the MBP itself  

I think if/when Apple bring touchscreen to Mac it will only be for Apple Pencil.

We’ll have to see what the law amounts to - Apple might still be allowed their commission on all sales in 3rd party app-stores, Apple might be able to disable key iPhone/iPad features if a user uses a 3rd party app-store due to security concerns, Apple might be able to charge many millions for each 3rd party app-store.

And anyhow, this is just a version of something that already exists (e.g. enterprise app-stores) and requires a higher level ios developer account. Apple already has more than one app-store for example, there is the regular public app-store and then there is the b2b app-store that regular folks don’t get access to.

And in the end, next to nobody will use the alternative stores - just like they don’t on Android.
Where’s the facebook store on Android, or the Adobe store on Android, or the MS store on Android?
That’s why it’s a distraction and a non-issue.

Oh and iMessage going cross-platform might just kill the pricacy/security nightmare that is WhatsApp = silver lining.

Jury-rigged? Surely you mean jerry-rigged.

dewme said:

At the very least it seems like anyone using this capability would owe Apple a $100/year developer fee. That would be $30 million per year that Apple is owed. Or maybe Apple simply sees this as a gnat-sized problem and they have bigger problems to deploy their legal forces against.

Nope. The $99 fee is only for putting apps in the app-store, using XCode and putting your own apps on your own devices is free.

Obviously, re-signing someone else’s apps as yours likely violates Apple’s terms and conditions of use of course, so expect this service to be taken down at some point now that it has been publicised here - lol. But yes, it is a tiny issue really - I suspect they have been more focused on companies using enterprise signing in prohibited ways.