The European Union’s Digital Markets Act took effect earlier this year with the goal of tackling anti-competitive behaviors from big tech companies, among other things. That’s why Apple rolled out a bunch of changes to the App Store, iOS, Safari web browser, and payment processing earlier this year… with most of those changes only applying […]

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The people behind the immensely popular iOS retro game emulator, Delta, have been forced to quickly change the app’s logo after receiving legal threats from Adobe and warnings from Apple.

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On the second day of Google IO 2024, Google released a new beta of Android 15 and announced a bunch of new features coming to Android for mobile devices and TVs. But today’s news isn’t all about Google: Apple also unveiled upcoming accessibility features for iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS. And after a slightly rocky start, […]

The post Lilbits: Android 15 Beta 2, Accessibility for Android and iOS, and more emulators in the App Store appeared first on Liliputing.

Credit: Palash Volvoikar / Android Authority

A few days ago, the EU designated iPadOS as a gatekeeper platform, giving Apple six months to comply with the Digital Markets Act. To avoid getting fined or leaving the EU market, the Cupertino firm will comply this fall by allowing third-party app stores on the iPad — likely via the iPadOS 18 update.

Through a post on its developer website, Apple announced that it would bring the EU-exclusive iOS features to iPadOS this fall. These features include support for third-party app stores, app distribution through the web, third-party, non-WebKit browser engines, a default web browser prompt, third-party contactless payments, and more.

Recently, Apple surprised us all by quietly changing the rules of the App Store to allow emulators. Previously, emulating consoles and other systems on iPhones meant needing to sideload programs, but no longer. Now, we’re already seeing emulators landing on the platform, but today’s news is a really big one.

Provenance, the popular multi-platform emulator for iOS and tvOS, is officially coming to the App Store. Speaking with iMore, lead developer Joseph Mattiello said his team “are working on a release.” However, he did clarify: “I need to investigate these new rules before an App Store submission, and to improve some quality-of-life issues. Also, I need to change some things to adhere to the App Store’s rules, such as mentioning ‘beta.'” In other words, it might be a while before Provenance actually ends up on Apple’s first-party store.

Regardless, when it does land, Provenance will be a huge boon for emulation fiends. Like the mega-popular emulation suite RetroArch, Provenance offers a slew of emulation services inside one package. That means this one program can emulate dozens of consoles, including many popular Nintendo and Sony platforms. You can see a complete list of what Provenance currently offers at the link. You’ll also see there that Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, and Sega Dreamcast support is currently in development.

For now, using Provenance on an iPhone requires sideloading it, a process that most iPhone users will not be familiar with. Having the app on the App Store will introduce millions of people to emulation on iPhones who probably have never done it before.

Now that the doors are open, we expect emulators to start coming to iPhones at a frantic pace.

Enlarge / Don't expect to see this on the iOS App Store any time soon. (credit: OatmealDome)

Last week's release of the Delta emulation suite finally gave iOS users easy, no-sideloading-required access to classic Nintendo game emulation up through the Nintendo 64 era. When it comes to emulating Nintendo's subsequent home consoles on iOS, though, some technical restrictions imposed by Apple are making it difficult to get a functional emulator on the App Store.

In a recent blog post, DolphiniOS developer (and longtime Switch hacker) OatmealDome explains how a Dolphin code fork—which ports the popular GameCube and Wii emulator to Apple's smartphone OS—uses just-in-time (JIT) compilation to translate the PowerPC instructions from those retro consoles into ARM-compatible iOS code. But Apple's App Store regulations against apps that "install executable code" (Section 3.3.1B) generally prevent JIT recompilation on iOS, with very limited exceptions such as web browsers. That restriction may have some valid security reasoning behind it, but it can also get in the way for developers of tools like third-party browser engines (except recently in the EU).

While MacOS developers can make use of an explicit entitlement to allow JIT recompilation in an app, that exception doesn't apply to iOS developers. And while alternative App Stores and sideloaded apps (including DolphiniOS) have discovered various ways to enable JIT compilation on both jailbroken and stock iOS devices, these workarounds can get quite arcane and occasionally break with new iOS releases.

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Recently, Apple surprised us all by quietly changing the rules of the App Store to allow emulators. Previously, emulating consoles and other systems on iPhones meant needing to sideload programs, but no longer. Now, we’re already seeing emulators landing on the platform, but today’s news is a really big one.

Provenance, the popular multi-platform emulator for iOS and tvOS, is officially coming to the App Store. Speaking with iMore, lead developer Joseph Mattiello said his team “are working on a release.” However, he did clarify: “I need to investigate these new rules before an App Store submission, and to improve some quality-of-life issues. Also, I need to change some things to adhere to the App Store’s rules, such as mentioning ‘beta.'” In other words, it might be a while before Provenance actually ends up on Apple’s first-party store.

After years of blocking third-party app stores from iPhones and iPads, Apple has changed its rules regarding installation of apps from sources other than its own App Store… at least in Europe. The changes come in response to the European Union’s Digital Markets Acts, and Apple’s not particularly happy about them. But now that the […]

The post AltStore PAL is the first “Apple-approved” third-party app store for iOS (in Europe-only) appeared first on Liliputing.

Earlier this month Apple updated its App Store guidelines to allow developers to distribute “retro game console emulators” for iOS and iPadOS for the first time. But it was unclear at first whether that meant all emulators were welcome, or if this was just a way to let game publishers offer emulators that would allow you to […]

The post Lilbits: Apple allows game console emulators in the App Store now… but not this one appeared first on Liliputing.

A new way to play 2020's fantastic roguelike Hades is coming soon, but it might not be exactly what you were expecting. Streaming giant Netflix announced on March 5 that Supergiant Games’ Greek action adventure will hit iOS devices on March 19. However, you’ll need an active Netflix subscription to escape these gates…

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