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IOS Software Apple Technology

Alternative iOS App Store Doesn't Require a Jailbreak (engadget.com) 55

Developer Riley Testut is launching an alternative to Apple's App Store, called AltStore, that theoretically lets you "push the boundaries" of iOS without either jailbreaking or worrying that Apple will pull access. Engadget reports: AltStore works by fooling your device into believing that you're a developer sideloading test apps. It uses an app on your Mac or Windows PC to re-sign apps every seven days, using iTunes' WiFi syncing framework to reinstall them on your device before they expire. You only need a free Apple ID (a throwaway will do) to install apps that Apple would never allow, such as Testut's Delta emulator for Nintendo consoles.

In theory, there's not much Apple can do to easily shut things down. It could take down individual accounts, but you could just create another Apple ID if needed. Also, iOS only looks for an excessive number of app provisioning profiles, not the number of apps you have installed. So long as AltStore manages those profiles, Apple doesn't know if you're running one app or twenty. Testut told The Verge that measures to block AltStore would break key functionality for developers or iTunes syncing.
AltStore is available in preview form now, with a formal launch due on September 28th. "People who back Testut's Patreon will also have the option to install almost any app, not just those in the store," the report adds.
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Alternative iOS App Store Doesn't Require a Jailbreak

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  • by drnb ( 2434720 ) on Thursday September 26, 2019 @09:42PM (#59241440)

    there's not much Apple can do to easily shut things down

    Oh yes there is. Apple already has the solution to this, it used to be the in place for many years. Paid developer subscriptions.

    In the past only paid developer subscriptions could sign an app to run on your own devices. Free developer subscriptons were limited to the emulators. Apple changed this policy and allowed a free developer subscription to run code on your devices. They could simply return to the old policy and require a paid subscription.

    • OK, but if they try to tax people for doing this, people can also stop buying apps thru Apple's store, and just load pirated versions of them thru Alt Store.

      • by drnb ( 2434720 )

        OK, but if they try to tax people for doing this, people can also stop buying apps thru Apple's store, and just load pirated versions of them thru Alt Store.

        And when their developer account is canceled for doing so, for violating the Terms of Use of the Developer Account?

      • OK, but if they try to tax people for doing this, people can also stop buying apps thru Apple's store, and just load pirated versions of them thru Alt Store.

        Not without that developer account they won't.

        Unless a decent jailbreak comes out I guess.

        • I think he's thinking they would pay the developer account fee, to get access to a lot of free apps. The thing about it is, it sure seems like there would be some pattern to the app bundle ID's Apple could scan for and mass-cancel even paid accounts.

          • The thing about it is, it sure seems like there would be some pattern to the app bundle ID's Apple could scan for and mass-cancel even paid accounts.

            Or disallow signing apps you did not compile

            • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

              The thing about it is, it sure seems like there would be some pattern to the app bundle ID's Apple could scan for and mass-cancel even paid accounts.

              Or disallow signing apps you did not compile

              Making iOS the first proprietary OS to enforce open-source. Too bad it can't check licenses for freedoms, otherwise it might be something that blow RMS' mind.

              But in this case, it would mean the app's source is completely open to compile.

  • by cerberusss ( 660701 ) on Friday September 27, 2019 @12:07AM (#59241658) Journal

    People who back Testut's Patreon will also have the option to install almost any app

    Normally you need to log into developer.apple.com, then create a "development team" there for $100. And then you can develop and sign an app to run on an iOS device, including your own.

    In recent years, Apple wants to promote learning to code. So if you install Xcode and log in with an Apple ID, you are already in a "personal team" and you can run it on your own device for 7 days.

    This guy has automated that manual process. I wonder how long it'll work.

    • I wonder how long it'll work.

      Not long, I believe, even if that would nice to have an alternate store to get good stuff from, but this is typically the kind of thing Apple despises as that threatens privacy, security -and- Apple $$, so there is probably already a team working on how to 1) ban the developer(s) signatures, 2) change the developer agreement 3) or sue the new store, as I'd be surprised if that case isn't already covered somewhere.

      • by mysidia ( 191772 ) on Friday September 27, 2019 @05:47AM (#59242084)

        Apple will probably update their signing system to make signing requests go through their servers to obtain an Apple countersignature for a confirmation of the hash/metadata of things being signed; then flag repeated signings of identical binary/object code over a certain threshold of signings per week as suspicious, and setup an automatic thing to suspend the developer accounts.

        or sue the new store, as I'd be surprised if that case isn't

        Sounds like the easiest and most likely response from the likes of Apple... Start with a Cease and Decist, and if the store doesn't shutdown, then paper them in complaints and bankrupt the new app store from legal fees.

    • In recent years, Apple wants to promote learning to code. So if you install Xcode and log in with an Apple ID, you are already in a "personal team" and you can run it on your own device for 7 days.

      Hasn't that been the case for a over decade? IIRC you always had the option to run XCode with a non-Developer Apple ID, and compile and run code on your own devices. That's what I did when I started messing around with XCode; I only paid the $99 when I got to the point where I wanted to push apps to the app store.

      • by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        In recent years, Apple wants to promote learning to code. So if you install Xcode and log in with an Apple ID, you are already in a "personal team" and you can run it on your own device for 7 days.

        Hasn't that been the case for a over decade? IIRC you always had the option to run XCode with a non-Developer Apple ID, and compile and run code on your own devices. That's what I did when I started messing around with XCode; I only paid the $99 when I got to the point where I wanted to push apps to the app store.

        Nope. You could run things on the iOS Simulator, but not on an actual device. That policy didn't change until 2015, when Xcode 7 was released.

    • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      In recent years, Apple wants to promote learning to code. So if you install Xcode and log in with an Apple ID, you are already in a "personal team" and you can run it on your own device for 7 days.

      This guy has automated that manual process. I wonder how long it'll work.

      Apple will probably keep it open, because hey, Apple now has an alternative app store, thus vaporizing any excuses about Apple and monopolies. Apple will control their official store, but also note that web apps will continue to get first cla

      • Spotify is free to create a webapp for their service - which shouldn't be too hard, since they already allow listening from their website

        That's less likely to work than many people imagine. Of the major browser engines, Apple WebKit is the slowest to incorporate newly standardized web platform features, particularly with respect to media, offline support, and OS integration. Detractors might claim that Apple leaves web platform features out of WebKit deliberately in order to encourage development of native applications and leaves royalty-free codecs out of AVFoundation in order to encourage royalty payments to MPEG-LA.

  • What got into you, trying to install something without our blessing on one of our devices? Who do you think you are? Get your own device if you want to decide what's running on it!

  • by sad_ ( 7868 )

    There is nothing Apple can do.

    Here comes an army of Apple lawyers, tell me again what they can't do.

    • Hopefully they can finally get nailed for their anticompetitive (oh look, that word wasn't in the Android dictionary, WHAT A SURPRISE) actions. Not permitting competing app stores is an abuse of their market position, creating a monopoly on iDevice apps.

  • This capability has been available in iOS since iOS 8.0 was Released in September, 2014, FFS!

    Sideloading Sites like this, as well as Open Source iOS Software Cites, have been around for YEARS, now:

    https://www.unlockboot.com/bes... [unlockboot.com]

    Cydia Impactor can Sideload into iOS, and Runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux:

    http://www.cydiaimpactor.com/ [cydiaimpactor.com]

    Way to keep your finger on the Pulse, Slashdot!

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