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Comment by aaaaaaaaaaab | Hacker News Reader

All of this is already possible if you have an Apple developer account. You just need to re-sign the .app bundle with your own key and you can deploy it from Xcode to your phone. Ok, maybe you need to change the bundle ID too, otherwise it will complain that it's already registered with a different developer account, but that's fine.

iOS developers are sideloading their apps hundreds of times each day...

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But it's a time bomb when you do that, your app'll expire and stop working after a short while. My dev friends who've never used an iPhone think I joke when I tell them that.

That's only true for free developer accounts. If you pay the $99 dollar fee for a proper developer account, your apps' signatures won't expiry that quickly.

Can't Apple close a developer account if it's never used to submit an app to the app store?

I've had my dev account for years before I submitted my first app to the store, so I don't think so.

I did some checking and it looks like Google is the one that's disabling inactive accounts.

Google must be pretty lax then. I bought a Google Play license in 2013, and proceeded to upload a handful of shitty apps that have all been auto-removed at this point. My dev account still works just fine, so ymmv.

Microsoft recently closed a ton of “inactive” Xbox dev accounts, maybe that’s what they thinking about.

(Accounts that were inactive from publishing apps/games to the store. The accounts may have well been “active” for side loading/dev work)

I've had one for ~8 years now I think and never have? I just use it to get early access to betas and such. Which is a valid use case, if you have internal software you want to test or something.

To clarify, it's $99/year, not a one-time fee. With developer mode sideloaded apps expire after a year; without it only 7 days.

Why isn't it free, or a nominal one-time $20 fee like the Microsoft Xbox developer program? Very good question.

> iOS developers are sideloading their apps hundreds of times each day…

Exactly. Want to sideload MAME? It's not a big deal. Go to https://github.com/yoshisuga/MAME4iOS and follow the "Building / Installation / Sideloading" instructions.

Those instructions aren’t exactly what I’d call user-friendly when the equivalent for other OSes is ‘download and run the installer’.

(And what if you don’t own a Mac? Create an entire macOS VM just for the purpose of installing an app on your phone?)

The instructions could be clearer but if you have access to the compiled binary there are tools for windows/Linux that will sign the binaries using your apple account (altsigner and cydia impacter are two that spring to mind for windows).

Compiling source on anything other than MacOS (at least was - not looked into it in a while) a PITA.

The point remains. Having to jump through a bunch of hoops is the opposite of user-friendly.

And to take the argument more broadly: how many of us here on HN became interested in computing because they screwed around on their PC as a child? What about today's children, who get a smartphone, a tablet and maybe a Chromebook? What are we teaching them?

Oh, I completely agree, I was just pointing out you don't need MacOS to sign and install the binary.

I am for hassle-free side loading on every platform (Even on games consoles). I also dislike how most smartphones and tablets have become "Internet consumption devices".

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