3.5k device that's locked down into some iOS like Apple walled garden doesn't sound like backers playground to me.
My second computer I got for a graduation gift was a Mac LCII with 10MB RAM with a 512x384 12 inch monitor a LaserWriter LS printer, an Apple //e daughter card, a 5-1/4 inch drive for the card and a copy of SoftPC. It was $4000 - in 1992.
People use to spend a lot more on computers back in the day.
Both of my computers were hackers playgrounds for me.
I would have gladly paid $99 a year for the bragging rights of putting my app on the iOS App Store so anyone could get it.
I paid for a 65C02 compiler back in mid 80s using my allowance and paid for a Mac C compiler in the early 90s.
My parents were solidly middle class - a factory worker and a teacher.
If this runs a version of iOS, we can't access the code that is running in it, we can't open a terminal, we can't use our programing language of choice. We can't use the actual device for building anything hacker related by itself.
We can make apps for it using an actual PC made for building, but only if it runs MacOS, ans using their proprietary language. The actual device is far from a hackers dream or plaything if its as locked up as the iPhone. But very cool device though, hopefully it brings VR into Mainstram outside of gaming
iPhone enthusiasts Stephen Hackett (his real name), hack into pre-release versions of iOS all of the time to see how it’s running from their computer.
Even that 1986 6th grade hacker that I was would never want to program on the phone. I fail to see the fascination with running a fully fledged IDE on a phone.
When I was programming on the very open Windows CE devices pre-iPhone, I avoided running on the phone as long as possible and used the emulator.
You can use any programming language you want that compiles down to ARM.
This "you can build and directly deploy an app to a limited number of devices if you're on the developer program and have a mac, therefore you can 'hack iOS all you want'" meme is borderline dishonest.
Also, the fact that you "fail to see the fascination" is of little significance to those who do want to develop on-device. You don't get to make "you can hack iOS all you want" work by restricting what people are allowed to want.
Messing around with the kernel generally does run the risk of voiding warranties and bricking devices.
And most of the things I'd want to do with an iOS device that I'm prevented from doing wouldn't involve any kernel-level work anyway.
But more importantly that's the most pathetic justification I've ever heard. By that logic, since playing the piano is difficult we might as well sell pianos with all the keys glued together.
The truth of it is that Apple products are not designed for tinkering and they actively resist attempts to do it. To spend my time plumbing their internals to add value to a product that treats me an my kind as a sort of infection would be a pure waste. I'll do my hacking on Linux and use my iPhone for arguing with people on hackernews, it's fine.
nut up. hacking has never been perfectly safe and has never had a promise of easy. if you want it enough, you can make it happen.
There are plenty of kids out there tinkering and hacking in the truest sense on iOS and macOS using one of their relative's dev accounts.
The point is that you can hack the device to run your software, or distribute your software so that it's easy for others to use it as well, but not both.
Problem is, Apple isn't advertising this as a phone or "mobile device". They're advertising it as a spatial computer. And IDEs are probably my second-most-used computer applications after web browsers, so I want to be able to use them with the near-endless monitor space offered by this spatial computer.
Do you also want to run an IDE on the Apple Watch?
I get what you are trying to say, but this just isn’t true.
The cost of deploying to App Store is negligible compared to the rest of the HW needed
Some playgrounds have no fences, but also no interesting objects to play with.
Other playgrounds have boundaries far out, and comes with a huge combinatorial explosion of possibility.
The price doesn’t have to come down as 3.5k is the modern day equivalent to the price of a laptop 10-20 years ago.
People wallet and their salary is not out of rubber - there is limit how much they can stretch their budget.
There will be multiple VisionPro competitors within half a decade and they’ll all compete on price and focus on mass adoption - just as it happens with phones and laptops.