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Comment by scarface_74 | Hacker News Reader

You can definitely hack iOS all you want to, use private APIs, do all sorts of things that are against the App Store rules, run it on your own device and publish the code to GitHub to let other hackers compile it and run it from source.

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.

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Do tell me how I can run my own home screen, directly access the filesystem, write my own device driver or tweak the kernel without voiding my warranty and risking bricking my phone using a jailbreak exploit, assuming one is available for my device.

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.

> voiding my warranty and risking bricking my phone using a jailbreak exploit

Messing around with the kernel generally does run the risk of voiding warranties and bricking devices.

So?

So why are you mentioning it like it’s a unique drawback? It’s inherent to the activity!

For one thing, it isn't. I can do linux kernel dev on my desktop and laptop without voiding my warranty or risking bricking anything.

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.

> voiding my warranty and risking bricking

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.

Piss off, I'll do my tinkering on a platform that isn't continually trying to prevent me from doing it, thank you very much. I'll use my expensive pocket bauble as the limited device it is designed to be. Just don't try and gaslight me into thinking it's in any sense a general purpose computer.

You do you. The rest of us do our tinkering however we choose based upon our own situation, as well. Some people only own the "expensive pocket bauble" (you know, economics are a thing) and they're still out there hacking on it rather than whining about the walled garden. We all know that there are other ecosystems that are more modification-friendly. We don't need to hear your over-qualified internet rant. hence the "nut up" comment. "void my warranty" sheesh. What point are you trying to make?

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 argument is not that you'd run your IDE on the AR device (although there's people who will want to do that).

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.

>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.

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.

Great comment and replies. Thank you.

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