
Apple approves Commodore 64 emulator for iPhone - Anon84
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2009/09/06/apple-approves-commodore-64-emulator-for-iphone/
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jasonkester
... but only after they cripple it to uselessness.

No BASIC. No loading your own games onto it. 5 obscure games, only one of
which I'd even heard of (and I was a C64 kid).

This is a sad let down, considering how cool the original app that got
rejected was.

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SwellJoe
The only useful thing about a C64 emulator, to me, is running arbitrary
applications. Luckily, I have an Android phone, so the C64 emulator (JME C64)
can run anything I want it to...chiptunes, ahoy!

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derefr
So, you didn't want the C64 emulator to emulate C64 games, but rather to just
do what Apple doesn't want you to do? If you want to run arbitrary
applications, just jailbreak.

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dejb
'C64 games' is a subset of 'arbitrary applications'. You are a member of the
set of Apple fanboys.

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unalone
Can we hold back on namecalling? You made a good point without having to sully
it with an attack.

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dejb
I couldn't resist. The same person had another post of equal logical value in
defence of the app store system. It seems like there are some people who see
it as their role to defend Mac products and in particular the iPhone no matter
what the situation is. It wouldn't surprise me if Apple had a team of paid
commentors for this sort of thing. Comments like these have that sort of feel
to them. Either way I think that sort of generic, knee-jerk and irational type
of post is deserving of a label such as fanboy.

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jstevens85
I don't think they're defending the system, simple pointing out that the
situation isn't as dire as people seem to suggest. Sure, it sucks that you
can't run BASIC code, but how many people buying the app would actually make
any use out of it?

There seems to be a huge number of anti-Apple reactionaries who condemn every
little mistake Apple makes, without acknowledging the positive things it has
brought to the industry. It used to be impossible for a single person or a
small team to make any money out of the mobile market. Apple changed that. Of
course, that doesn't justify its app store policies.

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dejb
Presumably in this case people would make use of it to run all those games for
the c64 that were written in basic. That's the whole point in case you aren't
familiar with the situation.

> There seems to be a huge number of anti-Apple reactionaries who condemn
> every little mistake Apple makes

I think that most people here are criticising the app store restrictions
solely. But with the ridiculous level of hype amount hype surrounding the
iPhone, it isn't surprising that many would seek to balance things by pointing
out its shortcomings.

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newsdog
The iPhone will never be awesome until anyone can sell an app without
approval.

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derefr
Are you sure "awesome" is the word you're looking for? I'd hate to have to run
an anti-virus program on my phone.

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endtime
It's really not hard to avoid getting a virus when installing arbitrary apps,
even on Windows, for which nearly all viruses are written - just download
reputable apps from reputable sites. Not hard.

The iPhone has a full web browser, though, which is a much more likely point
of entry for malicious code.

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derefr
Mobile Safari doesn't run any sorts of code, other than Javascript. No Flash,
Java or any Mac equivalent to ActiveX—and without hooks to those, the JS can't
really do anything either. I suppose you could find a vulnerability in the app
itself, but iPhone apps are themselves sandboxed to prevent installing code
without getting an elevation prompt (which is what that "Login with your
iTunes account" prompt really is.)

To your first point, though: I thought you were talking about listing
arbitrary apps in the central App Store without vetting them. People trust
things that, like you said, come from reputable sites. The App Store is seen
in its entirety as a "reputable site," no matter which publisher actually
wrote the app. I'm all for allowing you to just surf to an .ipa file and
download/install it, but don't allow people to list a trojan-horse "Apple
Remote" right beside the actual "Remote" without creating some form of
community filtering or known-developer verification.

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edmccaffrey
> I suppose you could find a vulnerability in the app itself, but iPhone apps
> are themselves sandboxed to prevent installing code without getting an
> elevation prompt (which is what that "Login with your iTunes account" prompt
> really is.)

There used to be a site that you browse to in mobile Safari, and it would
jailbreak the phone. A potential vulnerability in the app itself is probably
what he meant.

~~~
endtime
Excellent example - thanks. I did mean in the app itself, rather than some
kind of plugin.

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anigbrowl
That's not what you want. _This_ is what you want.
<http://paradroid.ovine.net/index.php>

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Tichy
"The app will not load arbitrary game code downloads nor expose a BASIC
interpreter."

