[gruez]

> Testut told The Verge that measures to block AltStore would break key functionality for developers or iTunes syncing.

No, it won't. Keep in mind that we didn't have the 7 day side-load for free apple ids prior to 2015[1]. All apple has to do is disable sideloading for free accounts. I imagine it won't impact many legitimate developers, who probably have paid developer accounts anyways.

[1] https://9to5mac.com/2015/06/10/xcode-7-allows-anyone-to-down...

[josephpmay]

It wouldn't break functionality for developers releasing apps in the app store, but it would break functionality for kid/teen developers and coding classes and people teaching themselves to code, which Apple cares a lot more about than people putting a Gameboy emulator on their phones

[floatboth]

I'm pretty sure Apple's position towards kids learning to code is "use the swift playground thingy from the app store"

[borland]

I wouldn't be AT ALL surprised if Apple decides to break the kid/teen developers over this. People like the AltStore developer are why we can't have nice things.

[deft]

AltStore is a nice thing, and blocking it would be apple removing nice things. Why are you shifting the blame to a developer?

[616c]

But people like you are why I'm happy those like the AltStore dev exists and challenge the status quo!

[tinus_hn]

They could simply limit it to one account and three apps. It’s just an oversight.

Also I didn’t check out how this store works but if you have to reinstall every few weeks I imagine it gets tedious pretty quickly.

[m463]

Might there be an antitrust angle here?

[henryfjordan]

There is already a anti-trust lawsuit going on about side-loading apps, see Apple v Pepper

[zapzupnz]

Not at all. This functionality isn't intended for the general public anyway.