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>I’m saving approximately $84-120 CAD annually. I suppose most of this is eaten up by the need to pay apple $99 per year just to run your own app on your own p

>I’m saving approximately $84-120 CAD annually. I suppose most of this is eaten up by the need to pay apple $99 per year just to run your own app on your own phone for longer than a week.

procinct 1y ago
I believe you only have to pay to put your app on the App Store. I’ve made apps for my iPhone before and never had to pay.
- mcpherrinm 1y ago
  It's the "for longer than a week" bit - Unless you have a paid developer account, you can only sign apps to sideload that last one week. There's some tools to automate "refreshing" the app, but that requires you have some other computer that pushes a new app every week. The "1 week" restriction is usually fine when you're developing (as you typically are continually rebuilding and updating when actively working on an app) but is clearly intended to avoid being a way to sideload apps without the developer account "nearby".
  - tech234a 1y ago
    If you trust it, SideStore manages to do it on device by using a local VPN to make an on-device server appear to be an external device on the network.
    - weaksauce 1y ago
      is there a reason to be wary of sidestore? first time i've heard of that but seems like a legit opensource project. doesn't seem like it would be a project that is all that lucrative for bad actors... people that don't want to pay $99/year to load apps on their personal iphones/ipads doesn't seem like a big score.
      - tech234a 1y ago
        I believe they had an issue early on where some Apple IDs were getting soft-locked but said issue has been resolved for a few years now and it's easy to make an Apple ID specifically to use with SideStore. [1]: https://docs.sidestore.io/docs/faq/#why-is-my-account-getting-locked-when-i-use-sidestore https://docs.sidestore.io/docs/faq/#why-is-my-account-gettin...
- sheepscreek 1y ago
  I’m not a 100% on this, but I believe you need to pay them to “sign” your app. For iOS, that means there is no way anyone else will be able to use your app unless they side-load it themselves (and we all know how cumbersome that is, Apple doesn’t want to make it easy).
  - notnmeyer 1y ago
    correct
behnamoh 1y ago
This Apple fee is one of the most absurd things they do. Like, how is it even justified—does Apple really spend $99 on infra maintenance and server costs to host your app? When I buy a device I want to know that I own it, but Apple keeps pushing the narrative that "we LET you use this device in ways we see fit". So basically the customer is just borrowing a device from Apple while paying the full price. I'm a longtime Apple user but can't shake off this love-hate relationship with the company.
- aerostable_slug 1y ago
  I think it's fair to also cover the fairly rigorous testing that occurs for each app store submission. I'm not sure a hundred bucks is the right number, but it's not fair to say all they do is host the file.
  - rahimnathwani 1y ago
    You have to pay $99/year even if you only want to use the app on your own device. You can only sideload for free if you are willing to reinstall every X days. They don't need to test an app if you're not asking them to distribute it through their store.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    - mitemte 1y ago
      What’s worse is it used to be 90 days. Apple changed it to 7 days years ago.
      - demosthanos 1y ago
        90 days is still absurd. I have custom apps I install on my Android phones once per phone. I go years without bothering to rebuild them.
        1y ago
dzhiurgis 1y ago
EcoFlow batteries are pretty expensive too. Also that's about 500kWh of power annually which averages to 50W. There is just no way iPhone uses that much.
- winter_blue 1y ago
  The author has a mini PC plugged into the EcoFlow as well. That uses the bulk of the power.
slg 1y ago
There is also the roughly $1k in costs for the solar and battery hardware even if we consider the iPhone itself free since it is so old.
- HenryBemis 1y ago
  I was just checking the combo he is using [0] (River 2 Pro + 220W solar generator) and it's currently at USD 619. In the post, the author sums it at USD 780. I assume price dropped because of newer models, etc. [0]: https://us.ecoflow.com/products/river-2-pro-portable-power-station?variant=41757166403657 https://us.ecoflow.com/products/river-2-pro-portable-power-s...
  - slg 1y ago
    There were also $280 of other vague miscellaneous costs listed among the initial investments that I was including as part of that "roughly $1k"
nico_h 1y ago
Also you can only run the compile-sign-deploy from a mac AFAIK.
ajross 1y ago
That was exactly my thought. Out of the whole universe of development platforms we have to choose from to do an off-label maker-think gadget hack, iOS is inarguably, and by a huge margin, the worst. There are literally home appliances with more customizable app development and deployment stories than iPhones.
nfriedly 1y ago
The iPhone 8 has the unpatchable checkm8 bootrom vulnerability, so while it doesn't say this in the article, the author could have jailbroken the device to run whatever software they want without paying any Apple fees. That vulnerability was a huge win. It just recently stopped, with the final vulnerable device (7th gen iPad) not getting the iPad OS 26 update.
- selcuka 1y ago
  Isn't it an in-memory exploit, though? I believe it would stop working if the phone restarts for some reason.
  - nfriedly 1y ago
    Yes, that's correct, it's "tethered" meaning you have to basically redo it each time the phone restarts.
callbacked 1y ago
surely on an iPhone that has the checkm8 hardware vulnerability available, one could jailbreak the device, install a codesigning bypass plugin on it, then develop and sideload their app without the whole "pay apple $99/yr to keep your sideloaded app on your phone" thing?

>I’m saving approximately $84-120 CAD annually. I suppose most of this is eaten up by the need to pay apple $99 per year just to run your own app on your own phone for longer than a week.

procinct 1y ago

I believe you only have to pay to put your app on the App Store. I’ve made apps for my iPhone before and never had to pay.

mcpherrinm 1y ago
It's the "for longer than a week" bit - Unless you have a paid developer account, you can only sign apps to sideload that last one week. There's some tools to automate "refreshing" the app, but that requires you have some other computer that pushes a new app every week. The "1 week" restriction is usually fine when you're developing (as you typically are continually rebuilding and updating when actively working on an app) but is clearly intended to avoid being a way to sideload apps without the developer account "nearby".
- tech234a 1y ago
  If you trust it, SideStore manages to do it on device by using a local VPN to make an on-device server appear to be an external device on the network.
  - weaksauce 1y ago
    is there a reason to be wary of sidestore? first time i've heard of that but seems like a legit opensource project. doesn't seem like it would be a project that is all that lucrative for bad actors... people that don't want to pay $99/year to load apps on their personal iphones/ipads doesn't seem like a big score.
    - tech234a 1y ago
      I believe they had an issue early on where some Apple IDs were getting soft-locked but said issue has been resolved for a few years now and it's easy to make an Apple ID specifically to use with SideStore. [1]: https://docs.sidestore.io/docs/faq/#why-is-my-account-getting-locked-when-i-use-sidestore https://docs.sidestore.io/docs/faq/#why-is-my-account-gettin...
sheepscreek 1y ago
I’m not a 100% on this, but I believe you need to pay them to “sign” your app. For iOS, that means there is no way anyone else will be able to use your app unless they side-load it themselves (and we all know how cumbersome that is, Apple doesn’t want to make it easy).
- notnmeyer 1y ago
  correct

behnamoh 1y ago

This Apple fee is one of the most absurd things they do. Like, how is it even justified—does Apple really spend $99 on infra maintenance and server costs to host your app? When I buy a device I want to know that I own it, but Apple keeps pushing the narrative that "we LET you use this device in ways we see fit". So basically the customer is just borrowing a device from Apple while paying the full price. I'm a longtime Apple user but can't shake off this love-hate relationship with the company.

aerostable_slug 1y ago
I think it's fair to also cover the fairly rigorous testing that occurs for each app store submission. I'm not sure a hundred bucks is the right number, but it's not fair to say all they do is host the file.
- rahimnathwani 1y ago
  You have to pay $99/year even if you only want to use the app on your own device. You can only sideload for free if you are willing to reinstall every X days. They don't need to test an app if you're not asking them to distribute it through their store.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - mitemte 1y ago
    What’s worse is it used to be 90 days. Apple changed it to 7 days years ago.
    - demosthanos 1y ago
      90 days is still absurd. I have custom apps I install on my Android phones once per phone. I go years without bothering to rebuild them.
      - 1y ago

dzhiurgis 1y ago

EcoFlow batteries are pretty expensive too. Also that's about 500kWh of power annually which averages to 50W. There is just no way iPhone uses that much.

winter_blue 1y ago
The author has a mini PC plugged into the EcoFlow as well. That uses the bulk of the power.

slg 1y ago

There is also the roughly $1k in costs for the solar and battery hardware even if we consider the iPhone itself free since it is so old.

HenryBemis 1y ago
I was just checking the combo he is using [0] (River 2 Pro + 220W solar generator) and it's currently at USD 619. In the post, the author sums it at USD 780. I assume price dropped because of newer models, etc. [0]: https://us.ecoflow.com/products/river-2-pro-portable-power-station?variant=41757166403657 https://us.ecoflow.com/products/river-2-pro-portable-power-s...
- slg 1y ago
  There were also $280 of other vague miscellaneous costs listed among the initial investments that I was including as part of that "roughly $1k"

nico_h 1y ago

Also you can only run the compile-sign-deploy from a mac AFAIK.

ajross 1y ago

That was exactly my thought. Out of the whole universe of development platforms we have to choose from to do an off-label maker-think gadget hack, iOS is inarguably, and by a huge margin, the worst. There are literally home appliances with more customizable app development and deployment stories than iPhones.

nfriedly 1y ago

The iPhone 8 has the unpatchable checkm8 bootrom vulnerability, so while it doesn't say this in the article, the author could have jailbroken the device to run whatever software they want without paying any Apple fees. That vulnerability was a huge win. It just recently stopped, with the final vulnerable device (7th gen iPad) not getting the iPad OS 26 update.

selcuka 1y ago
Isn't it an in-memory exploit, though? I believe it would stop working if the phone restarts for some reason.
- nfriedly 1y ago
  Yes, that's correct, it's "tethered" meaning you have to basically redo it each time the phone restarts.

callbacked 1y ago

surely on an iPhone that has the checkm8 hardware vulnerability available, one could jailbreak the device, install a codesigning bypass plugin on it, then develop and sideload their app without the whole "pay apple $99/yr to keep your sideloaded app on your phone" thing?