11 ms·

This is not true, running your code on your phone with Xcode has always been free.

quantumleaper 5mo ago
With a free account, it needs to be reinstalled every 7 days because the signature expires. It's hardly convenient for personal use.
- dylan604 5mo ago
  [flagged]
  - therein 5mo ago
    It happens. Sometimes you're done making updates to a personal app you use that you wrote.
  - AnthonyMouse 5mo ago
    Every 7 days, forever? At some point you have the thing working to your satisfaction and just want to continue using it.
    - deleted 5mo ago
      [deleted]
    - Terr_ 5mo ago
      Hell, maybe you just want it to not break during a long vacation. Or maybe everything is normal, but, oops, you forgot the last renewal and it stops working exactly the moment you needed it most.
    - Terr_ 5mo ago
      Heck, even "tinkerers" might want it to keep working during a long vacation. Or maybe it's a normal day, and, oops, you forgot the last manual renewal, and now it's busted at exactly the moment you needed it most.
  - hbn 5mo ago
    Going on vacation and want to continue dogfooding?
- manmal 5mo ago
  Most apps can be a PWA nowadays. A Hetzner VPS costs roughly the same as the Apple dev membership. Saying this as a native iOS dev since iOS 4. For your average pretty json printer you don’t need to go native.
  - cbsks 5mo ago
    Offline PWA sites are very limited on iOS. If you force close Safari, look at your phone funny, or don’t visit the site regularly, the cache is cleared and you are stuck at a loading screen until you have internet again. That’s what forced me to finally bite the bullet and pay Apple yearly so I could develop an app for my friends and I to use. Would have much rather kept it as a PWA.
    - manmal 5mo ago
      Yeah they can’t make it too easy to bypass the App Store :( I don’t think that’s a super strong argument though. Native apps have downsides as well.
- pzo 5mo ago
  even worse - if you need to build some app with entitlements or some features likes push notifications etc then you need non-free account
  - roysting 5mo ago
    I would like to mention that although I’m aware of the limitations, I think it is worth designing and advocating for web app standards that could even at some point become a viable competitor to native apps, especially for apps that really don’t need to be native/wrapped apps in the first place since most are CRUDs anyways. Maybe this will be a catalyst towards further evolution of the web app as Android devs want to carve out some freedom from the world domination corporate shadow government walled gardens.
    - regularfry 5mo ago
      You're not wrong, but it will always be the case that the web platform lags native. There will always be stuff you can't do without a native client. The proportion of apps that it's viable to run as a PWA will probably increase over time, but the platforms have both the ability and incentive to stay out ahead.
encom 5mo ago
>free You forgot to factor in the cost of a Mac.
- cromka 5mo ago
  You don't need a computer to develop Android apps?
  - Gander5739 5mo ago
    All you need is a phone: https://github.com/atamshkai/Android-Studio-On-Android-Phone https://github.com/atamshkai/Android-Studio-On-Android-Phone
    - Imustaskforhelp 5mo ago
      I remember running kali linux once on my phone with (termux+vnc) and a vnc viewer app watching some random youtube videos a few years back So I feel like, Something like this was/is possible but its immensely hard for something like this being used especially when a desktop os on a phone is so bad ergonomically speaking unless you have a keyboard mouse connected A better option iirc is to use something like kivy[0] directly with termux, not sure if java might have direct options too or not. [0]: https://github.com/kivy/python-for-android https://github.com/kivy/python-for-android
  - dartharva 5mo ago
    You can use _any_ computer to make Android apps. For iOS you strictly need a Mac.
  - autoexec 5mo ago
    You aren't even limited to android apps. You can install termux and write and compile your own code to run from there or to copy and run anywhere else.
giancarlostoro 5mo ago
Even free-er with Expo and React Native. Course then you have to touch JavaScript ;)
solarkraft 5mo ago
What an insane song and dance to run software.
frizlab 5mo ago
This is not true either. At some point you had to pay. But it’s been a long time since they made it free (with caveats).

With a free account, it needs to be reinstalled every 7 days because the signature expires. It's hardly convenient for personal use.

dylan604 5mo ago
[flagged]
- therein 5mo ago
  It happens. Sometimes you're done making updates to a personal app you use that you wrote.
- AnthonyMouse 5mo ago
  Every 7 days, forever? At some point you have the thing working to your satisfaction and just want to continue using it.
  - deleted 5mo ago
    [deleted]
  - Terr_ 5mo ago
    Hell, maybe you just want it to not break during a long vacation. Or maybe everything is normal, but, oops, you forgot the last renewal and it stops working exactly the moment you needed it most.
  - Terr_ 5mo ago
    Heck, even "tinkerers" might want it to keep working during a long vacation. Or maybe it's a normal day, and, oops, you forgot the last manual renewal, and now it's busted at exactly the moment you needed it most.
- hbn 5mo ago
  Going on vacation and want to continue dogfooding?
manmal 5mo ago
Most apps can be a PWA nowadays. A Hetzner VPS costs roughly the same as the Apple dev membership. Saying this as a native iOS dev since iOS 4. For your average pretty json printer you don’t need to go native.
- cbsks 5mo ago
  Offline PWA sites are very limited on iOS. If you force close Safari, look at your phone funny, or don’t visit the site regularly, the cache is cleared and you are stuck at a loading screen until you have internet again. That’s what forced me to finally bite the bullet and pay Apple yearly so I could develop an app for my friends and I to use. Would have much rather kept it as a PWA.
  - manmal 5mo ago
    Yeah they can’t make it too easy to bypass the App Store :( I don’t think that’s a super strong argument though. Native apps have downsides as well.
pzo 5mo ago
even worse - if you need to build some app with entitlements or some features likes push notifications etc then you need non-free account
- roysting 5mo ago
  I would like to mention that although I’m aware of the limitations, I think it is worth designing and advocating for web app standards that could even at some point become a viable competitor to native apps, especially for apps that really don’t need to be native/wrapped apps in the first place since most are CRUDs anyways. Maybe this will be a catalyst towards further evolution of the web app as Android devs want to carve out some freedom from the world domination corporate shadow government walled gardens.
  - regularfry 5mo ago
    You're not wrong, but it will always be the case that the web platform lags native. There will always be stuff you can't do without a native client. The proportion of apps that it's viable to run as a PWA will probably increase over time, but the platforms have both the ability and incentive to stay out ahead.

encom 5mo ago

>free You forgot to factor in the cost of a Mac.

cromka 5mo ago
You don't need a computer to develop Android apps?
- Gander5739 5mo ago
  All you need is a phone: https://github.com/atamshkai/Android-Studio-On-Android-Phone https://github.com/atamshkai/Android-Studio-On-Android-Phone
  - Imustaskforhelp 5mo ago
    I remember running kali linux once on my phone with (termux+vnc) and a vnc viewer app watching some random youtube videos a few years back So I feel like, Something like this was/is possible but its immensely hard for something like this being used especially when a desktop os on a phone is so bad ergonomically speaking unless you have a keyboard mouse connected A better option iirc is to use something like kivy[0] directly with termux, not sure if java might have direct options too or not. [0]: https://github.com/kivy/python-for-android https://github.com/kivy/python-for-android
- dartharva 5mo ago
  You can use _any_ computer to make Android apps. For iOS you strictly need a Mac.
- autoexec 5mo ago
  You aren't even limited to android apps. You can install termux and write and compile your own code to run from there or to copy and run anywhere else.

giancarlostoro 5mo ago

Even free-er with Expo and React Native. Course then you have to touch JavaScript ;)

solarkraft 5mo ago

What an insane song and dance to run software.

frizlab 5mo ago

This is not true either. At some point you had to pay. But it’s been a long time since they made it free (with caveats).