Well this was unexpected. As John Gruber of Daring Fireball reports, Apple changed the App Store rules to allow apps that can emulate classic gaming devices. As a result, a free app by Riley Testut called Delta that emulates an NES, SNES, N64, Nintendo DS, Game Boy, and Game Boy Advance and that has been in development for years but used to require work-arounds to get it on an iPhone, is now on the App Store and in the #1 spot. Not the #1 games spot; the #1 overall spot. There are a lot of legal questions surrounding these emulators because people typically use them with ROM files that they find on the Internet without paying for them, but of course, sometimes the developer has been gone for decades. And although using an emulator is at least at the edge of legality, Dan Moren of Six Colors notes, ironically, that Apple is probably allowing these apps because of the fear of more government regulation. If you still own your old game cartridge, there are sometimes ways to create a backup of the cartridge and then load that in Delta, and John Voorhees of MacStories explains how to do that for Game Boy games. Federicco Viticci of MacStories noted on Mastodon that he just continued playing on his iPhone a saved game from 21 years ago. That's a long snack break before returning to your game. I've tried out some of these emulators in the past, and it can be fun to relive an experience from decades ago even though the sophistication of the old games pale in comparison to modern games. I have fond memories of playing Atari 2600 games late into the night with my friends in the early 1980s, and almost 13 years ago, I had great fun playing a few of them again in a device called the iCade, which turned an iPad into an arcade game. It's nice to know that we will be seeing more like this on the iPhone and iPad in the future. And now, the other news of note from the past week:
- How is Apple doing in large businesses and other large organizations? Jason Snell of Six Colors takes the pulse every year, and the 2024 version of Apple in the Enterprise is now out. In addition to overall scores, he also shares brief comments from lots of different folks, including a few from me.
- I mentioned this in passing yesterday, but Microsoft announced this week that its popular OneNote software is now available for the Apple Vision Pro.
- I love to use the Glif and its hand grip to keep my iPhone steady in my hand when I record video. Unfortunately, the Glif has been back-ordered for months. Malcolm Ower of AppleInsider reports that Rode released two hardware accessories to improve smartphone photography, and if you want to step it up a notch, they look great.
- If you enjoy having maps on a screen in your car via CarPlay, you might be interested in this great story about the first company to offer a similar product: the Etak device that was available in the 1980s. It's a fascinating article.
- There is a tragic story by David Willimas of The New Zealand Herald about two teenage girls who were killed while off-roading when their vehicle went down a steep bank. But the article reports that the crash detection feature on the iPhone was the reason that police could locate the crash site.
- In happier news, Ben Crust of the New York Post shares the tale of a man who was riding home on his bike when he hit a water-filled pothole and took a horrible fall. When he came to, his watch had already called 911, so an emergency worker was already talking to him to send help. He credits his Apple Watch with saving his life.
- The team behind MacStories recommends their favorite indoor gadgets that work with HomeKit. It's a good article, but it omits what I consider the best of these products, although you pay a little more for the quality: Lutron light switches.
- Megan Wollerton of Wirecutter has other good recommendations for using smart lighting in the kitchen.
- One of my all-time favorite Apple TV+ shows is For All Mankind, so I'm so excited to see the report by Joe Otterson in Variety that it has been renewed for a fifth season. In addition, the article reports that there will be a spin-off series focusing on the Soviet space program called Star City. I can't wait!
- And finally, my wife and I have been enjoying watching Palm Royale on Apple TV+. Here is a short behind-the-scenes featurette that doesn't contain much in the way of spoilers but shows off how the show captures the glamour of Pam Beach in 1969.
