Recently, Apple has been doing some things that caught my attention, and have been adding up to make this one of Apple's worst years. This post is being partially fed by the blog post that my Eva made, as well as a future blog post of mine that is in the works which is a callout to everything that 2024 Apple has become, and is doing.

What's happening?

Due to Apple's actions regarding device ownership, software signing, repairability, privacy, environmental advertising, misleading advertising, and taking advantage of people who don't know better, I am making the difficult decision to pull all of my Apple-compatible software from official Apple distribution and/or signing, effective July 18th, 2024 at 12:30 AM EST.

While I know this decision will impact my users' ability to get my software, I'm of the opinion that spreading the knowledge of why and how it'll be harder to get my software is more important.

It's going to be more difficult to get my software because of Apple, and their pain-in-the-ass software signing policies that impose all sorts of arbitrary and intentionally annoying limits imposed on you unless you pay $99/yr. And even if you do pay, sideloading perfectly legal apps from good developers is still made more involved than it needs to be.

There are many more points, but in the interest of keeping this blog post short and to the point, those other points will be covered in the aforementioned future blog post.

Software Availability

Battery Webhook

Battery Webhook will continue to be available from:

GitHub Releases
AltStore, as a custom source (alt.thatstel.la)
SideStore, as a trusted source (alt.thatstel.la)
Official builds archive on files.thatstel.la

Battery Webhook for watchOS won't be available from any app marketplace, as AltStore/SideStore don't support watchOS apps. You will need to download an IPA file from the builds archive and sideload that to your Apple Watch manually. I cannot help with the process as I don't have an iPhone or an Apple Watch.

ThatsNiceGuy Funnies

ThatsNiceGuy Funnies will continue to be available from:

The previously available non-App Store version on my website
Official builds archive on files.thatstel.la

Until I get ThatsNiceGuy Funnies onto my AltStore/SideStore source, you will need to download an IPA file from my website or the builds archive and sideload that to your iPhone using AltStore/SideStore, or manually. I'll update this blog post and tweet when Funnies comes to my AltStore/SideStore source.

Lyra

Lyra will continue to be available from:

GitHub Releases

This was a very small project, now archived due to me no longer daily driving a Mac.

Ending thoughts

I hope this pushes more people to fight against Apple's extremely limiting software signing policy. "Here's to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes." Unless you're a crazy one, a misfit, a rebel, or a troublemaker in Apple land, due to all the limitations imposed.