iDOS 2 emulator will get App Store takedown discover

Apple could also be eradicating iDOS 2, a preferred (or, on the very least, well-liked for a DOS emulator designed to run decades-old software program and video games) emulation app that enables customers to run DOS video games and software program on Apple’s iPhone and iPad gadgets.

According to the developer, Chaoji Li, Apple issued the discover of the pending takedown after a not too long ago submitted replace for a bug repair. While iDOS 2 has been out there since 2014 on the App Store, evidently with the newest replace, the corporate has modified its thoughts.

Per the letter that Li acquired:

Upon re-evaluation, we discovered that your app shouldn’t be in compliance with the App Store Review Guidelines. Specifically, we discovered your app is in violation of the next:

Guideline 2.5.2 — Performance — Software Requirements

During overview, your app put in or launched executable code, which isn’t permitted on the App Store.

Specifically, your app executes iDOS bundle and picture information and permits iTunes File Sharing and Files help for importing video games. Executing code can introduce or modifications options or performance of the app and permits for downloading of content material with out licensing.

Li had beforehand been pressured to go 4 years with out an replace to iDOS 2 because of Apple’s restrictions on bundling sport information, however he was able to update the app in September 2020 with modifications that enabled iDOS 2 to make use of iOS’s document-sharing characteristic to let customers import their very own information. An earlier model of the app, iDOS, had been briefly out there on the App Store in 2010, however was pulled by Apple shortly after it was launched.

Since that September replace, Li was additionally in a position to submit a dozen different updates to his app, every with out situation. Li claims to have been extraordinarily upfront with Apple’s reviewers throughout every replace submission, noting that whereas the app does run exterior code, it does so in a sandboxed surroundings (that means there’s no safety threat that might compromise consumer information on the remainder of the working system).

For no matter motive, although, Apple seems to have modified its thoughts on implementing this part of its App Store guidelines. It’s not clear what precisely has modified right here, though Li speculates {that a} latest burst of recognition (helped by tweets from Fast Company tech editor Harry McCracken and a guide from How-To Geek that reveals how the app might be used to run Windows 3.1 on an iPad) could have induced Apple’s change of coronary heart.

Apple has given Li 14 days to replace his app to take away the power to run executable code — which might render it fully ineffective. Li has already mentioned he doesn’t intend to make that change, explaining that doing so “would be a betrayal to all the users that have purchased this app specifically for those features.”

For now, iDOS 2 remains to be out there on the App Store for $4.99, but when Apple sticks to its phrase, it doubtless gained’t be round to buy for for much longer.