The release of the first Intel Macs has rekindled speculation and discussion about Apple's long term plans with regard to their platform and the level of "openness". This comes in two forms.
First, is the possibility of running Windows on the Mac. As mentioned previously, Apple's official stance is one of indifference - That's fine with us. We Don't mind. This, however, may require some work. Of note, MacWindows claims that Microsoft execs said that while the current version of Virtual PC won't run on the Intel Macs, the company is "committed to porting the emulator to the Intel Mac platform." No time frame is given. This delay may be due to claims by eWeek that the Virtual PC team was caught off guard by the Intel Mac announcement back in June 2005 and that "Apple has yet to provide developers with the deep hooks needed for such virtualization".
Meanwhile, Businessweek discusses the flip side of that scenario -- opening Mac OS X up to run on generic PCs. While Apple has no plans to do such a thing at this time, that doesn't stop analysts from asking "What if..." The author gives a balanced look at the options Apple might have and even notes that Microsoft's license-platform-to-all strategy may be hurting the consumer adoption of their Windows Media/MP3 players.
Update: One reader notes that the new Intel Macs use EFI instead of BIOS. And that Windows XP 32bit does not support EFI at this time, so booting Windows XP may not be possible directly.
Wednesday April 17, 2024 9:58 am PDT by Juli Clover
Game emulator apps have come and gone since Apple announced App Store support for them on April 5, but now popular game emulator Delta from developer Riley Testut is available for download. Testut is known as the developer behind GBA4iOS, an open-source emulator that was available for a brief time more than a decade ago. GBA4iOS led to Delta, an emulator that has been available outside of...
iOS 18 is expected to be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history. Below, we recap rumored features and changes for the iPhone. iOS 18 is rumored to include new generative AI features for Siri and many apps, and Apple plans to add RCS support to the Messages app for an improved texting experience between iPhones and Android devices. The update is also expected to introduce a more...
Tuesday April 16, 2024 11:33 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The first approved Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) emulator for the iPhone and iPad was made available on the App Store today following Apple's rule change. The emulator is called Bimmy, and it was developed by Tom Salvo. On the App Store, Bimmy is described as a tool for testing and playing public domain/"homebrew" games created for the NES, but the app allows you to load ROMs for any...
Apple today said it removed Game Boy emulator iGBA from the App Store for violating the company's App Review Guidelines related to spam (section 4.3) and copyright (section 5.2), but it did not provide any specific details. iGBA was a copycat version of developer Riley Testut's open-source GBA4iOS app. The emulator rose to the top of the App Store charts following its release this weekend,...
Tuesday April 16, 2024 6:54 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Last September, Apple's iPhone 15 Pro models debuted with a new customizable Action button, offering faster access to a handful of functions, as well as the ability to assign Shortcuts. Apple is poised to include the feature on all upcoming iPhone 16 models, so we asked iPhone 15 Pro users what their experience has been with the additional button so far. The Action button replaces the switch ...
A week after Apple updated its App Review Guidelines to permit retro game console emulators, a Game Boy emulator for the iPhone called iGBA has appeared in the App Store worldwide. The emulator is already one of the top free apps on the App Store charts. It was not entirely clear if Apple would allow emulators to work with all and any games, but iGBA is able to load any Game Boy ROMs that...