AltStore PAL is available in Europe as an alternative to the App Store – iPhone

AltStore PAL is now available in the EU As an alternative to the App Store, Apple must comply with the Digital Marketplaces Act.

Installing AltStore PAL forces users to bypass several clumsily implemented Apple warnings that check second and second. Tuesday Times when you actually want to install apps without resorting to Apple's own App Store. But with a lot of persistence and some confirmations, the app was finally installed.

The new digital marketplace app comes with two apps created by Riley Testut: Delta, an emulator capable of running NES, SNES, Nintendo 64, Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, and Nintendo DS games, and Clip, a clipboard management app, which has been banned by Apple. AltStore PAL is the result of the efforts of Testut and his partner Shane Gill.

Delta is also available as of today through the Apple App Store for those outside the EU. This is a positive development for everyone affected by the whole iGBA situation over the past weekend.

AltStore PAL is linking its digital marketplace to Patreon and will support developers who want to release beta apps as a reward for funding the digital marketplace through a crowdfunding model, which is not allowed in the App Store. Testut will charge €1.50 (plus tax) per year for use of AltStore PAL to cover the Core Technology Fee (CTF) charged by Apple for installing the core app. Delta is free to make up for the CTF, but downloading the Clip requires a minimum monthly subscription via Patreon of €1 (plus tax).

None of the above applications are new, nor is the digital market through which these applications are available fundamentally new. AltStore has been around since 2019 for iOS, but until now its installation has involved a workaround that essentially tricks the iPhone into thinking the person in question is the creator of the app, using a companion software called AltServer that must be running on a Mac or PC. It's a somewhat controversial method, although it doesn't usually involve jailbreaking the device.

Now, thanks to the Digital Markets Act, Delta and Clip officially have their release through the AltStore app in the EU.

Delta supports horizontal play and external controls.

Both apps demonstrate the kind of software that can make its way to the iPhone now that creators no longer have to go through Apple's App Store to get their work to customers' devices. As a gaming simulator, Delta balances in a legal gray area that Apple only recently decided to support. Clip, on the other hand, requires several interventions to run in the background indefinitely, and as Testut itself stated, these interventions “are all against the App Store rules.” There may be good reasons for these limitations — you have to know that you can trust Clip, as the app sees everything you copy and paste on your phone — but that's something every user should judge, rather than rely on Apple to do it for them.

Testut says AltStore PAL is open to suggestions from other app developers. Unlike Apple's centrally controlled App Store, the plan is for apps available through AltStore PAL to be hosted on their creators' servers, with users having to add additional “assets” to the digital marketplace so they can download software created by other developers. .