One market I’d like to tap into is the Apple one. As it stands, I can build for and test on Windows, Linux, Android, Chrome and Firefox. It’s not like I have a commercially viable product, but it would still be nice to be able to test and maybe help Apple users who have issues.
I watched some of the WWDC22 keynote and snooped around Reddit for further news, but unfortunately the announcements don’t help. Thought the new MacBook might effectively work out cheaper than the old one if they increased the base specs, but nope, it’s worse than ever before.
£1249 for 8GB of non-upgradable RAM is really taking the piss. But don’t fret, my child. For a mere two hundred pounds we’ll double it to 16, or for four hundred we’ll triple it to 24. Yeah, no thanks. Halve the prices and I might consider. And this is their “entry-level” laptop.
Accessories add to this price, such as Thunderbolt to USB-A and HDMI adapters. If I wanted to publish to the App Store or have signed macOS executables (it’s possible to run unsigned stuff but the process is too spooky for end users) that’s another $99/year down the drain.
I’m still having a look on eBay in case I can get something at a reasonable price – the Mac Mini seems like the best bet. Though the cheap ones are either out of software support, have laughable specs, or both. And the 16GB M1 ones aren’t much cheaper than just buying from Apple.
So if the hardware side of things is no good, how about software? They announced iOS 16, which looks pretty cool. Support for the iPhone 6S, iPhone 6S Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone SE (1st generation), iPod Touch (7th generation), iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 4 is being dropped.
I have the iPod, so I’ll be unable to test if Safari 16 fixes any of the issues present in 15. Don’t know whose boneheaded decision it was to tie browser updates to the operating system. This is not alleviated by using third-party browsers — they all make use of Safari’s engine!
Sorry this thread is a bit of a bummer. I’d like to provide software to Apple users, but Apple doesn’t make it financially easy. This is mostly just about the development side of things — energy efficiency and Xcode exclusivity are the only things Apple seems to be winning at.
This post was originally on Twitter.