AltStore VS uBlock

AltServer from the AltStore folks allows you to automate the renewal of sideloaded apps. It’s not perfect, but it’s an excellent workaround.

http://altstore.io/

That's probably to prevent the most obvious workaround of creating a new shell company for every million users. (Which would be not so ridiculous as it sounds, there is plenty of software you cannot buy directly but only through a reseller. Epic could become a pure b2b shop on paper and sell Fortnite clients to regional distributors, or something like that.)

Some time ago somebody made an alternative App Store for emulators, https://altstore.io . I think it works by having users get a developer's certificate and installing the apps like an in-development app. I think it would be really neat if this model got tested in court and declared completely legal.

See: https://altstore.io/

2 apps, re-sign weekly maximum. 3 if you do it without AltStore. Unlimited with a $99/yr developer account.

you already could in a way... by using altstore[0] on non jailbroken devices... It's not as straightforward as on Android but it is possible (there were even some builds of blink engine)

[0] https://github.com/altstoreio/AltStore

I mean, that's fine. My argument about adblockers applies to other software too: the Apple ecosystem has some of the basics (like sync, browsers, etc) figured out for me so that I don't need to fiddle with it. While I'd like to use Firefox, I don't need to, and the tradeoffs that come with accepting Safari instead are worth it for my specific situation. Forcing myself into a different ecosystem so that I can use different software that does the same thing isn't a good tradeoff for me. It sounds like that's not the case for you - glad you've found an ecosystem that works for you.

There are a couple of things you might want to be aware of though:

* AltStore exists and works pretty well: https://altstore.io

* iOS 17.2 allows users in some locales to side load apps: https://medium.com/@rmndrathna4/ios-17-2-sideload-apps-what-... . This was sparked by the Digital Markets Act, which could also force Apple to allow alternate browser engines. It went into effect May 2023, but I'm not a lawyer and idk how this will actually affect the Apple ecosystem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Markets_Act

No problem! I can guide you step by step here. You will need: A Mac Computer A supported Device (which I know you have) A jail broken device This tutorial is for iOS 9 btw, so you should probably update. It’ll only be temporary. First, jailbreak your iPhone. Personally, I updated my iPhone to iOS 9 then jail broke it using Phoenix. To do this, turn on your Mac and download Altstore. (https://altstore.io). Go to the phoenix website and download the ipa file. Then go into Altstore and sideload the ipa on your device by plugging in the 4S and trusting the Mac. It’ll ask you for your Apple ID and password, but if you don’t feel safe giving it, you can create a throw-away Apple ID. Once the ipa is done sideloading, you should see the Phoenix app icon on your main iPhone menu. Go into it, and it’ll say iPhone 4,1 isn’t jailbrolen. Click on the begin button, and go through the terms and service. They will show you their mixtape, but you can ignore it. Now, click begin installation. You should see two buttons to use the premade files or your own. Here, you MUST WAIT at LEAST 5 minutes on this screen before you proceed. If you click the button before five minutes, the screen would fade black and you did it incorrectly. After five minutes, click the use premade asserts button (the button above). After a bit, you should get a storage full message. Then the phone will shut off on its own. When the phone is on, you should have Cydia. Go back into the Phoenix app and make sure it says your iPhones is jailbroken and Cydia can be launched. If not, click the “jumpstart jailbreak” button, and when you get to the assets thing again, wait 5 minutes once more. Once that is done, go into Cydia and go to the sources button. Click Edit on the upper right hand corner, then click Add. Then type this link in. http://repo.tihmstar.net/. Once done, scroll through his selection until you find the kDFU app. Download it, and go into the app. Turn on all the switches, and enter kDFU mode. Now we go back to your Mac. Go here: https://github.com/LukeZGD/Legacy-iOS-Kit/releases/tag/latest. Click on the one that says _Macos. That should download the zip file. Now unzip it, but don’t go into it. Now go to the Mac Terminal. Type cd then a space. Then drag the iOS Kit folder to terminal. The path name should show in terminal next to cd. Click enter. Now type chmod +x restore.sh Now type ./restore.sh You should see some things pop up. Now read if it asks you to update. Type “y” if it asks, and let it do its thing. When it is done updating, type ./restore.sh again. Now if you iPhone 4S is still in kDFU mode and is plugged in, the Patcher should see your iPhone 4S. Now it should show you some options. Type “1” as you are downgrading and click enter. It should now show you if you wanna downgrade to iOS 8 or 6. Type “2” as that is the option listed for iOS 6. Click enter. Now you should see a list of options that show Ipsw related things. Type “2” as that should download the iOS 6 ipsw. When that is done, type “3” and click enter. That will begin the restore. It’ll ask you a few questions, and type y/n to what you want. Now let it finish. Do NOT unplug the phone. When it is done, you should be downgraded!

/u/sevenlayercookie5 /u/rogo725 - I side load it with https://altstore.io/ - it keeps it refreshed every 7 days as well. If you need any help with it, hit me up.

https://altstore.io/ Go here in your computer, download alt server then connect your phone via usb and download AltStore on phone. AltStore will have delta available to download.

Fuck you for not having a Linux version JKJK Thanks for Altserver and Altstore: https://github.com/altstoreio/AltStore

Check out uBlock Origin's per site switches [1]

[1]: https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/Per-site-switches#no-...

If ads, in particular on YouTube, are the problem, anything Chromium-based is probably only going to get worse and worse (see [1] and [2]). So that basically leaves you with Firefox and Safari.

I work for Mozilla (speaking for myself, of course), so I'll leave you to guess which I'd recommend :P

[1] https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b...

[2] https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/09/googles-widely-oppos...

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock

Or if on mobile, it is well worth it to look up adblock options for the browser you use.

What are the compelling advantages of Chrome nowadays?

Chrome is working to limit the capabilities of ad blockers:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2023/11/chrome-pushes...

Whereas a compelling advantage of Firefox is that uBlock Origin works best in Firefox:

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b...

Advertising networks have often been vectors for malware. Using an ad blocker is an important security measure. Even the FBI recommends ad blockers:

https://www.malwarebytes.com/malvertising

https://theconversation.com/spyware-can-infect-your-phone-or...

https://www.ic3.gov/Media/Y2022/PSA221221?=8324278624

> It allows for 30,000 dynamic rules

That is not what we mean by dynamic filters. From https://developer.chrome.com/blog/improvements-to-content-fi...

> However, to support more frequent updates and user-defined rules, extensions can add rules dynamically too, without their developers having to upload a new version of the extension to the Chrome Web Store.

What Chrome is talking about is the ability to specify rules at runtime. What critics of Manifest V3 are talking about is not the ability to dynamically add rules (although that can be an issue), it is the ability to add dynamic rules -- ie rules that analyze and rewrite requests in the style of the blockingWebRequest permission.

It's a little deceptive to claim that the concerns here are outdated and to point to vague terminology that sounds like it's correcting the problem, but on actual inspection turns out to be entirely separate functionality from what the GP was talking about.

> Giving this ability to extensions can slow down the browser for the user. These ads can still be blocked through other means.

This is the debate; most of the adblocking community disagrees with this assertion. uBO maintains a list of some common features that are already not possible to support in Chrome ( https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b... ) and has written about features that are not able to be supported via Chrome's current V3 API ( https://github.com/uBlockOrigin/uBOL-home/wiki/Frequently-as... ). Of particular note are filtering for large media elements (I use this a lot on mobile Firefox, it's great for reducing page size), and top-level filtering of domains/fonts.

> "Its happened before"

> That's not an argument

It's a subheading to "2. Browser engine monopoly". The subsection's purpose is describing how bad things were during the IE monopoly to reinforce that it's something to be avoided.

> in fact you could counter-argue that IE left a lot of technical debt

That would be agreeing with the article, unless I understand what you mean.

> On top of that, the internet was very different back then.

In a way that now makes it harder for truly new competing engines to pop up due to increased complexity of the web.

> I'm still not convinced, why would I change my browser?

The points made in the article are:

* Increased privacy, opposed to willingly giving your data to an ad-tech company

* Helps avoid a browser engine monopoly which would effectively let Google dictate web standards

* It’s fast and has a nice user interface

Onto which I'd add:

* Content blockers work best on Firefox (https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b...), doubly so when Manifest V3 rolls out

* Allows more customization of interface and home page

* UX improvements, like the clutter-free reader mode, aren't vetoed to protect search revenue as with Chrome (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37675467)

Advertising networks are vectors for malware:

https://www.cisecurity.org/insights/blog/malvertising

https://www.malwarebytes.com/malvertising

https://theconversation.com/spyware-can-infect-your-phone-or...

So if you're concerned about security then you want the browser with the best ad blocker.

uBlock Origin works best in Firefox:

https://github.com/gorhill/uBlock/wiki/uBlock-Origin-works-b...