Developer work-around for unapproved apps?

[Paroxysm]

Hi, longtime lurker - first time poster. I apologize if I'm asking a question that's already been answered, but I've spent quite a bit of time researching and cannot find clear info on this.

I would like to find a way to sideload apps on my iPhone *without* jailbreaking. I JB'd a long time ago, I think for iOS 3.1, and to be honest... it seemed extremely buggy and less-than-useful. It seemed to significantly lag the iPhone, I didn't care for Cydia's store overall, and I didn't like having the idea of always waiting for a new crack when iOS was updated. The lag was probably due to it being a 3G...

Is it possible to use an iOS developer account on my iMac to sideload? I imagine I would need the source code and recompile with my own dev account to do so. Is it possible to get .ipa's from another place and install? Such as Cydia? It should be noted that I'm considering trying iOS development anyway, so the account wouldn't go to waste either.

I appreciate any information the community can provide.

 

[ClutchThese]

you're right. you can do that.

Like you said, you would need the Xcode project to build and install, but if you have a place to grab some good ones, post a link!

 

[psonice]

The dev account will let you install apps without the app store or jailbreak, but only if you have the source for the app. You couldn't get an ipa from cydia and install that.

 

[Xenc]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_2_1 like Mac OS X; en-gb) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8C148 Safari/6533.18.5)

You need to add your device's UDID to the app's provisioning profile before you build it. Then you can sync it via iTunes or install through Safari.

 

[maflynn]

From these posts, it does not seem possible unless you're a developer with the source code. So to reiterate, installing an app where you got the IPA from another source is not possible.

It kind of makes sense since apple likes to control everything and allowing side loaded apps (without jailbreaking) is clearly not something they'd want.

 

[1458279]

Ok, so here's the noob question, what's an IPA. Is that the source code? Do these iPhone apps have any copy protection?

 

[psonice]

The IPA is basically the complete application, the compiled program, graphics, data, etc. There's no source code in there.

iOS apps do have copy protection, yes. I don't know if they're protected in the jailbreak stores, probably not.

 

[maflynn]

IPA stands for iPhone application archive and its the compiled iPhone app.

 

[Phil A.]

You don't need the source code - you can re-sign a binary and then install it using your developer certificate and load it on any device that's been added to the provisioning portal as a development device

 

[Paroxysm]

Thanks a lot for all of the responses

I'll have to see how difficult extracting a binary will be for the app(s) I'd consider for this; whether it's worth all the trouble or if I should give jailbreaking a shot again. It would be nice to have some of the "previously approved but now banned" apps installed on my phone, such as the app that let you use a volume button for the camera.

 

[1458279]

Ahhhh, now I get it. This is a way to cut Apple out of the picture and get an app out there on phones that Apple doesn't want or didn't allow.

I was trying to figure out why someone would go thru this much effort to steel a few $1 apps...

So with this method the app dev gets nothing from the sale, does the app dev have a chance to get anything from ads?

How does that work out, if you run an ad-based app on a jb phone... you still see the ads but the developer gets nothing...
Kinda a Loss/Loss for us and Win/Win for ads...

 

[Paroxysm]

Nah, I have zero plans to steal any apps as you considered. Programming takes effort, and that should be rewarded. I'm just looking to circumvent the restrictions of the app store without all the issues that can arise from JBing. I'm certain I'm not the first to think of it, so I was hoping my Google-Fu was bad