Emulators are taking over the App Store

1 week ago

On The Vergecast: what Delta intends for nan early of nan iPhone, Google’s large reorg, Mini LEDs, and more.

By David Pierce, editor-at-large and Vergecast co-host pinch complete a decade of acquisition covering user tech. Previously, astatine Protocol, The Wall Street Journal, and Wired.

Apr 19, 2024, 1:13 PM UTC

Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge

Delta, an app for emulating and playing retro games connected your iPhone, has been astatine the apical of nan App Store rankings for days. Apple spent years keeping apps for illustration this disconnected its platforms earlier reversing people earlier this month successful nan look of European regularisation and nan threat of a full bunch of caller third-party app stores.

Obviously, location was immense pent-up request for Delta. But is this a singular arena aliases nan commencement of a caller much unfastened early for nan iPhone? What other mightiness Apple let successful nan App Store if it intends keeping you successful nan App Store?

On this section of The Vergecast, we talk really Delta sewage into nan App Store and what it mightiness mean for nan early of nan iPhone. We don’t really talk astir each nan thorny ineligible issues astir ROMs and emulation because they’re thorny and confusing and don’t moreover really person a clear answer, but we’ll get backmost to it soon.

After that, we talk astir immoderate large news successful large tech: Google’s firm reorg arsenic it tries to compete successful an AI world and the caller merchandise of Meta AI that puts a chatbot successful practically each societal app connected your phone. Everybody’s each successful connected AI... but to what end? Is nan AI gyration real, aliases is it conscionable a fad? No 1 really knows, but everyone’s spending billions conscionable successful case.

Finally, we do a lightning information successful which we blast done a week of bizarre TikTok news, interest astir the caller Atlas robot, and wonderment erstwhile things are going to get Samsung Saturday weird. We besides spell connected a agelong tangent astir Mini LEDs and broadcast TV, because this is The Vergecast, and that’s what we do here.

If you want to cognize much astir everything we talk successful this episode, present are immoderate links to get you started, first connected emulators:

On AI:

On TV tech:

And successful nan lightning round: