Well, it was fun while it lasted. Just two hours ago, we declared the approval of iDOS (a DOS emulator for iOS) a Halloween Miracle. Really — it was on par with an appearance from the Great Pumpkin, or all of the candy corn in the world suddenly becoming edible.
Cue the Sad Trombone: Apple just pulled it.
Wondering why Apple is raining on your DOS-powered nostalgia parade? If it’s for the same reason they’ve banned emulators in the past, it’s due to the fact that iDOS can interpret and run executable code. In other words, the emulator got banned because… it’s an emulator.
The reasoning cited in past cases:
[An application] may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s).
We’re reaching out to iDOS’ developer, FastIntelligence, right this second to see if we can get some insight on why it has been pulled. We’ll update if we hear back.
Update: There’s a faint light at the end of the tunnel. As our buddy Steve Jabs points out, the developer of iDOS provides the sourcecode for the app here, and it’s also available on Cydia. Alas, that means you’ll either need to have a jailbroken iPhone or a $99 developer account to get it running.