Mobile Gaming/Emulation News: iOS 13 finally brings DualShock 4,XBOX One S, mouse support to the iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch and external storage support for your favourite retro games!
While iOS lacks many features compared to Android, a significant number of people including tech-savvy ones still choose to use it for a variety of reasons. With iOS 13’s announcement yesterday, Apple seems to be playing catch-up in the feature department because iOS finally supports the DualShock 4/XBOX One S controller and external storage!
General Gaming: DualShock 4 and Xbox One S controller support come to iOS for better gaming
While Apple Arcade is yet another subscription service that many of us don’t need, at least we got support for two proper controllers out of it!
Yesterday’s iOS/iPad OS 13 announcement was jam-packed full of features although the ones that stood out the most were probably the much-hyped dark mode, the significantly improved volume indicator and swipe keyboard.
However, there’s more than just these 3 features and a significant one for gamers is support for the PlayStation 4’s DualShock and XBOX One S controllers. This means if you have an iOS device, you can finally use existing controllers rather than have to shell out for significantly more expensive MFi controller, some of which even lack certain buttons
The main reason why support for these two controllers was added is because Apple will be introducing a service called Apple Arcade later this year which is yet another subscription service but this time, for games. That being said, it’s highly likely that the DualShock 4/XBOX One S controllers could be used in other software that supports controllers as well, such as RipTide GP2/Oceanhorn/GTA San Andreas, and even unofficial emulators!
Emulation-friendly Moves: Mouse and external storage support
While Basilisk II isn’t available for iOS right now, someone might be enticed to port it over since mouse support would make using classic Mac OS and gaming it on it much more fun!
Other than support for some proper controllers, the upcoming version of iOS also brings two features which could be used in emulation which are external storage and USB/Bluetooth mouse support. From yesterday’s Keynote, it seems that the Files application is getting support for external storage in the form of pen drives, SD Cards and external hard drives.
In addition to external storage support, the Files app is also getting support for SMB sharing (sadly not FTP); through these features, one could easily transfer emulator ROMs to their device since some consoles, like the PS1/PSP, which have emulators on iOS also come with pretty large ROM files that make 32GB devices feel cramped.
While touted as an accessibility feature, a mouse can be useful when using a computer emulator on your device such as C64.emu and iDOS 2 provided these add support for this input device. Furthermore, it could also promote the creation of more computer ports like Basilisk II and SheepShaver.
Conclusion
While the above features sound pretty cool, it must be noted that these features have all been available in Android for quite a while so perhaps, they aren’t as revolutionary as some may think. That being said, the expression “Better late than never” holds here since all these features are quite welcome by people who use iOS and those who don’t.
If you want to try out iOS 13, you’ll either have to wait till September to get the final release or you can jump on the beta bandwagon although getting developer betas this time is a bit trickier since there are no beta profiles available and installation must be done through an IPSW file via iTunes (as ironic as it may sound). Otherwise, you may check out the full feature list here.
Note: As usual, Wololo isn’t an iOS website but this article was written to highlight features relevant to gamers and emulation fans.
Why is the entire article written hugely biased towards android? Android is severely lacking compared to iOS and the features iOS was missing are quickly being added.
https://techburner.in/10-ios-features-missing-in-android-you-must-know/
Its even more features once you look into the difference in third party app support. Here’s a hint, don’t use google to compare android vs iOS, use duckduckgo or something less biased.
I’m curious where you find this article “hugely biased.” The majority of the article doesn’t even mention android. There is one reference at the beginning that mentions that android has features that iOS doesn’t, which is a fact that admittedly goes both ways. However, I think most users of this site are going to care more about things like controller support than how many people you can facetime at once. There is also a comment in the conclusion that states that iOS is only just getting these specific features while android has had them for some time.
This same guy was trying to brigade against the author in the last article about Apple devices. Dude has a major stiffy for android and nothing better to do.
First sentence “While iOS lacks many features compared to Android..” not biased at all
Also true…not relevant at all (I can do sarcasm, too)
You know that you are biased yourself right? When manufacturer abandons Android device, community can pick up the slack of updating OS of it and etc. When Apple abandons device, you have old piece of software that while still can work has pretty much became obsolete because Apple said so. Example, my iPad 3 (bought it in 2012) became obsolete because Apple said so and I can’t even use newer apps or versions of some because I’m forever stuck with 9.3.5 unless I buy new device and right now it is used as book\comics reader + YouTube + streaming videos from my PC using UMS.. While my HTC One M7 (bought it in 2013) is still alive and kicking being old but not obsolete thanks to constant system updates from community like ports of Oreo and Pie to hardware that wasn’t even designed to be used with them. I swapped it to Redmi Note 7 recently but still charge the old-timer just because.
Also your list of “missing features”and claims of “severely lacking” are a bit stupid.
1. There are several assistants besides Google Assistant + it’s just matter of time and providing proper API. And honestly, if feature is so popular why I haven’t seen anyone demanding providing proper API for it in Android, huh?
2. Pretty sure Firefox has anti-tracking mechanisms and also available for Android. IMO never used Chrome on my custom ROMs and never going to
3. Useless. Why the F you would need such pile of ***? Custom stickers in say Telegram are much better for memes
4. Well, it’s nice and all but I can’t imagine situation when I would need to talk to 32 ppl simultaneously using Video Chat. I’d better use Voice Chat in say Discord. Again, if that features will be popular in iOS and is requested then Google will do it.
5. UPDATES FOR EVERYONE. Haha, for everyone, Carl. As I’ve said, nope, nada, not for everyone. Only for devices Apple deems not obsolete. While even users of old *** Android devices can usually flash latest Android OS without any problems. Especially because of Project Treble initiative
6. Augmented Reality. Really, that is listed as a feature? Another not really useful feature
7. Now that’s a feature. No sarcasm or smart-talking. That’s a real feature because Apple’s face recognition is certainly more secure tho support for two different faces is situational because why have the face lock then if someone other than you can unlock your device
8. It’s nice. Again, no sarcasm. But I’m sure with 99% certainty that there will be (if not already present) device or method that can ignore this restriction
9. All I can say that parental controls are strange beast because all the things they do can be done without them and usually to much better effect.
10. Again, nice feature. I don’t even have a counter-point except I do – Android doesn’t really need this as much as iOS because Android gives full access to user storage by default and all can any file by default. In my experience, good apps even remember last folder you were in while app works so adding multiple files and etc to list or uploading is usually easy. So, no, I don’t see it as proper feature Android lacks
fallacy argument after fallacy argument….
this is all I have to say about google https://www.googletransparencyproject.org/
and when i come across people like you I can see just how much damage they are doing.
by the way, those community versions arent suitable as a daily driver, they are built off outdated android builds.
While we’re posting links:
http://fortune.com/2016/04/27/google-transparency-project/
https://www.onlineathens.com/opinion/2017-07-27/bridy-perzanowski-transparency-project-not-all-transparent-google
https://www.wired.com/story/googles-academic-influence-campaign-its-complicated/
And you really want to call out someone else for perceived bias? Crazy fanboys
The drag and drop support would be the only feature I’d even count as a bonus. I don’t need personalized emojis nearly as much as draw over apps. Plus an android device feels like mine because I can customize it way more than iOS devices. I could literally pick up about any iOS device and barely be able to tell anything about the person using it.
There are 77 missing feature in iOS compared to Android. But hey, I still prefer iOS about gaming staff, because of Metal. Android games still uses the laggy OpenGL (Vulkan is a taboo for many devs).
well i expect the different platforms to have atleast some different features, I dont need to be beat over the head with it in every article about apple products.
Oh ***, 10 missing almost useless features I’m missing out on.
Uh the article you linked seems to be hugely biased towards iOS? yet entirely written around Android… pfft
D:
well of course, I was trying to prove a point not start a debate about which os is better. Im not a fan of this kind of pro wrestling journalism.
There was never a debate. “While iOS lacks many features compared to Android” is fact – while broken for a long time now, Android has had (some) bluetooth support that iOS simply didn’t. Even if that isn’t enough, the next sentence credits iOS for improving; “With iOS 13’s announcement yesterday, Apple seems to be playing catch-up in the feature department.”
you could also start out a similar android article talking about how android lacks compared to iOS, I bet you would see the bias then.
@kevin must have an iOS device second time I’ve seen him post complaining about android devices being compared to iOS. Pretty funny but @kevin you don’t need to spam the comment section for us to read your reply. (Double posting is pretty frowned upon round these parts) 😉 nice article too btw.
I would call it out if it was the opposite as well, but google bashing doesnt tend to get as many hits on google so you see much less of it.
Yes, “Google-ing” “Google” is not very efficient.
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