# Why can a mobile UNIX system iOS, iPhone, iPad not be used offline/local?



## pspstrir_lak (Oct 2, 2020)

Hello,

Does anyone know why iPad and iPhone, i.e. iOS devices cannot be used locally/offline?

Here I have an iPad 6 with iPadOS 14 and iPhone XS (iOS 12)

1. Turn on iPad 6 (iPadOS 14) and iPhone XS (iOS 12). The iPadOS and iOS setup appears.
2. Select the language and region
3. Select the Wi-Fi network (cannot skip it) (I must to establish a data connection via Wi-Fi or mobile data.)
The problem is that if the user does not have or does not want a data connection, he cannot use the devices. The user remains permanently in the iPadOS and iOS setup.


Why is that so? Are there UNIX developers who know why iOS and iPadOS devices cannot be used offline? 
Because iOS and iPadOS are UNIX systems.


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## SirDice (Oct 2, 2020)

pspstrir_lak said:


> Does anyone know why iPad and iPhone, i.e. iOS devices cannot be used locally/offline?


Maybe you should ask this on an Apple forum?


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## Sevendogsbsd (Oct 2, 2020)

The fact Apple systems are "Unix" (their desktop OS anyway, I can't speak to iOS) has zero to do with the ability to use them "offline". 

Apple has an ecosystem. In order to use that, you need to have an Internet connection for the initial set up. I can't say whether you can disconnect from iCloud after initial set up because I am an iCloud user and take full advantage of their ecosystem for my devices.

If you want a cell device or pad and want to use it offline, suggest you use Android. You will then be part of the Google ecosystem but I think you can disconnect from that after the fact. Been a while since I have used Android so can't speak to it.


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## kpedersen (Oct 2, 2020)

pspstrir_lak said:


> Does anyone know why iPad and iPhone, i.e. iOS devices cannot be used locally/offline.



It is to give Apple a little bit more control over you and your life. It is a form of DRM but of course they masquerade this as an anti-theft device.
So when you connect it online, it ensures that the serial hasn't been blacklisted. Otherwise it bricks the device. In 10 years when Apple wants to forcibly obsolete the hardware, it will turn off the DRM server and it will also brick the device.

(Some Android products do this as well. I.e the Google Nexus 7)

Myself? I personally would prefer to have had 20 devices stolen from me and yet still properly "own" one device.

Either way, this has nothing to do with FreeBSD. Please make a good case on the Apple forums and tell as many people as possible this is not OK for Apple to do this DRM crap and then chuck it away and never buy an Apple product again. Good luck


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## olli@ (Oct 2, 2020)

pspstrir_lak said:


> Because iOS and iPadOS are UNIX systems.


First, that is wrong. While MacOS is a UNIX system, iOs and iPadOS are not.
Second, being a UNIX system has nothing to do with whether a particular implementation allows offline use or not.
Third, this is a FreeBSD forum. Not a UNIX forum, and not an Apple forum. (Note that – strictly speaking – FreeBSD itself is not a UNIX system.)


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## ralphbsz (Oct 2, 2020)

The question indeed has nothing to do with FreeBSD, even if the kernel is partially based on FreeBSD, and is partially under the BSD licence.

Once it has been set up, an iOS device can be used offline. We do that regularly during long car rides; iPads make great movie watching or gaming machines for the back seat, once you have movies and games downloaded. But Apple has intentionally designed them as lightweight user interface devices, with relatively little local storage for content. If you were to set one up to never have a data connection (WiFi or cell), it would be very boring, and that would make the intended customer unhappy, so Apple is trying to prevent unhappy customers by setting reasonable expectations.


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## kpedersen (Oct 2, 2020)

ralphbsz said:


> If you were to set one up to never have a data connection (WiFi or cell), it would be very boring



Unfortunately WiFi is not good enough. You need internet access to appease the Apple DRM. So copying files across from an offline LAN (where I keep most of my important files) causes the Apple device to exhibit this flaw. It is broken whereas all my other hardware manages this trivial (albeit offline) task very easily. Even my ancient Windows 95 laptop 

The expectation (set by Apple rather than their customers) is that as an Apple consumer, you and your device are tied to the internet and Apple's servers or you are basically at a dead end.


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## Sevendogsbsd (Oct 2, 2020)

It's called Apple's "ecosystem", like it or not. I love it personally, because anything else I have tried over the past decade or so is a giant pain in the a$$. 

My .02.


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## ralphbsz (Oct 3, 2020)

kpedersen said:


> The expectation (set by Apple rather than their customers) is that as an Apple consumer, you and your device are tied to the internet and Apple's servers or you are basically at a dead end.


Ever heard of "walled garden"? Apple doesn't sell you a device, nor does it sell you a piece of software. It sells you a solution for a certain set of problems. The system they provide is intended to be used in a certain fashion. It works very well when used that way. If you try to use it in a fashion that it is not intended for, then it may not work well, or may not work at all. You will usually know when you are mis-using it, because things get exponentially harder.

I've gone through the same frustration, with my personal example being using a Mac to play music, using the iTunes program, but copying the music from my own mp3 files (which are well structured, organized, with play lists in m3u format, and ID3 tags). Works extremely badly, but it actually does work. After talking to a few Apple people (I have a few very experienced Apple engineers and bosses among my neighbors and friends), I understood the mistake I was making. I was assuming that iTunes was generic software, which I was wrongly expecting to be usable in a generic environment, with arbitrary inputs and outputs. But it is exactly not that. It is part of a suite of applications, hardware, and services, that if used end-to-end provides an excellent music experience, but if you take the individual components of it out of context, it will be somewhere between frustrating and non-functional.

Imagine you go to a kitchen gadget store, and buy a blender. You're thinking "I can make margaritas with that". Then you look, and decide that it has a motor and a blade, so it must be usable as a meat slicer, to turn a long stick of salami into sandwiches. So you take the electric motor out of the case, remove the glass jar, flatten the blade ... and discover that you have ended up with a really horrible blender, which makes awful sandwiches (the salami slices are bumpy not flat), sprays the kitchen counter and ceiling with little bits of salami, and is super dangerous and annoying to use. Surprised? You shouldn't be. You bought an appliance, and mis-used it.

Take the Apple device, and keep it in its walled garden, and it will work excellently, it will delight you, and it will be a good value. This message is being typed on a MacBook Pro, we have another few Macs strewn around the house, my son's cell phone is an iPhone, we have a few iPads around the house, and I'm too lazy to count the total number of Apple devices. I could make jokes that doing so would require taking my socks off, but it's so hot, I'm not actually wearing socks. But using Apple devices is only a good thing if their intended use matches your needs and wants. If not, don't be a hacker and think that you can bend them to your wishes, because that's not the way Apple works. There is a reason I also have FreeBSD machines at home, plus Linux ones: the correct tool for every job.


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## richardtoohey2 (Oct 3, 2020)

Not just Apple - a lot of things you buy these days seem to demand always-on internet connections, setting up accounts, etc.
Devices, games, etc.  Buy physical installation media for PC, or Xbox, or Nintendo Switch - they all want to go online and download updates and check what you are up to.  Every publisher wants you to set up an account (what for, I just want to play the game?!) and spam you.


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## Alain De Vos (Oct 3, 2020)

It becomes a real pain when installers, automated, and you don't know what they are doing, ask to be online.
PS : Sending data over Wifi is not expensive.


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## Beastie7 (Oct 3, 2020)

pspstrir_lak said:


> Hello,
> 
> Does anyone know why iPad and iPhone, i.e. iOS devices cannot be used locally/offline?
> 
> ...



When you’re setting up an iOS device; you have ‘activate‘ the device with Apple’s authentication servers (ie. iCloud/Find My iPhone). This effectively binds it’s internal IMEI and serial number to whatever Apple ID you decide to use for the duration of your ownership. It’s Apple’s way to preventing theft and/or recovering a lost/stolen device. You MUST do this, or you can’t do jack with it. It’s a shiny brick. 

iOS uses the Cocoa Framework, Darwin Kernel/Userland, BSD Sockets, POSIX APIs, process model, etc, from macOS; so yes, it is also a Unix-like system. macOS is UNIX 03 compliant as well, so iOS  is effectively UNIX also.



ralphbsz said:


> Ever heard of "walled garden"? Apple doesn't sell you a device, nor does it sell you a piece of software. It sells you a solution for a certain set of problems.



This is incorrect. This is exactly what Apple does. They sell you a vertically integrated product. Their hardware is where their profit margins come from.


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## kpedersen (Oct 3, 2020)

Sevendogsbsd said:


> It's called Apple's "ecosystem", like it or not.






ralphbsz said:


> Ever heard of "walled garden"? Apple doesn't sell you a device, nor does it sell you a piece of software. It sells you a solution for a certain set of problems.



Yes, I see what you both mean and I understand that some users will like this. However the strict DRM that Apple imposes is in no way required for a walled garden or ecosystem. This is Apple serving itself, not you.


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## sidetone (Oct 3, 2020)

They want you to register your device with their system before you can use it. You're unlikely to get less help there, because they don't want you to do that.

It's like this for Windows Microsoft products too. To log in to your own computer, under certain circumstances, you must have the ability to log in online to Microsoft.

In FreeBSD, access is about my computer; not dependent on the cloud or someone online network.


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