Apple has asked developers who received a Mac developer kit for ARM software last year to return it to the company. This is necessary by March 31, according to an email that Apple sent over the weekend. The company had already sent a request to this effect at the beginning of February. The so-called Developer Transition Kit consists of a drilled-out Mac mini, in which the A12Z SoC is on the iPad Pro instead of an Intel chip.
Thank you, but please come back now
“Thank you again for participating in the Universal Quick Start Program and for developing great apps for the Mac. We wanted to get back to you with shipping instructions for the Developer Transition Kit (DTK) that we loaned to you as part of the program.” , so Apple.
“All DTKs” should be returned by the end of March. As mentioned in the last email, the developers should receive a voucher worth US $ 500 to buy another Apple hardware – by the end of 2021. Apple had briefly planned to give the developers only 300 Pay $ 200 less than the original “rental price”; in addition, the voucher should only be valid until the end of May.
120 euros in the lousy
The offer now has a horse’s foot. As it turns out, the sum is actually a dollar amount. That currently corresponds to just under 420 euros. However, those who ordered a DTK in Europe paid 540 euros for it, which results in a loss of 120 euros at the moment, as the well-known developer and leak expert Steve Troughton-Smith has established. “All in all, this DTK program was a pretty lousy developer experience,” he wrote on Twitter. It remains to be seen whether Apple will respond to the criticism and increase the amount.
The first DTKs were sent out at the end of June 2020, and developers should officially keep them for eight months. With the MacBook Pro M1, MacBook Air M1 and Mac mini M1, there are now regular consumer devices with ARM chips (Apple Silicon) on the market. However, many developers are likely to hope that Apple will bring more machines onto the market before the end of 2021 that also have an outdated form factor. A developer forum only for DTK participants, in which Apple gives direct support with problems in terms of coding and porting, should remain open at least until the summer, it said.
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