In a bit of an interesting move, Apple has removed its Texas Hold'em game from the App Store, potentially marking the end of the only game Apple ever produced on its own for the App Store.
Texas Hold'em began life as a game for non-iOS iPod models, debuting in late 2006. As Apple introduced the iPhone just a few months later, rumors circulated that Apple was getting serious about gaming, in part evidenced by its in-house work on Texas Hold'em for the iPod.
When Apple officially launched the App Store for the iPhone and iPod touch in 2008 to allow third-party developers to create apps for iOS, Texas Hold'em appeared as a debut title with greatly enhanced functionality over the traditional iPod version, further fueling claims of Apple's interest in pursuing game development of its own.
Apple's early interest in producing its own games for the iPod and later iOS appear to have stemmed from concerns over its ability to attract third-party developers to the platform, or at least to provide those developers with an example of what could be done on the devices. As large developers such as EA and Gameloft and a host of smaller developers all flocked to the platform, Apple undoubtedly quickly discovered that it did not need to support its devices with its own gaming content.
Unsurprisingly, Apple has not released any information on the reason behind the disappearance of Texas Hold'em, which sold for $4.99 and was last updated in September 2008. A dedicated page about the game remains active on Apple's site at this time, although it is not featured on or linked to from other App Store pages on the site.
(Thanks, Travis!)
Update: Apple has now removed the Texas Hold'em feature page from apple.com.
Apple plans to cut production of the iPhone Air amid underwhelming sales performance, Japan's Mizuho Securities believes (via The Elec).
The Japanese investment banking and securities firm claims that the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are seeing higher sales than their predecessors during the same period last year, while the standard iPhone 17 is a major success, performing...
Saturday October 18, 2025 11:00 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
iOS 26 was released last month, but the software train never stops, and iOS 26.1 beta testing is already underway. So far, iOS 26.1 makes both Apple Intelligence and Live Translation on compatible AirPods available in additional languages, and it includes some other minor changes across the Apple Music, Calendar, Photos, Clock, and Safari apps.
More features and changes will follow in future ...
Friday October 17, 2025 7:35 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple's software engineers continue to internally test iOS 26.0.2, according to MacRumors logs, which have been a reliable indicator of upcoming iOS versions.
iOS 26.0.2 will be a minor update that addresses bugs and/or security vulnerabilities, but we do not know any specific details yet.
The update will likely be released by the end of next week.
Last month, Apple released iOS 26.0.1,...
Thursday October 16, 2025 9:13 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro, iPad Pro, and Vision Pro with its next-generation M5 chip, but previous rumors have indicated that the company still plans to announce at least a few additional products before the end of the year.
The following Apple products have at one point been rumored to be updated in 2025, although it is unclear if the timeframe for any of them has...
Sunday October 19, 2025 7:39 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
iOS 26.4 is expected to introduce a revamped version of Siri powered by Apple Intelligence, but not everyone is satisfied with how well it works.
In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman said some of Apple's software engineers have "concerns" about the overhauled Siri's performance. However, he did not provide any specific details about the shortcomings.
iOS 26.4 will...
Saturday October 18, 2025 10:57 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the new iPad Pro's headline feature is the M5 chip, the device has some other changes, including N1 and C1X chips, faster storage speeds, and more.
With the M5 chip, the new iPad Pro has up to a 20% faster CPU and up to a 40% faster GPU compared to the previous model with the M4 chip, according to Geekbench 6 results. Keep in mind that 256GB and 512GB configurations have a 9-core CPU,...
Thursday October 16, 2025 8:31 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple on Wednesday updated the 14-inch MacBook Pro base model with an M5 chip, and there are two key storage-related upgrades beyond that chip bump.
First, Apple says the new 14-inch MacBook Pro offers up to 2× faster SSD performance than the equivalent previous-generation model, so read and write speeds should get a significant boost. Apple says it is using "the latest storage technology," ...
Thursday October 16, 2025 3:57 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple plans to launch MacBook Air models equipped with the new M5 chip in spring 2026, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Apple is also working on M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models that will come early in the year.
Neither the MacBook Pro models nor the MacBook Air models are expected to get design changes, with Apple focusing on simple chip upgrades. In the case of the MacBook Pro, a m...
Friday October 17, 2025 7:10 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The first alleged benchmark result for the M5 chip in the new 14-inch MacBook Pro has surfaced, allowing for some performance comparisons.
Based on a single unconfirmed result uploaded to the Geekbench 6 database today, the M5 chip has pulled off an impressive feat. Specifically, the chip achieved a score of 4,263 for single-core CPU performance, which is the highest single-core score that...
The game looks dated like a CD-ROM game from 1996. I'm sure it didn't live up to Apple's standards anymore when compared to what else was available. Most of the reviews in the past year were bad anyways and complaining about how it hasn't been updated.
I just ena apple support, requesting reimbursement for the $4.99 I spent on this app. Will post once I receive a response.
You likely won't get a refund. Especially if you bought it back when it first released.
The TC says all sales are final. It also says that apps could be removed from the store for a number of reasons including the developer wants it removed. It doesn't stop working if it is removed from the store after all. Also the version of iOS it was made for is rather clear from the last update date, the requirements etc so it is isn't working so awesome you should have been able to guess that could happen from the last update being 3 years ago.
Basically you have zero grounds to demand a refund, you won't likely get one and they will probably politely say no and suggest you read the TC you agreed to when you created your account and many times since then. Yeah yeah you didn't bother reading it any of those times. You still agreed to follow them.
Here are some reasons:
- Apple does no longer see iDevices as gaming devices. (http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/11/06/doom_game_creator_suggests_apple_embarrassed_about_iphone_gaming.html)
That's a two-year old quote from Carmack. I tend to doubt that is still the prevailing opinion of Apple execs, if it even was truly the prevailing opinion at the time.
Damn. I play this all the time and was hoping for an update soon. It's hasnt worked properly for a while now. Winning a table and taking 12BB to the final is no good to anyone.
