Disclaimer: I don’t use iThings except occasionally for work, and those ones are always jailbroken. My knowledge of what Apple does and does not permit the nominal owners of their devices to do is limited.
You may be able to save a backup of your iPad’s current state to your computer, with the possibility of future restoration. This would back up both the apps and their data. You could then delete the apps (which deletes their data). If you wanted to play the apps again, you may be able to take a new backup and then restore the old one. Obvious downside here: if you ever do want to revert, you’ll have to (at least temporarily) do without the progress you made since the initial backup
Alternatively, delete only those games which sync their progress to an external service, after you perform the aforementioned synchronization. I don’t know which games those are, but they exist. Cross-platform ones, and those from major dev houses, are more likely to offer this feature.
… or you could jailbreak. There was a new one just released. You don’t have to do much with it except back up your own data, if you want. That’s one of the major reasons I rooted my phone.
That’s worth checking (both in terms of what Apple claims, and in terms of what any relevant legal precedents claim; a hardware warranty certainly shouldn’t be at risk from a software modification). On the other hand, it should be easy to “un-jailbreak” a device; just restore an un-jailbroken image onto it (for example, from a backup made before jailbreaking), and you can do so before sending the device in for warranty service. If the device is “bricked” to the point that you can’t restore it, then Apple probably can’t tell that it was jailbroken, either.
a hardware warranty certainly shouldn’t be at risk from a software modification
While that would definitely be a good clause for the consumers, it’s not exactly right. I have personally caused hardware damage to multiple devices just by modifying the software. Plenty of ways to do it.
There’s also the case in which the device is bricked in such a way that it can’t be fixed even by the manufacturer, while the hardware itself is operating properly. Though, that would likely still count as a software problem.
Disclaimer: I don’t use iThings except occasionally for work, and those ones are always jailbroken. My knowledge of what Apple does and does not permit the nominal owners of their devices to do is limited.
You may be able to save a backup of your iPad’s current state to your computer, with the possibility of future restoration. This would back up both the apps and their data. You could then delete the apps (which deletes their data). If you wanted to play the apps again, you may be able to take a new backup and then restore the old one. Obvious downside here: if you ever do want to revert, you’ll have to (at least temporarily) do without the progress you made since the initial backup
Alternatively, delete only those games which sync their progress to an external service, after you perform the aforementioned synchronization. I don’t know which games those are, but they exist. Cross-platform ones, and those from major dev houses, are more likely to offer this feature.
… or you could jailbreak. There was a new one just released. You don’t have to do much with it except back up your own data, if you want. That’s one of the major reasons I rooted my phone.
IIRC, jailbreaking voids the warranty...
That’s worth checking (both in terms of what Apple claims, and in terms of what any relevant legal precedents claim; a hardware warranty certainly shouldn’t be at risk from a software modification). On the other hand, it should be easy to “un-jailbreak” a device; just restore an un-jailbroken image onto it (for example, from a backup made before jailbreaking), and you can do so before sending the device in for warranty service. If the device is “bricked” to the point that you can’t restore it, then Apple probably can’t tell that it was jailbroken, either.
Tangential:
While that would definitely be a good clause for the consumers, it’s not exactly right. I have personally caused hardware damage to multiple devices just by modifying the software. Plenty of ways to do it.
There’s also the case in which the device is bricked in such a way that it can’t be fixed even by the manufacturer, while the hardware itself is operating properly. Though, that would likely still count as a software problem.