Hi Noelok!
Well, lockdown and being unemployed does make for a pretty empty schedule 😜
I'd love to find out if we can find a solution though. After all, tossing perfectly good phones because software no longer supports it, is rather ridiculous right?
Things I looked at:
- Upgrade the 4S to iOS 13 anyway
There seems to be a "hack" that allows upgrading to a beta of iOS 13. Granted, it is a beta and I do not even know if it is still available and what kind of issues you may run into.
Worth a consideration; YouTube video, you may have to Google for more info.
- Install a different OS, which seems useless
So far I couldn't find any Linux or Android distro that would work on an iPhone 4S.
I did see support for newer models though, even though these all seem to have one or more limitations, some of them not supporting the camera.
So even if we would find a working OS, it would most likely not support the 4S and even if it would, the camera would most likely not work.
- Find an alternative iOS store
I did only a quick search, and didn't explore any of them in detail (I do not have a 4S).
This article lists quite a few, so these may be worth a look.
AppCake seems promising, and they do list the supported iOS devices.
Note: I'd be careful with any of these stores - any private info should probably be removed from your phone before even considering this.
- Jailbreak / Cydia
I have done jailbreaking in the past (no longer doing this though) and the Cydia App Store offers quite a few fun (and old!) things that may be helpful.
Searching for apps can be a pain though.
- Whited00r
Whited00r is/was (not sure how active this project still is) an alternative iOS version, but it doesn't support the 4S (as far as I can see).
Their forum may provide solutions, or not.