A logical development I suppose. But it worries me because this will create less incentive for the developers of real Mac apps to update and improve them. We might all end up with iOS apps working in simulation mode on Macs with a significant slowdown in performance as a result.
Maybe encouraging many current Mac users to go back to Windows, where there’s no performance downgrade. What will be the point of introducing increasingly powerful Macs if the majority of apps available for it will have to work in performance compromised iOS simulation mode?
I think people are reading this all wrong. iOS apps are not coming to the mac, macOS is coming to the iPad Pro, or most likely they will introduce a new hybrid product .. a "macPad Pro" if you please. There have been rumors of devices that can run macOS on ARM, Marzipan is merely the mechanism that integrates iOS apps with the mac desktop. Legacy macs do not have a touchscreens which are required for using iOS apps in a natural manner. If true, this is a brilliant move, as it accomplishes many different goals with a single product. Mac's get to run on ARM, a touch screen with Apple Pencil support, and a great new form factor. The iPad Pro gets the ability to run macOS and all the important mac apps, like Final Cut, Logic, Xcode, etc.. When complete the device will probably look an awful lot like the Microsoft Surface Pro ... but OK ... Because the HUGE advantage the macPad Pro will have is ARM. Allowing Apple to hit far lower price points for the similar specs ... price check a Surface Pro with 512GB of storage ... it's $1000 more than the iPad Pro!
Reading these comments, I have to chuckle as the Mac faithful recoil in horror at any suggestion that the iPad could gain a cursor.
A mouse/touchpad/cursor is simply another form of input. And input methods change as hardware and software mature and needs change. Hell, my first programmable computer used a cassette player as it's primary input device -- just as room filled mainframes used punched cards and reel-to-reel tape players.
The iPad was introduced as a highly portable device whose power could not begin to match that of even the most basic Mac. Today that power gap continues to shrink until today an iPad can match the power of even mid-range MacBooks.
But, for Apple to make the iPad the laptop killer it is aiming towards, certain apps (such as word processing, spreadsheets and detailed photo editing) are very clunky and clumsy without a cursor. It has nothing to do OS's and everything to do with functionality. Likewise certain apps (like games) don't work well with a cursor and need touch screen input.
Get over it people. The cursor IS coming to the iPad. It's not a matter of if, but when.
Mouse support would actually allow the iPad to become a "real" computer. Que the "what's a computer" jokes. :-)
This is my point entirely as well. If you start adding in the mouse to iPad apps you essentially just have a thin laptop. The entire point of the iPad was to avoid a mouse. The entire point of a desktop OS is to use a mouse. Splicing the two together holds no water, and has no dignity in the investment made during development. This isn't thinking different, this is thinking like the rest of the crowd and becoming a sheep. I'm none to happy about it either, but hey, I guess this is where we go. We give up on rock solid ideas that won entire platform wars to be just like the rest of the engineers losing ground.
They may not add a mouse to the iPad, it may only happen on the Mac version.
this kind of exists already if you build your own apps. You can use the mouse to run an app in a simulator. Mouse replaces touch. You get too simulated touches if you use some kind of keyboard modified -- though it is nowhere near as intuitive as the device.
The problem is it will really only work for single window applications that are network bound -- rather than needing access to the local filesystem( and I bet Apple's guidelines will say that). Even then it will need the developer to do some UI work. Which isn't that different to now.
The big gain will be games, provided they can go full screen.
Exactly. A programmer's Xcode iPad simulator for all ... aka project Marzipan. What's not to like? I actually find it quite fun mousing iOS apps I've built in the simulator and let us not forget the trackpad interface too. There are many useful iOS Apps that would be great to have on the Mac with mouse control. I cannot see why this is being interpreted by so many here as leading to iPads with mice? Talk about odd logic!
Sigh. If only the Mac had a touch screen like we have been requesting for the past five years. Touch is a natural user interface to any type of computer. On a laptop or PC you would use it only some of the time so your arm does not get tired. Kids growing up with touch screens don't even know how to use a mouse and pointer. They don't understand why a Mac screen does not work when they touch it. With iOS apps running on your screen, you will experience just how obsolete your computer really is.
Sigh. If only the Mac had a touch screen like we have been requesting for the past five years. Touch is a natural user interface to any type of computer. On a laptop or PC you would use it only some of the time so your arm does not get tired. Kids growing up with touch screens don't even know how to use a mouse and pointer. They don't understand why a Mac screen does not work when they touch it. With iOS apps running on your screen, you will experience just how obsolete your computer really is.
Ok, assuming that that is all true or at least partially true, it still ignores the most important point:
Touch and cursor are not so much separate by form factor, but by function. Touch is best for things like games. Cursor is best for things like word processing, spreadsheets, and even fine photo editing.
You can give a touchscreen to a laptop and add somewhat to its functionality, just as you can add a cursor to an iPad (on its external keyboard) and add to its functionality without diminishing either.
But, personally, I think adding a cursor to an iPad with an external keyboard does a lot more than adding a touch screen to a laptop (because it is so awkward to use)
Sigh. If only the Mac had a touch screen like we have been requesting for the past five years. Touch is a natural user interface to any type of computer. On a laptop or PC you would use it only some of the time so your arm does not get tired. Kids growing up with touch screens don't even know how to use a mouse and pointer. They don't understand why a Mac screen does not work when they touch it. With iOS apps running on your screen, you will experience just how obsolete your computer really is.
Since Microsoft and Apple have a broad patent sharing arrangement, I suspect it'll only be a matter of time before Apple actually offers what amounts to a Surface-like touchscreen Mac. Apple will avoid the screw-ups Microsoft experienced developing their product.
Sigh. If only the Mac had a touch screen like we have been requesting for the past five years. Touch is a natural user interface to any type of computer. On a laptop or PC you would use it only some of the time so your arm does not get tired. Kids growing up with touch screens don't even know how to use a mouse and pointer. They don't understand why a Mac screen does not work when they touch it. With iOS apps running on your screen, you will experience just how obsolete your computer really is.
Since Microsoft and Apple have a broad patent sharing arrangement, I suspect it'll only be a matter of time before Apple actually offers what amounts to a Surface-like touchscreen Mac. Apple will avoid the screw-ups Microsoft experienced developing their product.
Apple could have done that years ago. They chose not to because a touch screen on a laptop is not very user friendly. That's why they're billing their iPad as a laptop replacement and growing it's functionality with an external keyboard.
I have to be honest, I kind of want to vomit now. This only underscores them backtracking on years, and years, and years, of research and design. The touch screen is not the desktop and vice versa. This is the Red Wedding of macOS essentially to me. Making these super universal apps will destroy ecosystems, and make people incredibly frustrated. It did not work for Microsoft, and it did not work for Google, why in the hell is Apple doing this? Who did they hire? I'm betting some Google or Redmond recruit has gotten his claws in deep enough to poison the well and destroy a good thing. I can be up front in saying Jobs is rolling around in his grave at the moment, and yeah, I take that and run with it because its the truth. And yeah, Jobs is dead, but this is ripping up the playbook and crapping on the idea of a tablet OS and a desktop OS. They are separate, they are different. Programmers and customers alike do not like to conflate them. Mark my words though: 2018 Apple will require you to build a Mac OS app as well, and then state you can't put it on the App Store unless you have a version of both. The end result: anarchy and hell.
Tablets didn't work well before the iPad, so didn't MP3 players, and smartphones. Apple knows how to make the idea work.
I'd be happy with a unified store, but I can see lots of cool things they could do once apps are unified. A mouse optimized version of UIKit to make porting easier would be amazing. A new type of extension to give a touch screen interface to native macOS apps when tethered would also be amazing. That could allow features like stylus and 3d sensor gesture recognition in Mac creative apps via a companion iPad without a complicated pairing process. Maybe a new swift-first incarnation of UIKit that supports both platforms?
Comments
Maybe encouraging many current Mac users to go back to Windows, where there’s no performance downgrade. What will be the point of introducing increasingly powerful Macs if the majority of apps available for it will have to work in performance compromised iOS simulation mode?
Please make this device Apple!
A mouse/touchpad/cursor is simply another form of input. And input methods change as hardware and software mature and needs change. Hell, my first programmable computer used a cassette player as it's primary input device -- just as room filled mainframes used punched cards and reel-to-reel tape players.
The iPad was introduced as a highly portable device whose power could not begin to match that of even the most basic Mac. Today that power gap continues to shrink until today an iPad can match the power of even mid-range MacBooks.
But, for Apple to make the iPad the laptop killer it is aiming towards, certain apps (such as word processing, spreadsheets and detailed photo editing) are very clunky and clumsy without a cursor. It has nothing to do OS's and everything to do with functionality. Likewise certain apps (like games) don't work well with a cursor and need touch screen input.
Get over it people. The cursor IS coming to the iPad. It's not a matter of if, but when.
Touch and cursor are not so much separate by form factor, but by function.
Touch is best for things like games.
Cursor is best for things like word processing, spreadsheets, and even fine photo editing.
You can give a touchscreen to a laptop and add somewhat to its functionality, just as you can add a cursor to an iPad (on its external keyboard) and add to its functionality without diminishing either.
But, personally, I think adding a cursor to an iPad with an external keyboard does a lot more than adding a touch screen to a laptop (because it is so awkward to use)