Because Windows Everywhere worked SOOOOO well for Microsoft /s No. Just no.
Yeah but that was like a lot of things Microsoft does, good idea but absolutely rubbish implementation. We all know Apple often isn’t the first to market with a product, but it is first to market with a working solution.
I don’t believe Apple would simply provide a docking mechanism that would switch from iOS to macOS.
1/ They went through a great deal of effort to provide a good user experience on iPadOS with mouse and keyboard, where would that go? Forget about it and switch to macOS? 2/ The architecture, the apps, the file formats will be the same but the file systems remain fundamentally different, at least in the way we access them: it’s sandoxed on iOS, unix based for macOS. So what would it mean? Everything becomes sandboxed on macOS? All data is duplicated? Both OS cannot see each other’s data?
Anyway I’m all for a convergence, and I am confident that if any company can crack it this is Apple, but I don’t think it will be the way described here.
Feels unlikely unless they add a lot of RAM to the device. Supporting macOS on iPad seems more reasonable, but would still need more memory. I think it would be pretty cool, but feels pretty far fetched. I really like my iPad Pro with ability to switch between mouse/keyboard and tablet. If anything, maybe reverse catalyst for iPad Pros where apps run full screen and have a suspend model similar to iPad. This would allow apps that will never make it to iOS to run on the iPad Pro. I guess it would also allow side loading on the Mac side...
I'll gladly pay for an app which saves me time/headache because it was designed to do a few things well rather than shoehorning everything in a browser designed to do everything half-*ssed.
If they do this, it won't be half-assed.
Oh I know Apple rarely does anything half-assed. It's why I have as much respect for them as I do. I was talking about web apps.
That would be amazing. The whole strategy is starting to become clearer
Apple would effectively have one billion Apple PCs in the market in one fell swoop
And this was the other (very important) point I wanted to get to before I got sidetracked: everyone suddenly has a Mac in their pocket and the market for Mac apps and peripherals goes through the roof
I don't think this would be a good idea. Apple has proved to be very good at optimizing its silicon for all their mobile devices, why would they not do that for their Macs? Why compromise the Mac performance/features using silicon optimized for mobile devices? I think Apple is going to a place where they have the right computing power for all the different use cases. They started with desktop, then laptop, then pocket, then wrist, and probably the face in the future. All of these have different opportunities/limitations with their corresponding optimized silicon. What they are doing is trying to have them all on the same software platform so it is easier for developers to move among the different types of devices. I am pretty sure they will come with a custom SoC for Macs that will blow what they currently have for mobile.
I'll gladly pay for an app which saves me time/headache because it was designed to do a few things well rather than shoehorning everything in a browser designed to do everything half-*ssed.
If they do this, it won't be half-assed.
Oh I know Apple rarely does anything half-assed. It's why I have as much respect for them as I do. I was talking about web apps.
The problem I see is one of RAM. iPhones have a relatively small amount of ram because of energy use, and Macs the more ram the better. I don't see how this is limitation is overcome.
By putting the memory in the terminal and using the terminal's power supply to run the phone while it's in docked mode. The phone supplies the processor, the OS and the apps. Everything is linked through a smart connector on the edge of the phone. Once connected, the whole setup runs as one integrated unit.
Correct statement. The iPhone can also use the extra CPU, GPU, RAM and SSD in the expandable terminal through the auxiliary connector like current external GPU cases but more flexible with build in display (iMac but more like an advanced dock with muscles).
The problem I see is one of RAM. iPhones have a relatively small amount of ram because of energy use, and Macs the more ram the better. I don't see how this is limitation is overcome.
By putting the memory in the terminal and using the terminal's power supply to run the phone while it's in docked mode. The phone supplies the processor, the OS and the apps. Everything is linked through a smart connector on the edge of the phone. Once connected, the whole setup runs as one integrated unit.
That would put the memory too far away from the CPU for good performance. Better to put it all in the phone, and power down the “excess” when in iOS mode.
Edit: Except when plugged in to AC power, of course.
This is literally the stupidest "leak" I ever come across. There is NO plan for MacOS to come to iPhone despite the fact that it CAN do that. A small screen has different needs than a big screen. A bigger device like tablet or desktop have a lot more power to use while a smaller device doesn't. Smaller always mean fewer resources.
Just no. You can run a Mac with Desktop Remote and we all know how it goes. It's a horrible UX.
I can imagine a MacOS running on iPad Pros though.
I predicted this awhile back (having macOS on your phone).
This is a brilliant idea, and so much better than that massive failure called Dex.
Microsoft had the right idea, they just couldn’t execute it. Apple is in a fantastic position to make this work.
If you look at the recent Developer Test Kit with the A12Z, it has 16GB RAM. Unless iPads or iPhones get significantly more RAM, I'm not sure how Apple will pull this off.
I predicted this awhile back (having macOS on your phone).
This is a brilliant idea, and so much better than that massive failure called Dex.
Microsoft had the right idea, they just couldn’t execute it. Apple is in a fantastic position to make this work.
If you look at the recent Developer Test Kit with the A12Z, it has 16GB RAM. Unless iPads or iPhones get significantly more RAM, I'm not sure how Apple will pull this off.
By looking at where the puck is going rather than where it is now. When you get to architect systems from top to bottom, you no longer need to be limited by one way of seeing the world.
I speculated about this years ago before iPhone came out. Your whole life in your pocket. It's a smart phone when you're out and about, a desktop when you plug it into a monitor and keyboard when you're at home.
No, this is not going to happen. When Jobs introduced the iPhone he said they put OS X on it. In effect that was what it was. A modified version of OS X.
Then they decided to create a new OS, called iPhone OS, now iOS, to differentiate. Then they broke iOS into iPad OS. Then they created watchOS. Then they created TvOS. Carplay. All are based on the same original OS.
Whats happening here? Are they differentiating? Yes, they are. Why then would they throw it all back together again?
You can in fact use similar, or mostly the exact same code ( with Swift UI in particular) to create apps for all of these Oses.
But thats not the point of differentiating the OS, the point is the user experience. A Mac has huge screen real estate, an iPad less, an iPhone even less. A watch, the least. And therefore they also need different UX and UI. The point and click of the mouse vs the touch of the other devices. Or the wheel on the watch. A menubar vs none. A filesystem vs none.
If an app with the same code ( swiftUI or catalyst) is built for Mac OS and iOS they will look different on either OS, that's the point. And even then with complex apps you are almost certainly going to want to break out custom code for either platform. Mac OS isnt going to work at all on the smaller device. iOS isn't going to look good on the larger device. Hooking a phone to a monitor to get it to look like MacOS sounds terrifically stupid to me. This is kinda like how CarPlay works ( CarPlay can be a separate screen running from your device but on the dashboard). But that doesn't scale up at all to a PC/Mac and photoshop etc. aren't going to scale down to the iPhone either, not without looking totally different. ( I doubt if their OS X apps and iOS apps are exactly the same code, catalyst and swiftUI are not that powerful and too new).
So a big rewrite for the big app devs to have cross platform apps in the same binary.
And what's in it for Apple. A device that can attach to a monitor so people dont have to buy a Mac? And for the user? An underpowered "Mac" which is a dumb monitor with bad cross platform apps which kills your device's battery.
Comments
2/ The architecture, the apps, the file formats will be the same but the file systems remain fundamentally different, at least in the way we access them: it’s sandoxed on iOS, unix based for macOS. So what would it mean? Everything becomes sandboxed on macOS? All data is duplicated? Both OS cannot see each other’s data?
Anyway I’m all for a convergence, and I am confident that if any company can crack it this is Apple, but I don’t think it will be the way described here.
Apple would effectively have one billion Apple PCs in the market in one fell swoop
if true, the are going to need to launch additional standalone monitors, keyboard, docking station
Perhaps do it as a one app download for $X? Or do you build it in as standard part of iOS/iPadOS?
This is a brilliant idea, and so much better than that massive failure called Dex.
Microsoft had the right idea, they just couldn’t execute it. Apple is in a fantastic position to make this work.
Just no. You can run a Mac with Desktop Remote and we all know how it goes. It's a horrible UX.
I can imagine a MacOS running on iPad Pros though.
Then they decided to create a new OS, called iPhone OS, now iOS, to differentiate. Then they broke iOS into iPad OS. Then they created watchOS. Then they created TvOS. Carplay. All are based on the same original OS.
Whats happening here? Are they differentiating? Yes, they are. Why then would they throw it all back together again?
You can in fact use similar, or mostly the exact same code ( with Swift UI in particular) to create apps for all of these Oses.
But thats not the point of differentiating the OS, the point is the user experience. A Mac has huge screen real estate, an iPad less, an iPhone even less. A watch, the least. And therefore they also need different UX and UI. The point and click of the mouse vs the touch of the other devices. Or the wheel on the watch. A menubar vs none. A filesystem vs none.
If an app with the same code ( swiftUI or catalyst) is built for Mac OS and iOS they will look different on either OS, that's the point. And even then with complex apps you are almost certainly going to want to break out custom code for either platform. Mac OS isnt going to work at all on the smaller device. iOS isn't going to look good on the larger device. Hooking a phone to a monitor to get it to look like MacOS sounds terrifically stupid to me. This is kinda like how CarPlay works ( CarPlay can be a separate screen running from your device but on the dashboard). But that doesn't scale up at all to a PC/Mac and photoshop etc. aren't going to scale down to the iPhone either, not without looking totally different. ( I doubt if their OS X apps and iOS apps are exactly the same code, catalyst and swiftUI are not that powerful and too new).
So a big rewrite for the big app devs to have cross platform apps in the same binary.
And what's in it for Apple. A device that can attach to a monitor so people dont have to buy a Mac? And for the user? An underpowered "Mac" which is a dumb monitor with bad cross platform apps which kills your device's battery.