I can see it easily ported to M2 iPad Pro with today's MacOS - they have the same codebase.
But here's the problem - Touch UI.
+ keyboard + mouse = no problem
I've seen plenty of users touch their screens thinking it works like iPads wondering why they don't work for a second, even though they use them a lot. They all own iPads so it's natural for them to still expect MacBook to function the same.
That's why the MacOS needs to be updated for touch UI.
I don't disagree that it would be a good idea, but it's not an essential prerequisite for allowing macOS on iPad hardware.
It would seem something like this totally bricks the original paradigm of the tablet category. Why not just add a touch screen to the MacBook Air and call it a day?
Different form factor. You would seemingly buy gold plated turds from Apple and this is suddenly your “AI we fucking won’t buy it” moment? As I mentioned yesterday this would be fantastic if it happens. Those who still want a tablet to consume media would no doubt be able to still use it that way.
This is not the same. That was about the convergence of iOS and macOS. The issue is full macOS on a tablet Mac. Some Touch-suitable UI elements have been already ported from iOS to macOS. This is not convergence. As long as the architectures remain different, we can’t talk about convergence. And the tablet Mac may feature more ports, more I/O, more drivers and so on…
This sounds like something Microsoft would do. Or to be more precise, something Microsoft has already done at least 4 times with varying degrees of failure.
There was the first generation of Windows mobile that had touch support that did little more than turning your finger into a cursor with a pop up on-screen keyboard that usually had to be invoked manually. For notebook PCs of that era, with small screens and no support for touch in mainstream apps, it was nothing you’d want to use if productivity was something you actually cared about.
Then there were all the various flavors and form factors of Windows CE computers. Some were like the old pocket computers from the early 1980s with keyboards perfectly sized and spaced to people whose fingers were no larger than chopsticks. Others were like BlackBerrys with micro sized keyboards and some had on-screen keyboards and a stylus. Nothing quite as productive as having a tiny Windows desktop, start menu with nested submenus and all, shoved into a 3.5” screen, sitting right there ready to run all the massively cut-down versions of your favorite desktop apps, like a version of Word that is little more than NotePad with fonts. Woo hoo.
Do I need to remind anyone of Windows RT? I hesitate to mention it because that Righteous Turd (RT) is way too close to what this article about a cut-down macOS on iPad could end up being.
Then there is Windows S. While much better than Windows RT because it could be easily jettisoned and replaced for the lowest spec’d big boy Windows, it tried to solve a problem that nobody was really asking for. Like RT, it incorporates some of the rationale behind what a cut-down version of macOS could look like on an iPad, i.e., limited ability to install apps from outside of the App Store.
I still believe that Apple could beef up some of the OS fundamentals like file management on iPadOS to greatly improve its appeal to Pro users. If owners of Pro level iPads are really concerned about the amount of time their beefy Apple Silicon is spending in idle cycles, I’d probably be happier just to put the full uncut macOS on these iPads and require you to poke around on the thing with a keyboard and mouse/trackpad if all of the underlying iPad Pro hardware can also support macOS.
To me this smells more like the kind of story Apple itself would seed in order to ferret out leakers. My guess someone is about to find their keycard access revoked.
That or it’s a misinterpretation of apple working on cross-platform app compatibility.
Personally, I’d love it if my Ipad Pro had more feature parity with MacOS. I’ve said for several years that iPads are being constrained by iPadOS. That’s still true and many things that they technically can do are kind of kludgy and much more difficult than they are on MacOS
"That or it’s a misinterpretation of apple working on cross-platform app compatibility." => Apple already has that. It's called Catalyst
"Personally, I’d love it if my Ipad Pro had more feature parity with MacOS." => Dan Moren posted an article regarding the vision behind the iPad and he summarized it well:
"When the iPad came out, it felt like a burgeoning third revolution, but a decade-on much of that potential has been squandered. None of this is to say that the iPad hasn’t been a success, but that it hasn’t been all that it could be. The real opportunity is for the iPad to be the best of both worlds: taking the modern aspects of iOS and combining what worked well on the Mac, and turning it into a device that’s more than the sum of its parts."
Catalyst enables UIKit apps - iPhone and iPad apps - to run on macOS with a minimum of work. macOS has an implementation of UIKit (essentially code libraries that apps are built with) to make Catalyst apps work, especially on Intel. For ARM, macOS basically hosts the entire iOS environment stack and unmodified iPhone and iPad apps can run on macOS/ARM. Some developers are intransigent. A lot of them don't want even that and prevent their unmodified apps to run on macOS. They surely want money for that. Anyways, I digress.
There isn't anything to go the other way. For FCPX, LPX to run on iPadOS with a minimum of changes in FCP itself, Apple would have to have iPadOS host an implementation of AppKit - the macOS code library - to make that happen. An iPadOS AppKit library would change UI conventions from WIMP to Touch. Apple doesn't want to do that yet, because unknown reasons. The biggest one is that only recently are there iPads with enough RAM to do it, and perhaps even more recently, some iPads don't have the storage performance to really do it. The hard way is to rewrite FCP in some combination of Swift+ObjC+SwiftUI+UIKit.
Apple has an incredible amount of balls that they are juggling. FCPX surely has a bunch of crappy C++ code with Objective-C wrapped around it with AppKit code wrapped around everything. Then, there are probably custom Intel, PPC, and ARM machine code in it to make some things fast. On top of this, they are transitioning to Swift and SwiftUI, both themselves are moving targets. It's an incredibly capital intensive effort to get everything to Swift and SwiftUI. Basically a nation state effort.
Yeah, for a small 2 man operation running out of a garage they are taking a massive gamble … /s They are only the wealthiest company in the world. Time they stop dreaming small and start delivering on new products. This would be a good start.
What I’ve been calling for years is a dual-boot iPad Pro.
When docked to the proper keyboard/trackpad it behaves exactly like a MacBook Air. When used on its own it runs iPadOS. If you’re on iPadOS and dock to a keyboard, it prompts you if you want to continue using iPadOS or if you want to switch to macOS.
I don’t want or need a touch enabled version of macOS.
What I’ve been calling for years is a dual-boot iPad Pro.
When docked to the proper keyboard/trackpad it behaves exactly like a MacBook Air. When used on its own it runs iPadOS. If you’re on iPadOS and dock to a keyboard, it prompts you if you want to continue using iPadOS or if you want to switch to macOS.
I don’t want or need a touch enabled version of macOS.
There was a patent that Apple was granted earlier this year that alludes to something along the lines that you mention
Not happening. If Apple feels MacOS should be ported to iPad in whatever size/features version suitable for iPad then Apple will port on all iPads and remove iPadOS. Unless there is a MacOS for MAC and iPad; Apple not going to do half hazard job. Easily confuse consumer base.
Unless you have your own sources in Apple then how do you know? You don’t. As for consumers being confused, the mishmash of iPads floating around right now seems to show that Apple thinks that consumers will somehow manage to navigate it all.
If they do this, might as well add touch capability to Macs. Fair play.
Doubt it happens though.
So… it would dual boot operating systems? Run one virtually? Go Mac OS only for iPad Pro and iPad os is for lesser iPads? All kinds of conundrums. Especially if they go through the trouble of adding Mac OS only to handicap it by running mobile apps. Sheesh. What a mess.
And as I opened with, apple has long mss as obtained the products have different reasons to exist. If they go and add Mac OS to an iPad, they should add touch to macs. Otherwise it seems like artificially limiting macs when they’ve clearly figured out how to make Mac OS touch viable.
Woah! Not going to expect it. But this would be very cool! Would love to be able to start an fcpx project on my iPad and finish it on my Mac. I use the iPad to draw and the import the files into fcpx. I’m all for this!
The perennial rumor of a Mac/iPad hybrid keeps coming up because the MS Surface is such a sleek, efficient, dominating category killer.
Seriously. MacOS has to run intensive software on the Mac Pro, with multiple giant screens that ergonomically will not function injury-free as touch screens. Making that OS also work in a touch environment on an iPad is a recipe for widows-like bloatware that tries to do all things, but none very well.
It’s entirely possible someone in the bowels of the big round building is experimenting, but those experiments are unlikely to ever see the light of day.
Apple already did the "windows-like bloatware" with iPad OS. iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard tries to do everything, and it fails in many things, especially compared to a notebook. Surface Pro devices are not perfect, and I think iPads are better tablets. But as soon as you add a keyboard, Surface Pro are a better device. At the same time, I think Apple did the right thing with the Magic Keyboard. It gives users more ways to use the iPad, same as the Surface Pro.
The perennial rumor of a Mac/iPad hybrid keeps coming up because the MS Surface is such a sleek, efficient, dominating category killer.
Seriously. MacOS has to run intensive software on the Mac Pro, with multiple giant screens that ergonomically will not function injury-free as touch screens. Making that OS also work in a touch environment on an iPad is a recipe for widows-like bloatware that tries to do all things, but none very well.
It’s entirely possible someone in the bowels of the big round building is experimenting, but those experiments are unlikely to ever see the light of day.
But I want my toaster-fridge! /s
But seriously, you're 1000% correct. No one ever uses an MS Surface without the keyboard/attachment because no one ever bothered to write tablet focused software for the thing. So it's just a ergo-nightmare laptop. Plus you get Windows! Hard pass.
Maybe I'm wrong and Apple will drop some weirdo mutant MacPad OS, but I doubt it.
If they do this, might as well add touch capability to Macs. Fair play.
Doubt it happens though.
So… it would dual boot operating systems? Run one virtually? Go Mac OS only for iPad Pro and iPad os is for lesser iPads? All kinds of conundrums. Especially if they go through the trouble of adding Mac OS only to handicap it by running mobile apps. Sheesh. What a mess.
And as I opened with, apple has long mss as obtained the products have different reasons to exist. If they go and add Mac OS to an iPad, they should add touch to macs. Otherwise it seems like artificially limiting macs when they’ve clearly figured out how to make Mac OS touch viable.
I think they should. But it would potentially make laptops a lot more expensive. iPad already have a touch screen so it is the os that has to change. Also, as someone suggested it could more be with a keyboard and mouse in “iPadmacOS” and touch in iPadOS. I have a touchscreen PC and never used the touch screen as you have to swivel the keyboard out of the way to make it work.
I also remember when also Apple said that would never make a "toaster / fridge" device because of ergonomics, and looks what they did with the iPad Pro + Smart Keyboard.
If they do this, might as well add touch capability to Macs. Fair play.
Doubt it happens though.
So… it would dual boot operating systems? Run one virtually? Go Mac OS only for iPad Pro and iPad os is for lesser iPads? All kinds of conundrums. Especially if they go through the trouble of adding Mac OS only to handicap it by running mobile apps. Sheesh. What a mess.
And as I opened with, apple has long mss as obtained the products have different reasons to exist. If they go and add Mac OS to an iPad, they should add touch to macs. Otherwise it seems like artificially limiting macs when they’ve clearly figured out how to make Mac OS touch viable.
I think they should. But it would potentially make laptops a lot more expensive. iPad already have a touch screen so it is the os that has to change. Also, as someone suggested it could more be with a keyboard and mouse in “iPadmacOS” and touch in iPadOS. I have a touchscreen PC and never used the touch screen as you have to swivel the keyboard out of the way to make it work.
It would cost less than $2 per to add multitouch to the Larger screen macs and displays. You have sub $100 chrome books with touch screens for crying out loud. Apple wouldn’t need to raise prices at all. Ventura is already a touch friendly UI.
I’d welcome s touch screen before I’d welcome max is on iPad.
If they do this, might as well add touch capability to Macs. Fair play.
Doubt it happens though.
So… it would dual boot operating systems? Run one virtually? Go Mac OS only for iPad Pro and iPad os is for lesser iPads? All kinds of conundrums. Especially if they go through the trouble of adding Mac OS only to handicap it by running mobile apps. Sheesh. What a mess.
And as I opened with, apple has long mss as obtained the products have different reasons to exist. If they go and add Mac OS to an iPad, they should add touch to macs. Otherwise it seems like artificially limiting macs when they’ve clearly figured out how to make Mac OS touch viable.
I think they should. But it would potentially make laptops a lot more expensive. iPad already have a touch screen so it is the os that has to change. Also, as someone suggested it could more be with a keyboard and mouse in “iPadmacOS” and touch in iPadOS. I have a touchscreen PC and never used the touch screen as you have to swivel the keyboard out of the way to make it work.
It would cost less than $2 per to add multitouch to the Larger screen macs and displays. You have sub $100 chrome books with touch screens for crying out loud. Apple wouldn’t need to raise prices at all. Ventura is already a touch friendly UI.
I’d welcome s touch screen before I’d welcome max is on iPad.
If Apple makes a touchscreen Mac it will cost more than $2 over the current price. And considering I have PC that cost close to $1,000 you clearly have no idea what you are talking about.
Comments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOYikXbC6Fs
to Apple Events Team
"we need a bigger NO"
There was the first generation of Windows mobile that had touch support that did little more than turning your finger into a cursor with a pop up on-screen keyboard that usually had to be invoked manually. For notebook PCs of that era, with small screens and no support for touch in mainstream apps, it was nothing you’d want to use if productivity was something you actually cared about.
Then there were all the various flavors and form factors of Windows CE computers. Some were like the old pocket computers from the early 1980s with keyboards perfectly sized and spaced to people whose fingers were no larger than chopsticks. Others were like BlackBerrys with micro sized keyboards and some had on-screen keyboards and a stylus. Nothing quite as productive as having a tiny Windows desktop, start menu with nested submenus and all, shoved into a 3.5” screen, sitting right there ready to run all the massively cut-down versions of your favorite desktop apps, like a version of Word that is little more than NotePad with fonts. Woo hoo.
Do I need to remind anyone of Windows RT? I hesitate to mention it because that Righteous Turd (RT) is way too close to what this article about a cut-down macOS on iPad could end up being.
Then there is Windows S. While much better than Windows RT because it could be easily jettisoned and replaced for the lowest spec’d big boy Windows, it tried to solve a problem that nobody was really asking for. Like RT, it incorporates some of the rationale behind what a cut-down version of macOS could look like on an iPad, i.e., limited ability to install apps from outside of the App Store.
I still believe that Apple could beef up some of the OS fundamentals like file management on iPadOS to greatly improve its appeal to Pro users. If owners of Pro level iPads are really concerned about the amount of time their beefy Apple Silicon is spending in idle cycles, I’d probably be happier just to put the full uncut macOS on these iPads and require you to poke around on the thing with a keyboard and mouse/trackpad if all of the underlying iPad Pro hardware can also support macOS.
When docked to the proper keyboard/trackpad it behaves exactly like a MacBook Air. When used on its own it runs iPadOS. If you’re on iPadOS and dock to a keyboard, it prompts you if you want to continue using iPadOS or if you want to switch to macOS.
I don’t want or need a touch enabled version of macOS.
https://9to5mac.com/2022/05/03/apple-patent-describes-ipad-keyboard-accessory-that-triggers-macos-like-ui/
But seriously, you're 1000% correct. No one ever uses an MS Surface without the keyboard/attachment because no one ever bothered to write tablet focused software for the thing. So it's just a ergo-nightmare laptop. Plus you get Windows! Hard pass.
Maybe I'm wrong and Apple will drop some weirdo mutant MacPad OS, but I doubt it.
Why Apple Finally Embraced Toaster-Refrigerators | The Motley Fool
Could we have in the future macOS in iPads? Who knows...