argos.panoptis

Hello everyone, you make some very good points, technically.  Financially, however, you're all ignoring the obvious.  Apple remains a corporation geared towards profits, not technical perfection (what a world that would be!).  i.e. while I would kill for a convertible iPadOS/MacOS iPad, the reason I would kill for it is that I could ditch my Macbook Pro or my iMac.  And Apple would loose 2-3 grand by cannibalizing its own sales.  Now this may not be strcitly true, as I am and always have been an Apple idiot since the Apple II+.  I would probably end up spending that money on ludicrous earphones and a silly watch, but I doubt i would spend the full 2-3 grand.  Maybe 1000-1200.  And most others would spend less. 

Apple is looking for the ideal marriage between technical excellence (innovation and progress) and financial excellence (a ginormous bottom line).  I wish them luck, even though it will probably condemn me to the poor house. 

What Apple has lost, and I doubt it will ever get back, is its vision (risk? not Apple).  Where's the Newton?  Where's the G4 Cube?  Commercial failures, perhaps.  But that's how you break new ground.  iPod? iPhone?  iPad?  Small failures lead to great successes, that you can build on for decades (ages, in IT time). 

We used to watch WWDC with baited breath together, gathered around a table, on edge during, elated after, and kicking ourselves for not being able to attend the sessions.  Now? Well, I frankly couldn't care less about the latest Super Mario game or its 6 month exclusivity, minor interface tweaks that I can look up later (or not at all), and tweaks or feature bumps that are treated as headline news.  I knew it was over for Microsoft when the only changes between versions of Word were an icon rehash and an excuse to bill you.  Apple isn't there, but it's dangerously close to that path.

And one more thing.......  I miss Steve.  Apple's mind remains intact, but he was its heart and soul.

Not to belabor the obvious, but Linux anybody?  My 2013 15" MBpro still runs MacOS, and quite well actually, if I leave it 2 generations back.  Despite this, if you want something absolutely modern, linux is a perfectly viable, inexpensive solution, available in dozens of flavors and usage/support cases.  any MacBook Pro or iMac would literally blaze with Linux, and mine is no different.

Perfectly viable, light, modern.  Childishly easy to install in most cases, with great community support, and covers all intel Macs and maybe even an eMac or two (lubuntu powerpc edition should cover it, it works on my G3).  Even if you're not particularly technically oriented (and enterprise actually has IT staff for support), keep a backup of your data, and on the rare occasion something goes wrong, just re-install.  You know, like everybody with Windows does, even when they know how to fix it - it's just faster.

Why anybody would use ChromeOS is a complete mystery to me.  It's garbage spyware.  Oh, and it's based on Linux, so if you're thinking of installing it, then you're already doing what I'm suggesting.

Linux in 2022 is a far cry from what it was in 2010.

Well Gosh Darn It, to all you throwbacks looking at great ideas poorly implemented welcome to Microsoft Everywhere, Atrix, and various Samsung VaporWare.  Disparate OSs, disparate hardware, cloned interfaces, no developers.  As for chromebooks, great for word processing, but then again so's a low end ipad - no, mobile/web apps running in a browser do not a workhorse make.  The fact that I can imagine a flying car (especially when somebody else has already had the idea) doesn't mean I can build it.

MacOS is iPadOS is iOS, just tweaked differently.  If they go to a unified hardware platform (about time!) then there's no reason I couldn't run photoshop from my mobile.  Would it be slower? sure, at least today.  Could I get a crapload of work done from it, that I couldn't using the iVersion of everything?  Absolutely.  And look at it 2-5 years from now.  Phones will have the same ram that desktops do, or close enough.  I would literally kill for an iPad that could run MacOS, it would double my productivity by allowing to work on the road without schlepping a macbook pro.  I could shoot video on my phone effectively, and edit it effectively in Final Cut.... on the same device, natively, with no crashes or slowdowns = game changer (do that on android or a chromebook).  And they already have the developers and software, unlike everybody else, where everything needs to be re-written from the ground up.

The scenario would be:  one machine ==> macbook Pro, two machines => iMac/macbookpro + iPad/iPhone.  The limitations would be human (need a large good quality  screen and keyboard in one case, and something very portable in the other).  This would fulfill the promise Newton started so many years ago.

Having said all this, it's still apple, and they'd be cannibalizing their own markets - it makes better financial sense to keep things separate. 

Can I keep wishing?  Now, as long as they don't just triple it in price and milk the users from every penny they have............

Meatspace.  I first encountered the term in the late 90s, one of my favorites.  refers to the environment (space) in which your body (meat) lives and interacts - ergo, meatspace - as opposed to VR/AR which is abstracted space, and where you have no body (maybe an avatar/persona).  William Gibson's Neuromancer, anybody?

As for designs, well Apple wins hand down as usual.  Now why would I NOT want to strap a battery to my brain box?  Well golly gee, about a million reasons, especially when the battery is charging and worst of all when fast charging - heat, magnetic fields, battery fires, weight, short lifetime, and so on.

A tether solves all of these issues, including replacement of the battery when it ages, allowing me to use one battery while the other charges (increasing autonomy), allows use of the headset even when both batteries are charging, oh yes, and IT'S NOT STRAPPED TO THE BACK OF MY HEAD, allowing me avoid a Michael Jackson Pepsi commercial reprise.  Yes I know it's a dated reference using a controversial figure, but moderation of emotional responses is part of adulthood.

I live in the Mediterranean, and believe me, if you fast charge a battery in the summer here, the last thing you want is to strap it to critical body parts, regardless of how debatable the adverse effects of heat and radiating fields can be.

Price stinks though, so it's looking like third gen for me......  On the other hand, at work it would be a life saver........