WTimberman

I prefer the aesthetics of Apple’s podcast player, but functionally speaking, Overcast is an order of magnitude better in almost all respects. Marco Arment, the developer of Overcast, seems acutely conscious of what it takes to design and test a truly intuitive and complete user interface, and as a result his app is an absolute joy to use. Years ago,  when I first encountered Instapaper — also his invention —  I remember thinking “whoever came up with this is a genius.” All these years later, I’m still of the same opinion. Apple is huge and as a result, often appears to be content with the basics in anything they view as non-critical consumer-facing software. Bug fixes, improvements, etc., are often abysmally slow to arrive, if indeed they ever do…. The apps Apple provides as defaults are serviceable, but indie developers, who are just as competent as Apple engineers, often take a far more granular approach to customer satisfaction. So, yeah, Overcast. Absolutely. God bless the independents, who really were and are crucial to making Apple what it is today! (If only Apple would treat them a little nicer, but I’m not holding my breath….)

Modularity. (Hat tip to Federico Viticci). That's the key to any reasonable view of 21st Century Apple's strategic decision-making. Or maybe we should call it Apple Everywhere. The concept of convergence never made much sense to me with respect to computing devices, especially as practiced by Microsoft. A tablet running Windows? Heaven forfend! Latter-day Apple, i.e., Apple after the return of SJ, has always had the right idea, and has always been very aggressive about pushing it, even at the risk of becoming a tech industry laughingstock. What idea was that? Simply put, it was this: to the extent that the current state of technology permits, the use case determines the form factor. At the core of this future strategy is the iPad Pro, the clever chameleon of computing devices. What you can't do on the iPad Pro with the appropriate combination of accessories (Apple Pencil, Smart Keyboard Cover, Magic Keyboard Cover, third party stand combined with bluetooth keyboard and pointing device of your choice) you can do with your Mac -- or your iPhone, or your Apple Watch -- and be confident that either AirDrop or iCloud will be able to store/transfer the appropriate data types to other Apple devices, or to export them to non-Apple platforms as needed.

This is the way to go folks. DED is right to be bullish about Apple's future. I've been on board since 1984, and I say that the marvels have only just begun. 

rcfa said:

k2kw said:

Hopefully this will come with iPadOS and not MacOS.   

That’s absolutely the LAST thing we need: a further move to a closed platform where you have no idea what processes run in the background, and which won’t allow you to install anything but crippled AppStore software 🤮

What we should see is the ability to install macOS on iPad Pros in conjunction with the keyboard/trackpad, and the addition of a third UI mode.
We already have windowed and full-screen modes in macOS, all that’s required is to add a touchUI mode.

But I’m sick of the limitations of iOS and iPadOS, you can’t even look at the raw message of an e-Mail to analyze headers or embedded URL to see if something is real or a phishing attempt.

There’s no decent file system, no ability to check on background tasks, so if your device is hacked, you have no way of telling, you can’t install any network analysis software, because you’re not given access to MAC-addresses, etc. etc.

iOS and iPadOS are NOT useful as a work platform, they are media consumption platforms which also allow some convenience features like occasional e-Mail checking. Nothing more, nothing less.

Been waiting for years for something more, and the potential to see a real OS i.e. macOS on an iPad-like device, THAT is something to get excited about. Not another f*ing iteration of iOS/iPadOS 🤮

What limits one user enables another. I find the iPad Pro a remarkably flexible and highly mobile tool for the daily tasks I have to perform. For me, it’s kinda like a Swiss Army knife — not ideal for every use case, but serviceable for a wider range of use cases than any other single computing device I’ve ever owned. Face ID for web logins alone has saved me tens of hours in the past year, even considering Mac Safari’s increasing facility with iCloud keychain. Can a sysadmin control his server farm with an iPad? Well, probably not, but, frankly, if that’s the sort of thing that’s convinced you that an iPad is useless as a platform for getting work done, I’d argue that your idea of what counts as work is awfully parochial. Really, people will pay you enough to live on for what you can do for them with an iPad. That’s not nothing. (Ask Federico Viticci. Lots of us are happy as clams working on iPads, but few of us can explain why we love that state of affairs as well as he can.)

The small phone enthusiast base seems to consist largely of people who spend significant amounts of time commenting on tech sites. Out amongst ordinary civilians, semi-big and big phones appear to outsell Apple's 4-inch phones by enormous margins. Full disclosure: for my money, 4 inch phones (5, 5S, SE gen. 1) are too small, but I do prefer the 5.8 inch Face ID (X, 11 Pro) form factor to the larger sizes. I loved my 6S Max back in the day, but once I got my hands on the X, I was done with the large bezel, Touch ID models forever. I have absolutely no idea what I'd do with something like the Galaxy Note 10/20 or the iPhone 11 Pro Max. The latter feels more like an iPad mini to me than a phone I'd ever want to use as my daily driver. (My current phone is the iPhone 11 Pro.)

I think the key to Apple's strategy is pretty well summed up in Federico Viticci's recent article on cursor support for the iPad Pro., i.e., that modularity rather than convergence is the key to Apple's future strategy. Apple makes varied devices (and OS flavors) for varied use cases, but all work more or less seamlessly together. Unlocking a MacBook Air with touch ID, an iMac with a paired Apple Watch; AirDrop and the Universal Clipboard; Apple single sign-on and ApplePay; handwriting recognition and sound/video editing on the iPad with the Apple pencil; SideCar when you need 27 inches or more of screen real estate to manage a large drawing. The idea is that you use the tool designed for a specific task, and don't worry about transferring the finished product to wherever you want it. A naked iPad, when you want to read a book, or one with a smart cover when you might also need to write a lengthy e-mail, or jot down some ideas, or prop it up horizontally to watch a video or place a FaceTime call. When you want to head off to Starbucks for a change of scenery but continue working on your novel, slap on the smart keyboard, and maybe you slip your AirPods in your pocket. 4K video transcoding? Back home to your iMac or iMac Pro. Want to watch a movie on a big screen, with decent sound in a small room? Apple TV and HomePods.

All of this depends on money being no object, of course. Unfortunately, for ordinary civilians like most of us, money is always an object. Which is why a) most of these devices can handle multiple use cases, even if they aren't the best device for all of them, and b) why eventually Apple's concept of modular and pervasive computing will mature, the devices will be simpler and more convincingly integrated, and the total cost won't be so eye watering. In the meantime, I'm glad Apple is going the route of sparing no expense to push the limits of current technology, even when I can't afford all of it at the same time.