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Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

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Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#23
post #14
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been present since iOS 10, and on iPhones with force touch you can force touch the keyboard anywhere and it'll turn into a trackpad.

Somehow on iOS 12 my iPhone 6s only works on Spacebar, not anywhere on the Keyboard.

do you have 3d touch enabled? Afaik if it's disabled only the spacebar method works. If it is enabled only the force touch method works.

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#24
post #20
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been present since iOS 10, and on iPhones with force touch you can force touch the keyboard anywhere and it'll turn into a trackpad.

Wow there IS a use for force touch!

Force Touch is very useful; the only issue with it is that it’s not discoverable.

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#25
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is full-on mouse support required, or do you really just need an easier way to reposition the cursor and making selections? If it's the latter, I wouldn't be at all surprised to see Apple come up with something that only solves the latter.

I think the biggest problem comes from supporting external displays. For me to fully swap to iOS as a development platform (ignoring missing software currently) I would need to be able to plug into a larger display at some point, and have a way of controlling apps on that display without using touch at all.

iOS already supports two displays with AirPlay. You can have a separate image on the device and the display.

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#26
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we're very close. You can already tap and hold on the spacebar in iOS 12 and it turns into a trackpad like control for moving the cursor in textfields.

This has been present since iOS 10, and on iPhones with force touch you can force touch the keyboard anywhere and it'll turn into a trackpad.

Oh my god, thank you for telling me about this. I just upgrade from a 6s to a SE and I've dearly missed being able to move the cursor around with force touch (the only useful force touch feature.) Just checked and holding the spacebar works great. Thanks!

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#27

Hello Hacker News, Author here. AMA. This was fun to build!

How usable are Mac VMs? I previously tried VBox and VMware but recalled issues making it unusable (eg graphics). It seems like with Hyperkit it should be simple to bring up a macOS VM with SIP diasabled for dev purposes in like 30 seconds.

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#28
post #26
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This has been present since iOS 10, and on iPhones with force touch you can force touch the keyboard anywhere and it'll turn into a trackpad.

Oh my god, thank you for telling me about this. I just upgrade from a 6s to a SE and I've dearly missed being able to move the cursor around with force touch (the only useful force touch feature.) Just checked and holding the spacebar works great. Thanks!

I have an SE but holding space bar doesn’t seem to do anything..

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#29
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh my god, thank you for telling me about this. I just upgrade from a 6s to a SE and I've dearly missed being able to move the cursor around with force touch (the only useful force touch feature.) Just checked and holding the spacebar works great. Thanks!

I have an SE but holding space bar doesn’t seem to do anything..

Only works on iOS 12.

Re: Marzipan: Porting iOS Apps to the Mac

#30
post #2

This direction gives me huge hope we'll soon see mouse support for iPad. It's the greatest handicap to doing productive work, particularly text editing.

Apple has been rapidly improving the power of its processors in iOS devices. At the same time, it has been promoting privacy. Now it’s giving developers an incentive to develop apps for iOS that are friendly to desktop users. And Apple hasn’t been giving Macbooks much attention lately.

This tells me Apple plans an iOS desktop mode. You could pair a monitor, keyboard, and mouse with your phone and work at a desk. All your apps, settings, and files stay physically with you, never leaving your device as you carry it to work/school/home/etc. iOS devices would be used like the Nintendo Switch but for desktop computing in addition to gaming.

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