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Unifying iPadOS and macOS

screamingatmyscreen.com

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Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#21

Post by fallenhitokiri »

emsy wrote: post #11

In the article, 2 of 3 examples are about consumption. This just reinforces my opinion that the iPad is primarily a consumption device. My wife is a teacher and I asked her if her students, the so called „digital natives“ hold up to their reputation. She declined and said they were producing TikTok videos and instagram photos at best (which can lead to a creative career but I’d argue that’s the exception not the rule…

Author here - first of all: I agree. I should have gone a bit more into detail how „not sure how she’s related“ is using her devices. She is also doing actual work for school on the iPad (research and writing papers).

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#22

Post by nicoburns »

john_minsk wrote: post #15
retskrad wrote: post #6

I think iPad is the one product that Apple is the most proud of and it shows. The 2021 iPad Pro is the most sophisticated product in Apple's lineup. It's the smoothest, fastest and most elegant software they have ever made. I know some people who used to work at Apple and they said it was clear that Apple wanted to let the Mac die and focus primarily on iPadOS and iOS but regular users and professionals kept buying M…

I would argue that this is just "timing" thing. If we look far enough into the future I would bet that almost 100% of regular tasks should be done not only on iPad, but on iPhone. Human comes to work => docks/AirPlays their system to external monitor => does work in browsers/office apps. We are pretty close to this reality tbh. Mostly software is a limiting factor. As for computer pros...we probably will be forced to…

If they would put macOS on iPads or iPhones it could be a reality today, but I see no indication that iOS/iPadOS are going to be suitable for this any time soon.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#23

Post by JKCalhoun »

Fiahil wrote: post #9

The article does a good job summarizing what works on an iPad and what doesn't ! To that, I will add that iPads are designed as a "single user" device. Sharing one between family members means you have to let them use your Google, Spotify, iCloud accounts. Now that their hardware is all lined up between laptops and mobile devices, I fully expect the merge to happen in a few years. I feel Apple's software has been sta…

> I feel Apple's software has been stagnant for too long and I won't be buying new hardware until then.

Odd. I'm still happy to use Mac OS High Sierra ... Yosemite even. I wonder with each OS release why I would even want the upgrade.

Mainly because apps I use (Affinity, etc.) stop working (or stop trying to work) for older versions of Mac OS.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#24

Post by scoopertrooper »

mhuffman wrote: post #20
aj3 wrote: post #8

You can hack macOS using macOS, but kids won’t be able to get that level of understanding how OS works on iPadOS. This is bad for IT. Maybe not as dramatic as an existential crisis but it’s certainly a lost opportunity. My friend's daughter is 10 and she could pass job interview for a junior software developer any day simply because her first PC was running Ubuntu (it’s Arch now).

>This is bad for IT. Maybe for how we do IT. But consider the future where 99% of apps are developed on a tablet or phone (for a tablet or phone) using a cloud web interface with mostly low-code or no-code widget drag and drops.

There's a natural limit to what may be achieved with a low/no code tool. Kids might be able to drag a few elements on screen to create charts and games, but that sort of work doesn't really advance the field.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#25

Post by mhuffman »

gjsman-1000 wrote: post #19
mhuffman wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>That barrier is vital for people who did not grow up with tech to interact and experiment with it. Who are you talking about? Senior citizens? Or maybe people outside of the US in developing countries? Because anyone under 50 in the US has grown up around tech.

Don't just assume that default. Remember more than 10% of the US still doesn't have internet, and a shocking portion of the US has smartphones as their only method of computing and would be dumbfounded at a PC.

Yeah, I don't buy that, unless you are talking about the Amish or someone willfully avoiding technology. And in that case, we are not really losing "future techies" are we?

Regarding the smartphone point, again, you might be talking about elderly people or self-isolated people. Otherwise all people under 50 have used computers in their school classes and would not be dumbfounded at a PC.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#26

Post by grey-area »

IOS will replace Mac OS, the writing has been on the wall for a while now, iOS is where the money comes in and where most usage is, and maintaining dual development apis is painful and costly.

Apple doesn’t need to rush this process, but it is inevitable IMO, and is foreshadowed by actions like allowing iOS apps to run on macOS, moving Mac OS closer in UI to mobile, adding essentials like file handling to the mobile os.

At this point the underlying OS is the same, the UIs are converging, the UI frameworks for iOS are almost capable of replacing Mac OS, and it would be relatively easy to merge them in the next few years, keeping some extra layers of UI for macs but merging most of it and certainly the dev frameworks. We may see touchscreen macs or dockable iOS devices first though.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#27

Post by api »

I need a real computer. I don’t mind a few UI ideas being borrowed where they make sense but if I can’t run anything I want on it and can’t multitask or combine things together it is not a real computer.

iOS works fine for a phone. It’s worthless for my job or my personal interests.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#28

Post by mhuffman »

scoopertrooper wrote: post #24
mhuffman wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This is bad for IT. Maybe for how we do IT. But consider the future where 99% of apps are developed on a tablet or phone (for a tablet or phone) using a cloud web interface with mostly low-code or no-code widget drag and drops.

There's a natural limit to what may be achieved with a low/no code tool. Kids might be able to drag a few elements on screen to create charts and games, but that sort of work doesn't really advance the field.

>There's a natural limit to what may be achieved with low/no code tool. Kids might be able to drag a few elements on screen to create charts and games, but that sort of work doesn't really advance the field.

Ahhh, who said the point in the future would be to advance the field? That is how we think. Future generations might be content with a few "programming geniuses" and everyone else making simplistic apps for work for fun.

You could see this future coming. It is already onerous to be a desktop developer on Windows or Mac. It is purposely easier to develop and deploy simplistic mobile apps that can be controlled and monitored by the "stores" that distribute them.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#29

Post by FractalHQ »

I bought an iPad Pro recently, and I hate the fact that I can’t run any of my favorite macOS apps on it despite the fact that the hardware is more than capable. And no web browsers / browser extensions / PWAs?

It feels like a toy. Very disappointing.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#30

Post by simonh »

jakelazaroff wrote: post #10
simonh wrote: post #7

It's amazing to me that Apple made a very strict distinction between touch UI systems and keyboard/mouse UI systems, right from the start, has maintained that rigorously, and has been right all along. Their competitors and the pundit-sphere saw this as a fatal weakness, but every attempt at unifying touch and keyboard/mouse interfaces failed miserably. So I'm not concerned about Apple trying to merge iPadOS and MacOS…

What do you mean? iPadOS has keyboard and mouse support. Apple sells a first-party keyboard accessory for iPad.

Like the pencil these are for specific subsets of use cases, they are not a primary interaction mode but more like specialist support for optional peripherals, the same way desktops support graphics tablets and trackballs. When I described Mac interfaces as keyboard/mouse you didn't say "oh, and also graphics, tablets, trackballs and VR headsets". They're an edge case.
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