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Apple rumored to be working on a smart home operating system version

macrumors.com

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Re: Apple rumored to be working on a smart home operating system version

#51

Post by exe34 »

kcplate wrote: post #46
jayd16 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Multi-user support is possibly something deserving of a larger rewrite to iOS. It's been a pretty big assumption in all of the devices outside Macos, right?

On the iPad and iOS front, I feel like the real driver of support for multiuser is families. I just can’t see it being a big desirable ask beyond families with kids because the devices form factors. If I am Apple, I am wondering if that subset market is big enough to add the feature. I love my wife and she loves me, but a single shared phone or iPad among us would create more problems than a coke bottle amid the bush…

I wonder if it might be useful if you had a phone, a tablet and one or two other form factors - but when you rub your finger on the detector, it loads your environment.

but I can't imagine having to wait to use my phone or tablet. maybe the living room TV or the kitchen assistant.

Re: Apple rumored to be working on a smart home operating system version

#52

Post by kjkjadksj »

DrBenCarson wrote: post #43
paulryanrogers wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Was Johnny Ive really a driver of innovation? Or just trading repairabily for vanity metrics?

You tell me, was the iPhone innovative?

No it was inevitable

Re: Apple rumored to be working on a smart home operating system version

#53

Post by kjkjadksj »

colechristensen wrote: post #45
codeaether wrote: post #42

It's such a pity to see how much respect Apple has lost due to its lack of real technological ambition. Just a few years ago, Apple was admired for pushing boundaries—now it feels like history is repeating itself.

I think it's more there's nothing left to be done. There have been little refinements but airliners look the same as they did in the 60s and the basics of all of it are just the same as they were 60 years ago as now. Operating systems are the same.

Airliners look the same because of regulations

Re: Apple rumored to be working on a smart home operating system version

#54

Post by marssaxman »

ajkjk wrote: post #32
joshmarinacci wrote: post #3

In one sense this is logical. A HomePod with a screen and an iOS variant. On the other hand, what is this for? What uses do these smart home devices serve? We are a decade plus into the “smart home” era and most of these things are more trouble than they are worth.

I feel like Apple has historical been good at taking things that are "good ideas but everyone is doing the execution so badly they haven't really caught on" into the "everyone uses it all the time" category (eg ipod, iphone, airpods). Certainly smart home stuff is kinda in the first category right now, like you said. Perhaps they believe they can give them the same treatment? It seems kinda plausible to me: there's n…

Is it actually a good idea, though? It's crystal clear why companies would want to make and sell smart home devices which get customers locked into proprietary web services, but the problems these gadgets are meant to solve for the user have always struck me as... trivial. The last thing I want in my house are more fussy, flaky widgets to manage; they'd better have a really good reason to exist.

Re: Apple rumored to be working on a smart home operating system version

#55

Post by rpdillon »

ranger_danger wrote: post #5
dangus wrote: post #2

> For example, he expects there to be a hexagonal grid of apps, just like on the Apple Watch. One of the worst UI experiences out there.

28 million watch sales may suggest that not everyone shares your opinion.

This is a logical fallacy in two dimensions.

First, you're conflating one UI option in the product with the entire product. It could be that 28 million users are using the list-based view.

Second, you're implying that high sales of a product are correlated with quality. This isn't true: high sales are a result of demand and available options, as well as target audience. In Apple's case, because users don't buy a specific product from Apple, but rather buy into the entire ecosystem, Apple users don't typically have the choices that other users have. So it's perfectly viable that they would want the Apple Music integration and the iMessage integration, but hate the UI of the launcher.

Finally, the 'may suggest' phrasing doesn't sound like good faith, but rather a sarcastic quip, which is why I suspect you've been voted down.

Re: Apple rumored to be working on a smart home operating system version

#56

Post by simpleintheory »

jayd16 wrote: post #33
joshmarinacci wrote: post #3

In one sense this is logical. A HomePod with a screen and an iOS variant. On the other hand, what is this for? What uses do these smart home devices serve? We are a decade plus into the “smart home” era and most of these things are more trouble than they are worth.

Multi-user support is possibly something deserving of a larger rewrite to iOS. It's been a pretty big assumption in all of the devices outside Macos, right?

It’s supported for iPads, just locked by software [1].

1: https://support.apple.com/en-gb/guide/deployment/dep9a34c2ba...

Re: Apple rumored to be working on a smart home operating system version

#57

Post by pgwhalen »

joshmarinacci wrote: post #3

In one sense this is logical. A HomePod with a screen and an iOS variant. On the other hand, what is this for? What uses do these smart home devices serve? We are a decade plus into the “smart home” era and most of these things are more trouble than they are worth.

I’m a sort of reluctant/embarrassed user of smart home technology. I understand your pause, but the opportunity is so clearly there, it’s just that no one has executed well enough on it yet.

I’m not sure that a new OS is really the way to get there, but hey maybe, I’m not an expert on the internal workings.

Re: Apple rumored to be working on a smart home operating system version

#58

Post by scarface_74 »

marssaxman wrote: post #54
ajkjk wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like Apple has historical been good at taking things that are "good ideas but everyone is doing the execution so badly they haven't really caught on" into the "everyone uses it all the time" category (eg ipod, iphone, airpods). Certainly smart home stuff is kinda in the first category right now, like you said. Perhaps they believe they can give them the same treatment? It seems kinda plausible to me: there's n…

Is it actually a good idea, though? It's crystal clear why companies would want to make and sell smart home devices which get customers locked into proprietary web services, but the problems these gadgets are meant to solve for the user have always struck me as... trivial. The last thing I want in my house are more fussy, flaky widgets to manage; they'd better have a really good reason to exist.

Apple and everyone else has agree to Matter.

But no one is going to buy an Apple home device if they aren’t already in the Apple ecosystem.

Besides, Amazon, Google and even Apple services are all cross platform. While there isn’t an iCloud app for Android, there is one for Windows.

Re: Apple rumored to be working on a smart home operating system version

#60

Post by vlovich123 »

altairprime wrote: post #39
easton wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably mostly the GUI and some different set of system services / APIs. I think all of the OSes are the same XNU/Darwin base and then diverge dramatically in user space.

This is true to the best of our knowledge for their GUI-less OSes running on the HDMI adapter, T2 chips, and display chips as well.

They still package the kernel differently. It’s like Linux - you don’t compile in all the hardware support into one package - just the set of hardware it needs to support. And Apple has generally unified a lot of the HW architecture across their product line but there are always small differences here and there.
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