Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#1

Post by fallenhitokiri » Sat, Aug 14, 2021, 12:07 PM UTC

Unifying iPadOS and macOS
screamingatmyscreen.com

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#2

Post by defaulty » Sat, Aug 14, 2021, 1:05 PM UTC

As a power user on MacOS, I dread the merge. I can only suspect that MacOS becomes less power-user friendly in the name of "intuitiveness". I hope I am proven wrong

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#3

Post by jbverschoor » Sat, Aug 14, 2021, 1:06 PM UTC

defaulty wrote: post #2

As a power user on MacOS, I dread the merge. I can only suspect that MacOS becomes less power-user friendly in the name of "intuitiveness". I hope I am proven wrong

It's just lazyness / QA problems at Apple that prevent high quality apps

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#4

Post by flohofwoe » Sat, Aug 14, 2021, 1:08 PM UTC

It's not about the touch screen, the UI, the hardware or "casual" vs "professional" users, but simply about the ability to create(!) and combine small specialized tools into something that's bigger than the sum of its parts.

The "walled garden app ecosystem" is exceptionally bad for this, and the UNIX shell is exceptionally good, but both are extremes. It's hard to imagine how a UNIX-like flexibility can be achieved inside an ecosystem that's optimized for passive media consumption and online shopping though.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#5

Post by indymike » Sat, Aug 14, 2021, 1:09 PM UTC

It's no surprise that inexperienced computer users can get more done with a mobile UI than a MacOS (or for that matter, most classic computer UIs). The big difference is that to operate a mobile device, you don't have to be able to read and understand what the words mean. That doesn't mean a mobile UI is the right one for every laptop, or for a Macbook.

We've seen many tries at unifying the design language between mobile and computer. ChromeOS, Windows 10, Android Desktop Mode, Ubuntu's Unity all are mobile/desktop UIs. What makes them work (to the extent they do work) is that most devices have touch screens (well, not so much with Android in desktop mode). Without the touch screen, optimizing the shape of UI components for touch is actually a bad experience as a pointing device works very differently than does a touch screen.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#6

Post by retskrad » Sat, Aug 14, 2021, 1:18 PM UTC

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 Macs so they were forced to revert their attention to it again.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#7

Post by simonh » Sat, Aug 14, 2021, 1:22 PM UTC

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, because they already know it would be a mistake and are sticking to their guns until maybe our eyes and fingers get about 4x as sharp.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#8

Post by aj3 » Sat, Aug 14, 2021, 1:23 PM UTC

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).

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#9

Post by Fiahil » Sat, Aug 14, 2021, 1:27 PM UTC

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 stagnant for too long and I won't be buying new hardware until then.

Re: Unifying iPadOS and macOS

#10

Post by jakelazaroff » Sat, Aug 14, 2021, 1:28 PM UTC

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.