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I can imagine Apple saw this coming a while back and decided to go all in on iOS while maintaining MacOS on the back burner. It must be difficult to be in a ma

by mlacks 7y ago

I can imagine Apple saw this coming a while back and decided to go all in on iOS while maintaining MacOS on the back burner. It must be difficult to be in a management position where you obviously see the industry is moving towards ARM, but you need to orchestrate a plan in motion to correctly time when the customer/ developer is ready to make the switch.

crb002 7y ago
Apple is removing Python etc for more than one reason. Curious if Apple does an ARM Mac Mini first as a canary.
- GrayShade 7y ago
  CPython works on ARM, doesn't it?
  - marmaduke 7y ago
    Yes there's even iOS app like Pythonista which provide Python and n IDE.
- lasagnaphil 7y ago
  If Apple does any Mac with a ARM processor, I think it will absolutely be the Macbook Air (or the recently discontinued Macbook). Those ARM processors will be so power-efficient that they will be able to market their laptops as "lasting for several days", which a lot of consumers will absolutely crave.
  - ComputerGuru 7y ago
    They can’t even get their phone batteries to last a full day because they’ll continue to prioritize form over function. I had several smartphones I didn’t need to charge more than every other day or even every three days if I wasn’t using them nonstop. Apple could do that today.
    - pcr910303 7y ago
      > They can’t even get their phone batteries to last a full day because they’ll continue to prioritize form over function. Well, to be fair, smartphones have much, much smaller bodies to carry around a battery. If Apple makes a notebook with the same A13 processor I’m pretty sure it will last more than two or three days. BTW, one of smartphone’s function is that it’s portable. You really can’t blame it being form over function when talking about battery life; there are many, many people who want light phones. If you need longer battery life by sacrificing weight, you can get yourself a backup battery (or a battery case) > I had several smartphones I didn’t need to charge more than every other day or even every three days if I wasn’t using them nonstop. Apple could do that today. My experience is that my iPhone XS survives a day and a half without any charging. YMMV, of course, but for me that’s enough.
    - 00deadbeef 7y ago
      The new iPhone 11 is slightly larger and thicker with a much bigger battery and an ugly camera array. Function seems to have been prioritised.
- lostlogin 7y ago
  The current Mac mini is an awesome machine and in top spec has some impressive performance. Given that a key strength of ARM is its power efficiency, it would seem more logical to start with something that has a battery. That way any performance hits can be seen as a trade off for longer battery life. I say this knowing full well than in any battery life versus thinness tradeoff, Apple has picked thinner just about every time.
paulmd 7y ago
> It must be difficult to be in a management position where you obviously see the industry is moving towards ARM, but you need to orchestrate a plan in motion to correctly time when the customer/ developer is ready to make the switch. Apple is in a unique position to make this happen though. And they have done it before with the PowerPC->x86 switchover. Their solution has previously been to have fat binaries with both versions compiled alongside. They control the toolchain and the app store so this is not that difficult to enforce.
- ryacko 7y ago
  Box86 exists though. They don’t need fat binaries, they only need x86 emulation. Many x86 patents have also expired or will expire soon, so the set of instructions that need to be emulated is reduced.
  - toast0 7y ago
    Emulation works as a transition layer, and they've done it before (see Rosetta from ppc->x86 and the 68k emulator from when they switched to ppc), but native binaries will be significantly faster and more energy efficient.
    - ryacko 7y ago
      Native binaries using the latest stable libraries with the latest compiler optimizations will always be faster and more energy efficient. Even the Xbox had backwards compatibility across ISAs. Somehow I doubt people will care that much about efficiency.
      - Narishma 7y ago
        They will care on a laptop with a battery.
- Tinfoilhat666 7y ago
  Instead of switching macOS to arm, they could promote iPadOS to laptops. They already added a file manager and advanced windowing to it.
_trampeltier 7y ago
I wonder, why Apple has nothing like Samsung DEX. But also I wonder why Samsung and Google don't push this feature not more. I almost bought one of the last Windows phone, the HP Z3, because it could be use as base for a small notebook (they had just a "dumb" notebook for it, just the screen and a keyboard, all the processing was over air or cable from the phone). Even the new Linux phone (Librem 5) comes with a feature to connect the phone to a monitor and keyboard etc. Apple has never showed any of this concepts even a tiny bit.

by mlacks 7y ago

crb002 7y ago

Apple is removing Python etc for more than one reason. Curious if Apple does an ARM Mac Mini first as a canary.

GrayShade 7y ago
CPython works on ARM, doesn't it?
- marmaduke 7y ago
  Yes there's even iOS app like Pythonista which provide Python and n IDE.
lasagnaphil 7y ago
If Apple does any Mac with a ARM processor, I think it will absolutely be the Macbook Air (or the recently discontinued Macbook). Those ARM processors will be so power-efficient that they will be able to market their laptops as "lasting for several days", which a lot of consumers will absolutely crave.
- ComputerGuru 7y ago
  They can’t even get their phone batteries to last a full day because they’ll continue to prioritize form over function. I had several smartphones I didn’t need to charge more than every other day or even every three days if I wasn’t using them nonstop. Apple could do that today.
  - pcr910303 7y ago
    > They can’t even get their phone batteries to last a full day because they’ll continue to prioritize form over function. Well, to be fair, smartphones have much, much smaller bodies to carry around a battery. If Apple makes a notebook with the same A13 processor I’m pretty sure it will last more than two or three days. BTW, one of smartphone’s function is that it’s portable. You really can’t blame it being form over function when talking about battery life; there are many, many people who want light phones. If you need longer battery life by sacrificing weight, you can get yourself a backup battery (or a battery case) > I had several smartphones I didn’t need to charge more than every other day or even every three days if I wasn’t using them nonstop. Apple could do that today. My experience is that my iPhone XS survives a day and a half without any charging. YMMV, of course, but for me that’s enough.
  - 00deadbeef 7y ago
    The new iPhone 11 is slightly larger and thicker with a much bigger battery and an ugly camera array. Function seems to have been prioritised.
lostlogin 7y ago
The current Mac mini is an awesome machine and in top spec has some impressive performance. Given that a key strength of ARM is its power efficiency, it would seem more logical to start with something that has a battery. That way any performance hits can be seen as a trade off for longer battery life. I say this knowing full well than in any battery life versus thinness tradeoff, Apple has picked thinner just about every time.

paulmd 7y ago

> It must be difficult to be in a management position where you obviously see the industry is moving towards ARM, but you need to orchestrate a plan in motion to correctly time when the customer/ developer is ready to make the switch. Apple is in a unique position to make this happen though. And they have done it before with the PowerPC->x86 switchover. Their solution has previously been to have fat binaries with both versions compiled alongside. They control the toolchain and the app store so this is not that difficult to enforce.

ryacko 7y ago
Box86 exists though. They don’t need fat binaries, they only need x86 emulation. Many x86 patents have also expired or will expire soon, so the set of instructions that need to be emulated is reduced.
- toast0 7y ago
  Emulation works as a transition layer, and they've done it before (see Rosetta from ppc->x86 and the 68k emulator from when they switched to ppc), but native binaries will be significantly faster and more energy efficient.
  - ryacko 7y ago
    Native binaries using the latest stable libraries with the latest compiler optimizations will always be faster and more energy efficient. Even the Xbox had backwards compatibility across ISAs. Somehow I doubt people will care that much about efficiency.
    - Narishma 7y ago
      They will care on a laptop with a battery.
Tinfoilhat666 7y ago
Instead of switching macOS to arm, they could promote iPadOS to laptops. They already added a file manager and advanced windowing to it.

_trampeltier 7y ago

I wonder, why Apple has nothing like Samsung DEX. But also I wonder why Samsung and Google don't push this feature not more. I almost bought one of the last Windows phone, the HP Z3, because it could be use as base for a small notebook (they had just a "dumb" notebook for it, just the screen and a keyboard, all the processing was over air or cable from the phone). Even the new Linux phone (Librem 5) comes with a feature to connect the phone to a monitor and keyboard etc. Apple has never showed any of this concepts even a tiny bit.