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Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising part of the WWDC ARM transition announcement was the promise that Apple Silicon Macs would be able to run iOS software. People
by mortenjorck 6y ago
Perhaps the most eyebrow-raising part of the WWDC ARM transition announcement was the promise that Apple Silicon Macs would be able to run iOS software. People mostly seem to have just accepted it at face value, perhaps with the idea that "oh, there will be a touchscreen MacBook," but this doesn't really capture the breadth of what this will entail.
Apple has, of course, famously resisted the hybrid/convertible form factor, a decision largely proven right by Microsoft's advance into and subsequent retreat from a universal touch-and-pointer UI in Windows 8. The addition of trackpad support to iPadOS this year was an interesting hybrid-like evolution of Apple's tablet UI, but something as complex as MacOS is going to be a lot harder to take in the other direction without turning into Windows 8.
Whatever Apple's solution is to avoid making the Mac into a "fridge-toaster" will be unveiled alongside the new hardware, and I'm quite curious what it will be.
- post_break 6y agoApple said stylus's were dumb and no one would want one. Apple Pencil comes out. Touch screen Macbook pro seems like it would never happen, then Big Sur looks like it has touch targets made for fingers. The iPad keyboard dock thing looks very much like microsoft surface, especially the logitech offerings that you know where designed in part of help with Apple. I wouldn't be surprised if it's a Macbook Pro that either swivels all the way around like a Lenovo and has a touch screen.
- socialdemocrat 6y agoI think the key point Steve Jobs was making is that you don’t want a stylus as a requirement for interacting with the OS. As someone who used Palm OS, I totally get what he was talking about when iOS was released. A stylus for general interaction was not a good choice. However for drawing and writing a stylus is very nice. But that is a much smaller user segment than those benefitting from a touch interface.
- phoobahr 6y agoAnd, at that time, a mandatory stylus meant (likely) a resistive not capacitive touch screen.
- threeseed 6y agoiOS developers use the iPhone Simulator everyday to build their apps. It doesn't require a touchscreen and I would be very surprised if any apps are unusable without it.
- jayd16 6y ago>retreat from a universal touch-and-pointer UI in Windows 8 Huh? What? Doesn't everything bit of hardware Microsoft sells have a touchscreen? Windows 10 has solid touchscreen support. Why are we talking about Windows 8 or a retreat?
- neogodless 6y agoWindows 8 was launched with a primary touch interface that emerged after closing apps, even if they were "desktop" apps. 8.1 retreated somewhat but Windows 10 went even further back to the default point-and-click Start Menu interface, while retaining touch elements like tiles, and introducing some other touch-friendly changes. Compared to 8 at launch it's much friendlier to the mouse and keyboard users.
- untog 6y agoI think it's been accepted at face value because all of the component parts are already available to the public: Mac Catalyst already allows iPad apps to be used on the Mac, and XCode's iOS Simulator already runs apps natively (by compiling to Intel rather than ARM).