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Users Don't Want iOS To Merge With MacOS, Apple Chief Tim Cook Says (smh.com.au)
Rebutting a widespread speculation, Apple chief executive Tim Cook said the company is not working toward building an operating system that both Macs and iPhones could share. From his interview on Sydney Morning Herald: Later, when I ask about the divide between the Mac and iOS, which seems almost conservative when compared to Microsoft's convertible Windows 10 strategy, Cook gives an interesting response. "We don't believe in sort of watering down one for the other. Both [The Mac and iPad] are incredible. One of the reasons that both of them are incredible is because we pushed them to do what they do well. And if you begin to merge the two ... you begin to make trade offs and compromises. "So maybe the company would be more efficient at the end of the day. But that's not what it's about. You know it's about giving people things that they can then use to help them change the world or express their passion or express their creativity. So this merger thing that some folks are fixated on, I don't think that's what users want." A surprising comment, considering rumours from well-connected reporter Mark Gurman of Bloomberg, who wrote the company is working on a project called "Marzipan", which involves merging the codebase of macOS and iOS apps.
We saw what it did to Windows 10. It's.... not gud.
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
People on Slashdot keep claiming merging the two is what Apple is working towards. Perhaps this explicit statement from the CEO that users do not want it and Apple has no plans to do so are enough to quiet the minds of such people, for at least a little while.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
UI and capabilities can be as different as users want them to be, but there is no need to force internal and external developers to do duplicate work. Few of iOS games are ported to OSX, the difference should only be in control scheme (and iOS/Apple TVs should trivially support paired Bluetooth input devices). The only reason to not do this now is if engineering effort is too high.
Yes, the use cases for both are different, but there's no reason an upcoming iPhone can't power a wireless KVM with ease. Having one device to carry is what people want, and the non-private iCloud sync isn't a replacement for integration. Of course "Mac Mode" should run with KVM semantics and not with mobile semantics. So Tim is right.
And so are the people saying a merger is on the horizon.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
Absolutely agree with Cook, Mac OS and IOS are operating systems serving very different devices and therefore need separate types of operating systems. Obviously Apple saw the disaster of what Windows 8 was and realized one size OS doesn't work and is full of compromises. Microsoft is still trying to make something work for all devices with Windows 10 without a lot of real success. Give Cook credit for realizing the tablet and notebooks are used in different ways and developing operating systems that complement them.
So what he's really saying is that OSX will continue to die from neglect until everyone gets on-board with using a tablet for everything.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
...is disturbing.
What makes sense would be the old Mac Pro back. Not something that looks like an art sculpture, but a plain old tower. Yes, it will cost a bunch, but for what true workstation users want/need, there isn't anything else that beats true PCIe. Thunderbolt is OK, but 4 PCIe lanes pale in comparison to the latest motherboards that have 64+ PCIe lanes for GPUs, RAID storage, and other things that are required for high end work. This isn't cheap, and most users don't need it, but for users who do, it is worth having.
Keyboards are only "less relevant" until you need to do some real work. Touch-screen keyboards suck, voice/text recognition is less reliable than pressing keys to type.
LogMeIn and Bomgar work great for this.
Anyone who has used a touch laptop knows how nice it is to be able to reach out and scroll the screen or tap things on it instead of fiddling with the touch pad or mouse.
I am a member of the set of people you are trying to speak for, and I'm here to tell you you're wrong in saying I know how nice it is. I have a touchscreen Win10 laptop; aside from playing around with touch the day I got it, the only thing I've ever used touch for is to swipe to get to the login screen, and that only a handful of times. Touch is inaccurate, inconvenient compared to the touchpad, and results in a smudged screen. If you like it, fine; use it. But don't kid yourself that everyone feels that way.
Anyone who has used a touch laptop knows how nice it is to be able to reach out and scroll the screen or tap things on it instead of fiddling with the touch pad or mouse.
False. I have one - Dell XPS 9560. I literally never use the touch screen. Kind of wish I didn't have to pay for the extra hardware there in order to get the improved display. Two-finger scrolling on the track pad is easier and more ergonomic, because my hands are already on the keyboard or palm rest. And that's even with Dell's terrible trackpad.
I guess your statement becomes true if you don't include me (and many others) in "Anyone".
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
If Tim Cook thinks merging iOS and MacOS would result in compromises then he lacks imagination and should not be leading Apple.
Done properly the software could make the best use of what ever hardware it finds itself running on so the user gets to pick and choose how and where they want to use it. I'm a user and a programmer, for 40 years, so I speak from a bit of experience and I apparently have a lot more imagination than Tim Cook. If he can't imagine better things then he needs to get out of the way of people who can.