“As iPhone processing power increases,” Dave Mark writes for The Loop, “could Apple create a hybrid desktop product driven by some future version of the A10 Fusion (the 64-bit system on a chip that drives the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus), a product that looks and acts like an iPhone, but that doubles as a desktop experience when you plug it into a dock, complete with large display, mouse, and keyboard?”
Mark writes, “If that device was powerful enough to support applications like Xcode, Photoshop, Illustrator, Final Cut Pro, etc., this could greatly simplify Apple’s product line, pushing all software development to Swift and iOS.”
MacDailyNews Take: That’s fine for the desktop, but this is a mobile world, hence Apple’s recently revealed patent application:
iPhoneBook
MacPad
As we asked back in October 2014:
Anyone in the market for a 12.9-inch device that’s an OS X-powered MacBook when docked with its keyboard base and an iOS-powered iPad when undocked? — MacDailyNews, October 7, 2014
It sounds like a promising idea to me. It would be excellent if all the files that were on my iPhone were used directly on my MacBook and vice versa. That’s a much better solution that synchronising files.
There is an additional advantage in using an iPhone as part of a laptop because the iPhone will provide the laptop with cellular connectivity without the customer having to arrange a separate SIM subscription for the laptop.
It’s never going to be the solution for power users, but I could see a lot of people finding that this sort of solution would work well for them.
The biggest drawback that I can see is that it would rely on you always having an iPhone or iPad with the correct physical dimensions and layout for that laptop, so if Apple were to bring out a different form factor on the iPhone, it wouldn’t dock with these laptops.
My point was that the files would be exactly the same because they only exist in one place. It wouldn’t be a case of them being in one place with copies on the other device, the iPhone would be contain all of the files and the laptop would use the iPhone as it’s hard drive.
Obviously there will be people who need more storage than there could be on even the biggest iPhone and more computational power too, but a device such as this one wouldn’t be aimed at those people.
“My point was that the files would be exactly the same because they only exist in one place.”
Absolutely not. If my files were all in one place, it certainly would not be on any form of cloud system, given how synching works now. Some are better than others, Apple’s is not the top rank as far as I am concerned.
Apple user since 1983, experience tells all.
Actually, it would be fairly easy (and advisable) for Apple to make a “shim” for every iDevice model to fit into either the iPhoneBook or the MacPad, the shim being sized to fit the various iDevice models.
A kludge (/klʌdʒ/, /kluːʒ/, /kluːdʒ/) is a workaround or quick-and-dirty solution that is clumsy, inelegant, inefficient, difficult to extend and hard to maintain. This term is used in diverse fields such as computer science, aerospace engineering, Internet slang, evolutionary neuroscience, and government.
I absolutely hate both of the concepts illustrated here. If you want a Surface, go buy a Surface.
A 15″ or 17″ laptop with a clean screen is very useful to me. A tablet sized screen, not so much. Touch on the display, no way. Drawing in with an overpriced Pencil on a vertical panel, that’s not my thing either.
Why does an iOS as a touchpad input need to be docked at all? Plug it in with a USB-C cable. There has been nothing stopping Apple from making iOS devices link to the Mac as input touchpads & pen inputs today. One would have thought Apple would have made it easy and popular 5 years ago. Why put a hole in the Mac so you can only use that one size iOS device? Isn’t the point of a family of products to give the user choice in what devices he uses?
I wish Apple would stop trying to figure out ways to make people buy every product in the Apple portfolio and instead put some effort into making its existing Macs up to current spec.
Well, I want Surface like functionality, but I have a LOT of Mac software and I prefer the Mac. So it’s not unreasonable that I’d want a Surface-like Mac. I shouldn’t have to buy a Windows computer to get the functionality I’d like.
Some marketing fool at Apple has determined that if sales of overpriced stale Macs that users cannot modify or upgrade are flat, then Apple must force all Macs to become accessories to the big moneymaker iPhone. Apple is truly lost.
Please get the iOS dorks as far away from the Mac as possible. There has been too much dumbing down already.
In 2011-2012, we asked for significant upgrades to the Mac Pro and got one miniscule refresh instead.
In 2013, sick of waiting, we demanded that Apple get on the ball. They couldn’t get on the ball and instead rolled out a cylinder that was overpriced and was outclassed within a couple months of its release.
In 2014-2017, we asked Apple to wake the hell up and deliver updates to the cylinder, or an all new pro level tower, or an all new mid range tower. Apple couldn’t be bothered to listen. Instead it axed development of stuff like Automator, Displays, and Airports.
The story on the Mac mini is just as sad — last update removed features. It is overpriced and underperforming, just like the Mac Pro trashcan.
As for the iMac: only the 5K iMac is competitive with capability and price. All others are overpriced for what you get.
I saw this and thought it was actually a cool idea…
Sure it’s a kickstarter project, but I like the idea of using my phone on a bigger screen largely due to the constant internet access my phone provides. I love my iPad but it’s only Wi-Fi and it’s not always accessible … plus I really don’t feel like paying extra to share data to tether the devices.
Of course when the new iPads Pro’s come out that will be a whole different story.
My MacBook Air is dying and I’m waiting to see when the next MacBooks come out to buy a new one. So I’ve been relying more on an iPad Air 2 connected to an Anker A7722 Bluetooth keyboard which acts as a stand. So it’s sort of like a computer. I miss the Mac. And there are some things where I wish there was a trackpad, even though I do enjoy the touch screen. (Although I found out I have a typing quirk where my pinkies fly up when I reach for some keys, which causes them to touch the iPad screen, which often has an undesired effect. But that’s my typing quirk.) But I’m really enjoying the mixed mode of a physical keyboard and a touch screen. I really would like a device like this that could run OS X. The issue of course would be that OS X isn’t designed for a touch screen. But if they figured out how to make it work with either touch or a trackpad at any given moment, they would have a really interesting product. Yeah, it’s the Microsoft Surface. But with OS X and A-series chips. So I don’t care if Microsoft got it largely right first. I wish Apple would get there. It’s not a product that everyone would want. But I would, especially if it had the larger iPad Pro as the base. I wish I’d bought the pro instead since a few months after I got this Air, they came up with a much cheaper iPad.
Do yourself a favor and get a refurbed 13″ MBP instead of waiting for Apple to make a move. Go ahead and get an older model MBP too. I can tell you that anything would be a huge leap up from the old Air. And you don’t need to get a new gimmick bar model because i can assure you it hasn’t revolutionized anything for me.
Do yourself a favor and move your iPad screen a little further that your pinkie can reach. Sheesh, who is it that some people are just sooooo stuuuuuuck in thinking?
I find the concept valid and useful considering the shell not just as a keyboard or screen. What I find horrifying is to picture the current Apple management making decisions for all of us based on their convenience on raw numbers and lack of true vision. it could be a side project to diversify one product but not to replace any other more significative and important.
Actually, you can see the future of the Mac by going outside and looking straight up. (Empty space)
Blue skies above.
Perfect example for the application of Betteridge’s law of headlines.
It sounds like a promising idea to me. It would be excellent if all the files that were on my iPhone were used directly on my MacBook and vice versa. That’s a much better solution that synchronising files.
There is an additional advantage in using an iPhone as part of a laptop because the iPhone will provide the laptop with cellular connectivity without the customer having to arrange a separate SIM subscription for the laptop.
It’s never going to be the solution for power users, but I could see a lot of people finding that this sort of solution would work well for them.
The biggest drawback that I can see is that it would rely on you always having an iPhone or iPad with the correct physical dimensions and layout for that laptop, so if Apple were to bring out a different form factor on the iPhone, it wouldn’t dock with these laptops.
“It would be excellent if all the files that were on my iPhone were used directly on my MacBook and vice versa.”
It’s far more important to me that the reverse be true.
Not saying it can ‘t be both ways, but 99.99999% of my important files are created on the Mac because that’s the nature of the beast.
I require a beast, not putting down iOS stuff, but for me its more like an envelope to store a few documents as opposed to creating them.
My point was that the files would be exactly the same because they only exist in one place. It wouldn’t be a case of them being in one place with copies on the other device, the iPhone would be contain all of the files and the laptop would use the iPhone as it’s hard drive.
Obviously there will be people who need more storage than there could be on even the biggest iPhone and more computational power too, but a device such as this one wouldn’t be aimed at those people.
“My point was that the files would be exactly the same because they only exist in one place.”
Absolutely not. If my files were all in one place, it certainly would not be on any form of cloud system, given how synching works now. Some are better than others, Apple’s is not the top rank as far as I am concerned.
Apple user since 1983, experience tells all.
Actually, it would be fairly easy (and advisable) for Apple to make a “shim” for every iDevice model to fit into either the iPhoneBook or the MacPad, the shim being sized to fit the various iDevice models.
a shim
what could possibly go wrong?
A kludge (/klʌdʒ/, /kluːʒ/, /kluːdʒ/) is a workaround or quick-and-dirty solution that is clumsy, inelegant, inefficient, difficult to extend and hard to maintain. This term is used in diverse fields such as computer science, aerospace engineering, Internet slang, evolutionary neuroscience, and government.
Now I understand why Apple has been so hell-bent on making iPhones so thin 🙂
Fits perfectly for Apple, prosumer hardware Mac, now needing to add a $700+ phone to make it useable.
Meanwhile perfectly good professional grade laptops (albeit with Windows) are available for less than half price.
Only Apple can make prosumer computers that are more expensive than professional laptops and get away with it.
Apple, just make a good looking box with slots and own the market.
double dittoes!
And Apple Watch charge $4000 for that shell
Portable is good, but I use my MacBook 20% of the time, 80% of my work I do on a desktop MacPro. I need a desktop not a iPhone integrated laptop.
To answer the question, no, that is not the future of the Mac.
Apple is developing their own custom x64-based CPUs. When that’s finished, we’ll finally get back to regular updates to the Mac line.
And when the phone rings you… ???
…answer it via your MacBook?
…rip it out of the socket?
I already answer iPhone on my Mac and iPad.
So if I understand the drawing correctly, anytime Apple redesigns the iPhone I have to buy a new computer?
I absolutely hate both of the concepts illustrated here. If you want a Surface, go buy a Surface.
A 15″ or 17″ laptop with a clean screen is very useful to me. A tablet sized screen, not so much. Touch on the display, no way. Drawing in with an overpriced Pencil on a vertical panel, that’s not my thing either.
Why does an iOS as a touchpad input need to be docked at all? Plug it in with a USB-C cable. There has been nothing stopping Apple from making iOS devices link to the Mac as input touchpads & pen inputs today. One would have thought Apple would have made it easy and popular 5 years ago. Why put a hole in the Mac so you can only use that one size iOS device? Isn’t the point of a family of products to give the user choice in what devices he uses?
I wish Apple would stop trying to figure out ways to make people buy every product in the Apple portfolio and instead put some effort into making its existing Macs up to current spec.
Well, I want Surface like functionality, but I have a LOT of Mac software and I prefer the Mac. So it’s not unreasonable that I’d want a Surface-like Mac. I shouldn’t have to buy a Windows computer to get the functionality I’d like.
These are nothing but patent designed for Apple branded Keyboard Devices.
There will be no CPU on them.. it will be a keyboard and a screen for an iPhone, or a just a keyboard/trackpad for an iPad.
The Samsung Dex an accessory for the Galaxy S8 is something Apple should have thought up but didn’t.
http://www.theverge.com/2017/3/29/15104600/samsung-dex-galaxy-s8-dock-announced-price-release-date
A more in depth review.
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/samsung-dex
Anyone who thinks this is a good idea wasn’t paying attention to what happened to the Playbook and Folio.
Uh NO. I wouldn’t buy this gimmick. I’m convinced Apple has killed the Mac.
Stupid!!!
Some marketing fool at Apple has determined that if sales of overpriced stale Macs that users cannot modify or upgrade are flat, then Apple must force all Macs to become accessories to the big moneymaker iPhone. Apple is truly lost.
Please get the iOS dorks as far away from the Mac as possible. There has been too much dumbing down already.
FFS all I want is a new iMac.
In 2011-2012, we asked for significant upgrades to the Mac Pro and got one miniscule refresh instead.
In 2013, sick of waiting, we demanded that Apple get on the ball. They couldn’t get on the ball and instead rolled out a cylinder that was overpriced and was outclassed within a couple months of its release.
In 2014-2017, we asked Apple to wake the hell up and deliver updates to the cylinder, or an all new pro level tower, or an all new mid range tower. Apple couldn’t be bothered to listen. Instead it axed development of stuff like Automator, Displays, and Airports.
The story on the Mac mini is just as sad — last update removed features. It is overpriced and underperforming, just like the Mac Pro trashcan.
As for the iMac: only the 5K iMac is competitive with capability and price. All others are overpriced for what you get.
I saw this and thought it was actually a cool idea…
Sure it’s a kickstarter project, but I like the idea of using my phone on a bigger screen largely due to the constant internet access my phone provides. I love my iPad but it’s only Wi-Fi and it’s not always accessible … plus I really don’t feel like paying extra to share data to tether the devices.
Of course when the new iPads Pro’s come out that will be a whole different story.
My MacBook Air is dying and I’m waiting to see when the next MacBooks come out to buy a new one. So I’ve been relying more on an iPad Air 2 connected to an Anker A7722 Bluetooth keyboard which acts as a stand. So it’s sort of like a computer. I miss the Mac. And there are some things where I wish there was a trackpad, even though I do enjoy the touch screen. (Although I found out I have a typing quirk where my pinkies fly up when I reach for some keys, which causes them to touch the iPad screen, which often has an undesired effect. But that’s my typing quirk.) But I’m really enjoying the mixed mode of a physical keyboard and a touch screen. I really would like a device like this that could run OS X. The issue of course would be that OS X isn’t designed for a touch screen. But if they figured out how to make it work with either touch or a trackpad at any given moment, they would have a really interesting product. Yeah, it’s the Microsoft Surface. But with OS X and A-series chips. So I don’t care if Microsoft got it largely right first. I wish Apple would get there. It’s not a product that everyone would want. But I would, especially if it had the larger iPad Pro as the base. I wish I’d bought the pro instead since a few months after I got this Air, they came up with a much cheaper iPad.
Do yourself a favor and get a refurbed 13″ MBP instead of waiting for Apple to make a move. Go ahead and get an older model MBP too. I can tell you that anything would be a huge leap up from the old Air. And you don’t need to get a new gimmick bar model because i can assure you it hasn’t revolutionized anything for me.
Do yourself a favor and move your iPad screen a little further that your pinkie can reach. Sheesh, who is it that some people are just sooooo stuuuuuuck in thinking?
Why nest your phone? I thought that was what iCloud was for.
I find the concept valid and useful considering the shell not just as a keyboard or screen. What I find horrifying is to picture the current Apple management making decisions for all of us based on their convenience on raw numbers and lack of true vision. it could be a side project to diversify one product but not to replace any other more significative and important.