“As has become standard, Apple executives Craig Federighi and Phil Schiller sat down with John Gruber on his podcast “The Talk Show” [yesterday] evening following Apple’s WWDC keynote,” Chance Miller reports for 9to5Mac. “During the interview, Schiller and Federighi dove deeper into some of the news from yesterday’s jam packed keynote, which Schiller quipped was 3 and a half hours long at first draft.”
“In regards to the new iMac Pro that Apple showed off, Schiller explained that Apple believes there is a market for those who want pro-level specs in an all-in-one body,” Miller reports. “Schiller concluded by reiterating Apple’s commitment to the Mac, saying it will ‘keep the Mac at the forefront.'”
“Speaking on the iPad Pro, Federighi and Schiller explained one of the biggest selling points about the new models are the displays,” Miller reports. “Schiller also explained the need for the Files app, saying that pro users need a filesystem while others don’t. When asked to compare the HomePod to the iPod Hi-Fi, Schiller said that sometimes you have to do things over again to get it right.”
Much more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Apple seems to have relearned* a valuable lesson about keeping an eye on the Mac and the importance of satisfying their highest-end, most-influential Mac users. That is very good news, indeed.
*This isn’t the first time Apple has wandered off into the weeds with the Mac.
It would be different if different manufacturers were making Macs but THERE’S ONLY ONE. With “great exclusivity comes great responsibility” to your pro customers. Don’t forget us again Apple or “fool us twice” syndrome might kick in as many have threatened (like me) and actually done by moving on to the dark side that DOES cater in droves to pro needs.
Stop being so damn dramatic. Everybody is privilege to make the wrong choices if you want to go to windows go to windows. Nobody’s holding your hand holding you back the many workstations are many programs as well you just got to deal with the shitty architecture and all the viruses you may get along the way. You’re willing to do that go for it.
Or….
Go to Windows (or Linux, or anything else) while flipping Apple the bird if Apple deserves it. What’s this “Apple should be immune to criticism” mentality?
It’s the operating system that there’s only one of. That, coupled with tight hardware integration, defines the exclusivity. Other makers have better, faster, more upgradeable hardware and since 1990 almost always have had. When I have had to whip the horses for some project the choice was Wintel more often than not, leaving carcasses in the wake. (There was always more joy in working on Macs, but money is worth more than joy in Business.)
Or freedom and latitude worth ore than money, which you get anyway due to economies of scale.
Long way to go but 24 hours later and the whole atmosphere is totally different and users faith is considerably renewed (well at least the sensible ones). However this is just the start and this momentum needs to be continued. Equally in terms of both iMac and iPad one has to ask why the dearth of this commitment this past 3 years? iOS11 is finally bringing the advances that we could have expected a couple years back and the potential power f the iMac is at last released. Such performance in both is an inspiration to all users and will inspire new sales through the product range. Was it that difficult to see the obvious for those making these decisions?
…until the iMac Pro is actually shipping and beyond, until the new desktop Mac Pro is shipping. Apple will, no doubt, hold a major product release event for the Mac Pro along with some leaked data to keep pro users on the leash and eager for the update. But the impatience is not going away anytime soon, and the impatience cycle will begin again just a few months later.
They have been too busy over the last 3 years obsessing over the design of such things as toilets and door handles for their new building. Maybe now they can actually get back to work on products for their customers.
I tend to agree with you. I have no doubt that the new campus construction has consumed huge amounts of time for some very key people.
I get that many will be pleased with the File app on the iPad, and the dock, and the split screen capability for same screen multitasking. Nevertheless, I’m rather disappointed that Apple chose to mimic the MacOS UI to answer legitimate criticisms of iOS. APFS is great underneath. But the MacOS file management UI still sucks. And I mean that in a big way!!! How wonderful it is that iPad Pro file management now UI sucks just like MacOS. More f-ing folder icons – really?!! 😒
The file management UI still doesn’t answer the problems of maintaining configuration control and managing thousands of files. We need a revolution here and is seems that even some Mac fans need to be dragged kicking and screaming into the future. But Apple punted. Disappointing.
I think that the relational database storage model might be what you’re thinking of. Everything can be displayed in queries and in context.
Bingo!
The Finder needs to evolve into an intelligent assistant that can categorize and tag files based upon a number of predefined and extensible attributes. It needs to become a relational database that manages all user files, and perhaps ALL files period.
Some will wince at the words ‘relational database’, thinking that by necessity the UI would be complicated. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Taking the smart folder concept to a new level, it should center around smart views that can behave like Excel pivot tables on steroids.
The concept of moving files from one folder/directory to another is false. Files are not moved on a storage device. They are re-associated. It is time for the folder metaphor to die. It has outlived it’s usefulness and now only encumbers users with an outdated mental model of file management that ill serves them for a future of managing countless numbers of files.
The hard part for the old guard will be abandoning the folder metaphor. I can hear it now. “I’ve managed thousands of files for over 30 years and I have a great folder hierarchy system and I do just fine thank you very much.” Good for them if that is the case. But I’d question how rigorous they were in implementing their manual file management system and how easily they can find something they worked on 5-10 years ago. And I’d ask how much time they spend managing their files.
Instead of associating files by lumping them in the same folder, it should enable association by tagging the files with an attribute that says, ‘This file belongs to this project.’ Managing file names, tags and associations will become increasingly important as we accumulate tens of thousands of files over the coming years. A real relational database ‘Finder RD’ that does this with Apple style and simplicity, would be a revolution.
So why the hell hasn’t Apple done this already?!!
“Apple believes there is a market for those who want pro-level specs in an all-in-one body”
I wonder if they also believe there is a market for those who want upgradeability in models like the Mac mini.
“Schiller also explained the need for the Files app, saying that pro users need a filesystem while others don’t.”
And since both Macs and iPads are all now called “Pro”, this is essentially Apple admitting that a file system was needed all along on mobile devices, while trying to spin it so it’s not obvious that they were stupid for so long.