The advent of the new iPadOS, — a hybrid-like operating system that is part mobile and part desktop, further blurs the lines between iOS, “the world’s most advanced mobile operating system,” and MacOS, “the world’s most advanced desktop operating system,” and this latest move by Apple suggests that an impending merger of its two operating systems is on the horizon, something that continues to look even more likely than ever before (if not definitely).
Apple executives have continued — as they have done so many times in the past — to deny, unequivocally, that they will be merging the company’s mobile and desktop operating systems anytime soon. Apple senior Vice President of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, said that it would be a waste of energy while Apple CEO, Tim Cook, said its users don’t want it. Most recently, at last year’s annual worldwide developers conference, WWDC 18, the issue was addressed by Apple senior Vice President of software engineering, Craig Federighi, who answered the long standing question in three words: “Of course not.”
However? The sheep’s wool is starting to unravel off the wolf (so to speak)… The company is giving everyone on both sides a taste of the best of what each competing operating system has to offer before an eventual merger of iOS and MacOS.
MacDailyNews Take: Poppycock.
To us longtime Apple watchers, Cupertino seems to be saying, “Multi-Touch on the screen only when trackpads are not part of the device.” – MacDailyNews, November 19, 2008
Does it make more sense to be smearing your fingers around on your notebook’s screen or on a spacious trackpad (built-in or on your desk) that’s designed specifically and solely to be touched? Apple thinks things through much more than do other companies. The iPhone’s and iPad’s screens have to be touched; that’s all they has available. A MacBook’s screen doesn’t not have to be touched in order to offer Multi-Touch. There is a better way: Apple’s way. And, no Gorilla Arm, either.
The only computers using Multi-Touch properly, using device-appropriate Multi-Touch input areas are Macintosh personal computers from Apple that run OS X (and Linux and can even slum it with Windows, if need be) and iOS even more personal computers (EMPCs), namely: iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, and iPad mini.
Note that none of this bars a “MacPad” from production. Any iOS-based iPad would become a high quality display (possibly still “touchable,” but likely not due to the reasoning stated above) when docked into a “MacBook” (running OS X, and providing keyboard, trackpad, processor, etcetera). Such a convertible device would negate having to carry both an iPad (car) and a MacBook (truck) around. They’d be one thing, but able to be separated into two, each providing the best capabilities of their respective form factors. — MacDailyNews, May 4, 2013
Think code convergence (more so than today) with UI modifications per device. A unified underlying codebase for Intel, Apple A-series, and, in Apple’s labs, likely other chips, too (just in case). This would allow for a single App Store for Mac, iPhone, and iPad users that features a mix of apps: Some that are touch-only, some that are Mac-only, and some that are universal (can run on both traditional notebooks and desktops as well as on multi-touch computers like iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and – pretty please, Apple – Apple TV). Don’t be surprised to see Apple A-series-powered Macs, either. — MacDailyNews Take, January 9, 2014