Apple’s software strategy matters more than ever as the world’s most valuable company has broad reach – over 1.8 billion Apple devices are in use – that can affect virtually everyone, directly or indirectly (App Tracking Transparency for one example).
Lauren Goode and Brenda Stolyar for Wired:
It’s what keeps customers “locked in” to Apple hardware. It includes Apple’s fast-growing, multibillion-dollar services business. Every time Apple makes a tweak to its App Store, whether it’s limiting advertising tracking tech in iOS or evolving its content moderation policies, the company’s decisions are scrutinized—because its software has that much influence over our lives.
Many people will probably tune in to Monday morning’s WWDC keynote address for the small changes to iOS that will liven up their older iPhones or the multitasking features that might turn their iPad into something more akin to a MacPad…
Apple’s iPad has been creeping closer to “real computer” status—newer models of the tablet even feature desktop-grade chips—but the inability to freely move or resize app windows has always made the iPad feel more like a giant iPhone. Could iPadOS 16 finally change this? Seems so. Developer Steve Troughton-Smith noticed last week that an early version of Apple’s latest web-browsing framework “added infrastructure for a ‘multitasking mode’ on iOS that sure looks like it’s a system toggle that enables freely-resizable windows.”
So iPads might soon have M-class chips, decent accessory keyboards, and new software that supports more customizable app placement and sizing. Sounds like a MacBook with a touchscreen!
MacDailyNews Take: Ah, the MacPad rears its pretty head once again. Depending on the iteration, it’s an interesting idea, if we don’t say so ourselves:
Here’s an idea: Apple could sell iPad Pros as they do now, and for those wanting a “Mac,” Apple could sell them the macOS-powered display-less keyboard/trackpad/cpu/RAM/SSD/battery base unit. Attach your iPad for the display and off you go, you Mac-headed truck driver! Plus, you get to use the iPad’s battery, too, extending battery life to provide a truly all-day battery for portable Mac users. Detach the display and you get your iOS-powered iPad back, same as always.
Too outside the box? We’d love to be able to take our iPad Pro, mate it with this theoretical Mac base unit, and turn it into a portable Mac. Right now, we carry iPad Pros and MacBooks in our backpacks. Guess what’s redundant? Right, the displays. We don’t need to carry two screens on the road. The iPad Pro’s screen would do just fine, thanks.
Buy the Mac base on its own (for those who already have 12.9-inch iPad Pros) or buy it as part of a package (get a new 12.9-inch iPad Pro at a nice discount when you buy it with the Mac base). Imagine if Apple had unveiled this headless MacBook that you use with your iPad at their iPad event last fall. How many more 12-inch iPad Pro sales would such a product have generated? Enough to return iPad to unit sales growth, we bet. And, how many more Macs would have been sold, too?
— MacDailyNews, January 7, 2017
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Apple has given Windows users stuck in hell a glass of ice cold water twice – first when it launched iTunes for Windows and second when it launched Safari for Windows.
Resizable windows on an iPad would be great. Only Apple could launch this as a revolution. Fricken’ Android and Windows SsssssUuuuuCccccKkkkkkkkk!!!!!!
iPad haters can cuck my sock and then stick it riiiiiight up their pipelines. This BSer will be converted Tim Ccok-style if this is true.
I don’t think it’s a good idea. The current design allows focus on the task at hand with simple method to swap the screen from one app to another. There is an existing way to share the screen between apps, but I hardly use it. I’d rather have entire screen devoted to one app at a time, when using an iPad. It also creates usability issues, because app design must account for differing sizes and shapes for windows. On a Mac, it’s not an issue because the screen is usually larger and things on screen can be much smaller. Windowing is for desktop computing like MacOS. Apple keeps the user interface and experience optimal and consistent for the type of computing device. An iPad is meant to be held in my hands while using and controlled with my fingertips; it’s not a Mac.
A better solution is for iPad to switch on-the-fly (but optionally) to the Mac interface when it’s used like a Mac, with physical keyboard and mouse/trackpad connected. MacOS has the best interface for a computer with keyboard and mouse/trackpad. Why not use it on iPad when appropriate, instead of reinventing a somewhat kludgy iPad equivalent? iPad Pro and Air now use M1.
Well I hardly use it either but simply because it’s a pain trying to exploit it it’s always working against you so I just don’t bother trying now except in extremis. Just need more flexibility in creating and using windows as and when you need it without invisible springs trying to push and pull them where you don’t want them to go.
I don’t agree that windowing is for desktop computing. Laptops vastly outnumber desktops, windowing was never a problem on the 11″ MacBook Air but somehow it would be on an 11″ or 12.9″ iPad? Apple itself has set the expectation that the iPad can be a Mac replacement, hybridizing it with the Magic Keyboard and slowly but steadily (until last year) upgrading the OS to match the hardware’s capabilities.
Like you I’d like to see a Mac-like interface, albeit available whenever you want it, not just on a keyboard. A clean, flexible desktop should be an option for everyone in either use case. But given how far Apple has gone down the rabbit hole with iOS/iPad OS as a separate OS, I’m not holding my breath for a revolutionary change. iPad OS16 will probably be an iterative, clunky “upgrade” that leaves you unsatisfied, typical of Apple over the last 5+ years. It seems like I bought into Apple’s vision for the iPad at exactly the wrong time (2020) when they were in fact pivoting back to the Mac with their own chips. The Magic Keyboard and what it seemed to portend was either the last gasp of that roadmap or deliberate misdirection to juice more sales.
No, 13-inch on a MacBook is NOT the same as 13-inch on an iPad. MacOS is designed to be controlled using an on-screen cursor with tiny point. Or with keyboard commands. Elements on screen can be small yet still manipulated easily. On an iPad, the OS is designed to be controlled with fat fingertips. Things on the screen must be much larger. So not only are Mac screens usually physically larger, they are always virtually larger too. That’s why windowing would be less effective, cluttered, and constrained on an iPad. Apple keeps the interface optimal for each type of device, also why watch is NOT a tiny iPhone with wrist strap. An iPad is not a Mac.
When Apple makes accommodations for connecting a keyboard and mouse/trackpad, the current approach is to keep the “largeness” of iPad’s interface. It looks and feels kludgy when used like a Mac. For example, the ball cursor (instead of sharp arrow) representing your imprecise fat fingertip. I’m suggesting iPadOS should (optionally) switch to the refined Mac desktop interface with keyboard and mouse/trackpad connected, not use a touch-based OS with “stuff” tacked on.
I also want a MacOS desktop experience when connected to a keyboard. I also think iPadOS could be refined to get much closer to this ideal. I don’t agree however that Apple “keeps the interface optimal for each type of device.” It’s very obvious at this point that they’re intentionally hobbling the iPad to juice sales of multiple devices instead of just giving their customers what they want in one device. We’ll see what Apple has to say today, but I’m certain that we’ll get the same touch-based OS with “stuff” tacked on instead of the real overhaul that the iPad’s software needs. At least until sales of the higher-margin M1 Macbooks and upcoming M2s cool, Apple will keep the iPad on a leash.
This is a great time for Apple to knock something out of the park. The economy struggling, generally sadness and depression across the globe via the human tragedy in Ukraine and Afghanistan. China threatening Taiwan, North Korea test firing ICBMs, Russia threatening nuclear holocaust…. Ect …. If Apple could drop some good news it would be consumed like water in a desert. Of course nothing they drop will bring about world peace but the human condition is to embrace good news in the face of troubled times … so I say this with no jest, if Apple brings on something special or grand then most of the market will embrace it will absolute joy.
Fast ball coming across your plate Apple. Step up and crack the bat.