Starting as early as next year, software developers will be able to design a single application that works with a touchscreen or mouse and trackpad depending on whether it’s running on the iPhone and iPad operating system or on Mac hardware, according to people familiar with the matter.
Developers currently must design two different apps – one for iOS, the operating system of Apple’s mobile devices, and one for macOS, the system that runs Macs. That’s a lot more work. What’s more, Apple customers have long complained that some Mac apps get short shrift. For example, while the iPhone and iPad Twitter app is regularly updated with the social network’s latest features, the Mac version hasn’t been refreshed recently and is widely considered substandard. With a single app for all machines, Mac, iPad and iPhone users will get new features and updates at the same time.
Apple currently plans to begin rolling out the change as part of next fall’s major iOS and macOS updates, said the people, who requested anonymity to discuss an internal matter. The secret project, codenamed “Marzipan”, is one of the tentpole additions for next year’s Apple software road map. Theoretically, the plan could be announced as early as the summer at the company’s annual developers conference if the late 2018 release plan remains on track. Apple’s plans are still fluid, the people said, so the implementation could change or the project could still be canceled.
This is a massive change in Apple’s direction. The company and its supporters have always held fast to the concept that there should be two distinct and different operating systems with two distinct and different user interfaces, very much the opposite of what Microsoft is still trying to do with Windows Metro applications and their Surface line-up. This change is basically a complete embrace of Microsoft’s vision for the future of computing.
This will have tremendous consequences for both iOS and macOS. For iOS, it probably means we get more advanced, fuller-featured applications, and I think this also pretty much confirms we’re going to see a mouse pointer and trackpad/mouse support on iOS in the very near future – just as I predicted earlier this year. For macOS, it might mean a broader base of applications to choose from, but also possibly a dumbing-down of existing applications. A number of Apple applications already work very much like the article states, and they certainly lost functionality on the macOS side of things.
On the more speculative side, this could be the next step in deprecating macOS, which is, in my unfounded opinion, still Apple’s ultimate goal here. Note how Apple isn’t bringing macOS applications to iOS, but vice versa. Make of that what you will, but I wouldn’t have too much faith in the long term viability of macOS as a platform distinct and separate from iOS.
This means bad mac apps or bad iOS apps. There is no way this is going to end well. We are ushering in an era of unproductive users, less creativity, and lower quality apps.
Finally, the Windows 8 “Metro” experience on a Mac.
I’m definitely champing at the bit to get “new” apps with less functionality and awkward UIs.
Still waiting for a new MacBook design that’s just two iPads stuck together with a Jony Ive hinge design.
MS Courier tablet?
Why “or”? It may also mean bad apps for both mac and iOS
Absurd. It can end very well. I think tablet/phone/desktop apps make a ton of sense. Just as the UI changes between iphone and ipad, it can be done to include desktop.
Same app, three different user interfaces. When it makes sense to swipe on phones, there is a visible control for achieving the same action that is more logical to the platform.
You’re counting on developers not being lazy and coding for the broadest market, i.e. mobile. How well did that work for UWP? I’ve yet to see a UWP app that works well using a desktop paradigm. We’re lucky that most iOS developers even care enough to do a tablet UI in the first place; see Android tablets for an example of what happens when they just blow the phone version up large.
Emphasis should have been on “CAN” end up well. No idea if developers will actually design three good UI’s. It just has the possibility of being good.
UWP works well for the desktop. It’s a windows with buttons, controls, content. Just like any other Win32 apps. They are mostly simple apps, but they work well. The mail app, Groove, etc… They are just fine (except being too simple for some advanced users).
You can put keyboard shortcuts on them, make the UI compact or not…
I don’t see a problem here.
Mobile and Desktop are two different interfaces, and treating them the same always leads to problems.
First you had Microsoft treat mobile like a desktop, with Windows Pocket Edition (start menu, windows ). That left them wide open for Apple to beat them by making an OS custom built for mobile.
Then Microsoft tires to make the desktop OS look like the mobile OS with Windows 8. We know how well that went down (Microsoft had to allow companies to stick with Win7 and rolled back changes)
And while we’re at it, Ubuntu tried the exact same “one OS for mobile and desktop.” Ultimately, they gave up on it for many reasons.
Ultimately, mobile and desktop are different platforms. If you treat them the same, you’re misunderstanding their purpose.
That said, I’d appreciate the OPTION of running Android apps on my Linux machine.
Maybe I’m just lazy, but I quite like some of the things I’ve only encountered in F-Droid, like an Interactive Fiction runtime which provides a SCUMM-like alternative to constantly re-typing the most common commands.
Edited 2017-12-21 00:30 UTC
ssokolow,
I upvoted you even though I find mobile apps to be inferior on the desktop. For instance, I strongly prefer banking on the desktop than on the phone, but the bank decided that they don’t care about traditional desktop users like me and will not offer any new features like echeck to us. To make matters worse, my phone won’t take macro photos, so I can’t use the feature at all.
I’ve tried to run my bank’s app in several emulators but the experience thus far has been too broken that I gave up and continue to handle checks the old fashioned way, sneakernet.
Edited 2017-12-21 00:56 UTC
What’s with the US insistance on using checks (I think I saw one last time in the 1990s, never used them myself), why can’t you just make transfers to account numbers? (say, from bank website)
zima,
Actually I’m not entirely sure, it may be due to legal reasons and fees. Most employees get paid through “direct deposit”, which at least in the past could take a couple weeks to set up, in the meantime you’d get checks. I’ve never been paid any other way. There are lots of proprietary services, like paypal, but they can be notorious for high fees and blocking access to funds, ugh. One client wanted to pay me through paypal, but I would have needed to set up an account and pay a high percentage of the transaction costs, so I told him I’d accept it if I could raise my rate by the same amount as I’d be loosing…so he paid by check, haha. Most businesses generally pay with checks since US banks don’t get a “cut”. It might have to do with strict legal protections that were on the books and haven’t been touched in eons.
How does it work for you guys?
Well, within the EU we have SEPA transfer nowadays. This means the sender just enters the receiver’s (long-ish) account number (and possibly the bank code for accounts in a different country). Money must arrive on the next business day (most of my banks transfer the money within 2-4h during work hours).
Transfer is usually free for individuals and only costs very little (10-30¢ per transaction, fixed cost, no percentage) for business accounts (corporate customers can negotiate individual rates).
This also works for deductions if your bank activated that feature on your account (usually this is only allowed for business accounts and they do some additional vetting). If you don’t agree with a deduction you can force a return (even weeks/months later) via the web banking (initiator usually has to pay an additional fee to his bank so there is very little fraud).
The good part is also that this transferral system is regulated under somewhat strict banking licenses. So a bank can not just freeze your account (like Paypal). Courts and official oversight committees are pretty quick to get a bank in line if they have not *really* good reason for doing so.
Still, paypal is a often used for online shopping because it is so simple to use (and of course for transferrals outside of the SEPA area).
You can run android apps on Linux or any other OS that has Google Chrome installed. Just install Arc Welder browser extension and there you go. It’s not the best experience but you have a choice.
Progressive Web Apps
Story link seems broken.
It seems to me that people are assuming this means that iOS apps would be ported to the macOS with a re-compile or via a tool, or would run in an emulator. That’s not what the article author says (“…software developers will be able to design a single application that works with a touchscreen or mouse and trackpad.” – emphasis mine).
For example (off the top of my head), what if Apple was to make a very high level application designer where the programmer describes the ‘flow’ of the application, and various tools then translate this to a code skeleton that works for both iOS and macOS, with the programmer then filling in the UI gaps in a way that’s appropriate for each OS?
This also would be a more sustainable strategy for the macOS going forward.
Edited 2017-12-21 01:17 UTC
I guess that Apple simply allows embedding also the layout for the desktop application in the same project and developer then can decide if one builds a desktop or mobile flavor of the app and the XCode will pick the appropriate layout. It is just an XML file afterall (although heavily propriatary undocumented schema). Its the same as app developer can have wildly different layouts for phones and iPads because they are actually two independent layouts. Therefore it will not be a problem for Apple to allow inclusion of the third option and also allow desktop project to be coupled up with mobile project (they still use different API-s UIKit vs APPKit)
Edited 2017-12-21 11:46 UTC
Exactly – you could also imagine the idea of something similar to the look and feel stuff that Java had – when your app ran on windows it had a windows look and feel, when on the mac a different one.
As the form factor and screen res of their phones and tablets diversifies, as they support split screen coupled with different orientations then you need something more flexible anyway.
Not easy to do well, but unlike Java at least they are only targeting devices they have control of.
In terms of Arm or Intel – obviously fat binaries are something they have done before – but in this case the xcode could automatically compile twice and the app store send you the right version.
Or they could even ship you the LLVM intermediate code and as part of the installation it’s compiled to your specific device!
No need to run emulators.
Isn’t this basically what Nokia was going to do before Elop with the whole Qt/QML Qt Designer? It basically creates various layouts for various device type interfaces to make it easier to code your same app for different devices/layouts.
At least it sounded like that was supposed to be the idea behind it.
It’s similar but different. Nokia’s strategy was 1 codebase for 2 different OSs: Linux for smartphones and Symbian for feature phones. The form factor was mostly the same but this would reduce the maintenance and porting effort and it would make easier for people the transition from feature phones to smartphones.
Symbian devices were classified as smartphones… (unless you mean alternative “future” where they would be reclassified, then who knows)
The world has gone topsy turvy. Or so it would seem.
My work horse of a machine, an early 2011 15″ Mac Book Pro, finally has some major video card problems and has stability issues. I’m forced to use my backup, a more recent 13″ MBP until I get a new machine. After looking around I’m probably going to get two machines, a 2012 MBP (last year you could upgrade/user maintain them) and a new windows machine. [I’m eyeing the Eve V, as well as the Microsoft Surface Laptop and the latest Surface Book.]
I find it amusing that one of the big draws I’ve had for Mac has been the overall stability combined with the unix under the hood. I do a lot of remote work, server admin, and programming. I spend a lot of time on command lines, so that unix foundation is important to me. Still, it’s been a long while since “It just works” has been applicable for Apple. I switched to Mac when I went on my own and time fiddling with a Linux or Windows desktop environment was painful (unbillable). At the time, it did just work. Now, though, not so much. Lately I have had to deal with unexpected reboots, hung processes, and random freezes (on both machines) for the last 2-3 years. Not to mention the “upgrades” removing (or hiding) features.
Now, with Windows 10 having Linux available, and now an SSH daemon and client, some of the Unix pieces are now available on Windows very easily. I still don’t care for Windows, but given what Apple has been doing to Mac OS, and seems to be continuing to do — I think this combination of iOS and macOS is just the beginning — I’m looking seriously at the Windows environments now.
As for why I don’t look at Linux — well, I also do photography and other graphic related work, and need a system that supports the Adobe tools, so I’m pretty much locked to either Mac or Windows.
I still can’t believe I’m looking seriously at Windows though. The world has truly gone crazy. Or maybe just me.
Edited 2017-12-21 02:43 UTC
I do photography for a living with some other graphic work on the side and I use Linux. Of course, not with Adobe tools
True, darktable, which is my main workhorse, is available for macOS too (soon, as in the next release, also for Windows), so I could switch but I don’t want to.
I’ve become spoiled by the Lightroom and Photoshop combination, not just for photo manipulation but also image management and some of the work flows it can support.
How does darktable compare to the Lightroom/Photoshop pairing? The new Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic CC is confusing, somethings you want to use Lightroom CC and but some things (like shooting tethered) you still need what they now call Lightroom Classic CC. And they’re pushing their cloud service more, especially with Lightroom. I’m not too fond of the direction Adobe is going, and if I could fight a good workflow that let me break away and also opened the lock-in to Apple/Microsoft duopoly all the better.
Also, some of the media production outfits use a special tool that you build your order and upload your images with. I forget the name (i haven’t needed to use them for a while, and they’re on the old machine anyway) – but it seems several places use branded versions of the same tool. If it’s java based then that won’t be a problem, but I can’t remember. Do you know what I’m talking about?
Finally, do you do any of your own printing? Do you have problems with quality drivers for the photo printers? I’m not talking about the all-in-ones or desktop, but the larger photo prints from Epson or Canon that can do larger images and/or depending on model use roll paper.
thanks
They’re already almost the same OS with a huge set of settings and features configured and activated on one and not the other, one being the touch interface and file system crippling.
I hope they make iOS more like macOS or they will see the end of Apple. As ok as iOS is, You really can’t do anything with iOS on a laptop or desktop and they’ll lose even to ChromeOS with a move like that.
This will fail. iOS is already a niche OS (it has ~14% of worldwide market). Nobody will notice what experiments Apple is doing.
Android is now running about 3x the download levels of iOS.
https://www.emarketer.com/content/app-downloads-remain-dominated-by-…
The game is so far past over. It now only remains for the truth to catch up to the silly iHype and reality will settle in. Apple’s iOS is a niche market, not the mass market. Android and Google Play won the world and will rule for decades to come, similar to how Windows ruled for several decades in the past.
Edited 2017-12-21 05:10 UTC
How many of those downloads are paid downloads, though? From what I understand, iOS is still pretty much closer to 100% of the profitable side of software than Android, which is why still many titles come out on iOS first.
The game is far from over. Apple has never chased market share. It is only interested in profits.
This is about market share! It does not help Apple if Apple ends up selling one phone for one trillion $.
The winner is the one with the largest market share. Apple has been loosing market share for the last years. ~5 years ago Apple had ~24% market share and today it has ~14% market share. Obviously, Apple is the looser here and Android is the winner.
Straight cross-platform apps are always ugly; if you develop an app on, say, Qt and port it to the Mac, you will need to do some work to make it look like a proper Mac app, otherwise it’ll look like (what it is: ) a crudely ported Linux or Windows app. I can’t imagine this not being the case when iOS apps are ported to the Mac or vice versa; iOS doesn’t have the top menu, for starters. A Mac app without that will look very odd.
A while ago I used a Twitter client on the Mac which had an equivalent on iOS. I noticed that it didn’t show the user ID of the person who had posted a tweet and the logical place for that would be the tooltip when you rolled the mouse over their name or avatar. I told the developers this and they said they would not do this because it was based on an iOS app and there were no rollovers on iOS. I pointed out that I was using a Mac, I didn’t have an iPhone and it didn’t matter to me what goes on on iOS. They still refused to make the change. A minor gripe but it’s what happens when you think you can port an app from one platform to another without really knowing the other.
Jobs would fire them left and right if he were to descend down on Apple right now.
I disagree. This is almost kind of the logical evolution of the whole idea behind OPENSTEP.
Alas it’s also the death of a really great desktop os, at least from a power user’s perspective. When my current Mac dies I think I’m off to linux.
The Mac App Store still is lacking many apps aside from what Apple pushes down the line.
Same as iOS for iPad although the variety is better in this respect.
I guess they are hoping that by doing this they will increase the adopt-ability of iPad’s of “Pro” devices but seeing at how others succeeded in this respect it’s questionable.
Smartphones still are the number one choice for many users that prefer mobility on the go. Any other form factor is left behind or with specific use cases.
Humans really don’t learn from past mistakes. They always insist that everyone else just got it wrong rather than just admitting the idea was bad. Apple, learn from Microsoft, you idiots.
If Apple deprecates macOS for iOS, then that might be the final straw. I have an olde and ancient (2009) Lenovo ThinkPad which outperforms my MacBook Pro hands down. The only thing I can’t do running Linux on the T500 is iMessage. The way Apple is stripping all the functionality out of the hardware is not helping, either. I think my next computer will be a Lenovo TP running some form of Linux. This from an old Apple hand with his original 128K Mac in basement and working. We’ll see how this all plays out.
I agree.
(Posted from my Dell Precision 2250 that I purchased instead of those toy MBPs with the touchyflashything at the top and a terrible keyboard.)
Me too. I’ve been on Mac for about 10 years now and am seriously thinking my next laptop will be Linux (or maybe even Windows if only for the touchscreen).
Thing is, I don’t even feel like Mac has gotten worse software-wise. For the most part it’s gotten better, it at times in fits and starts. But the hardware and the company politics as a whole have become less and less appealing IMHO. Microsoft on the other hand almost seems cool these days.
Edited 2017-12-22 23:51 UTC
Windows 8.0, by Apple.
“Cupertino, start your photocopiers”? Wat?
Just because Microsoft failed at this design challenge does not mean Apple will. It’s obvious that Apple has better designers.
Years ago people said the same things about tablet vs phone/pda.
If done correctly, it can make development for these different devices much easier.
Canonical was doing much the same thing with Ubuntu when they canned the phone. They would have succeeded if they were allowed to continue development. Apple has much more resources and numbers of developers.
Hopefully Apple will do this properly, with desktop apps being able to use for instance menus and modal dialogs, but when used on phone to gracefully switch to mobile UI. And hopefully they won’t limit the new API to the App Store.
In short – don’t do what Microsoft did. If they did things properly the Windows App Store would not have been the barren desert it is now. They may have even stood a chance with Windows Mobile.
They’re “shifting focus”.
I’ve said it for a couple years now, but folks — we are well past peak Apple.
A core part of the iOS strategy is preventing users from writing their own apps in a casual manner, so they have to buy them from the walled garden app store. I suspect this was the real reason Flash was banned from day one. I know self coding is a far less common practice for the modern “depreciated” user, but would Apple go as far as extending this strategy to the desktop? No Terminal??
Making machines inaccessible to users is very Jobs / Apple like, so maybe it’s true.
This could trigger a badly needed evolutionary fork in the computing world. Concentration / convergence in tech is like monopoly in business or inbreeding in the wild. Not good. So I hope it happens and creates a bunch of disaffected Morlock rebels who give OS a fresh start.
As a user of “Classic” Mac OS since System 4.0? Circa 1986, when Mac Plus was a HUGE mac with 8 times the RAM of the original, and SCSI port for a hard drive!!
I second several other commenters: Sorry forgot to write down names, you know who you are. 🙂
1) Apple HAS been trying to merge iOS with MacOS for years now, since Cooked Shrimp. He’s an accountant, what ideas do you think he has other than product consolidation for cost savings and marketing to fool people who no longer feel the Jobs RDF? THEY WILL FAIL, AS WINDOWS CE AND 8. LEARN DUMB BEANCOUNTER COOK.
These SMS length comments are cheesing me Off, Mr. Howlerda? Can we get rid of them, useless uneditable posts, hopeless unicode non-compliance and restrictions on voting for a story once you comment? Count how many times it’s been said, before me. Why is it FAILURE to use unicode doesn’t bother a professional translator? I look forward to that explanation, gedank.
Back on topic:
Apple used to serve the pro. video/audio market when NO WINDOWS could hold a candle to them. Now Apple is chasing “slimmer” iPhone, and windows, while 5 years closer, is 10 behind. And with the blowback to 10, falling FURTHER behind.
Anytime Apple leads with “We’re Improving the Experience” you can chalk it up as miserable results.
My God they had like 20 years to fix iTunes and it’s still pure crapola.
Edited 2017-12-23 04:41 UTC
My kid – lifetime Apple user, from toddler to college -just today was commenting about how much iTunes is frustrating. She demanded I fix her problem with trying to add her unsigned mp3’s onto her phone. Sorry, honey, Apple is improving your experience by preventing you from adding your own mp3’s.
p.s. for those creeps that downvoted my last post, lighten up snowflakes. Apple may be raking in record profits. Unfortunately you weakminded Apple fans neglect to protect those poor children from Foxconn and their kinfolk. Apple. Exporting human exploitation one sale at a time…
More evidence that Tim Cook is racing Apple to the bottom. He is all about offering lowest-common-denominator products at premium prices. I lost interest in Apple years ago. Tim Cook is a latter-day Gil Amelio. Too bad Jobs is unable to ride in on his white horse this time.
Ergo, keeping them together. Continuum aims the same. You won’t do Adobe on i-phones.
Microsoft House is neither trying to carry Windows to Mobile. Just those applications, those parts of the stack, actual and former, that need to be mobilized, put into IoT. (On legacy, more probable is You’ll have to recompile 32b).
Transiting Mobile to Windows, on differing from Apple, wouldn’t cattle any financially significant Market, upwards.
At this point, no idea what Alphabet attempts to. But wishing them best.
Edited 2017-12-23 20:12 UTC
If any Soul noted, Satya and Bill are also building Continuum between Windows BSD core and Linux world
At the moment the environment being binary, being reduced, being algorithmically determinant not because inherently better, but effect of present -realities.
You want equals, reflections, hearing, understanding, forecasting entities of your next need, or wish.
I don’t. Feel evil. Take care of what you ask the gods.