Jared White Photo of Jared

Expressively publishing on the open web since 1996.
Entranced by Portland, Oregon since 2017.

#macos

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I posted this as a comment on a Snazzy Labs video but wanted to share it here as well:

Even in its nascent state, Universal Control changes everything. Suddenly iPadOS becomes a true extension of #macOS…like many power users I’ve run an #iPadPro on a stand next to my desktop Mac for years, but ergonomically-speaking, switching between the two was a major pain. It became incrementally easier with the Magic Keyboard/Trackpad, but issues remained…not the least of which is transferring files and even bits of in-context data back and forth doesn’t always feel natural and smooth.

With Universal Control, you start to forget you’re running two different devices running two different environments…suddenly you’re just using “AppleOS” everywhere. Heck, I’ve even gone from desktop Mac (M1 Mac mini) to laptop (Intel MBP) as well when I need to do something on one from the other. And yes, you can span all three with nearly zero lag or fiddling—even when using drag ‘n’ drop!

This is without a doubt the biggest quality-of-life improvement #Apple has brought to its ecosystem since cursor support on iPadOS first appeared almost two years ago.


Things I’m most excited for at #Apple #WWDC 2019:

  • #iOS “Pro” for #iPadPro
  • New Safari/WebKit features across all platforms #openweb
  • UIKit on the Mac (aka “Marzipan”) #macOS
  • iOS Dark Mode
  • Mac Pro hardware teaser
  • Some sort of indication of future notebooks that don’t suck
  • Dedicated App Store for Watch
  • tvOS 😜


A lot of people are commenting on recent statements made by #Apple CEO Tim Cook about the future of its two major platforms. I’ll be honest with you—I don’t think Cook is saying anything here that we don’t already know. While it’s a popular point of speculation that somehow #iOS and #macOS are going to be “merged” and eventually we’ll all just be using a unified range of Apple computers/devices from phones to large desktops, the fact is that nothing Apple is currently doing that we can directly observe and report on is trending in that direction.

I do think that once #WWDC rolls around again this June, we’ll hear a lot about new tools and techniques that make it easier to develop cross-platform apps that run on both iOS and macOS without a lot of fuss. But that doesn’t mean the environments are merging. It just means the developer story is being simplified. And that excites me because if more iOS developers can easily port their most popular apps over to the Mac platform, that’s a big win for everybody.