Tim Cook: Apple Won't Create 'Converged' MacBook and iPad (independent.ie) 337
LichtSpektren writes: In an interview with Independent.ie, Apple CEO Tim Cook has stated that Apple is currently not looking to create an iPad that runs Mac OS X. "We feel strongly that customers are not really looking for a converged Mac and iPad, because what that would wind up doing, or what we're worried would happen, is that neither experience would be as good as the customer wants. So we want to make the best tablet in the world and the best Mac in the world. And putting those two together would not achieve either. You'd begin to compromise in different ways." Cook also commented that he does not travel with a Mac anymore, only his iPad Pro and iPhone.
"We want to make the best Mac in the world" (Score:5, Funny)
Re:"We want to make the best Mac in the world" (Score:5, Interesting)
It's been straight downhill with regards to usability for every release after 10.6.8.
Too much animation that you can't turn off.
Terrible colors (glaring painful blue against all white).
This terrible "flat" design means you can't tell what a button is.
Removal of button backgrounds from buttons also means that you can't tell what a button is.
Did I mention too much useless animation that you can't turn off? Because there's too much distracting and useless animation that you can't turn off.
Apple needs to get back to their basics.
Re:"We want to make the best Mac in the world" (Score:5, Informative)
I develop for Apple for a living, son.
The default blue is eye burning and is everywhere in the Mac OS and iOS.
Nothing's animated? Everything is. Click on a disclosure triangle in the Finder. The entire contents of the folder slide down or slide up. Download a file in Safari. A little cockroach sized badge darts across the screen. Open a panel in Xcode, it slides across the screen instead of opening instantly. Open a new Safari window. It pops open in your face, growing to full size. Send an email in the Mail app. It flies up off the screen. Click in a search bar. The little magnifying glass darts to the left. Click out of it. It darts back to the center. Every alert pops open. Pressing command control D with the mouse over some text results in a VH-1 Pop Up Video style wobbling bubble and then all the content animates in.
Even clicking on a radio button animates the filling in of the button. So much of the UI is now a visual distraction and you can't turn them all off.
I don't know how you don't see this.
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I agree there are a lot of issues with macs.
The animation, I can live with. I have some desktop effects on my KDE box.
I am not sure where the blue you talk about lives. I guess a lot of icons have some blue in them, but whatever.
I don't like the flat design either, but every OS seems to have jumped on that bandwagon. Buttons should look like buttons, or at least indicate somehow that they are clickable, rather than the hunt and peck guessing game we have now.
I will say though, that OSX is the best OS that r
Re:"We want to make the best Mac in the world" (Score:5, Interesting)
What's amusing to me is, in the '80s and '90s, people raved about the Mac user experience and begged for a more stable & modern OS under the hood.
Now, Apple has a stable and mature OS under the hood and they've thrown out user experience. All that clutter, easy-to-mistrigger interface gestures and confusing features like file versioning. Still no easy way to manage groups, security and keychains.
The first day I started using Mac OS X and a program popped to the foreground while I was typing (my eyes off the screen), interrupting my workflow, I knew that Apple had lost their way.
Re:"We want to make the best Mac in the world" (Score:5, Funny)
You were staring at it wrong.
Re:"We want to make the best Mac in the world" (Score:5, Interesting)
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There are lots of things like this, where the UI has slowly regressed and,
It's like this all across the industry: pretty much all UIs have regressed in recent years.
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> You must be doing some weird things with your Mac.
Such as using it out of the box?
> Why don't you just disable the gestures you don't like?
I did. I know how to do that, and you know how to do that, but the average user never ever go "WTF? Why did all my windows fly off the screen??"
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The dongle sort of counts, since it is on external PCIe : at least you don't worry about USB overhead or having a crappy NIC.
A buddy has one : ethernet runs to the room, ISP is a cable ISP (no caps and not $100 per month, this is not the US). That makes for crazy low latency, compared to the usual wifi + DSL.
The Macbook pro effectively almost never leaves the place it's chained to : it's way too invaluable. That's the biggest "fail" in that story, it's thin, fragile, a thief magnet and worth about a month's
"I left my Ethernet dongle at home." (Score:2)
I can count on about 3 fingers the number of times I've plugged my MacBook Pro into a terrestrial Ethernet cable.
Such as every time you buy a router, to set up the MAC whitelist and other wireless security settings. From Michael Horowitz's Router Security Checklist [routersecurity.org]:
This can increase even further if you're using your laptop to set up t
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To clarify: I have nothing against dongles in principle. All I'm really trying to say is that the dongle has to be included in the total cost of ownership.
Everything in post #50941423 after "science" was uncalled for.
I suspect it already does (Score:2)
I'm pretty sure the Ipad & Iphone kernels are based if not the same as the OS/X one, and most of the surrounding programs & libraries taken from OS/X recompiled for ARM. All they need is a different GUI and specific drivers for the phone baseband hardware.
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Which for me is a big disappointment. I'd already have an iPad Pro if it could pair a Bluetooth mouse to go with the bluetooth keyboard.
The iPad is fine for tablety kind of things, like couch surfing, etc.
I can already get a fair amount of more serious work done with a Bluetooth keyboard, but the lack of a mouse makes it just too clunky to get anything done. There's just too many weird, hard-to-remember touch swipes and combinations to be efficient.
When my iPad 3 finally stops being useful at all (not the
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Re:I suspect it already does (Score:5, Insightful)
The real killer for productivity in iOS is the lack of user space accessible file system. Either they have to open the up to iOS users - and take the security hit, or they have to hide it from OS X users (over our dead 17 inch laptops).
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Windows 8 and 10 have a user accessible file system without compromising security. It's kind of a PITA in some situations because the user has to elevate each folder's access privileges per application and some some folders like like Win32 Program Files and the System directory are off-limits (except through UNC hacks).
Forces developers to rethink a lot of stuff too since file access isn't guaranteed.
Re:I suspect it already does (Score:4, Informative)
There has also been a lot of convergence in OSX/iOS development tools over the last few xcode releases. AppKit has UiKit style autolayout now and many of the back end services and apis are being normalised.
The Apple Pencil makes a mouse oriented UI usable on an iPad like device, and I wouldn't be surprised if by the iPad Pro 2 it is reasonably trivial to make an OSX app that builds for iPad Pro with minimal UI tweaks.
No Xcode for iPad (Score:5, Insightful)
There has also been a lot of convergence in OSX/iOS development tools over the last few xcode releases.
I'll believe the convergence once Xcode runs on iPad Pro. In theory, I could run Visual Studio, MonoDevelop, Code::Blocks, or any other IDE for Windows on a Surface Pro or Surface Book. Even Android has AIDE [android-ide.com], an app for apping apps.
Apps!
Not One UI To Rule Them All (Score:3)
It's fairly well known that the cores of iOS and OS X (no slash, please! :-) ) are the same. That's not really the issue here—it's the problems with the differences between the optimal UI for a keyboard-and-mouse-based (or whatever pointing device you prefer) interface and the optimal UI for a touch-based interface.
But while I agree that it would be foolish to try to make a hybridized OS, I could see there being a device that works both ways, a few years from now, by being an iOS device when it's on i
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All they need is a different GUI and specific drivers for the phone baseband hardware.
Yeah... all that's left is the really hard part.
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You're joking right? Phone hardware is pretty standardised and does most of the heavy lifting internally. Writing a GUI pales into insignificance compared to writing the core OS kernel and supporting frameworks and plumbing.
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Those two statements are in conflict with each other. ;)
Writing a GUI pales into insignificance compared to writing the core OS kernel and supporting frameworks and plumbing.
If that were even remotely true Linux would have a much better marketshare right now. I'm not sure why you're writing off the GUI, it's like you're under-estimating what it takes to put together a system that supports Apps, varying hardware, and simultaneously attempting to be secure and totally open about it.
The kernel is not where most of the development time for iOS or Android was spent.
Odd choice (Score:5, Interesting)
As a (surprisedly) happy Surface user, it seems strange that Apple aren't trying to regain initiative here. The Surface is really a good beast, it works well as a tablet and a desktop replacement (for standard light Office apps, some games and some more demading programs). It gives me a good touch keyboard for sshing into my systems, and has a USB interface for storage, keyboard, mouse. These are all things that the iPad failed to do.
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I honestly think that they can't yet. Microsoft just needs the tech to be there, and they can deliver. Apple has a different set of standards that often result in them being delayed to market with many aspects of computing- the pieces where they get there first are often based on design or UI revolutions that they start. Combine that with the fact that Apple's insistence on running their own OSes everywhere is both a blessing and a curse...
The "surface" model was likely chosen by Microsoft as an actually
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The "surface" model was likely chosen by Microsoft as an actually open area in tech, one where their competitors couldn't show up nearly instantly, including Apple.
There were many "Surface" devices on the market. They are just a natural progression of tablet model from 2003ish where laptops came with displays that could fold back on themselves, and I've used many such devices over the past 12 years. There is only a few key things that Microsoft did to try and win with the surface:
- Use today's tech. A tablet needed to be light and needed a capacitive touchscreen.
- Go all out. When the Surface was released it was competing against small light laptops and cheap crap "tr
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[...](for standard light Office apps, some games and some more demading programs)
I think you proved their point for them. If it can't do everything a desktop can do, people are going to need the desktop.
On the other hand, if it is a really good tablet and can hand off apps to the desktop Mac (it's baked into the current iOS/OS X versions), that's considered a good deal in the Apple books. Maximal functionality with minimal compromise.
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If it can't do everything a desktop can do, people are going to need the desktop.
Neither can my Macbook Pro ( or Windows / Linux laptops ) since laptop GFX cards suck compared to Desktop GFX cards. Should I throw out all of my laptops since obviously a desktop is better?
Guess what I usually use my laptops for.... Office apps, some games, and some more demanding programs like Lightroom / PS.
A surface Pro would work just as well as any of the laptops I use on the go, better in some cases because of the digitizer and pen.
Re:Odd choice (Score:5, Insightful)
Given the track record at Apple, it means they are working feverishly on an iBook or MacPadPro device similar to the Surface Book. It is approximately 3 years from introduction based on previous product denials and subsequent releases. I cite the iPad Mini and iPad Pro as examples of this trend.
Apple literally does this with most of it's new products which are simply imitations and following the leaders in a segment. They decry the necessity and utility until they can bring their own product to market. "You'd have to sand down your fingers" and such stupidity.
Re:Odd choice (Score:5, Insightful)
Don't forget the larger iPhones.
Apple's "we will never" means "we're working on it but it's not ready".
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Don't forget the larger iPhones.
Or the stylus.
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Apple tends to assume the developer is lazy or at least market driven, meaning they won't support the odd alternative very well. See for example Apple's approach to high DPI vs Windows. So they think that most your desktop-ish apps will treat touch like shit and most your touch-oriented apps will treat keyboard+mouse as shit. It seems Apple is focusing on providing hand-off from one system to the other. I'm sure that at some point they'll offer it on one physical device so you can flip it from tablet to lap
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It wouldn't surprise me if Apple is at the point where they truly believe that any initiative they lose can be easily regained should they decide to enter a particular market with an iDevice.
Recent history might even lend support for that kind of belief.
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As an unhappy Surface user, I applaud Apple's ability to recognize that a tablet and a "computer" (be it laptop or desktop) are fundamentally different usage scenarios that the same hardware and/or OS are unlikely to satisfy without compromising and making both experiences less optimal.
For the record, you can in fact hook a USB keyboard up to iPad (and even iPhone). Bluetooth also works if you prefer wireless. The devices don't have standard USB ports, but an $8 adapter (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HPQUBG
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"Microsoft has, year after year and in new and amazing ways, failed to put the end user experience first."
Look around at the computers people use. 95% run Windows. Its not about user experience, it's that for 95% of the work people do, Microsoft provides the tools to get it done. Their UX sucks from a warm-fuzzy, on the go lifestyle perspective (I just got a surface and they've got quite a way to go to smooth out the software edges), but they can be exceptionally efficient work machines.
FWIW, when I stop in
Tim Cook doesn't know why anyone would buy a PC (Score:2)
Being that OSX is a PC operating system I'm guessing they won't combine OSX and iOS because he believes laptops and desktops are dying technology that no longer needs his attention.
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Of course this is very very bad development for those of us who need PCs. To the extent it is a high volume industry, low margins and therefore low cost become accessible. The more volume decreases, the higher risk of higher margins demanded by all in the chain.
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As tablets are filling that need for more and more of the average consumer, PC sales are dying.
Maybe for the rest of the industry; but not for Apple [techcrunch.com].
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When people don't have a MSWindows tablet or phone, they are getting by without MSWindows applications. In that setting, there's less demand for MSWindows desktop computers.
On the other hand, when their iOS device is known to hand off applications to OS X, maybe you'll get more people to Mac desktops.
It's not a large percentage of MS Windows users, but a small percentage of MSWindows users makes up a significant number of Mac users.
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The average Joe absolutely "needed" a PC. The simple tasks you described were vastly out of scope for what tech that fits in your pocket could do back then. What has happened is that we can now put those basic functions in a smaller package. Another huge one is security- older models of OS design would have implicitly trusted all kinds of crap. If you'd have had smartphones with 80s OS design, you'd have had some dumb phone worm shut down comms across the globe, repeatedly.
What you used to need state of
"Consumer" is part of the problem (Score:2)
PCs were the only solution to certain problems for a long time: How do you interact with a website? How do you answer email?
And in the era of "every child should learn to code", how do you do your programming homework? Raspberry Pi?
For some consumers, yes, they'll need documents, spreadsheets, and gaming
I think the idea is that at some point everyone will become among "some consumers". But perhaps your use of "consumer", meaning someone who only views works created by others and does not create works, is misleading [gnu.org].
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And in the era of "every child should learn to code", how do you do your programming homework? Raspberry Pi?
Every child should code is your starting premise. Not everyone agrees with you. Your initial premise is not necessarily accepted as true.
I think the idea is that at some point everyone will become among "some consumers". But perhaps your use of "consumer", meaning someone who only views works created by others and does not create works, is misleading [gnu.org].
My meaning of consumer is the vernacular meaning of consumer. [reference.com] Please don't assume what I mean.
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And in the era of "every child should learn to code", how do you do your programming homework? Raspberry Pi?
Every child should code is your starting premise. Not everyone agrees with you. Your initial premise is not necessarily accepted as true.
Let me rephrase: And now that governments are adopting policies that "every child should learn to code", how do you do your programming homework?
My meaning of consumer is the vernacular meaning of consumer.
The closest sense I could find on the linked page was "2. Economics. a person or organization that uses a commodity or service." Just to be certain that we are free from equivocation [wikipedia.org], is this sense what you meant?
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Let me rephrase: And now that governments are adopting policies that "every child should learn to code", how do you do your programming homework?
With a PC. To be clear, I have never said that PCs are to be banned. My point was that for most people the PC was the only way to do things in the past. When smartphones and tablets became available, people have stopped buying as many PCs because they don't need them. There will always be a need for PCs for some people.
The closest sense I could find on the linked page was "2. Economics. a person or organization that uses a commodity or service." Just to be certain that we are free from equivocation [wikipedia.org], is this sense what you meant?
Yes the vernacular meaning of consumer if you have been reading the thread.
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With the current push by various tech companies to get girls and women into tech and coding, Apple have decided that people really want a device that you cannot do any serious coding on. So yeah, that works...
Re:Tim Cook doesn't know why anyone would buy a PC (Score:5, Insightful)
I take it you missed the entire Tim Cook comment of "Why would you buy a PC?" at the iPad Pro retail launch? Tim Cook doesn't think you should buy a PC when instead you could buy an iPad Pro.
So I'm not "nuts" at all, I'm simply taking on board what Tim Cook has actually said.
And I disagree with you on both the Surface Pro and Surface Book, as I own both and love both - but what that really means is any device I pick up at home, I can open a code editor on and hack away. Which I cannot do on the iPad Pro. I can also resort to full tablet mode with no issues. Which I cannot do on a Macbook, Macbook Air or Macbook Pro.
People keep saying that the Surface Pro and Books are compromises - I haven't yet run into a compromise on either.
Don't get me wrong - some people don't need the level of content creation that a full PC or Mac will give you, and in those circumstances a dedicated tablet will work fine for those people. But for me, the compromise is the hard delineation between a dedicated tablet OS and application set and a dedicated desktop OS and application set - I want both available to me on the one device.
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I haven't yet run into a compromise on either.
Compromises were in subtle usability refinements and not in the ability and that awesome convenience the device gives you. I.e. It's a heavy tablet to hold in one hand, and it's an awkward device to balance on your lap as there's no screen support (fixed by introduction of the Surface Book).
But damn there is no comparison to it on the market. I bought the SP3 after playing with my friend's SP2, my girlfriend just got a SP4. This is the first time since the introduction of tablets that a device has come out
Re:Tim Cook doesn't know why anyone would buy a PC (Score:5, Insightful)
Or, because he believes there will always be separate markets for Macs and portable devices, that they're not the same thing, and creating one combined device would probably result in a device which sucked as a PC and as a mobile device. I'm inclined to agree.
I don't want my tablet or my phone to be running the same OS I'd run on my desktop or my laptop. They're different things, used differently, and don't even run the same programs.
I keep looking at Microsoft trying to make all of the devices converge as full-spec x86 devices as lazy and self-serving because they don't have the ability to come up with a mobile OS which isn't just the same under the covers. It screams "we have no idea how to make a new mobile operating system, so instead we'll stick with the same architecture we've had for 20 years and do nothing".
You don't need to think laptops and desktops are a dying technology. You just don't have to think that converging them to a single device actually results in a good product.
Microsoft just wants to put out the exact same thing they already have and call it mobile. Not everyone agrees. In fact, we think it's just lazy, and pushing out a product and calling it "innovating", and will result in a product which sucks at both tasks. Increasingly, Microsoft looks like the old tech company who can't see past the world being about Office and Outlook -- which means they seem to be missing the point about what people actually want.
I agree with Tim Cook, that's just a product which will suck as a desktop/laptop, and also suck as a mobile device.
For the things most people are using their tablets for, there is no benefit in having it be an x86 platform. And from what I've seen of the new Microsoft interface, it's so horribly skewed towards being a bad interface for tablets ... it's an utterly useless interface for desktops.
They should be separate operating systems because they're different devices, and used differently.
Once again, those "I'm a PC/I'm a Mac" ads showing Microsoft stuck in the past and missing the point seem like sheer brilliance. Because slavishly trying to keep to x86 on the thinking it's better than solving the actual problem is just inertia and not wanting things to change.
And Apple is wrong (Score:5, Insightful)
The three phases of Apple:
1 - Tell us we don't want something at all.
2 - Watch everyone ignore you and build versions of it anyway.
3- Show up late to the party with an Apple version and say you invented it; rake in the money.
We're moving from stage 1 to stage 2 now.
So translation: Apple is working on it, but its not ready yet.
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You both forgot the most important [misterbg.org] part of the Apple Cycle.
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You skipped the step between 1 and 2 which is to tell you that not only won't they be creating what they're about to work in, but you'd be a fool to even want it.
And 3.5" is the perfect phone size (Score:5, Insightful)
We will never make a larger phone.
This seems familiar (Score:2, Insightful)
Cook sounds very Blackberrian with this. If he thinks they can fight the entire industry movement, good luck.
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Maybe, but on the other hand he is also hedging his bets. If the iPad Pro proves to be popular, then it will be relatively easy for them to adapt their strategy. If anything I find their lineup quite confused now (certainly not the focus that Jobs had) with the MacBook, MacBook Pro and now iPad Pro kind of throwing a range of products out there at roughly the same price and asking the customers to decide what they value most.
I think this is to be expected though now their oracle is dead. I think the breakin
Re:This seems familiar (Score:4, Insightful)
Cook sounds very Blackberrian with this. If he thinks they can fight the entire industry movement, good luck.
Funny. Apple's PC sales are UP year-over-year, while the "entire (rest) of the industry" sales are down.
I think the "entire (rest) of the industry" needs to stop being such lemmings. It seems like Apple is the only company who has actually analyzed what the market wants. The rest are just trying to "out innovate" Apple. They couldn't come up with one single tablet that would unseat the iPad; so they said "I know, let's listen to what the Microsoft Rep that came in last quarter said about "The future of computing" " and build something based on MS' Reference Design."
What else explains something like half a dozen mfgs coming out with virtually the same device within the same 6 months?
Meanwhile, Apple chugs along, chuckling to itself, knowing that it had already experimented internally with exactly that type of device five years ago, and found out that none of their alpha-testers liked it.
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Or alternatively, people are largely satisfied with the performance of their current windows PC and feel no need to pay a premium for a new computer that will not do any better and will require them to adapt the the "Apple Way". My 4 year old Core i5 PC is still going strong. In that time, 2 new video cards and an upgrade t
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Apple's PC sales are UP year-over-year
Errr no. Mac sales haven't noticeable increased in the last 5 years. Markshare has changed with the move from PCs as a consumption device to tablets reducing the number of PCs in relation to Macs but even those figures are in the order of a couple of percent.
Mac's aren't magic and PCs aren't hated. The entire industry is simply stagnant as the upgrade cycle is broken. MS and Apple are both releasing operating systems which run faster and are more resource efficient than previous ones and consoles have pegge
xCode? (Score:2)
Don't care so much for the OS integration.
It would be nice to be able to create programs on the iPad Pro, though. It's performance and specs make a compelling case.
In the meantime, if you want to program, you need to bring your macbook and iPad..
Also, when will they give the Mac Pro some love?
Developers? Developers? Developers...
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The first two don't look right to me.
Google: bluetooth model m (Score:2)
Feeling lucky? First result for bluetooth model m [adafruit.com]
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Honestly, they make Bluetooth keyboards, and have for years. Many companies make them, they should all work with pretty much anything.
Hell, I bet it you so chose you could buy a Microsoft Bluetooth keyboard and use it with an iPad.
That Apple doesn't ship it with a keyboard doesn't mean you're being denied the ability to use one.
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Jobs: Apple wont create an iPhone with big screen (Score:2)
Money (Score:4, Insightful)
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Who said I'm a believer in Microsoft?
And lets be honest, for the past 10-years Apple's 'innovation' consists of recycling the ipod touch (hmm, add cellular, remove cellular but increase screen size).
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yeah they had windows RT... and nobody wanted it
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I have to ask. Have you ever used a Windows Phone 8 device?
The OS runs circles around Android or iOS. I am continually impressed with the simple, elegant design and the performance. There have been several times where I have been able to perform a function or look up information faster than people using much more powerful iPhones or Android phones. This is mostly due to the efficiency of the OS design.
I have a $35 (brand new price) Lumia 520 from a year ago that I still used daily. The phone I had prior to
Unfortunately, Microsoft will rake in the market (Score:2)
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Pick any of the following that you like: Spying on their users, collaborating with the NSA, donating money to immoral causes, monopolistic tendencies, churning out shit products with terrible support.
So all the things that Apple and Google are doing as well, eh?
Sad Apple is play catch up with Microsoft (Score:2)
At least Microsoft didn't double down with the RT strategy and quickly threw it in the dustbin.
Totally backwards (Score:2)
He has it totally backwards (on purpose). Of course running OSX on an iPad is a bad idea. What would be far more useful is a Macbook with a touchscreen (AKA welcome to the 21st century Macbook!) that can run iOS apps in addition to OSX apps.
Nothing wrong with that. (Score:2)
I sense Don Norman's influence here. I agree with Cook, and I'm not really much of an Apple fan. There's nothing wrong with avoiding the, (as I see it), trap of trying to be everything to everyone. This might be an old PARC mentality, but I think that purpose driven devices with shared intelligence and data sources is a really smart way to see the future of information tech. The real hurdle is getting everyone to agree on how those devices should communicate. My Motorola 360, for example, is woefully
Great! (Score:2)
Now bring back the Fucking 17" Macbook Pro.
Stupidest thing to remove from their lineup in decades.
OS X and iOS will converge someday (probably) (Score:2)
How many times has Apple said they wouldn't ever do something and then later done it? Apple says they'd never do something all the time so I wouldn't put much stock in such statements. Jobs was famous for doing that.
The fact is that it makes a ton of economic sense to have iOS and OS X converge into a single operating system. Right now we aren't at a place where that makes sense yet (see Microsoft) but I can't really see Apple keeping two operating systems indefinitely. Apple, Google and Microsoft are a
It means they will... (Score:2)
Awesome, now stop the War on Ports (Score:5, Interesting)
The dudes at the Apple store say, "everything will be wireless eventually" well that's a great theory, but 1) It's not wireless right now 2) Even if it were, in a high density office environment, there is simply not enough wireless spectrum allocated in the USA for 200 users in a 35,000 ft^2 space to have a Gig-E wireless connection.
So stop the stupidity. Gig-E ports should be standard on your "Pro" models. Consumer or Home models, I understand the philosophy, but not on the Pro.
Winding up... (Score:2)
the actual quote (Score:4, Insightful)
Hard for a market leader... (Score:2)
When a business achieves overwhelming success in an area and is recognized as the market leader, it is very difficult for that company to adopt a strategy that could be seen as disruptive to the way they know the market has worked to date.
I personally could not imagine being confined to the way iphone/ipad/android work for all my stuff. For occasional travel I could make do, but if I was traveling in a professional or extended trip, I need a desktop/laptop type access. I prefer linux desktop, but Windows
Re:Or Will They? (Score:4, Informative)
Or will they, in two years form now?
Why bother? If you want one bad enough, you can go buy one right now [modbook.com].
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As soon as they make a MacBook with a touchscreen or an iPad with a Keyboard... hey, wait a second!
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Or will they, in two years form now?
Or maybe they let somebody else do it almost 9 years ago. http://www.modbook.com/ [modbook.com]
And what for CS homework? (Score:2)
These products [iPad and MacBook] should remain separate.
Where does this leave a high school student who has received an iPad as a gift only to discover that it's not suitable for the programming homework that her computer science teacher has assigned?
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Use their Windows PC, like everyone else?
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us it to pay down the student loan and get a pc
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then when she gets into her school's computer lab, pull down the code from the git server, and build it and run it and debug it there at school.
In other words, she would have to do the majority of iteratively improving the program, and thus the majority of her homework, at school. There isn't much time for this between when the school bus arrives and when is expected to be in class for homeroom and first period, or between when last period lets out and when the school bus leaves. The only workaround I can think of for this involves using an iPad as an SSH terminal, connecting to a server operated by the school. Not only does this method require the
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If they do not understand the difference between a laptop OS and desktop OS
Did you really mean "laptop"? Apple's traditional laptop, the MacBook, comes with a desktop OS, but its detachable, the iPad Pro, comes with a locked-down phone OS.
then I might question why they are in the Computer Science program in the first place
The same reason students study six tragic plays by William Shakespeare: required for diploma.
Mod Parent Up (Score:2)
This is really the thing.
That Tim Cook says he's not merging the two is only somewhat comforting (after his "why would anyone buy a PC?" line - perhaps he thinks the Mac is not a PC, but uhhh...)
I really, really, really dislike iOS, and hate most of the changes that have come over Mac OS since Snow Leopard, with the possible exception of tightened security (they haven't done a great job with this from an ease-of-use standpoint - it's kinda buggy).
It's like Apple is trying to turn Mac OS into iOS through the