Apple Still Aims To Allow iPad Apps To Run on Macs This Year (axios.com) 63
Apple's push for performance and security improvements over new features will also apply to this year's Mac software, Axios reported on Wednesday, but one key feature remains on the roadmap for 2018: The ability for Macs to run iPad apps. From the report: On the Mac side, this is taking the form of a new project around security as well as improvements in performance when waking and unlocking the system. While users would certainly welcome changes that make their systems run better and more securely, customers tend to be more motivated to make purchases based on new features rather than promised improvements around security or performance, which can be tough to judge. The signature new feature for the Mac -- the ability to run iPad apps -- is a significant undertaking that adds a high degree of complexity to this year's OS release.
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This revolutionary innovative feature is only 5 years after Microsoft pulled off the same trick with Windows, and 2 years after Google pulled off the same trick with Chrome.
Apple doesn't even have a touch friendly computer operating system... Kinda getting a bit ahead of themselves with talk of iPad apps on a Mac.
Hate to reply to an Anonymous COWARD; but it is not at ALL the same with iOS Apps running under macOS.
Although they have the same kernel (Darwin), iOS and macOS diverge quite a bit above that level. Windows tablets run Windows; so, duh. Don't know as much about Chrome; but thought it was designed from the ground-up to be the same across "Desktop" and "Mobile" incarnations; so again, duh.
But iOS was never originally intended to be a subset of macOS; so it is a lot less "duh" for Apple to pull that trick off.
My Mac already does this.... (Score:3)
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Intel did an ARM on x86 emulator called libhoudini for Atom based Android phones, And Intel treat Apple like a spoiled favourite child, so I'm sure Intel would be willing to share code.
https://commonsware.com/blog/2... [commonsware.com]
Libhoudini run 32 bit ARM code on x86 of course, not 64 bit ARM code on x64.
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Well, they could do that, but why would Apple spend months of effort building a sufficiently fast emulator, just so users can run ancient iOS apps that nobody cares enough about to maintain? If they cared about keeping old apps running without recompiling, we would still be able to run 32-bit iOS apps on iOS i
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Now you see the reason for the Touch Bar. There's an ARM chip built into the keyboard.
No emulating anything.
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There's an iOS device emulator included with XCode.
I'm curious though how well they will translate though? Last time I used the emulator (haven't done iOS development in a while), and while you could do quite a bit of testing, there was a lot you can't do. How do you handle some unique inputs such as screen tilt or multi-touch gestures? I imagine that they'd want them to run full screen too, which you can't do with the emulator either last time I checked.
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Without those, on what device would people be expected to run Xcode?
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Xcode has been a store app for quite some time.
Xcode without Finder (Score:2)
True. Unlike Microsoft, Apple puts its own development tools in its own store. There's even Swift Playgrounds on iOS, with limited functionality intended for learning. Good luck seeing Microsoft squeeze a useful subset of Visual Studio onto Windows 10 S, its education-targeted OS.
But without Finder, how would a user of Xcode gather and arrange the source files (some program code, some not) needed to build an application?
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Within XCode of course, like I do on my Mac ... never used the finder to arrange some source files. But I don't use XCode often.
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finder / non store apps / root to be removed next and in 2019 LTE in each mac
Not THAT meme again!!!
Go the FUCK away, Hater.
I would bet not an ARM emulator (Score:5, Insightful)
I would bet it will not be an ARM emulator.
Apple already has iOS ported to X86 and has forever. It's used by developers when testing on the iOS simulator running on MacOS. The simulator doesn't run ARM code. It runs X86 code.
Apple would likely give developers the option of including X86 platform support in their build. Developers could OPT IN to releasing on macOS. You already build for two different ARM platforms.
There is nothing revolutionary here. Just a new build option and some new App Store/ITunesConnect functionality.
I'm a cross-platform developer. I write apps that run on iOS and Android. On Android, it uses the NDK (native development kit) and I build for both ARM and X86. (Because some Android tablets are X86). What Apple is proposing is likely not much different.
Apple wouldn't likely provide an ARM emulator, because the performance would suck.
Every time Apple comes out with a new XCode version, they say "jump", and developers respond with "how high?". Or... not agaaaaainnnnn!
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They already did - the Touch Bar.
(Like I said in another comment,,,)
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Question if you know... I had built some apps that used libs in the AndroWish app. I would install both the AndroWish app (which had the ndk libs in it) and my app which was stripped down TclTk + a little secret sauce to load the AndroWish stuff. This worked on my old Android Version 4 nexus 4 phone. I got a new phone which runs Oreo and while the AndroWish app worked, the apps which used AndroWish libs did not. In the end I rebuilt the AndroWish app myself, and bolted on the Tcl/Tk from my apps so that it
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OS X is dead. It's macOS now. Which mean's it's going to be iMac OS.
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OS X is dead. It's macOS now. Which mean's it's going to be iMac OS.
People have been saying that since OS X 10.7, you realize. And here we are at macOS 10.13 (SIX major revisions later!) and it STILL hasn't happened to any great extent.
STFU.
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But Macs don't have touchscreen, so honestly, how is that gonna work?
Easy. They have multitouch trackpads on MacBooks back to at least 2011 (and possibly before), and the ones on the 2016-2017 MacBook Pros and the external Trackpad are already nearly the size of an iPad mini and have force-touch and multitouch; so...
https://www.apple.com/shop/pro... [apple.com]
Problem solved!
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Almost solved. Any app that supports independent touches on particular parts of the screen still won't be fully usable (e.g. on-screen pianos). Unless, of course, this means Apple is finally building a laptop with a touchscreen.
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A Mouse, and a Touchpad is a mouse, works perfectly fine on an iPad. ... no problem to interact with iOS.
And touchpads on Macs are multi touch since a decade or longer
How do you think developers are toying with their Apps in the emulator?
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Almost solved. Any app that supports independent touches on particular parts of the screen still won't be fully usable (e.g. on-screen pianos). Unless, of course, this means Apple is finally building a laptop with a touchscreen.
I believe that Apple trackpads have supported at least 5 independent touches (maybe more) for quite some time now.
That's why I said "multitouch" in my original post.
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You're misunderstanding what I mean by independent touches. I mean apps where you touch two different things on the screen and do something with them simultaneously, where the exact spatial position of each touch matters (e.g. a virtual theremin app where one finger controls volume and another controls pitch). The trackpad works fine for gestures, and it works fine for clicking and dragging a single item. It cannot fully replicate the touch behavior of a phone, because there is no spatial mapping betwee
Good but add legacy support everywhere (Score:2)
This is great but Apple should be offering legacy software support everywhere so that all iOS apps run on both iOS devices and Macs and all Mac applications run on both iOS devices and Macs. This is a fairly trivial task that would open up a huge amount of software that they have caused to be abandoned. There is a tremendous amount of excellent kids educational software that doesn't run on modern MacOSs (and iOS) that would then be available. There is also a lot of business applications and just fun other s
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This is great but Apple should be offering legacy software support everywhere so that all iOS apps run on both iOS devices and Macs and all Mac applications run on both iOS devices and Macs. This is a fairly trivial task that would open up a huge amount of software that they have caused to be abandoned. There is a tremendous amount of excellent kids educational software that doesn't run on modern MacOSs (and iOS) that would then be available. There is also a lot of business applications and just fun other stuff. They can sandbox it all to make it safe. Apple has the resources.
It is a lot easier to emulate a system with less speed and resources on a system with greater speed and resources than vice-versa.
That's why we won't be having macOS on iOS for a while yet...
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Yes, I understand, and most software does not tax the processors on either modern (>2005) Macs or iOS devices. Admittedly some very heavy duty power using software will have trouble under emulation but that isn't the software in question.
No thanks (Score:1)
Apps I can"t ever roll back, have zero control over and where any update may break/change the app fundamentally and there is nothing you can do about it? Yea, no thanks. I don't care if it is the future I like my MacBook as is.
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You can restore the App from a backup, just like you do right now.
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Apps I can"t ever roll back, have zero control over and where any update may break/change the app fundamentally and there is nothing you can do about it? Yea, no thanks. I don't care if it is the future I like my MacBook as is.
WTF are you bleating about?
Hey, maybe they can let me run 32bit apps as well. (Score:1)
What about the lack of touch control on Macs? (Score:2)
I develop Apps and I welcome more platform support. Since the Xcode emulator already does this I can play with my own apps on my Mac desktop.
However there are some things that are lacking and the big one is the finger gestures.
You need to emulate finger swipes, pinch, shake etc etc with mouse or track pad.
That doesn't sound like Apple at all, they don't like hacks and compromises. They've also stated they don't like touch screens on Macs.
So, yes, very easy to do with existing Apps since Xcode can already co
They are doing no such thing (Score:5, Informative)
What Apple might bring, is the ability to create an application that runs on either device. But that application will have to be developed to explicitly support both, macOS and iOS devices. It will have to be able to handle a UI with either mouse or touch.
In essence, there will be one entry in the App Store and if you download the app you'll get the variant suitable for your device.
A Mac will not be able to just run any old iPad app.
Source ... well, just ask anyone with a clue about macOS/iOS development.
I only have one question for this. (Score:1)
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