Apple Telegraphs
Hints of future hardware in software…
“We don’t comment on future products.” That’s the line everyone who has ever covered (or read coverage about) Apple knows well. And while the company is (oddly) doing more commenting on future products in very public settings these days, Cupertino is still largely a palace of secrets. But, as always, if you look closely enough and use your imagination just a bit, you can sometimes glean what the company might be up to. Two recent software changes seem to telegraph such future plans.
Gestures
The first is quite public. Literally, it’s now in public beta: iOS 12. Specifically, baked into the iPad version of the software is a new gesture control system. Apple has had gestures as a part of the iPad since the beginning, and they add new ones over time. But the ones in iOS 12 are unique in that they’re different versions of the ones that have existed in the past.
First and foremost, the swipe-up from the bottom of the device now closes an open app. Think of it as a flick-up. If this sounds familiar, it’s because you’re using the iPhone X — this is the same gesture to close apps on that device. And it’s necessary on that device because… there’s no home button.
Certainly, there’s some logic in unifying the gesture system across the iOS universe. The iPhone X-carrying and iPad Pro-loving user in me appreciates this (though it does take some getting used to, to un-learn the old way). But it also seems pretty clear that the main reason Apple is switching this gesture on the iPad is because the forthcoming version of the iPad will also remove the home button.
Previously, a swipe up would bring up the iPad “dock” apps. You can still do this, it just involves a slower swipe-up (I’d appreciate this option on the iPhone, by the way). Meanwhile, a long swipe-up invokes the recently opened apps to switch between. You know, the thing previously done via a double-click of the home button.
The other change to the iPad gestures is a little more strange, because the gesture remains strange: pulling down from the upper right corner to bring down the control panel. Previously, this was also invoked with the home button double-click. But, of course, this gesture also changed with the iPhone X, presumably because it used to be a swipe-up there and with that action now serving as the home button “click”, Apple had to move this. The FaceID “notch” gave them a relatively easy (albeit still sort of odd) option: swipe down from the upper right (with upper left reserved for notifications).
This is stranger on the iPad given the larger screen and the lack of notch. So… does that mean the notch is coming to a future tablet device? Certainly it seems that FaceID is, the question is if the device’s screen will be edge-to-edge as it is on the iPhone X, thus necessitating the notch. This upper-right gesture makes this seem likely — though even more awkward given that apps running side-by-side on the iPad also utilizes this area to “pin” or “un-pin” secondary apps. It still works (if you pull down from the far right edge of the screen), but it’s a little less streamlined and obvious.
Marzipan
The above seems pretty straightforward (and is in line with rumors that seem to be pretty well substantiated at this point). The following is less so.
At this year’s WWDC, Apple did one of those weird (for Apple) “previews” of something to come, as alluded to above. Specifically, they noted that next year, they’ll begin allowing developers to use software to effectively port their iOS apps to the Mac. Now, you could argue that Apple had to preview this move because they were about to showcase a few of their own apps — News, Voice Memos, and Stocks — that were ported using this technology (though I think they could have done this in a much more fun way). And some might argue that Apple felt the need to do this to get developers “ready” for such a change — though, again, the software apparently won’t be available for quite sometime, perhaps even a year.
What if this reveal was actually to telegraph something much bigger? What if this portends the beginning of the age of ARM-based Macs?
This move has also been rumored for a long while. Basically since Apple started designing their own silicon in the AX chips used in iPhones and iPads. By most accounts, these chips have now surpassed the ones made by Intel in many regards — and certainly when it comes to the power/energy equation that’s vital for mobile. To that end, while it seems like Apple may be happy to stick with Intel for the foreseeable future on the desktop side of the equation, it would seem only a matter of time before they switch to their own chips in their laptops.
And again, what if that time is coming soon?
If it were, you would undoubtedly need to start getting some Mac apps ready to run on ARM chips. Or some iOS apps ready to run on OS X… The guys on The Vergecast speculated a bit on this topic on this week’s show. Specifically, they were riffing on ideas for the future of the MacBooks given Apple’s sort of lackluster upgrades to the MacBook Pro line this week.
It feels like we’re actually now past “peak” MacBook. The recent reception of things like the TouchBar and the broader new keyboard have ranged from “meh” to outrage. Many people still believe the MacBook Air was the pinnacle of the line. Apple seems out of ideas for how to improve the MacBook, they can only now make it slightly faster (with the latest Intel chips) or slightly worse (with their cosmetic changes that backfire).
The next real change is the ARM MacBook. It’s not quite whittling down the MacBook into an iPad, but it’s not completely not that either. Imagine a device that was thinner and lighter than even the current tiny MacBook. Imagine one with battery life that was twice as long. Imagine one with an edge-to-edge screen. Imagine one that could run iOS apps…
It’s pretty easy if you try.
And Apple is making it even easier with this “Marzipan” iOS app porting preview. We could have tens of thousands of iOS apps ready to roll on a new ARM-ready version of OS X for an ARM MacBook. But these apps would also run on the Intel MacBooks, which would undoubtedly continue to coexist for years — certainly on the “Pro” end of the line. Not to mention the Intel-based iMacs and forthcoming new Mac Pros.
Could this be a next year thing? I don’t know. But I know I want one.
Dust in the Wind
One more fun bit of Apple telegraphing changes. As we all saw with the new MacBook Pro announcements, Apple updated their new keyboards (for a third time, for those keeping track at home). The PR-ready soundbites were all about making the keys quieter. But it now sure seems like the keys being quieter was a direct result of changes made to help protect said keys from the evil infiltration of dust that seems to render many such keyboard useless.
Apple, of course, cannot say this change was about reliability. Because they won’t admit to this being a problem (and probably can’t given the class-action lawsuits they’re involved in right now). There is no problem, after all. 😉😉 But come on. It’s right there in front of all of us…
Just another case of Apple keeping quiet, but showcasing changes by other, more indirect means…
