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WWDC wish list: closing the gap between iOS & OS X, split-screen enhancements, Xcode for iPad, more

Tim-Cook-WWDC-01

[Ed. Note: This is a guest post by developer Steven Troughton-Smith. You can follow him on Twitter @stroughtonsmith.]

I don’t often do this, but this year I think it’s important; Apple is more open & receptive to feedback today than it ever has been. With iOS 9 and iPad Pro, iOS has made a tremendous leap in the past year on iPad. With that in mind, I wanted to note down all the things in my head that I really want to see the iOS computing platform grow to cover.

What follows is an unordered list of things I’d like to see from Apple over the next few years, starting with the easy & obvious things upfront. Most of these have Radars filed against them, but since they’re more often than not dupes of existing Radars I won’t post the numbers here. Most of this is about iOS, but not all – I’ll say upfront that I don’t think OS X has a future with the way it’s going currently, and has been running on fumes for most of iOS’ lifetime. Even if you disagree with where I’m coming from, perhaps there’s still something for you here.

Split-screen letting you spawn multiple windows for the same app

This is a really easy evolution to see – right now, split-screen in iOS only enables two different apps side by side. The next obvious step is to enable an app to say it’s capable of handling a second window, so that you could have two web pages or documents side-by-side.

OpenURL screen-side hinting

Another tiny tweak, but this would allow an app to say how it prefers opened links/apps to open – either side by side, or replacing the current app. This would allow e.g. URLs in Mail or Messages to automatically open Safari side-by-side instead of kicking you out of the app you’re using. Twitter on iOS has some clever logic to simulate this – if Twitter is pinned at the side of the screen, it will open URLs directly in Safari (side-by-side).

Custom View Controller Extension Providers

With Extensions, Apple has created an ideal way to present a view controller from one app inside another app. This is used throughout the OS, but most obviously with Safari View Controllers. Apple has already identified key areas where this is useful – this is how photo editing Extensions work, right now. I would love to see this expanded upon such that apps can register view controller providers for all kinds of different functionality, which could then be presented inside other apps.

QuickLook generators

In a similar vein, QuickLook seems like a really obvious system Extension point to add. OS X apps can register ‘QuickLook generators’ so that they can create thumbnail previews of their document contents such that other apps can render them. As document handling becomes more pervasive on iOS, no doubt QuickLook will expand to include this.

System-level drawing/markup views

Very simple one – Apple has, in Notes, created one of the best drawing/markup views in any apps on the platform, ideal for Apple Pencil. This would be great to offer to developers in some standardized, customizable fashion such that they can implement it in their apps without having to reinvent the wheel – a drawing engine like that is an incredibly complex OpenGL/Metal renderer, which is difficult to reimplement.

⌘ key for iPad keyboard

With UIKeyCommand and keyboard shortcut support on iOS, I would really like to see a command key added to the iPad on-screen keyboard. Understandably it would only work when the keyboard is visible (i.e. in a text editor), but it would enable editing shortcuts beyond what fits in the bar atop the software keyboard. It would also help train developers that iOS apps should have keyboard shortcuts by default – in an era where most iPads support hardware keyboards, I think this is an important step forward.

Drag & drop

With the addition of split-screen multitasking, much has been said about drag & drop on iOS. It seems like an obvious thing to add, on the surface, but when you think it through there are a lot of ways it could be detrimental to the OS. Finding a way to enable drag & drop without screwing over all the existing gestures in the OS, whilst still making it faster than copy/paste – that’s not as easy as you think. Despite that, I do think it’s worth figuring out, and makes so much sense on a touchscreen with its direct manipulation model.

UIKit native apps on watchOS

WatchKit was an amazing stopgap, enabling a competent app platform on watchOS and all of the apps you use today. Sadly, third-party apps on watchOS suck, and ‘native’ WatchKit in watchOS 2.0 hasn’t really helped here. If watchOS is to succeed as an app platform, I think it will need the ability to run real (read: UIKit) apps. As someone who’s dabbled in this already, I’m not convinced the first-generation hardware is good enough to enable this without serious compromises. My wish, therefore, is that future hardware makes it possible. Third-party apps need to be as capable as the fantastic first-party apps. WatchKit is a shit sandwich.

Apple TV gamepad situation

appletv4siriremote

A very easy thing to fix: right now, a game on tvOS cannot require a gamepad (unless, of course, it’s Activision requiring a hardware accessory because that’s clearly so different. /s). All games must support the Siri Remote: the problem with that is the Siri Remote is awful for games, and means any developer attempting to make anything even remotely complex (read: good) on tvOS has to include some ridiculous, often-patronizing, and mostly unplayable Remote-only mode. This is a policy issue – I understand where Apple marketing is coming from, but the godawful experiences it’s resulted in are worse than the alternative, and reflect terribly on the platform.

iBooks Author for iOS

iBooks Author is an offshoot of the iWork suite that seems like it would be perfectly suited to running on iOS. For book-writers, iBooks Author on iOS could mean a fully-integrated writing & publishing solution that doesn’t require a desktop computer. One could even build multi-touch ‘enhanced’ iBooks on-device. To me, firmly rooted in the iOS camp, it seems like a no-brainer to bring to iOS.

All system iOS apps should support split-screen

I’m surprised this is still the case, but a bunch of system apps on iPad outright refuse to implement split-screen multitasking. My guess is that there are some concerns about security – iBooks, for example, tells you to make the app fullscreen if you want to see the iBookstore. Obviously the App Store, iTunes Store and Apple Music should support split-screen. It’s very hard to justify any (non-game) app not doing so (though I do know there are reasons some third-party apps have opted-out). Windowing support shouldn’t be optional, especially for system apps.


Now that the easy stuff is out of the way…


Unified App Platform between iOS and OS X

Right now, I really believe that OS X is a dead platform. It’s been coasting on iOS’ wake for years, picking up features often long after they’ve been implemented on iOS. Apple needs to create a unified app platform between the two operating systems.

This doesn’t mean a desktop would just run iOS apps, much like tvOS doesn’t ‘just run’ iOS apps. The same ideas should apply: a shared codebase, with minor platform-specific elements, and an optimized UI for the OS’ primary interaction model.

I could see this being UIKit-based. After tvOS, it is no longer valid to say that UIKit just flat-out wouldn’t work on a non-touchscreen – we know that’s just not the case. It’s all built on CoreAnimation, so it would make sense that you would be able to interleave legacy AppKit views/layers inside a (hybrid) UIKit Mac app, at least for the time being. AppKit itself should have a protracted deprecation period, like Carbon before it, as new functionality gradually gets built into UIKit-based frameworks instead. AppKit would remain on the desktop and not come to iOS, and eventually fade out as it gets replaced inside hybrid apps piece by piece.

In this way, iOS (primarily iPad) and OS X could grow together. Functionality built for one would much more easily translate to the other. iPad apps would have a migration path to the desktop, and legacy desktop apps to iPad – both platforms would evolve & grow as one, and not one at the expense of the other.

Xcode for iPad

iPad Pro MacBook 12

A longstanding request of mine, but software development remains a key artform woefully under-represented on iOS. When I say I want ‘Xcode for iPad’, I mean ‘a means to write, debug & deploy Cocoa Touch apps on iPad without having to use a Mac’. It’s very likely that a project like this from Apple would look nothing like Xcode does on the desktop. It most probably would be Swift-only (something that makes me very sad). I imagine it would also involve Swift Playgrounds. Nonetheless, a complete software development toolchain is a huge missing piece of the iOS software ecosystem.

There are some great apps on iOS that have managed to pull something similar off – Pythonista is a prime example: a fully on-device Python IDE with bridges to C and ObjC code, powerful enough to let you interface with and rewrite its own UI using Cocoa (in Python), but there’s a learned unease that Apple will decide something like that is not allowed and remove it from the Store. This is a terrible situation to be in – things that push the boundaries of what people think iOS is capable of should be embraced.

File & disk management for iOS

From the start, iOS has tried to do the ‘right thing’ when it comes to file management. However, nine years on, this imaginary era where physical filesystems don’t exist hasn’t come to pass. Finally, we have an iCloud Drive app and third-party document providers, but we can’t interface with files on external storage, beyond importing photos to the camera roll. I think it’s time to implement this at the system level: allow document pickers to open files in place from external storage, and allow apps to copy files to external storage. On OS X, document pickers provide sandbox exceptions to the folders you, as a user, choose to give an app access to. Build on this model – maintain security, but stop pretending filesystems don’t exist.

Terminal environment for iOS

Worth a shot, huh? 😛 I would be so happy to see a Terminal/BSD environment on iOS, even if it were limited to its own sandbox and not the OS filesystem. Let technical users build the kinds of things that technical users need, that can’t be addressed in any other way by a GUI iOS. The only way I see Apple committing to this is if it were completely jailed from the rest of the OS – but even that would be a major step forward (or, backward, depending on your point of view).

iOS to pick up the remaining OS X apps

As iPad grows to replace more of what the Mac used be for, it makes a lot of sense (to me) that Apple should close the gap between the system apps on both platforms. I would like to see (interpretations of) TextEdit, Automator, Font Book, Keychain Access, and, with external storage support, Disk Utility. TextEdit on the Mac seems like a trivial one, but there is no built-in text editor on iOS that can access TextEdit documents on iCloud Drive – personally, I think that’s crazy. Automator is one of those tools that few people use, but those that do realize how incredibly powerful and useful it is. In fact, Workflow, one of the best third-party iOS apps on the platform, is pretty much an expanded Automator. Font management & keychain support are other areas that do not really have third-party equivalents on iOS, despite being essential for certain kinds of users.

iOS devices to be able to install the latest OS from Recovery mode without iTunes

iphone6-ios9-recovery-mode-screen

Right now, one of the last remaining reasons to connect an iOS app to a desktop computer is to install the OS. Fixing this would be difficult, no doubt, but NetBoot & Internet Recovery have long been things on the Mac. It’s been a while, so I may be misremembering, but I think the first-generation (x86) Apple TV could redownload its OS from the internet in recovery mode if something went wrong. Eventually, I think iOS needs an expanded Recovery environment that can do this for itself.

’AppleScript’ for iOS

Perhaps a legacy of a forgotten age, but with AppleScript gaining brand-new JavaScript language support lately, perhaps AppleScript has a place in the iOS ecosystem. That AppleScript still exists is fascinating in and of itself – it was one of the first environments in which I learned to program, back in System 7.

Expanded USB device support for iOS

A hard sell, especially when the Made for iPhone program is such a big thing for Apple, but there are all kinds of devices I’d like to be able to use on iOS through the USB adapter beyond audio, keyboard & mass storage devices. I’d like developers to be able to write user-mode driver apps to talk to existing hardware – in my case: capture cards, TV tuners, serial adapters. External cameras, input devices, etc. Having every single USB device require an MFi authentication chip and certified accessory apps really hurts. You could buy a pre-existing iPhone MFi RS232 adapter and use their already-approved SDK to make an app that talked to (/synced with) e.g. a Newton, Raspberry Pi, or Arduino. You can’t use Apple’s USB adapter to do the same with a non-MFi USB serial adapter. I don’t expect this to change, but I wish it did.

Fix Mac App Store

macbook

Finally, this is an important one: it’s become very clear that the Mac App Store is not fit for purpose. To be reductive, sandboxing restrictions & monetization issues have driven-out so many longtime, respected Mac developers. Those that stay often have MAS and non-MAS versions of the same app – the non-MAS generally being the one with the full featureset. Third-parties have resorted to coercing MAS customers to crossgrade to non-MAS versions of the apps. This never should have been allowed happen – it’s bad for developers, and it’s bad for users. It shouldn’t be crazy to think that all Mac software should be available through the Mac App Store. Microsoft Office, Creative Cloud, etc – every effort should have been made such that the MAS is the only place you’d even consider selling your Mac apps. Even today, Apple provides software through the MAS that does not play by its own self-imposed sandboxing rules, the same restrictions that drove everybody else out. This was so fixable, and perhaps still is. Right now it’s a travesty; there is no leadership here.

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Comments

  1. Julien (@FLKone) - 8 years ago

    Xcode wish : “Run on Remote device”

    With the Apple TV is really boring to debug on a real TV, cut the USB cord Apple. Please.

    iOS/tvOS wish: “OpenURL on Remote device”

    So we can launch an app on tvOS from an iOS device. ie. you are on safari, you see a Youtube link, long press on it, “Open on Apple TV”. Boom. Now you have to click the link, open youtube App, wait for the video to load, click the AirPlay Button, and go back to Safari. Boring :D

    • ninjadude99 - 8 years ago

      I don’t know about the second one, but for the first one, we actually did have that feature (at least for iOS, and it was available on iTunes as well as Xcode). But they removed a while after, stating that there were way too many problems with the implementation and that when they fix it (someday… -_-), they’ll put it back.

      I’m still waiting for that feature to come back on both apps.

  2. viciosodiego - 8 years ago

    The reason apple hasn’t implemented a accessible filesystem, in my opinion, is because the way HFS X is engineered doesn’t allow it with out compromising security.
    All the other ideas are cool.
    I didn’t know i wanted a recovery partition on iOS until now.

  3. cambookpro - 8 years ago

    Agree with most of this, but there are lots of iOS apps which mimic the functionality of OS X apps already.

    Font Book (OS X) -> iFont (iOS)
    TextEdit (OS X) -> Ai Writer (iOS)
    Automator (OS X) -> Workflow (iOS)

    Etc.

  4. theronster - 8 years ago

    Lol, some of these are cheerfully delusional.

    • thedingohasmybaby - 8 years ago

      Yeah — somebody hasn’t been looking at the sales figures. iPads are down 25%, broadly mirroring the public’s slow drift away from tablets. This is the time for Apple to [continue to] hedge on the Mac, not suddenly go all in on iOS.

      • AeronPeryton - 8 years ago

        It also completely ignores how Mac sales are still rising, against PCs, against the entire industry. Nowhere near the numbers that iOS devices are pulling, but a growing platform is not a dead platform in any language (unless you’re talking about Windows Mobile).

  5. ninjadude99 - 8 years ago

    I personally don’t care for the file system on iPad and I don’t think Xcode for iPad would be in Apple’s best interests (for fears that Mac sales will dive down even more). Furthermore, I’m personally okay with the iOS Recovery Mode w/ iTunes as long as Apple does it in a way that doesn’t compromise the security of the iOS device itself.

    Terminal for iOS, though? iOS isn’t even that old. I don’t know: I feel like it doesn’t deserve it like Windows, OS X, and Linux does (since they’re old and has a long history of it).

    I don’t agree that OS X is going to die. As much as I like iOS and the iPhone/iPad (and use them extensively), I just can’t see myself using both as a daily driver (to the point where I would ditch my Mac). I like OS X way too much for that to happen.

    The rest, though, I’m perfectly fine with.

    • just-a-random-dude - 8 years ago

      > I don’t think Xcode for iPad would be in Apple’s best interests (for fears that Mac sales will dive down even more).

      It most likely will be limited to developing iOS + Swift apps only, so it is not going to eat into the Mac sales too much, you’ll still need Macs for OS X apps.

      Apple would rather have more iPad owners than Mac owners and have iPad eat into the Mac sales than someone else. Microsoft is working on adding Swift to Visual Studio and will likely have a subscription plan to let their customers submit iOS/OS X apps via remotely hosted Mac minis.

      • jamesjonesdet - 8 years ago

        Until Develoers can develop code on an iPad Pro the Pro is worthless for a Software Developer. Add that developers rely heavily on the simulator which lets bugs for the device slip through developing directly on the hardware would reduce those issues for end customers. I’m pretty sure 99% of all developers would agree and give the Pros limited audience and ambitions to replace the Air having Xcode or other IDEs on the iPad would be in Apple’s best interest.

      • I see Xcode for iPad as a complementary tool and a useful one, but can’t see any serious developers ditching their Mac’s any time soon. Macs are versatile and well established from a hardware and software view point; I’m thinking things like external screens, big screens, ability to run virtual machines, ability to bootcamp into Windows for Visual Studio development. Don’t get me wrong, I like iOS and sometimes it would be useful to browser code and stuff on an iPad and I can imagine storyboards adapting to a touch environment – but I’ll still want a Mac too.

  6. applegetridofsimandjack - 8 years ago

    Something I’ve been waiting for years is for Apple to allow us to easily put videos on iOS devices. They make it extremely difficult for consumers to allow them to put movies on their iPads and iPhones.
    We all know why they do this, the want us to rent/buy movies from the iTunes Store. Well that won’t ever happen, it’s way too expensive.

    Transferring videos via iTunes on a Mac or PC is a terrible experience.

    • Robert Wilson - 8 years ago

      Not just video. Audio too. I have tons of music that I bought on CD as well as MP3 from Amazon way before I got my first iPod and now iPhone and iPad. In fact for muting music I still use Amazon becouse I know any device can play it.

      Sadly for digital movies and tv shows the industry wants them locked down with DRM so they are locked to only certain devices. They just won’t learn DRM don’t stop the Pirates it only hurts the lagunamit customer by forcing to only play it on certain devices. Really if you buy a video you should be alowed to play it on anything you own.

      I actually bought a video of a comedian becouse he was selling it on his website with no DRM for $5 where as when it came out on the sites for iTunes and Amazon and other it was a lot higher and locked with DRM.

      The restrictions is what forces some people to go and download the videos from the dark side of the net.

    • thedingohasmybaby - 8 years ago

      Does the old trick of putting your videos on an SD card and previewing them via the camera accessory kit no longer work?

      A properly supported way of viewing videos would be infinitely better, of course, but there at least has historically been a way.

    • Apple won’t support this. There are very good applications with many possibilities how to get in the content. nPlayer is one of the best video player out there which lets you upload or stream the content via: WebDAV, FTP, SFTP, HTTP, UPnP/DLNA, cloud service (Amazon Cloud Drive, Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Yandex.Disk), Toshiba wireless storage (FlashAir, Wireless SSD, Wireless HDD, Wireless Adapter) and also supports in-app web browser (Streaming, Downloading)

      https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/nplayer/id539397400?mt=8

  7. applegetridofsimandjack - 8 years ago

    Something else, finish the work that should’ve been done for Apple Music. It was rushed and that was very clear to everyone. It misses social features especially.

    Also, how am I supposed to transfer my Spotify playlist to Apple Music?

  8. jamesjonesdet - 8 years ago

    Retire Xcode and work with Jetbrians to further develop AppCode. AppCode is already 10x better dispite Apple try to make it difficult for them and have less ability to do tight integration.

    • thedingohasmybaby - 8 years ago

      It’s like marmite; I personally think that AppCode and the other JetBrains IDEs aren’t as good as Xcode. A million times better than Eclipse, of course, but e.g. in Xcode I can capture a GL ES frame, see it broken down by assets utilised, geometry submitted and shaders run, see a line-by-line profiling of a shader, and even adjust a shader and hit a single button to see a live rerun of the same frame with the new version. Or I can create a UI test by running the app in the simulator and performing the actions I want performed, leading to a fairly decent semantic version of them (e.g. wait for appearance of and tap button with this title, not wait 0.5 seconds and tap at (23, 49)) into which I can just throw my asserts.

      AppCode didn’t even support Swift playgrounds when last I checked.

      • jamesjonesdet - 8 years ago

        I agree Xcode has better advanced debuging tools (part of my Apple tight integration/blocking comment).

        However Xcode lacks some very simple tools all Jetbrians IDEs have like duplicate a line, extract method, rename class/method/variable/etc, extract closer, etc… Also AppCode’s inline variable/method value debuging is amazing to use.

        Playgrounds arent yet working in AppCode but for day to day coding I prefer AppCode because the coding aspect of the tool is much better. Google working with Jetbrians on Android Studio has done wonders for Android development and I’m sure it would do it for iOS as well (iOS dev is still easier than Android I’m just pointing out the improvement once Google partnered with Jetbrians).

  9. cuberonix - 8 years ago

    Xcode for iPad would be fantastic. I’d love to be able to develop apps on the go.

    My long shot wish: Trackpad or mouse support for iPad. I like using a keyboard sometimes and hate having to constantly reach out and touch the screen. Gorilla arm sets in after a while.

  10. SKR Imaging - 8 years ago

    Great Article.. I agree with all that has been said here.. especially the mass storage support in iOS.. it’s high time that we are allowed to plug in USB Hard drives to offload data from and to the iOS device..

    iBooks Author was a no brainer on iOS yet has never been implemented.. No idea why.

    Apple TV should really have been sold with a gaming controller in box.

    Mac App Store started off like something great and has quickly become a disgrace… Apple must listen to the developers on this one and allow them to set upgrade pricing and also allow for trial mode of apps.. they are selling 300$ and higher priced apps on the MAS yet user can not try before they buy.. the refund process is a pain so user will just give up and purchase directly from the dev.. on the user end, it entails giving out credit card info left and right instead of just to Apple..

    WWDC 2016 is the best time to reinvigorate developers and users alike!! Apple should not drop the ball on this one.

  11. giuseppe1111 - 8 years ago

    Steven you are mainly a programmer.

    Why your vision of osx’s future is a big iphoneOS with a keyboard?

    Maybe because of the low remuneration that mac app store generates for your effort?

    There was a time when osx was used for scientific purposes, there were osx servers and software…

    Why now osx should be developed around :
    – “i use facebook Not internet” users
    – photographers-instagrammers
    – bloggers
    – fashionists

  12. baussie - 8 years ago

    Apple is saying that combining OS X and iOS is a bad idea (and I agree with that). Why would they merge them and specifically AppKit and UIKit then? And I don’t think that tvOS is a good example of how UIKit could be used on Mac. Let’s not forget that Apple TV has the same hardware as iOS devices and its interface has way too many similarities with iOS in terms of precision pointing and relying and tapping and swiping. None of that applies to Mac.

    Plus, you can already share code between OS X and iOS apps.

  13. Jurgis Ŝalna - 8 years ago

    While I do not agree that OS X is a dead platform (if anything, tablet is a dead platform), I like where you are going with “Terminal environment for iOS”. Apple really has to open up iOS finally. More and more I hear about people switching to Android because iOS is too limited. Apple is trying to become more open, so why not open source iOS?

    • Markus (@jokey2k) - 8 years ago

      Are there common examples where iOS is too limited? I hear that often but nothing substantial when asked for details…

      • Jurgis Ŝalna - 8 years ago

        What? You can’t run unsigned apps. That’s the main limitation. The whole model is a limitation Sherlock.

        I can’t change DNS for cellular network, can’t modify Control Center, can’t use Google’s dictation services (Apple has only few languages), can’t access the command line, can’t set up my own finger gestures for tab switching in Safari.

  14. awaceo - 8 years ago

    Great!

    Sent from my iPhone

    >

  15. sword2pen - 8 years ago

    Definitely Fontbook for iOS / iCloud!

  16. Great comments on iBooks Author – we definitely need to see that on the iPad Pro and iOS in general. Will be discussed much more this fall at the iBooks Author Conference.

  17. AeronPeryton - 8 years ago

    TextEdit sorely needs an iOS analog. And I have long wanted Notes and TextEdit on OS X to merge into a single app. It would probably need a complete rewrite so the best answer would be to expand Notes into a platform for storing all the different formats that TextEdit can support, then scrapping TextEdit (One of the last remaining holdouts from the PowerPC era) once and for all.

    I need a better way to see documents stored in TextEdit’s iCloud folder than opening them in iCloud Drive and being shoved into Pages which makes a copy of the same file in Pages’s iCloud folder that I won’t ever edit.

  18. David Kaplan - 8 years ago

    I completely disagree that OS X is dying… One reason Microsoft sucks is that they basically have 1 platform for every device.

  19. Mason (@MasonsTech1) - 8 years ago

    I would really like to see Final Cut Pro come to IOS as it would be awesome especially on the iPad pro with its awesome video editing abilities. I would seriously ditch my macbook air for an iPad if this happened

  20. Chuck - 8 years ago

    You are asking for a Desktop OS on a Tablet/Phone. And while some of your ‘wishes’ may come to pass as extensions of IOS, they are mainly requests for Authorship on a Consuming device. Are your wishes possible? Sure. Are they probable? Nope. Apple has stated more than once that their tablets and phones (and underlying OSs) are consuming devices. Xcode on a Mac will get you all you ask for.

  21. Saud AlSahli - 8 years ago

    Wow I Love it all the thoughts of it, all I want from Apple todo and more are in this article, thanks and love

  22. amazingrugs - 8 years ago

    Some good requests. I would say things like AppleScript, font book, disk utility etc should be available in the App Store if the user wanted them, and not pre-installed on the device. People complain already about un-needed apps on iOS, and you are wanting more, and apps that a very very limited % of people would even use.

    Another thing I would be wary of is making iOS too much like OSX. I really do feel they are for different markets, where iOS (iPad) is the Everyman/women’s device, and OSX is for more involved work. And I think that is ok, especially given the initial buy in cost to an iPad. Nearly all features are available on the newest iPad mini as compared to the iPad pro, and that is really amazing and I think people forget that. Besides screen size of course, the iOS experience scales really well when you look at the newest hardware in the iPad line, something you cannot say about a $300 PC as compared to an $800 PC. To me, the (overwhelming) amount of software that an average person has available to them through an iPad, combined with the ease of use and cost is an extremely compelling package, and right now I don’t think can be matched by other platforms.

    Definitely excited to see what new features are brought to iOS 10, as there are a few key features that should be added (why can I not add an MP3 that was emailed me or in my Dropbox to my on device music collection??) to really make it a 100% standalone device for most people.

  23. Totally agree with fixing the Mac App Store, this situation is a real mess. I think if Apple can fix some of the monetization issues there might be cross-pollination for the ioS App Store too that might help the iPad Pro out; To work the iPad Pro’s tech now requires expensive software development in niche markets and the software developers need to be confident when investing time into the platform. I think we need trail version support and paid upgrade to new major release support for starters.

  24. drgeert - 8 years ago

    Integrating and editing PDFs in Notes, like you can in Mail.

  25. I wish Apple started to pay serious attention to the business part, specially networking and playing nice with Linux and also need some true effort to get OpenGL working as it should. Also I would like to see MacPros with nVidia graphic cars which is what we need in VFX, period.
    Get your act together or loose the enterprise desktop to Linux, as simple as that.

  26. richardshears - 8 years ago

    +1 I agree for the most part. I’m hoping that you are wrong about OS X however. Final Cut Pro not really going to work on an iPad when it I end up with projects that are 2-4TBs in size.
    One thing worthy of mentioning that this article missed. Bluetooth Mouse support. There are some things that a mouse/trackpad is easier at than a finger or pen (cil).

  27. rtdunham - 8 years ago

    Just let me open and run iOS apps in a window on my Mac.

  28. gerrycurry - 8 years ago

    I have a much easier solution. Instead of wanting all the MacOS features on iOS, why not just dump iOS and move MacOS over? I use both OSs for many hours each day, but I NEVER create ANYTHING with iOS. I only use it to consume. iOS is so limiting in it’s features, and rather than expanding the limitations, Apple has been merrily going along, dumbing down MacOS to match it, so now, not only is iOS a piece of crap, but MacOS is getting that way too! Remember AppleWorks? It was far superior to Pages, and the original Pages is far superior to the current version. Remember Aperture and iPhoto? They’re significantly better than Photos… and you can’t even dump Photos! Apple needs to get a grip or it’s going to lose its serious customers and just get left with the “selfie” crowd! We’ve come so far… for god’s sake don’t let Microsoft win now!