If Apple's environmental rhetoric is meaningful, Macs and iPads should converge
- Reference: 1669189511
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/11/23/apples_got_a_good_thing/
- Source link:
I say that after using [1]Apple's 4th Generation iPad Pro for three weeks. With an M2 system-on-a-chip and 8GB of RAM, along with Apple's always-gorgeous Retina display, it's both fast and beautiful – the Lamborghini of tablets. So far, no complaints. That Apple [2]claims "The new iPad models are designed to minimise their impact on the environment" doesn't hurt either.
But I do have an observation.
[3]
When I purchased the iPad Pro, I also bought Apple's [4]expensive-but-worth-it Magic Keyboard , sporting both a reasonably nice keyboard and a trackpad. I'm still getting used to it, as I've been trained to touch the screen when positioning an iPad cursor. But this accessory has a little feature that changed my entire perspective on Apple and its products.
[5]
[6]
On the left hinge of the Magic Keyboard, there's a USB C interface. This port lets me charge the iPad Pro, keeping the cable well out of the way. And although this interface can only be used for charging, it does give my iPad Pro a second USB C port.
Back in June, Apple introduced a [7]new generation of MacBook Air – the first of its product line powered by the M2. These stripped-down machines have Retina displays, 8GB of RAM … and two USB C ports. Given that one of those ports will frequently be used for charging, the device effectively has one free USB C port.
[8]
The only significant differences I've been able to note between a MacBook Air and my iPad Pro + Magic Keyboard combo are that the MacBook Air has a larger display. The iPad Pro swaps size for touch-sensitivity. (The differences between a MacBook Air and the larger 12.9" iPad Pro are almost trivial.)
For this, my iPad Pro setup costs twice as much (here in Australia at least – elsewhere the dark art of Apple pricing may shift the ratio a little either way).
I'm not really complaining about the pricing. But I do marvel at Apple's cheek – selling effectively the same hardware at two price points, differentiated only by user interface hardware and a change of operating system.
[9]
For some time – especially since Apple moved the Mac away from Intel CPUs – many have openly wondered why the iPad has not had an option to run macOS. The [10]Darwin operating system underlying both macOS and iPadOS has been on a convergent course for half a decade. Many iPad apps can even run – unmodified! – on the latest versions of macOS. From top to bottom, macOS and iPadOS do a lot of the same things in the same way. The only significant differences reside in the user interface – the Mac's mouse-driven Finder versus iPad's touch-based home screen.
Apple makes a good argument that the simplicity and consistency of iPadOS – and its tight control of how software makes it onto the device – makes it both easy to use and highly secure. All very well.
But shouldn't that be a matter of choice – by which I mean user choice, not Apple's? Why should I carry both an iPad Pro and a MacBook Air, when it's nothing more than a wasteful duplication of hardware resources?
[11]VMware refreshes desktop hypervisors, adds Apple Silicon support
[12]Only iPhone 15 Pro models will have higher data transfer speeds on USB-C – analyst
[13]Apple sued for collecting user data despite opt-outs
[14]Apple and Amazon conspired to raise iPhone and iPad prices, claims class action lawsuit
We need to constrain our consumption in order to manage our environmental footprint. This should not be a controversial thing to say at this point in time. I can see how it helps Apple's bottom line to sell me the same hardware twice, but doesn't imminent environmental collapse call for an approach emphasizing flexibility and re-use?
The [15]security issues of a single machine running two OSes are real – but they could be managed. The resource issues, however, will continue to plague us until we operate within an understanding that general-purpose computing devices aren't simply landfill-in-waiting. Nor are they meant to be tied to any particular set of tasks at the whim of the manufacturer.
We've already seen various jurisdictions strike out against Apple's hardware lock-in – [16]mandating USB C ports on its next generation of iPhones, for instance. Perhaps someday I might dual-boot this really quite wonderful iPad Pro, making it even more useful for a wider range of tasks. That's not even hard – all it requires is a desire to "think different". ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/18/apple_new_ipad_pro/
[2] https://www.apple.com/au/newsroom/2022/10/apple-introduces-next-generation-ipad-pro-supercharged-by-the-m2-chip/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2Y339TRrUpcS38PBdQd9LmwAAAAY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/22/ipad_pro_magic_keyboard_review/
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y339TRrUpcS38PBdQd9LmwAAAAY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y339TRrUpcS38PBdQd9LmwAAAAY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/08/apple_macbook_air_m2/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44Y339TRrUpcS38PBdQd9LmwAAAAY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33Y339TRrUpcS38PBdQd9LmwAAAAY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/26/mac_at_20/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/21/vmware_workstation_fusion_updates/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/17/iphone_15_usb_c_speeds/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/14/apple_data_collection_lawsuit/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/11/10/apple_and_amazon_clas_action_price_collusion_ipad_iuphone/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/31/apple_patches_activelyexploited_iphone_ipad/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/10/27/apple_usbc/
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Why should I carry both an iPad Pro and a MacBook Air
Indeed.
> making it even more useful for a wider range of tasks
That would be a big marketing no-no: The point of selling stuff is to make as much money as (legally) possible, which necessarily means forcing the potential customer to buy a lot and often . At the highest commercially possible price of course.
Because the iPad store lets Apple make more money than macOS
But the funny thing is that MS idea of Surface running Windows was right - they just needed to understand the OS has to switch between two modes - instead they delivered OSes with one mode only.
Re: Because the iPad store lets Apple make more money than macOS
MS tried an OS that worked well on a tablet unfortunately they also forced desktop users to have it, then instead of making it have two modes one for tablet and one for desktop style use they threw the tablet stuff away... real shame as win 8 was great on a tablet, dogshit on desktop. 10 really should've had both modes depending on use for those that could understand it.
Re: Because the iPad store lets Apple make more money than macOS
> MS idea of Surface running Windows was right
I wouldn't call this an "idea". MS didn't have a tablet OS, and is barely capable of managing it's existing desktop OS, so creating one from scratch was out of the question.
As a result, to be able to ride the (then flourishing) tablet craze, the sensible (in MS's marketing mind) thing to do was to turn their desktop OS into a tablet OS, no matter the cost (to users). Cue Win8.
macOS is dying
The Mac as we know it will be dead soon, as Apple force everyone onto iOS App Store.
The direction has been clear for quite some time. The only real question is when.
Apple already have a copy of every piece of macOS software, and installation statistics - at least, for the majority who said yes to tracking. And the ones who said no, well, Apple doesn't care about them.
Re: macOS is dying
Utter claptrap. Mac sales have vastly increased since the release of Apple Silicon, at a time when the PC market overall has been dwindling even further.
And why Apple would want to "force everyone on the iOS app store" when Apple makes the same commission through its Mac OS store is anyone's guess as it makes no sense (for a start, many apps can't work on a limited system like iOS, but why waste energy contemplating about the details, right?).
What a stupid comment.
Unix?
The Mac runs Unix and allows me to code Java and run Java apps. Thank you for ignoring me.
If we cared about the environment
... we'd still be using first generation iPads, and the latest software and websites would still work on them.
long time coming
OS X > macOS and the various iOS flavors have been meandering their way to a meeting point for quite some time, I said this long ago. I'm too lazy to look for the comment...
And this is the third Apple story in 3 hours. Elon must be taking the day off?
Suggestion
I've been pondering how Apple could close the gap, and allow iPads to be better productivity devices... and I think an iPad/iOS App, that is effectively a virtual machine instance of one's main MacOS environment (perhaps synced with iCloud) would be a really neat solution... the device is then an iPad for consumption, and contains your full fat MacOS environment for when you have keyboard/mouse/trackpad pluged in, and need to do real productivity tasks, like moving files around / document management etc... it could perhaps be a slimmed down version of the MacOS environment (for example, if they want to protect their walled garden/App store, although I think that model is probably on borrowed time for anti-trust/competition law reasons)... anyway, that would allow me to go away for a couple of days and only take the iPad!
Pointless article
I fail to see the point the article wants to make. From an environmental perspective, it's doesn't really matter much whether Apple sells two products which, supposedly, are similar (even though they are not), instead of just one. For a given number of buyers, whether they all buy iPads or whether sales are split between iPad and MBA, the environmental footprint is roughly the same.
Also, all the complaints about iPads not running mac OS fail to to see why iPad is literally the only tablet platform that is successful in that market (Windows tablets like MS Surface are only doing OK, not great, and are mostly used as laptop replacements; Android tablets have been a complete failure) - which is *not* just running a full desktop OS on tablet hardware but an OS that has been designed around the priorities and (often unique) properties of a tablet.
Most Apple customers see this the same way, which is why iPads and Macs are so successful in making Apple a lot of $$$. Why Apple would want to follow the author's advice, which amounts to little more than asking Apple to replicate the failures of its competitors, is anyone's guess.
Why should I carry both an iPad Pro and a MacBook Air
Because if you don't, Apple won't make so much money?