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A Multi-Touch iPhone OS Layer On Top of Mac OS X?
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How many?
How many engines does Nissan or Ford or Mercedes Benz need for it's fleet of vehicles? As many as necessary for the market.
How many engines does Nissan or Ford or Mercedes Benz need for it's fleet of vehicles? As many as necessary for the market.
True. There isn't as much profit catering to the professional market. With the kind of money Apple is making with the iDevices I don't think they would mind giving what is left of the Pro market to Windows. Apple is a corporation that is very focused on profit. The profit maker for Apple is the consumer devices not the professional market. They will continue to tinker around with the professional market as long as they can make a dollar on the hardware and software. If margins or volume become very thin, I don't think they would have any problem exiting that market. The few remaining professionals wouldn't have too much problem with moving over to a Windows based solution.
Microsoft being the key word there. They've never exactly been known for creating thoughtful user interfaces.
Takeo said:
I think they did that for the people who crave new bullet points on their feature lists rather than coherent and useful functionality.
Good advice.
Exactly. No point in making the current lineup of mac computers touchscreen without a complete overhaul of the hardware...which I'm pretty sure people who are interested in this type of computing wouldn't mind a bit. The G4 was awesome, as I missed the control you had over the screen.
I for one, love my iPhone, but I also love putting it down and working away on OSX.
That's what I was thinking too. A Touch Frontrow is a strange idea to use to describe this layer.
It puzzles me why most of the apps on iPhone OS are apps and not just dashboard widgets that for the most part would work cross-platform and be very simple to create (just HTML/CSS/JS).
Web based widgets are how other phones (Palm WebOS, Nokia Symbian S60v5 and Maemo at least) have implemented applications and widgets yet Apple, having Dashboard already didn't.
Not many of their vehicles have TWO engines in the same vehicle though, which is what this rumour is suggesting.
One of the best posts I have ever read on this site. My morning tea almost shot out of my nose. Thank you
the computers are too complex population is people over 50. my 2 year old has figured out how to use my iphone and has kind of figured out some concepts of OS X/WIndows. when on the internet and he wants a new video he points to the right link, but hasn't grasped the concept that you need to move a mouse there and click
So, first we buy ourselves Bluethooth keyboards and mice so we can sit however far away from the screen as it pleases us and our eyes, and then we have to sit right in front of the screen again so we can touch it. Suuuuuure.
A multitouch keyboard on the other hand...
A multitouch keyboard on the other hand...
Removing the abstraction layer of a mouse in favor of direct manipulation is clearly where we are headed, like it or not. There will continue to be a need for specialized tools to enable greater precision for tasks such as image editing, but it will be a niche rather than the norm. Wacom tablets are a niche product now.
The home appliance computer is coming. An OS where a user doesn't need to navigate a file system, run disk utility, manage their TCP/IP settings, or even see file extensions is a logical next step for a consumer system.
So, first we buy ourselves Bluethooth keyboards and mice so we can sit however far away from the screen as it pleases us and our eyes, and then we have to sit right in front of the screen again so we can touch it. Suuuuuure.
A multitouch keyboard on the other hand...
Or even a screen that sits at an angle closer to you and replaces the keyboard. Eventually someone will get the touchscreen keyboard exactly right.
and i wanted to buy my son a Mac by the time he turns 3 just so he can learn the bash shell and get into the guts of how things work instead of going through 20 different abstraction layers. i've been using WIndows since Windows 95 and i prefer doing my own folder management and not the mickey mouse virtual folders MS copied from Apple in Vista and 7
I may get some hate for bringing this up, but...
OSX came out in its first iteration for servers in 99 and for desktops in 2001. It has been through generations of Macs. 10 years in the computer world is a loooong time. There have been multiple sea changes in technology since then. Instead of talking about what can and can't be bolted on to OSX, shouldn't we be asking if it isn't time for development of OS eleven?
Don't get me wrong, here. OSX is a fabulous system, but when we're sitting around talking about how technologies like multitouch just don't add anything to the system, shouldn't we be asking why? We've got new ways to interact with the machines, and maybe we should have a new system to support that tech.
The mouse was a large part of what made the Mac OS revolutionary - it was a way of interacting with the machine that made it accessible to more people, but it required the software to complete the revolution. Does anybody remember the marketing campaign that compared IBM's that required programmig knowledge and typing skills to use to the Mac, where "if you can point, you can use a Mac?" Plugging a mouse into a PC or a IIc with old software did not provide the same change in interactivity that one experienced with the MAC GUI.
Maybe instead of looking at how we can add multitouch to the old software, we should be asking Apple for new software to adapt to new tech.
Just a thought.
OSX came out in its first iteration for servers in 99 and for desktops in 2001. It has been through generations of Macs. 10 years in the computer world is a loooong time. There have been multiple sea changes in technology since then. Instead of talking about what can and can't be bolted on to OSX, shouldn't we be asking if it isn't time for development of OS eleven?
Don't get me wrong, here. OSX is a fabulous system, but when we're sitting around talking about how technologies like multitouch just don't add anything to the system, shouldn't we be asking why? We've got new ways to interact with the machines, and maybe we should have a new system to support that tech.
The mouse was a large part of what made the Mac OS revolutionary - it was a way of interacting with the machine that made it accessible to more people, but it required the software to complete the revolution. Does anybody remember the marketing campaign that compared IBM's that required programmig knowledge and typing skills to use to the Mac, where "if you can point, you can use a Mac?" Plugging a mouse into a PC or a IIc with old software did not provide the same change in interactivity that one experienced with the MAC GUI.
Maybe instead of looking at how we can add multitouch to the old software, we should be asking Apple for new software to adapt to new tech.
Just a thought.
Why not buy him a soccer ball or a set of watercolors instead? If you're going to cultivate a hobby for him, make it one that encourages an interest in athleticism or creativity, rather than a fondness for obscure antiques.
But we have seen Apple's vision of the future and it is bleak. There is no way I will submit to Apple's walled garden for my general computing device. I don't care how wonderful the new paradigm is. I might have thought different if Apple hadn't tried so hard to keep applications out of their garden that competed with their own apps along with all the other things they have been blasted for.
iPhone OS and OS X are NOT different
One thing people need to understand is that the iPhone OS and OS X are not two different animals. The iPhone OS is really just a stripped down version of OS X with a custom set of UI elements. The same also applies to Apple TV. The core of the operating system is the same on all of these platforms.
One thing people need to understand is that the iPhone OS and OS X are not two different animals. The iPhone OS is really just a stripped down version of OS X with a custom set of UI elements. The same also applies to Apple TV. The core of the operating system is the same on all of these platforms.
Agreed. I can see this going much farther than as just an over-the-top feature.Certainly a very interesting idea...
If you really look at it, the iPhone OS is a touch-centric GUI on top of a pared-down UNIX OS, just as the Mac GUI is on a fully-certified UNIX OS. The interesting thing to me is that this might make it possible for the iPad to become an I/O device for a desktop computer and still be an independent device when disconnected. I see some real potential here.
Multitouch has been available on the MacBook and MacBook Pro for a couple years, now. When you consider that the MB touchpads are almost 4x larger than any previous standalone models (until Wacom's, that is) then multitouch has obviously been there a while.
Most people use computers incorrectly
I suspect that most folks that post on this forum have a high degree of tech-saavy ... at least the ones that are getting heated up on this particular topic. So I'm gonna guess that most of us have watched someone else use a computer, surf the web, program their smartphones, etc. So I'm thinking that I'm not alone in the belief that most people don't know how to "properly" use a computer or any electronic device in general.
I'll explain. Assuming that I am using the Internet correctly, if I want to go to my G-mail account, I open Safari (click the icon in the dock), and type in "gma" into the URL bar and hit enter (note - Safari will have determined that I want gmail even though I didn't fully type it in). That's one mouse click and 4 key presses. If I'm lazy, I'll just use the bookmark and reduce my expenditure to just 2 mouse clicks.
My wife, on the other hand, uses Firefox and Hotmail. So when she wants to check her e-mail, she clicks the Firefox icon, and types "hotmail" into the Yahoo search bar and presses enter (at least she's not clicking the submit button). Then she'll click the hotmail link in the search results. That's two mouse clicks and 8 keyboard strokes. This is the WRONG way to do it.
It gets worse. Have you ever tried to help someone try to edit a file that they just saved? Perhaps a co-worker. So there you are, standing behind them watching them navigate Windows Explorer ... drilling down several folders and back up. Taking 3 minutes to find the file. When the RIGHT way to do this would be to go START>My Recent Documents.
I hate that and I'm guessing that most of us do to.
I've read some of those articles that Arn linked and I've thought about this too. Most people's mind don't work in the same way that ours do. The thing is that computers and OS's are designed by folks that think like we do. So the way we operate computers seem natural because the interface was designed by people like us.
Touch interfaces are not designed for people like us. It's designed for people like my wife (and dad, etc). That's why techies will feel cramped and confined. We'll long for our keyboards and line prompts, but everyone else will be flicking and pinching away.
In the end, maybe it's not such a bad thing to simplify the interface. I don't need to use up all of my brain memory on such trivial matters as the Quicken Cmd shortcut to bring up the Saved Transaction menu.
BTW, I have learned to be patient when dealing with other peoples computer use techniques, but if you are a hunt/peck typist, just stay away from me ... well at least develop your skill to a point where you can type faster than 25 wpm.
I suspect that most folks that post on this forum have a high degree of tech-saavy ... at least the ones that are getting heated up on this particular topic. So I'm gonna guess that most of us have watched someone else use a computer, surf the web, program their smartphones, etc. So I'm thinking that I'm not alone in the belief that most people don't know how to "properly" use a computer or any electronic device in general.
I'll explain. Assuming that I am using the Internet correctly, if I want to go to my G-mail account, I open Safari (click the icon in the dock), and type in "gma" into the URL bar and hit enter (note - Safari will have determined that I want gmail even though I didn't fully type it in). That's one mouse click and 4 key presses. If I'm lazy, I'll just use the bookmark and reduce my expenditure to just 2 mouse clicks.
My wife, on the other hand, uses Firefox and Hotmail. So when she wants to check her e-mail, she clicks the Firefox icon, and types "hotmail" into the Yahoo search bar and presses enter (at least she's not clicking the submit button). Then she'll click the hotmail link in the search results. That's two mouse clicks and 8 keyboard strokes. This is the WRONG way to do it.
It gets worse. Have you ever tried to help someone try to edit a file that they just saved? Perhaps a co-worker. So there you are, standing behind them watching them navigate Windows Explorer ... drilling down several folders and back up. Taking 3 minutes to find the file. When the RIGHT way to do this would be to go START>My Recent Documents.
I hate that and I'm guessing that most of us do to.
I've read some of those articles that Arn linked and I've thought about this too. Most people's mind don't work in the same way that ours do. The thing is that computers and OS's are designed by folks that think like we do. So the way we operate computers seem natural because the interface was designed by people like us.
Touch interfaces are not designed for people like us. It's designed for people like my wife (and dad, etc). That's why techies will feel cramped and confined. We'll long for our keyboards and line prompts, but everyone else will be flicking and pinching away.
In the end, maybe it's not such a bad thing to simplify the interface. I don't need to use up all of my brain memory on such trivial matters as the Quicken Cmd shortcut to bring up the Saved Transaction menu.
BTW, I have learned to be patient when dealing with other peoples computer use techniques, but if you are a hunt/peck typist, just stay away from me ... well at least develop your skill to a point where you can type faster than 25 wpm.
I have my laptop in fornt of me now, I'd much rather press the Gmail bookmark with my finger than type gma into the address bar. And I'm 'tech savvy'.
No, this is pure speculation and is going too far. The multi-touch UI is designed for devices held in the hand.
It doesn't suddenly make more sense to add this UI on top of iMacs or MacBooks. They are inherently different devices, and have no need for multi-touch.
It makes much much much more sense to use your iPhone or iPad as an input device for specific applications on the Mac.
5 seconds of realistic thought on the matter and you'll understand why Macs are not becoming touchscreens.
Instead, more and more iPads and iPad-inspired devices will continue to sport and grow the OSX Multitouch UI.
It is not coming to Macs, because there is no reason for it.
It doesn't suddenly make more sense to add this UI on top of iMacs or MacBooks. They are inherently different devices, and have no need for multi-touch.
It makes much much much more sense to use your iPhone or iPad as an input device for specific applications on the Mac.
5 seconds of realistic thought on the matter and you'll understand why Macs are not becoming touchscreens.
Instead, more and more iPads and iPad-inspired devices will continue to sport and grow the OSX Multitouch UI.
It is not coming to Macs, because there is no reason for it.
You read too much into my words. I do see my Mac workstation as a tool. I'm a Mac user who uses his Mac for professional purposes, all right?
And I'm worried about Apple moving away from the professional market. Will I still be able to do my job? Of course. There's still Windows. But that doesn't mean I like it.
For being a geek (and you must be or you wouldn't be browsing tech sites) I'm really surprised that you can't see that as one route towards the touch environment that was so ubiquitous on ST:TNG.
What I'm seeing here is the iPhone OS becoming the I/O for OS X to the point that devices like the iPhone and iPad actually become true input devices for a desktop computer as well as independent devices on their own. When you add the possibility that in gaming you could use an iPhone/iPad not only as a gaming pad, but have additional video in a similar manner to Nintendo's DS Gameboy. Of course, Nintendo might get a bit upset if they're too similar in gameplay concept.
Such a pad could also serve as an additional tool for photo and video editing, letting you track directly on a copy of the image/film rather than trying to look at the main screen while moving your hand/stylus down below. Then again, if you added the capacitive film to the iMac/Apple Cinema Display, then you could truly work graphical miracles right on the screen as well.
I see this as Apple, again, integrating hardware and software into a coherent package that will leap ahead of their competition.