Apple's WWDC 2014 to Focus on OS X 10.10 as Apple Pulls Resources from iOS 8 to Help

[SMIDG3T]

Looks like I am no longer looking forward to WWDC. I haven't touched my Mac Mini in over a year. That's still got 10.7 on it.

So Apple is behind on iOS 8 but they are just going to release it anyway and put most of the new features in 8.1?!!! Wow... Apple is starting to slip. I'd rather wait 6 extra months for them to put out sturdy builds and not just shovel us crap.

No. iOS 8 won't require as much work as iOS 7 needed. iOS 8 will just be a more faster, polished version of iOS 7 (a few new features will be added, of course), therefore, not as many developers are being tasked to work on the next iOS.

Pulling iOS developers and putting them on OS X makes more than enough sense. Apple aren't slipping. At all.

 

[adnbek]

The new look will have similar toggle designs to iOS 7, sharper window corners, more defined icons across the system, and more white space than the current version. However, OS X characteristics like the Finder, multi-window multitasking, and Mission Control will not disappear in favor of a more iOS-like experience.

I'm excited to see a redesign but please, please not this!

 

[JCsHands2]

Looks like iOS8 more focus built into OS X...

I wish Apple never did the whole "Bringing iOS features back to the Mac"

The Mac is a desktop, iOS rus on mobile..... the two shouldn't come together, or they if do, they don't bring everything across..

It seems Apple is heading this way... Lets just hope the more iOS features they add, they also give the same ability to disable it on a Desktop OS..

You don't see MS doing this do you... And they won't, because they realize that the two are separate..

Apple doesn't..

Ummm..... maybe you missed Windows 8. Microsoft is working on making one unified platform, Windows Phone, Desktop, Tablet and xbox, all with the same interface.

 

[KPOM]

Looks like iOS8 more focus built into OS X...


The Mac is a desktop, iOS rus on mobile..... the two shouldn't come together, or they if do, they don't bring everything across..

It seems Apple is heading this way... Lets just hope the more iOS features they add, they also give the same ability to disable it on a Desktop OS..

You don't see MS doing this do you... And they won't, because they realize that the two are separate..

doesn't..

Is this satire? Have you seen Windows 8?

 

[jamesnajera]

If iOS is in a good position, and OSX is undergoing a major overhaul, it makes sense to move talent to make sure OSX makes a big splash. The same thing was done for iOS7. Why hire a bunch of engineers that you won't need a year later when you don't have to?

You state "If iOS …", I don't think iOS is in good position. iOS7 was one of the worst rollouts Apple has ever released. The amount of bugs it had was not typical of there GM releases for iOS (the amount of reboot crashes were ridiculous). iOS 7.1 did not come out until 6 months later. And regardless of 7.1.1, I still think iOS7 needs some serious polishing. If this polishing was hopefully going to happen in iOS8, the chances of that are slim now that we know OSX needs help. As you state, this is not the first time Apple has needed to move talent between both OS's, hence if they need to keep shuffling developers, then why not higher more to avoid the continuous moving of talent. Apple is on a fast track of technology (which is great), but it is concerning to read about these types of rumors. In the past, when Apple was moving talent from OSX to iOS, they were not on the OSX major release yearly schedule.

Like I said though, this is just a rumor, and I am hoping for the best.

 

[Jyby]

Don't you think it will be OS XI ?

OS X i

 

[springsup]

The Mac is a great platform, but what it needs more than a cosmetic overhaul is an application frameworks overhaul.

AppKit has a ridiculous amount of legacy cruft in it. Just take a look at the documentation for NSWindow - it includes all kind of junk that isn't relevant any more; backing-store types, minimum colour depths (in case you have a B/W screen? ), and several screens full of other options.

Meanwhile, lots of those properties have documentation which looks like this:

NSBackingStoreType—Buffered Window Drawing
These constants specify how the drawing done in a window is buffered by the window device.

enum {
NSBackingStoreRetained = 0,
NSBackingStoreNonretained = 1,
NSBackingStoreBuffered = 2
};

typedef NSUInteger NSBackingStoreType;

Constants

NSBackingStoreRetained
The window uses a buffer, but draws directly to the screen where possible and to the buffer for obscured portions.
You should not use this mode. It combines the limitations of NSBackingStoreNonretained with the memory use of NSBackingStoreBuffered. The original NeXTSTEP implementation was an interesting compromise that worked well with fast memory mapped framebuffers on the CPU bus—something that hasn't been in general use since around 1994. These tend to have performance problems.
In OS X v10.5 and later, requests for retained windows will result in the window system creating a buffered window, as that better matches actual use.
Available in OS X v10.0 and later.
Declared in NSGraphics.h.

NSBackingStoreNonretained
The window draws directly to the screen without using any buffer.
You should not use this mode. It exists primarily for use in the original Classic Blue Box. It does not support Quartz drawing, alpha blending, or opacity. Moreover, it does not support hardware acceleration, and interferes with system-wide display acceleration. If you use this mode, your application must manage visibility region clipping itself, and manage repainting on visibility changes.
Available in OS X v10.0 and later.
Declared in NSGraphics.h.

NSBackingStoreBuffered
The window renders all drawing into a display buffer and then flushes it to the screen.
You should use this mode. It supports hardware acceleration, Quartz drawing, and takes advantage of the GPU when possible. It also supports alpha channel drawing, opacity controls, using the compositor.
Available in OS X v10.0 and later.
Declared in NSGraphics.h.

Meanwhile, it's hard to observe very simple things like the window moving on-screen or getting resized. Lots of observable changes use key-value observing or notifications, but you can only get that information via a delegate.

That's just one example. AppKit is full of this kind of thing.

You can really tell that 20 years passed between Apple creating AppKit and UIKit; the latter, on iOS, is a modern API which makes it easy to create great applications - animations are easy, things like custom layouts are easy, and the API is all very consistent.

That is the kind of change that is needed to rejuvenate the Mac as an application platform. A fresh coat of paint is all well and good, but when developers can't easily make use of it to express themselves it's meaningless as a platform.

 

[pmz]

Looks like I am no longer looking forward to WWDC. I haven't touched my Mac Mini in over a year. That's still got 10.7 on it.

So Apple is behind on iOS 8 but they are just going to release it anyway and put most of the new features in 8.1?!!! Wow... Apple is starting to slip. I'd rather wait 6 extra months for them to put out sturdy builds and not just shovel us crap.

Bring back iOS 6!

^ Thats what imagine you look like while reading the article/writing this post.

Please get a hold of yourself.

 

[RedRaven571]

Maybe I'm crazy, I don't feel like we need a new OS every year; maybe every 2-3 years would be better. Maybe midway through the cycle, they could add a new feature or two, in a point release, to keep people happy.

Get the bugs worked out of the previous/existing OS before moving on.

Honestly, I feel the same way about iOS also....

 

[iLLucionist]

Apple is destroying the fantastic Mac OS X interface. Apple should bring back acroll arrowheads and true color labels, for instance.

This. I miss the times (like 10.5) where there were DIE HARD features, for the poweruser, for instance the improved window management back then.

I think 10.5 was more harmonious, pretty, and thought out than 10.9 currently is. It feels much like Win XP back then: loads of features, most of them poorly thought out, lacking options, rendering them unused and or either resulting in installing additional tools that should've been built-in.

For example, Terminal vs iTerm: where's h-split? That would be greatly appreciated. Or build tmux into Terminal in a way that the great functionality of tmux integrates beautifully in Apple's (former to be better IMHO) design strategy.

Apple used to be about having BETTER software with SMARTER features that are EASIER to use compared to Windows. Like transparency alpha images in OS X, Keynote with there awesome smart guides which was new back then compared to powerpoint with only grids, hardware accelerated beautiful effects.

I truly miss the days where I thought with a new OS X release: nice, all this stuff and it's all still UNIX. A win-win situation. But nowadays I am worried about what they will shove in our face, like the completely useless "iOs integration" (IMHO as a poweruser).

Programming, Music creation, Productivity, Design software. For a DESKTOP os improvements should be in terms of Terminal, window management, better finder, better filesystem (HFS looks like NTFS to me compared to BTRFS and EXT4), better package management, an iTunes I would actually want to use (even the font rendering looks off, like Nimbus Sans under KDE back in the 3.x days). Stuff that helps us being more productive as desktop users.

*Sigh*

 

[scrmtrey]

I hope they will polish the performance and stability in ios8, than adds feature in later builds. Additional battery life would not hurt .

And also hope that new redesigned osx will look great and also usability and simple to use. More frosty glass and blur + flat texture and sharp font. Now is just weird to feel diference in osx and ios design.

2nd june will tell.

 

[Pentad]

I would like to see some real core components get updated. Graphics under OS X needs some really help:

OpenGL is just terrible under OS X. I find it depressing that BootCamp/Windows/OpenGL is nearly twice as fast than OpenGL under OS X.

Apple graphic drivers are often slow, buggy, and missing the latest features because they are so slow at releasing them. I think users would really benefit if Apple stepped up their graphic driver updates.


-P

 

[scrmtrey]

Nice one.

 

[JoEw]

Maybe I'm crazy, I don't feel like we need a new OS every year; maybe every 2-3 years would be better. Maybe midway through the cycle, they could add a new feature or two, in a point release, to keep people happy.

Get the bugs worked out of the previous/existing OS before moving on.

Honestly, I feel the same way about iOS also....

It is just the way Apple combines new software with new iphone hardware.
The public release of a new operating system has always fallen with the release of new iPhone hardware.

No operating system will ever be bug free, IOS7 was noticeably buggier because.
1. it was the biggest visual changes since the first iPhone OS and between the ousting of forstall and developer release it was less than 9 months to do all the changes done from 6 to IOS7.
2. the switch to 64bit architecture is what caused much of the app crashing people always talked about, my iPhone 5 rarely had crashed with IOS7 where my iPad Air crashed a bunch up until 7.1.

Expect IOS8 to roll out just as smoothly as the IOS1-6 releases.

 

[Parasprite]

I would like to see some real core components get updated. Graphics under OS X needs some really help:

OpenGL is just terrible under OS X. I find it depressing that BootCamp/Windows/OpenGL is nearly twice as fast than OpenGL under OS X.

Apple graphic drivers are often slow, buggy, and missing the latest features because they are so slow at releasing them. I think users would really benefit if Apple stepped up their graphic driver updates.


-P

They were actually far more behind up until the last few years. It's baffling to remember that ~3 years ago the latest OpenGL support was still 2.1. Hopefully this is a trend that will continue rather than stagnate.

https://developer.apple.com/graphicsimaging/opengl/capabilities/index.html

 

[TTile]

Then the spin is poor. The spin makes it sound like they are in a crunch and have to take from one team to help another team. If they are all equally adept at both iOS & OS X, there should be nothing to report here: one big team of programmers working on both OS variants. There's no taking from one project to focus on another- the one big team is just doing what they do.

Instead, it very much sounds like the crunch is on so they are pulling people off their focus on iOS to work on OS X: great for OS X, worrisome for iOS. This would be typical in a small company without ready cash to have an abundance of human resources on hand but Apple has plenty of ready cash.

Also, this isn't the first time we've heard about Apple taking resources from one area of focus and shifting them to another. That implies a recurring problem of having sufficient staff on hand to get everything they want to get done on the schedule they desire.

So, Apple has amazing cash flow but a recurring human resource problem. The solution seems remarkably simple but this kind of story keeps coming up. I think the issue some are having is in thinking Apple should learn from the recurrence and solve this particular problem so it doesn't keep happening.

The spin is from Macrumors, not Apple. In fact Apple has said nothing on this matter and so, in fact, personal might not have even been moved. This is a rumor, nothing more.

That being said if it were true I think my explanation is realistic and understandable.

 

[WallToWallMacs]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way. With declining iPad sales in particular, Apple needs to come out with more competitive alternatives in markets they do not yet dominate, the obvious being the PC market.

Apple can only do so much price wise since they need to keep high margins, so they need to differentiate themselves with superior software. IOS is already a very successful OS in terms of profits, so for the time being they would be beating on a dead horse.

Frankly, Apple needs to get more resources so they don't have to move resources from one OS to the other. Somebody is going to quote me and say that since IOS is their cash cow they need to keep focus on it, and I'd be inclined to agree with them. It's simply that they placing their limited resources where they can in order to hopefully continue to improve their profits. Over the long run, this is not the type of choice Apple should need to be making.

I have to admit, I'm not businessman, but the ideal situation would be for Apple to buy out Solidworks, Maple, Matlab, Pixelmator, Hype, Quark, OmniGroup and EndNote. Position themselves as the one stop shop for creative and engineering needs - top notch workstation, work class support and all the software you need under the one roof. I don't ever expect Apple to take a huge share of the marketplace but there are segments that are ripe for the picking - and I get the impression right now that Microsoft is more focused on middleware and the cloud (the impression I get from the new CEO is that he doesn't care if Windows marketshare shrinks as so long as customers are still using Microsoft's cloud offerings and middleware). Basically my long term vision would be a company that has iOS devices, a massive middleware offering, top notch workstations and computers, and a cloud offering that can offer more than just basic email and a few other thing - how about offering 'enterprise iCloud' with custom domain email hosting? open up datacenters with massive fibre connections so creative types can lease out capacity for rendering movies rather than studios having to build their own datacenter? So much potential - I wish they would just go for it rather than simply throwing money back at shareholders.

 

[thekeyring]

Whats the point of focusing on OSX when Apple can't even update their computers????

Not sure if trolling, or moron.

 

[bushido]

has this been posted before? "Watch Utility" ... interesting

 

[TTile]

You state "If iOS …", I don't think iOS is in good position. iOS7 was one of the worst rollouts Apple has ever released. The amount of bugs it had was not typical of there GM releases for iOS (the amount of reboot crashes were ridiculous). iOS 7.1 did not come out until 6 months later. And regardless of 7.1.1, I still think iOS7 needs some serious polishing. If this polishing was hopefully going to happen in iOS8, the chances of that are slim now that we know OSX needs help. As you state, this is not the first time Apple has needed to move talent between both OS's, hence if they need to keep shuffling developers, then why not higher more to avoid the continuous moving of talent. Apple is on a fast track of technology (which is great), but it is concerning to read about these types of rumors. In the past, when Apple was moving talent from OSX to iOS, they were not on the OSX major release yearly schedule.

Like I said though, this is just a rumor, and I am hoping for the best.

Like I said, when an OS undergoes a drastic redesign there is a huge demand for software engineers. Outside of these periods, software engineer demand is lower. There is no reason to hire talent that you only need for a year.

Also any drastic resign of an OS will result in software bugs. I personally did not feel like it was a huge issue and 7.1 completely cleared any lingering problems up for me. And .1 iOS releases have typically come out 6 months after the original .0 iOS release so that's nothing new.

 

[ablashek]

Dear Apple,

Buy Flux and implement it into both OS X and iOS. Your customers' eyes will be very appreciative.

Yes, Yes, and a third time Yes. I even wrote an email to Tim asking for it. Flux is the most practical piece of software i have come across in the last 5 years.

 

[TennisandMusic]

This sounds like 10.10 could look really great or really terrible. We'll have to see.

Why can't Apple get more developers? I'd imagine they attract the top talent.

Because they don't. They have been bleeding what "talent" they have.

 

[macnisse]

"Apple Pulls resources from iOS 8..."

I really don't get why Apple (repeatedly) has the need to do this. Is it even effective? I mean, it would likely take some (or lots of) time for the "pulled" software engineers to readjust their focus and knowledge just to get going.

 

[flat five]

I have to admit, I'm not businessman, but the ideal situation would be for Apple to buy out Solidworks.. .

why solidworks?

that's a windows only program.. apple buying solidworks would be screwy for everybody

 

[unplugme71]

I'm losing faith in Apple. Submitted feedback about a few things regarding OS X server and got a response "Apple expects people to use our application a certain way. If you are running Caching Services, you aren't supposed to use Software Update."

Excuse me? These two services are separate in themselves. I do not want Caching services to cache software updates that are being downloaded and managed with software update. Software update allows the sys admin to restrict which updates are approved for client machines. Caching allows for reduced external network usage once an end-user downloads an app from the Mac App store or iTunes store.

If you want caching to handle the software update files and software update to handle the approvals for end-users, that's fine, but to have a software update downloaded and stored twice defeats the purpose.

Things like this piss me off greatly about Apple.