Catalyst will likely be the best thing to happen to Mac since Snow Leopard.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Twitter Bringing Mac App Back Using Apple's Project Catalyst
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Even with twitter on iOS App, I don’t use Twitter that often anymore, despite subscribing to email notifications.
Used Twitter app on Mac before, did not like it. Since I can no longer upgrade past high Sierra, I hope the web version is good enough.
Used Twitter app on Mac before, did not like it. Since I can no longer upgrade past high Sierra, I hope the web version is good enough.
Waste of time as opposed to posting on Internet forums?
Excuse me while I ... yawn. Social Media has turned into an even bigger waste of time than when it first started. Oh wait...did I just commit a "thought crime"?
No, it's a native app. But Twitter should be embarrassed that they weren't able to maintain a decent Mac app.
Ya know what amazes me? Instagram not having an app for iPad
Many Mac apps are just web wrappers, but Twitter's app is and always has been native. Facebook should release a native Mac app like they did for iOS, as their website sucks these days! I always use the mobile app to access it because loading the website is slowwwwwwwwwwww and buggy.
Facebooks previous mobile app was a web wrapper, but that turned out to be a complete failure, so they rewrote it as a native app, and it's been much better.
There is not going to be an “ARM Mac”.
It is fairly clear now that Apple’s vision for an ARM-based laptop is iPad Pro with keyboard and pencil.
It would make almost zero sense for Apple to launch yet another computing OS platform, on top of MacOS for Intel and iPadOS for ARM.
It is fairly clear now that Apple’s vision for an ARM-based laptop is iPad Pro with keyboard and pencil.
It would make almost zero sense for Apple to launch yet another computing OS platform, on top of MacOS for Intel and iPadOS for ARM.
Project Catalyst has been something I've been looking forward to for quite some time! I can't wait to see what kind of use devs get out of it beyond this.
Listen, AND it will have keyboard support!!!
Wohhhh, amazing, unbelievable, gorgeous, full advance..
ARM Macs are coming, irrespective of anything anyone says to the contrary here.
There has been a determined march towards closer integration for consumer-facing devices for a long time, and Catalyst is part of that. Catalyst infers change.
Bury your heads if you want to. ARM is coming. Thankfully.
There has been a determined march towards closer integration for consumer-facing devices for a long time, and Catalyst is part of that. Catalyst infers change.
Bury your heads if you want to. ARM is coming. Thankfully.
What he said..
I use fewer “social” apps as time goes by. It amounts to theft of my personal data. As far as most of them are concerned I must have died several years ago.
I suspect that Twitter likely never had a shared code-base and did not invest in it. I any case, Catalyst seems to lower the bar even more. The Mac app will probably end up being an ‘extension’ to the iOS app and no go beyond.
haha Really Twitter? how do you not have the resources to made a mac App? this is really embarrassing.
And neither of those tremendous apps were from Twitter 'the company'.
Further examples of my point that Twitter’s website dev is sub-par. These third parties first stepped into the breach, to shore up obvious shortcomings.
So why is one of the big brand tech companies, which happens to be a website, incapable of fixing said website? Can they not hire web devs? Seems unlikely, but maybe?
It was speculated above by now I see it, that the Twitter app is to facilitate deeper device tracking.
This would be a plausible explanation for why there's more motivation from Twitter in 'apps' than browsers (which feature increasing ad/tracker blocking features), and why they went to war with their own third party devs (who significantly helped popularize the platform). I think it deserves more scrutiny, if any, what kind of additional tracking schemes are being used in Twitter 'the app'?
This analogy is terrible.
TextEdit is a Mac OS app, it isn't even accessible from a browser, nor is it a web domain.
Retry? Insert coin.
[doublepost=1560591224][/doublepost]
If Catalyst dev goes the same way as iPhone app market went with cheapo, race-to-the-bottom fart button apps, then it will be a disaster for Mac apps. Prepare for freemium BBeEdit - *buy 15 word credits!*
If it goes the way the iPad app market went, more of a premium feature, then it might actually help shake up some of the Mac App Store offerings for the better.
I see Project Catalyst is good, but it can be also used as a 'loophole' to say "if Apple has not allowed a native Mac app, (or in this case social networking apps on Mac), why not use iOS codebase (eg, in instead.." (aks. in instances as well where Apple's pulled an app from the store).
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/06/06/macos-mojave-drops-login-options-twitter-facebook/
Since apple's abandoned Facebook account integration, this could be a good solution.
Bad medicine... (...but good otherwise )
The only point i'd make, is you can actually *tell* its iOS codebase, because the GUI looks the same as iOS would.
https://www.macrumors.com/2018/06/06/macos-mojave-drops-login-options-twitter-facebook/
Since apple's abandoned Facebook account integration, this could be a good solution.
Bad medicine... (...but good otherwise
)The only point i'd make, is you can actually *tell* its iOS codebase, because the GUI looks the same as iOS would.
Last edited:
Twitter's iOS client is a horrible, horrible, user-hostile ugly mess, so I can't really see how this will be positive.
Not updating the Mac client used to be a blessing - Twitter ruins every client they turn their attention to.
Not updating the Mac client used to be a blessing - Twitter ruins every client they turn their attention to.
And that's a bad thing?
If I use something regularly, I want it in a proper app.
Yes. Twitter does have a history of that; they used to gather which apps you have installed and report that to their server. That's why iOS 9 and newer significantly restricts interaction with URL schemes; every third-party app developer can thank Twitter for that.
That has nothing to do with anything. You can use Google Docs entirely in the browser. Heck, you can use MS Word entirely in the browser. By your odd demand, one could make the argument that a desktop-installed word processor really isn't necessary at all.
Nice!
Next year Apple adds another checkbox to Xcode :
mac(book) arm
Quite clever from apple!
First you add the possibility in Xcode to convert iPad apps to MacBook apps with mouse/trackpad and keyboard extensions, and drop menu’ s, and Mac aspect ratio support.
And when a lot of iPads and iPhone apps are converted you add the function:checkbox to Xcode for Mac arm support and release a Arm based MacBook with all the apple apps (final cut pro, etc) and adobe fotoshop, and all these converted apps from catalyst.
Everyone assumes that catalysts main purpose is to convert apps to the x-86 Mac , and will add revenue to the Mac App Store.
But I think the main reason of catalyst is to make the transition to the arm based macs more seamless, like with Rosetta in the good old days.
Nice twist from apple to cover their tracks.
My guess is that the next MacBook 12 inch will be ARM based, and will be released at next years WWDC , with an arm based MacOS without touchscreen just trackpad and keyboard operation. Selling price will be quite cheap(for Apple standards) , my guess is $999 starting price.
And intel fans, don’ t worry. Their will be MacBooks with intel chips for a lot of years, because the MacBook pro’ s will still run intel/x86.
Next year Apple adds another checkbox to Xcode :
mac(book) arm
Quite clever from apple!
First you add the possibility in Xcode to convert iPad apps to MacBook apps with mouse/trackpad and keyboard extensions, and drop menu’ s, and Mac aspect ratio support.
And when a lot of iPads and iPhone apps are converted you add the function:checkbox to Xcode for Mac arm support and release a Arm based MacBook with all the apple apps (final cut pro, etc) and adobe fotoshop, and all these converted apps from catalyst.
Everyone assumes that catalysts main purpose is to convert apps to the x-86 Mac , and will add revenue to the Mac App Store.
But I think the main reason of catalyst is to make the transition to the arm based macs more seamless, like with Rosetta in the good old days.
Nice twist from apple to cover their tracks.
My guess is that the next MacBook 12 inch will be ARM based, and will be released at next years WWDC , with an arm based MacOS without touchscreen just trackpad and keyboard operation. Selling price will be quite cheap(for Apple standards) , my guess is $999 starting price.
And intel fans, don’ t worry. Their will be MacBooks with intel chips for a lot of years, because the MacBook pro’ s will still run intel/x86.
Last edited:
Apps can provide very rich experiences, faster and deeper interactions, and are free from the browser chrome which is nice for something that, in this case, may sit behind a real browser on your desktop.
If you think that a website can track you less, you are sorely mistake. A large part of my career has been targeting and tracking users and their behaviors from the web and the extensively of it can be just as, if not more, evasive than an app.
Just a side note, in general "developers" aren't the ones wanting to track the most insane details out of you. I'd say most just like to make great things.
Twitter has been restricting 3rd party apps from many of it's APIs for quite some time now.
I think so too..
Apple has reached the point of performance parity with Intel for commodity MacBooks with the iPad Pro 2018. Why would they bother doing that for just the iPad which doesn't really need it?
Also, they pulled off 2 major architecture changes before with minimal pain. The PPC->Intel transition was super smooth, Rosetta worked great. And they can increase their profit margin more by not having to pay Intel.
It will kill hackintosh though
Though this won't be one of their goals as it's not serious enough a phenomenon to put a dent in their bottom line. And virtualisation will be an issue.I don't think it'll come with these rumoured 16" MacBooks later this year though.. If they're going to pull an arch change they'll bring it at WWDC I'm sure.
I think so too..
Apple has reached the point of performance parity with Intel for commodity MacBooks with the iPad Pro 2018. Why would they bother doing that for just the iPad which doesn't really need it?
Also, they pulled off 2 major architecture changes before with minimal pain. The PPC->Intel transition was super smooth, Rosetta worked great. And they can increase their profit margin more by not having to pay Intel.
It will kill hackintosh though
I don't think it'll come with these rumoured 16" MacBooks later this year though.. If they're going to pull an arch change they'll bring it at WWDC I'm sure.
I agree, but I think they won’ t kill the intel lineup in the next 3 to 5 years completely.
The MacBook pro’ s , iMac pro’ s and the Mac Pro will remain intel/x86 architecture. Perhaps there will even be a Mac mini pro.
But MacBook , and the regular Mac mini could become arm based cpu’ s.
I always wondered why apple didn’ t kill the 12 inch MacBook , and released the MacBook Air instead of merging the air with the 12 inch MacBook. Now we know. The 12 inch MacBook format will be the first to go to arm architecture, and will be presented at next years WWDC , with a release in the summer/fall of 2019, So there will be lot of apps available at launch. And after a few years of soc development and upgrades of the 12 inch MacBook , expanding the ecosystem , perhaps the MacBook pro’ s will follow, etc etc.
BUT: don’ t expect an arm based MacBook on MacOs with a touchscreen. That will never happen. Apple was very clear about that last year, IOS en MacOS will never merge.
My guess is that both MacOs and IOS will be the same in the future but that GUI will be the only difference between the 2 , depending of the way you want to interact with the OS. Touch? IOS, Keyboard and mouse/trackpad ? MacOS.
Last edited: