Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

> The 'Touch Bar' is a plainly stopgap measure that only exists because Apple is delaying the painful transition to touch in OS X.

The transition to touch already happened with iOS. Apple still needs to keep macOS alive for a few legacy use-cases, but the long-term strategy is probably to move the remaining applications over to iOS, instead of converting macOS to iOS.




People keep saying that, as if it means something.

Some huge breakthrough in CPU power and technology aside, including changes to the laws of physics and basic ergonomics, we are not going to be doing desktopy-style work on iOS style devices -- unless they get the ability to drive large 4K+ monitors, connect to multiple peripherals at once, talk to disk drives, etc.

And even that would require hooking them with keyboards, stands etc for comfortable working.

People care for laptops/desktops for all the OTHER work and usage patterns that are not good fit for iOS/iDevice form factors.


> drive large 4K+ monitors

Driving 4K screens from a tablet isn't that far off. It depends what you want to show on them of course, but just outputting 4K isn't that hard.

> connect to multiple peripherals at once

You're not supposed to have peripherals any more. Your touch screen, the cloud, and that's it. If necessary, hardware devices now connect to the cloud directly (while joining a botnet).

> talk to disk drives

You're supposed to buy more iCloud storage and have an infinite throughput connection.


>You're not supposed to have peripherals any more. Your touch screen, the cloud, and that's it. If necessary, hardware devices now connect to the cloud directly (while joining a botnet).

As I wrote, work that people can do with tablets, which fits with the above, they already do. But people care for desktops/laptops for all the other work you can't do without "peripherals", and with just "the cloud and that's it".

If we all just used web apps nobody would have cared for a desktop that much.

Besides, last time I've checked, the speed of light, which provides the lower limit for latency, is not changing anytime soon.

>You're supposed to buy more iCloud storage and have an infinite throughput connection.

A, I get it, it's a mockery of some supposed Apple idea. I don't think they are to that. If anything Google, with the Google office suite, Google run-everything-within-Chrome chromebooks etc is.

Apple is not really about convergence on the iOS -- they get the different uses cases for PC vs tablet-phone form factors and have made several statements to that effect -- they just don't care that much for the former.


> But people care for desktops/laptops for all the other work you can't do without "peripherals", and with just "the cloud and that's it".

I don't disagree. But is that market large enough for Apple to care about? Apple is pretty focused with its product line and it might not make sense for them to continue investing into the desktop market.


Well, let's ensure their mobile offerings don't end that well then. It worked for Microsoft.


You disagreed with me but I think your argument is solid and people are voting you down without much reason.

iOS not only has better touch but (due to tight restrictions on background processing APIs ) way better interactive latency than MacOS, where a rogue process can still mean trying to fire up Activity Monitor. MacOS / NeXTSTEP might have a bunch of bitrot, iOS is newer, smaller and more likely cleaner. A version of xcode that works on iOS and more laptop-like devices could be a sign up OS X being on the way out.


I don't think Apple has given completely up on macOS. They wouldn't do the touchbar if that was the case. It would be wasted effort. They could sell macOS for years just by iteratively updating the hardware specs.

I think they're trying to find a role for macOS that would allow them to innovate there, but I don't they have it figured out. The touchbar is just testing the waters, to see if it can make sense to do a dual approach (they've probably played with replacing the area below the keyboard with a touchscreen as well).




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: