In a NYTimes' blog post, Nick Bilton describes how PCs aren't as easy to use as the iPhone, and explores why the iPhone OS simply can't be used in a future iteration of Mac OS X.
Bilton quotes a former senior Apple engineer who explains that implementing global multi-touch support onto the existing Mac OS X would be a hard task. While Apple has added multi-touch features into a few apps, the whole OS simply wasn't designed for touch input. However, Bilton's source then raises the interesting possibility of adding iPhone OS as a layer on top of Mac OS X -- much like how Front Row presently works.
Front Row is Apple's media center software for the Mac which adopts an Apple TV-like interface. When invoked, the entire Mac OS X desktop fades out, leaving a TV-friendly navigation system that looks nothing like Mac OS X. What's been suggested is that Apple could adopt a iPhone OS layer that would greatly simplify tasks for some users. Now, it's not clear if this was actually something Apple had been actively exploring or if it was just presented as speculative option by Bilton's source, but we felt it was an interesting topic of discussion.
Apple's iPad has been felt to represent this shift to an easier computing paradigm. The iPad is essentially the iPhone OS on a larger form factor, but it's that larger size that introduces new possibilities that encroach on the functionality of current desktop/notebooks.
Sunday September 17, 2023 12:35 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
In June, Apple announced iOS 17 with a wide range of new features and changes for the iPhone. Following over three months of beta testing, the free software update will be released this Monday, September 18 for the iPhone XS and newer. Below, we have recapped 10 key features coming to the iPhone with iOS 17, with additional features coming later this year. The update should be released to...
Tuesday September 19, 2023 2:04 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
All of the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro models feature a new battery health setting that prevents the devices from charging beyond 80% at all times when enabled, as confirmed by The Verge's Allison Johnson during a Q&A session today. The new setting is separate from the pre-existing Optimized Battery Charging feature on iPhones, which intelligently delays charging past 80% until a more...
Monday September 18, 2023 10:05 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today released iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, the latest operating system updates that are designed for the iPhone and iPad. As with all of Apple's software updates, iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 are available for free. iOS 17 is compatible with the iPhone XR/iPhone XS and later, while iPadOS 17 runs on the iPad mini 5 and later, the iPad 6 and later, iPad Air 3 and later, the second-generation 12.9-inch...
Monday September 18, 2023 3:02 pm PDT by Juli Clover
With the release of a new operating system, there are multiple features and design elements for developers to adopt. Now that iOS 17 is out, many major apps are getting interesting updates today, which we've rounded up below. watchOS 10 also has a new design language, so there are a range of Apple Watch updates to check out too. Flighty (Free, Premium Subscription) Popular flight tracking...
