Top Bananas | Tag Archives: iOS

Another Augmented Reality Patent by Apple

Posted on February 26, 2019 by admin Posted in Business, Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Apple filed another patent for augmented reality that hints of its future plans.

Augmented reality is already a part of iOS devices like the iPhone and iPad. While augmented reality hasn’t yet become commonly used like location tracking (for getting rides through services like Uber) on the iPhone or real-time health monitoring on the Apple Watch, augmented reality is coming in the form of smart glasses.

Apple’s latest patent highlights how augmented reality could track the location of interesting objects and transpose that information when you walk near it. For outdoor use, this could help you find directions while for indoor use, this could help you find the location of your iPhone or iPad.

Like most patents, this may never become part of a real product, but it shows what Apple is thinking about and where augmented reality will be heading. It will start with the iPhone and iPad and gradually when it becomes more useful, it will migrate to smart glasses. Apple will likely test the concepts for augmented reality on iOS devices. Then when the most practical purpose appears, Apple will introduce smart glasses.

What most companies are doing now is releasing smart glasses and then hoping people will find a use for them, which is backwards thinking. These companies should be thinking of what pressing problem smart glasses can solve and then build smart glasses optimized to solve that particular problem.

Augmented reality is a growing field and will only improve with each passing year. That means augmented reality will become commonplace soon but only when it can solve problems that can’t be solved easily with todays’ technology.

Why Apple is Ignoring the Macintosh

Posted on February 24, 2019 by admin Posted in Business, Hardware Leave a comment

What it is: Apple has been ignoring the Macintosh for years. The reason may be they’re planning to switch processors.

For the past few years, Apple has let their Macintosh lineup lag behind the times. The iMac hasn’t been updated in almost two years, which makes no sense because PC makers such as Dell or Hewlett-Packard can release updated models every few months. Certainly Apple could update the Macintosh at least once a year. That could be extreme incompetence or something else entirely.

That something else will likely be the switch from Intel processors to Apple’s own ARM processors. Already Apple’s latest A-series processor is faster than Intel’s processors and Intel’s constant delays also interrupt Apple’s ability to upgrade the Macintosh, so even Intel expects Apple to transition the Macintosh to ARM processors by 2020.

So that might be the reason why Apple has been dragging their feet on updating the Macintosh. It’s not that they can’t do it; it’s just that they’re too busy working on the transition to ARM processors so they don’t want to work on new Macintosh models when they know a new ARM-based Macintosh is coming soon anyway.

What’s likely to happen is that the Macintosh will become a “pro” model, running Intel processors for developers while the consumer model Macintosh will run ARM-processors for longer battery life. It’s possible that this ARM-based Macintosh will be called something else entirely. That way people won’t get confused trying to run Macintosh programs (designed for Intel processors) on an ARM-based Macintosh.

So the long delay in updating the Macintosh is likely because Apple is planning to make them obsolete soon anyway. Apple is already developing a software framework to allow iOS apps to run on the Macintosh. Most likely an ARM-based computer will be a super portable laptop.

If the lack of updates bothers you, wait if you can. Apple will likely redefine a laptop with a device that runs iOS apps but acts more like a computer. Either that or Apple is really incompetent after all. Which seems most likely?

To read about Apple’s possible plan to switch to ARM-based processors, click here.

The End of Microsoft Windows Mobile/Phone

Posted on January 21, 2019 by admin Posted in Business, Hardware, Software, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Microsoft officially announced the end of support for their mobile operating system Windows Mobile 10.

Before Apple introduced the iPhone, Google was trying to make a Blackberry clone called Android and Microsoft had morphed their Palm Pilot clone (Windows CE) into a phone operating system. Then Apple introduced the iPhone and redefined the touch screen interface for smart phones.

Google quickly rewrote Android to mimic iOS and Microsoft abandoned Windows CE in favor of creating a new operating system from scratch. That took time and by the time Windows Phone 7 came out, Android and iOs were already dominating the smartphone market.

Even worse, Microsoft decided to rewrite their mobile operating system again and come out with Windows Phone 8, which was incompatible with Windows Phone 7 apps. That meant developers had to rewrite their apps all over again for Windows Phone 8.

Then Microsoft changed Windows Phone 8 to Windows Mobile 10 and forced developers to rewrite their apps once more. Even worse, the official language for Windows Phone development was Silverlight, a Microsoft clone of Adobe Flash.

When Adobe Flash started dying since it couldn’t run on mobile devices, Microsoft Silverlight also died. Now developers had to rewrite their Windows Phone 8 apps to run on Windows Mobile 10.

With all this constant changing, is it no wonder that Windows Phone/Mobile failed? To make matters even worse, Microsoft was so fixated on Windows Phone that they failed to anticipate the iPad, which forced Microsoft to come up with a separate tablet operating system called Windows RT.

Now developers had to write separate apps in different languages for Windows RT and Windows Mobile 10. Instead, developers simply abandoned Windows RT and Windows Mobile 10. With few apps, users started to ignore Windows Phone/Mobile as well.

The lesson is clear. Mere copying of a successful product is rarely the path to success. The real path to success is originality. Come up with a new solution that’s better than existing solutions, not simply a copy of the same solution.

Microsoft Silverlight was a slightly better version of Adobe Flash, but solved nothing new. So people tended to stick with Adobe Flash and when Flash died, so did Silverlight.

Fortunately with Steve Ballmer out of the way, Microsoft no longer seems content to copy other successful products and hope it pays off in the long run like the Xbox. In the meantime, Windows Phone/Mobile wasn’t a bad idea, but it showed that unless you make a dramatic leap like the iPhone did over Blackberry and Nokia, there’s little reason to adopt it.

So rather than blatantly copy, companies should strive to solve problems that aren’t currently met by today’s technology. The iPhone’s touch screen interface solved the problem of tiny screens and physical buttons. Windows Phone/Mobile solved nothing over Android and iOS.

Nobody will miss Windows Phone/Mobile. Even Microsoft’s employees stopped using that operating system years ago. The lesson is copying rarely leads to success so strive for solving the problems of today, not the problems of yesterday that are already being met with today’s products. Just that simple lesson alone could have saved Microsoft billions of dollars and years of wasted development.

Project Marzipan

Posted on January 13, 2019 by admin Posted in Software, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Project Marzipan is Apple’s framework to allow iOS apps to run on the Macintosh.

Last year during their Worldwide Developer’s Conference (WWDC), Apple introduced Project Marzipan, which is a framework designed to make it easy to convert iOS apps to run on the Macintosh. Apple used their own framework to port several of their iOS apps to the Macintosh such as the Stocks app.

With iOS and mobile computing becoming far more important than desktop/laptop computing, it only makes sense for developers to focus exclusively on iOS programming because then they’ll be able to write apps for iOS and port them to the Macintosh.

Otherwise you’ll haver to write apps for iOS and macOS. That’s not too much of a problem since iOS and macOS are so similar but it does require you to write slightly different code. With Project Marzipan, the goal is to let you write an iOS app and let Apple’s framework convert it to run on the Macintosh with little work on your part. That way you’ll have two apps capable of running on the Macintosh and iOS.

For ordinary users, this simply means the Macintosh will soon get more apps. This can make the Macintosh more attractive but it will likely give developers an incentive to focus exclusively on iOS and then use Project Marzipan to create Macintosh apps that may not be optimized completely for the Macintosh.

So developers will likely need to tweak their code to make their app better for the keyboard/mouse interface of the Macintosh from the touch screen interface of iOS.

The Macintosh will likely never take over the desktop/laptop market with Windows PCs so entrenched in the corporate world. Then again, it doesn’t really matter since the world is moving towards mobile computing anyway.

The Macintosh has been around since 1984 and it likely won’t get any more innovative. So look at Project Marzipan as a way to keep iOS developers happy by giving them a larger market for their existing apps. Project Marzipan is not likely to attract more people to the Macintosh just for the ability to run iOS apps. Project Marzipan is interesting and will likely appear during 2019’s WWDC, but it’s just a short-term solution to help transition the world towards mobile computing so they can leave the world of desktop/laptops behind.

To learn more about Project Marzipan, click here.

The MacBook Air is the Past

Posted on November 4, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware, User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Apple recently updated the MacBook Air and the iPad Pro.

In the past, there was a clear distinction between a laptop and a tablet. A laptop was something you used to create content and a tablet was something you used to view content. While you could view content on a laptop and create content on a tablet, laptops were superior for creating content and tablets were superior to viewing content.

After Apple revealed new MacBook Air and iPad Pro models, that line is blurring. The future is no longer the laptop. The iPad Pro offers Apple Pencil support, an optional external keyboard, and a handful of professional applications porting from the PC world to the iPad including Photoshop and AutoCAD.

In addition, the iPad Pro is lighter and less expensive than the MacBook Air. The MacBook Air is simply a stop-gap measure between laptops and tablets. For people who aren’t ready to make the leap to a tablet, a MacBook Air gives them a comfortable alternative. For people who can see the future and don’t mind the current limitations of the tablet, the iPad Pro is clearly the future.

If you’re a developer, focus on iOS. If you’re a consumer, ask yourself what might be better for you. One person might prefer the iPad Pro while another might prefer the MacBook Air. There is no right or wrong answer that universally applies to everyone. If the MacBook Air is better for your needs, then just watch the iPad Pro develop further until it does match your needs. The iPad Pro is getting faster and improving far faster than the MacBook Air or other laptop models from other companies. The laptop is a fairly stagnant device that has its roots in the desktop PC world. Just as desktop PCs are fading in relevance as people opt for laptops, so will laptop PCs fade from relevance as people opt for lighter, faster, less expensive tablets.

The iPad Pro may not meet your needs today, but it will eventually grow powerful enough to get your needs in the future. When that happens, there will be little need for laptops any more.

Apple’s October 30th Event

Posted on October 19, 2018 by admin Posted in Hardware Leave a comment

What it is: Apple is holding a product announcement on October 30th that will likely focus on the new iPad models.

Apple just recently announced new iPhone and Apple Watch models. Now Apple plans to release new iPad models and possible other products such as new Macintosh models.

The new iPad models are to be expected, and with Adobe porting Photoshop to iOS, you can expect to see the full version of Photoshop available on iOS. The significance of this is that more professional apps will move from macOS to iOS, making iOS far more lucrative and important than macOS. In other words, macOS is slowly dying but will likely linger for years as the world shifts to iOS.

The new iPad models are rumored to use FaceID along with USB-C ports instead of Apple’s proprietary Lightning port. By standardizing on USB-C ports, the iPad will then be able to accept numerous third-party accessories such as a keyboard or an external hard disk.

So new iPad models with USB-C support and Photoshop is to be expected. What’s also likely is that the new iPad Pro models will come in the standard 12.9 and 10.5-inch sizes. That also likely means a new version of the Apple Pencil too.

Beyond the iPad, expect new Macintosh models. Apple will likely introduce lower cost laptops similar to the aging MacBook Air. The goal will be to offer a low-cost laptop for the Christmas season. The only question is whether Apple will update the MacBook Air design or come out with a newer version of the MacBook, which starts at a much higher price of $1,299 compared to the MacBook Air price of $999. Whatever Macintosh laptop Apple introduces, it will likely target the low-end consumer market.

A new iPad and new Macintosh laptop will be expected. What might also arrive will be Apple’s Mac mini or iMac Pro model. These desktop Macintosh models should come with improved specifications, but the Mac mini might be interesting because it’s rumored to be modular for professional users to upgrade later.

If you’re in the market for a new iPad, October 30th should meet your expectations. If you’re in the market for a low cost Macintosh laptop, you should also be happy on October 30th. If you’re a desktop Macintosh user, you may or may not be happy with any announcements coming October 30th because Apple may not have updated Mac mini or iMac Pro models ready for sale.

The sure news is that the iPad will become more of a portable computer that will be nearly as fast as today’s laptops running Intel processors. That means next year’s generation of the iPad should be even faster and more powerful, which means the age of Intel processors is coming to an end.

When the iPad Pro can beat a PC laptop, then you’ll know the conquest of iOS will be nearly complete.

To learn more about Apple’s October 30th event, click here.