Author |yy
Source| Jiguo Editorial Department
Remember when the iPad Air5 was released? Apple upgraded the configuration to M1 chip + 8GB storage, the performance is called PC level, everyone is amazed at the same time, there are many users who regret. #数码科技要闻 #
After all, this is such a powerful chip, running the iPadOS system is really a bit of an overkill.
Unfortunately, on this issue, Scott Broderick of the previous iPad product marketing department said that iPad and Mac are two different and distinctive platforms, now and in the future.
Last year, a post in the alumni circle forum said that a technology tycoon successfully installed his iPad Pro M1 on the macOS system, and also ran the desktop video editing application Final Cut Pro perfectly.
At that time, this operation was envious of everyone, but don't worry, our ordinary users are expected to use it immediately.
Recently, it has been reported that Apple has applied for a new iPad-related patent, and it is worth noting that it is running macOS, not the iPadOS that has always been in the iPad product line.
It seems that Apple does not want to let the gods of all walks of life worry about this again, and decided to take it personally?
Judging from Apple's new patent, it can be described as "the removable base of the iPad". It includes a trackpad, keyboard, connector, full-featured and more professional looking, and can also be transformed into a variety of forms, such as tent mode, laptop mode, looks like the base of the Microsoft Surface, but also equipped with a coupling mechanism.
The hinge in the iPad dock may also display brief information, include a camera, microphone or projector, and also serve as an Apple Pencil stand.
It is important to note that the iPad shown in the patent diagram uses macOS instead of iPadOS.
As can be seen from the desktop UI, Apple is most likely testing the iPad equipped with macOS and trying to improve all aspects of the experience.
Apple also applied for a patent called "highly modular computing and input devices" earlier, showing a full-touch screen Mac, a dual-screen MacBook in various forms, and even a record player, which is very petty bourgeois.
So it seems that the macOS version of the iPad really seems to have a play, coupled with the thin and portable features of the iPad product, many users should choose the iPad as the main tool to go out to deal with work in the future.
So the question is, why did Apple suddenly want to open it at this time? In fact, it is not, people have been laying the groundwork for a long time.
If Apple thinks that the tablet can only use the iPad OS, then the iPad Air5 is more suitable for the A15, not the M1.
This involves the problem of popularizing the ARM desktop ecology, if you rely solely on the sales of Mac computers, it is difficult for Apple to achieve full popularization.
For now, the vast majority of mainstream software on the Mac has released versions that are adapted to M1. But a lot of professional software, as well as stand-alone games and online games, even the Mac is not adapted, let alone ARM.
Therefore, the software on the Mac, as long as the developer is still updating, can basically adapt to M1; but the software that the Mac does not have will not be developed because of M1 to adapt to the Mac version. So this is why many users think that if Apple really wants to popularize the ARM desktop ecosystem, it should let the iPad be equipped with macOS.
However, it is not so simple to do this, although the iPad Pro and even the new iPad Air and MacBook series are using M1 chips, and iPadOS and macOS are also based on the Darwin kernel, but the digital signatures of the two must be completely different, and the execution code of the boot sector will not be the same.
There is also a more critical point, macOS does not set the touch area, so even if it is installed on the iPad product and successfully guided, in the end it is only a tablet that cannot be touched, which is very "chicken ribs" from the user's point of view.
Although it is technically difficult to get the iPad series of tablets to run macOS, at least one thing can be seen at present, that is, Apple is making the gap between the iPad and the Mac gradually disappear.
As early as the Project Catalyst project announced at WWDC in 2019, the final product is to allow macOS to run iPadOS and iOS applications. After iPadOS 13.4 began to support touchpad cursors, there is also the advent of the in-flight function that allows the iPad to become the second screen of the Mac, making the function linkage between the iPad and the Mac more close.
Not only that, in the current iPad Pro series models, Apple provides it with up to 16GB of memory and a thunderbolt interface, which is obviously the configuration of the benchmark MacBook.
iPadOS 15, which debuted at WWDC last year, added support for Swift Playgrounds 4, enabling developers to code, iterate, and build applications on the iPad and deploy them to the App Store, making iPad products more close to laptop support.
All kinds of situations suggest that Apple is gradually breaking the boundaries between the iPad and Macbook series, and it is not surprising that even if they are integrated into one product in the future.
But then again, the macOS version of the iPad as a real product was once a real existence, but the age is a bit old, even born earlier than the iPad, but it is not officially created by Apple.
The product, called the Modbook, debuted at Macworld in 2007 and was developed by Axiontron.
Although the name Axiontron sounds a bit strange, its founder Andreas Haas is well-known and was an executive of Apple's MessagePad project, and MessagePad is the predecessor of the iPad.
This Modbook looks like a tablet in appearance, like a MacBook with a keyboard cut and a touchscreen modified.
At the same time, it was running the macOS X desktop system, and what was even more amazing was that at that time, it was equipped with an "Apple Pencile" with programmable side keys and erasers, which was groundbreaking in the zero years.
The birth of Modbook has even won official recognition, so that in 2012, the second generation of Modbook was also successfully born, named Modbook Pro.
It's powered by macOS X 10.8, optional OS X 10.9 and 10.10, and even macOS and Windows 7 dual-system versions.
Unfortunately, the Modbook Pro sold at $2,000 at the time, deterred many people, and eventually fewer than 1,000 units were completed.
At the same time, the third generation of Modbook Pro X in 2014 was reduced to the end of never being officially launched, completely reduced to the tears of the times.
In general, the emergence of modbooks was indeed a bit too advanced when the concept of tablets was not yet popular, but now with the continuous upgrading of market demand, a macOS version of the iPad has become the expectation.
At present, "two-in-one tablet" does have a large market, the reason why this category has not yet caught fire, mainly because the performance can not keep up, and now the emergence of M1 is expected to subvert all this.
So, when the iPad can really use the macOS system, will you choose the iPad or the MacBook?