iPad Pro iPad Pro redesign thoughts

[Tarantularock]

I remembered Apple had some cool ideas back when I saw these patents last year.


http://appft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-...and+pd/3/23/2017&RS=(CCL/1/1+AND+PD/20170323)

 

[Krevnik]

Now I'm not talking about mouse and keyboard, per se, but the ability to quickly get AppKit up and running with a modified touch layer in UIKit. This is even more interesting when you consider the announcement the other day from Adobe that "full Photoshop" with "real Photoshop code" is coming to the iPad in 2019. That's an interesting statement. Doesn't "real code" mean Mac code? What's even more interesting is that Phil Schiller was on stage for the event, which he never does for third party companies. Apple wants to accelerate getting Pro apps on iPad, and this could be a way to do that faster. Partnering with Adobe makes sense, as they're the market leader in the creative professional space.

The catch is that “real Photoshop” is a cross-platform app already. Unless they are a glutton for punishment, both platforms are built from the same core code, but with platform-specific UI. So the UI is in a sense a layer on top of the core logic that runs the app.

There’s no reason that core can’t be brought to iOS, with an iOS specific UI layer instead of a Win/Mac one.

The catch is that it can get expensive. Apps like Photoshop are fairly old, and date back to an era where having the code clean enough that the UI lives as a separate layer and is easy to replace wasn’t a thing. You also had to handle a lot of input yourself, meaning mouse/keyboard logic is all over the core of the app, rather than done cleanly too.

Fixing all this for an OS like iOS where you are forced to be clean when it comes to input and UI, and having to revisit how your UI works after nearly 30 years of bloat, isn’t cheap. And a company like Adobe sees the cost of porting and shies away until the writing is on the wall. Either in the sense of competition threatening them with a younger and more flexible code base (Affinity Photo), or the market for desktops/laptops shrinking in favor of tablets (which hasn’t really happened).

I get where you are coming from, but as a developer, bringing AppKit to iOS doesn’t buy you anything. Outside of AppKit/UIKit, a lot of the APIs are already common between the two platforms. Where they differ are in the UI controls and input. And even then there’s some pretty good similarities to keep things from being too different without reasons for it.

And honestly, if I had my choice for a converged *Kit for UI between the two, it would be a more mature UIKit, not a ported AppKit. Precisely because AppKit has far too much legacy that is there to support machines from the early 2000s, rather than today’s machines where you can assume things like CoreAnimation will always work, you always have a reasonable GPU for 2D acceleration, etc.

EDIT: But adapting the hardware for more Pro purposes I think is on point. How they do it may be rather “evolutionary”, but I do expect them to keep pushing in this direction as tech advances.

 

[macduke]

What do people think about the rounded screen corners? Not sure how that is going to look when viewing content full screen such as video content or even editing images full screen. I realise it is only a small about clipped from each corner but it would necessitate zooming out a little to ensure there are no unwanted artefacts in the corner of your images when editing.
Is this an issue for anyone using the likes of an iPhone X or similar?

Honestly I didn’t even think about this. On the 11” it’s getting bigger, but the 12.9” is staying the same so apps with a lot of toolbar interface might need some tweaking. But on my XS it’s not that much of a corner radius, so it depends on the iPad how they handle that. Other than UI, I don’t think movies will be a big deal since it’s already letterboxed so it wouldn’t go to the edges anyway.
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Here's my thoughts.

First, I'm just ABSOLUTELY starting to learn iOS development, but something I've seen is that you can make different UI's depending on screen size (to allow one app to function on both iPad and iPhone without buying it twice). I believe Apple will expand this and allow another "screen size" for external displays w/ a mouse input. This would mean developers ONLY have to remake the UI but get to keep the main code base for their app and boom: "desktop" use app. This essentially can allow the entire iOS app store to be converted for use as a "desktop" app with minimal investment.

Second, as far as the main UI, it could just do some cool sliding up animation where your dock on iPad slides up on the monitor (maybe have the same dock layout that's on your iPad or have a saved version with more on them, since the screen is obviously bigger) and function just like the macOS dock does right now. In fact, even have "Launchpad" on iOS and just show your home screen layout!

Hell, Apple could turn iPads into direct competitors to the Surface lineup by making some sort of hinged keyboard dock like the Surface Book has. Those things already exist by third parties, lacking only the touch pad, which is trivial to add.

I mean let me be real here; I work at a certain giant electronics retailer, in the computers section to be specific. A vast majority (75%+?) only use internet browsing, note taking, and office-style programs... all things that can be done iPads already. Aside from programming and running games on a Windows computer, that's all that's left for me too; I could replace a laptop with an iPad for day to day.

Another thing; I really, really think it would be stupid for the USB-C to exist solely for display mirroring (showing the iPad screen on the TV or monitor that is). Its inconvenient to have some massive cable running across your living room to plug in your iPad, or have the iPad sitting next to the TV. Apple already has a solution; the Apple TV. It can mirror your iPad but it also has its own app store that has apps for pretty much any streaming service you might use as well as having the ability to play media you own via its internal storage or the storage of the iPad.

I’ve thought about the wireless thing too but it wouldn’t be great for traveling to have to bring an Apple TV. I remember a long time ago around the time DisplayPort was being finalized there was a lot of talk about wireless HDMI but I think 4K killed that. Maybe with upcoming WiFi 6 (ax) we could get a standard ratified, but I think the round trip over WiFi is what kills the input latency so a more direct approach could be needed.

 

[fokmik]

"“Face ID needs to be in portrait to learn how to recognize you,” Apple’s software explains. “After Face ID has been set up, it will work in portrait and landscape.”"

So its official that faceID will work both on portrait and landscape

 

[subjonas]

"“Face ID needs to be in portrait to learn how to recognize you,” Apple’s software explains. “After Face ID has been set up, it will work in portrait and landscape.”"

So its official that faceID will work both on portrait and landscape

What are you quoting from? Have a link?

 

[fokmik]

from ios12.1 code itself

 

[iapplelove]

What are you quoting from? Have a link?

I think the beta 12.1 confirmed this.

 

[subjonas]

What do people think about the rounded screen corners? Not sure how that is going to look when viewing content full screen such as video content or even editing images full screen. I realise it is only a small about clipped from each corner but it would necessitate zooming out a little to ensure there are no unwanted artefacts in the corner of your images when editing.
Is this an issue for anyone using the likes of an iPhone X or similar?

For watching video it strikes me as the kind of thing that's annoying in principle but never actually a dealbreaker in the real world.

Presumably the designers of pro image apps worth their salt will inset the canvas a bit in situations where it is likely to be a problem.

I don’t know about other artists, but I typically zoom out of my canvas so that I see the border around it anyway, to check the image all the way to the edges, so rounded corners shouldn’t make much of a difference for me there.
It isn’t ideal, but I agree with frou, I can’t see rounded corners causing major issues, at least for me.