Year: 2020

Connected #300: You Cannot Put a Price on Glory ⇢

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This week on a hectic episode of Connected:

WWDC 2020 is underway, so the time has come to judge The Rickies. After a new Chairman is crowned, the guys do a high-level pass on Apple’s OS announcements, as well as what’s new with Shortcuts.

It’s going to be a busy summer.

My thanks to our sponsors:

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As well as our members, who can enjoy an ad-free, extra-long version of the show.

Microsoft Comments on Windows on ARM and the Mac ⇢

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Tom Warren, writing at The Verge:

Apple will start switching its Macs to its own ARM-based processors later this year, but you won’t be able to run Windows in Boot Camp mode on them. Microsoft only licenses Windows 10 on ARM to PC makers to preinstall on new hardware, and the company hasn’t made copies of the operating system available for anyone to license or freely install.

“Microsoft only licenses Windows 10 on ARM to OEMs,” says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement to The Verge. We asked Microsoft if it plans to change this policy to allow Boot Camp on ARM-based Macs, and the company says “we have nothing further to share at this time.”

Apple Silicon Macs Getting Boot and Recovery Changes ⇢

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Jason Snell:

Doing unusual things at Mac startup has long required remembering keyboard shortcuts. Is it Command-Control-P-R or Command-Option-P-R that zaps the PRAM? Is that still even a thing? Is it Command-S for Recovery Mode—or wait, that’s Single User Mode, it’s Command-R for Recovery mode, Command-T for Target Disk Mode, Option to choose a startup disk.

With the advent of Macs running Apple-designed processors, things will get a whole lot simpler. As described Wednesday in the WWDC session Explore the New System Architecture of Apple Silicon Macs, these new Macs will only require you to remember a single button: Power. (On laptops, that’ll be the Touch ID button. On desktops, presumably it’s the physical power button.)

This is a great change … but I am already tired of saying and typing “Apple Silicon Macs.” I’m not saying we come up with a goofy nickname here, but maybe I am…

The Future of Apps on the Mac

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Depending on how you count them, Apple has several different routes for developers to take when it comes to modernizing their apps for the future of macOS. Let’s take a look at these related technologies to see what they can provide.

Traditional Mac apps

The future for traditional, built-with-AppKit applications seems to be solid, at least for now. With Big Sur’s redesign, AppKit has received a major overhaul, and I don’t think there’s any real reason to think it can’t live side by side with other technologies like UIKit and SwiftUI for years to come. However, these apps have been rooted in the world of Intel for a long time, so Apple has a couple of ways to help developers get them up and running on Apple Silicon Macs.

Rosetta 2

Just like in the switch to Intel, Apple is providing a way for apps compiled for the old architecture to run on the new one, in a seamless fashion. Rosetta 2 will handle this, as Apple explains:

To the user, Rosetta is mostly transparent. If an executable contains only Intel instructions, macOS automatically launches Rosetta and begins the translation process. When translation finishes, the system launches the translated executable in place of the original. However, the translation process takes time, so users might perceive that translated apps launch or run more slowly at times.

Rosetta 2 won’t be able to translate everything; apps that require kernel extensions or those that virtualize x86_64 computer platforms (like Parallels or VMWare Fusion) are left out.

Universal 2

Universal binaries are the next step. These are apps that include both x86 and ARM code, side by side.

This system can encompass all sorts of features, including app extensions, plug-ins, custom frameworks, command line tools and even DriverKit extensions and kernel extensions (which are deprecated and going away … at some point).

Universal apps will be around for years to come, while I think Rosetta 2 will have a slightly shorter life due its more bridge-like nature. As long as Intel Macs are being supported by macOS, universal apps will be required.

iOS Apps on the Mac

Of course, as of a couple of releases ago, the Mac has had the ability to run modified iPad apps via Mac Catalyst. It may seem that Catalyst won’t be needed for very long, but I don’t think that’s how Apple sees things.

Mac Catalyst

This year, Mac Catalyst is getting a lot of love, as Apple has brought even more Mac user interface idioms to the system. While it’s still not as easy as hitting the checkbox, making a good Mac app with Catalyst is more possible than ever. Just look at this list of some of the new inclusions:

  • Mac date picker
  • Pull-down menus
  • Default scaling is now 100%, not 77% as before
  • Popovers that can extend beyond the main window

If a developer really leans into this, I think the gap between traditional AppKit Mac apps and ones built with Mac Catalyst will get smaller and smaller.

iPhone & iPad Apps on Apple Silicon Macs

When the first ARM-based Macs ship, they’ll have the ability to run most iPad and iPhone apps directly, without any intervention from developers. In fact, these apps will show up in the Mac App Store unless developers opt out of doing so.

Combined with the new universal purchase rules, this means that almost any app a user has on their iPhone or iPad will run on their shiny new Mac.

The redesign of macOS with Big Sur will make these apps feel more at home on the Mac, but if developers want them to feel more like traditional Mac applications, Mac Catalyst stands ready.1

SwiftUI

Of course, above all of this hovers SwiftUI, Apple’s year-old method of writing apps that can span from watchOS, up through iOS and iPad OS, all the way to the Mac and even tvOS. These applications run natively on all of these systems, Intel Macs included. That’s a bold vision of the future, but the reality is, it’s years off for most applications, especially those on the Mac that may have decades of AppKit development behind them.

If SwiftUI had been announced five years ago, Apple may have been able to avoid some of the transitional technologies outlined above, but that wasn’t in the cards.

That said, no other large tech company is as good as transitions as Apple, and I think for most users, this will all pretty easy, even if developers will have quite a bit of work to do.

  1. Mac Catalyst will still be required for these applications to work on Intel-based Macs, so the selection may be drastically smaller for users still running Macs using that architecture. ↩

Mac Power Users #541: WWDC 2020 ⇢

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Big week on MPU:

Recorded just a few hours after the WWDC keynote, Stephen and David share their reactions to iOS 14, macOS Big Sur, and the Mac’s transition to Apple-designed processors.

There’s so much to think about this year, but it was good to spend some time with David sorting through some of it.

My thanks to our sponsors this time:

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The Mac Developer Transition Kit with Apple Silicon ⇢

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Like during the switch to Intel, Apple has put together a transition hardware kit for the move to ARM.

Like with Intel, this is not a product, and Apple was quick to note that it doesn’t represent what final hardware could look like. That said, here are the specs:

  • Apple A12Z Bionic (from the 2020 iPad Pros)
  • 16 GB RAM
  • 500 GB SSD
  • Two USB-C ports (up to 10 Gbps)
  • Two USB-A ports (up to 5 Gpbs)
  • HDMI 2.0 port
  • 802.11ac Wi-Fi
  • Bluetooth 5.0
  • Gigabit Ethernet

… all in a Mac mini case, as predicted.

The lack of Thunderbolt is interesting. As announced last year, Thunderbolt 3 will be rolled into USB 4. It’s unclear when USB 4 will be coming, so it may not be ready for this new class of Macs. In that case, I fully expect Apple to have Thunderbolt 3 support ready, or at least some fancy DisplayPort stuff to drive a 6k display.

Apple’s demo machines running on their own CPUs were using the Pro Display XDR, which require more than even the iMac Pro can give. While the USB-C Macs can push the display at 5K, that’s not a long-term solution.

(Another wrinkle here is high-speed Thunderbolt 3 accessories. While Apple may be able to drive the XDR with better graphics over USB-C, I don’t think they want to leave TB3 accessories behind.)

These ARM Mac minis are not available to the general public; Apple is taking applications from developers who are interested in paying $500 for the hardware:

Selected developers will receive a link to order the Universal App Quick Start Program from the online Apple Store. Priority will be given to applicants with an existing macOS application, as availability is limited.

I’m sure these machines comes with NDAs, but I am itching to hear how they run.

macOS 11 ⇢

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A quick look at a “About this Mac” window in today’s keynote showed the version number of the copy of macOS running on the Apple Silicon development hardware was 11.0, but Apple is also using the new name on the Developer website:

macOS 11 introduces many user interface changes that update the appearance of apps and make them more approachable to people transitioning from iPad apps. macOS 11 also adds support for familiar iOS features — such as SF Symbols and text styles — that enhance the user experience and can streamline the app design process.

When you build your app for macOS 11, you’ll find that most of the updates are automatic when you use system-defined elements with SwiftUI or Auto Layout; if your app is highly customized, you may have additional work to do. As you think about updating your app for macOS 11, review the following changes to help you plan your approach.

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