Apple "Marzipan" project: enabling iOS apps to run on macOS

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joeyluck
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11 Feb 2018

This flew under my radar. Reported back in December. Could be great news for Mac users such as myself who don't have an iOS device and want to take advantage of some of the great iOS applications out there. Sure, many apps are created for a touch screen experience, but there are tons of music apps that can be paired with a MIDI controller.

The other benefit here could be an easier patching into your DAW of your favorite mobile apps; as they'll be running on your desktop.

And from the sounds of it, might make it easier to have macOS apps running on iOS? Although, I think there would be more challenges for developers going that direction as you have to account for mobile processor and touch screen.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... d-mac-apps

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normen
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12 Feb 2018

You make it sound like an iOS emulator somehow. It‘s not. Its the underlying programming APIs in MacOS and iOS, they are to be unified so that developers only create one application and that runs on both platforms with just a few UI etc. differences, like iPhone and iPad now.

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joeyluck
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12 Feb 2018

Right. And I imagined developers could update previous iOS apps to offer a better macOS version UI, or those apps could be run on macOS the same as 'iPhone only' apps can be run on an iPad now, using the app's available UI. Which some may consider not as optimal between iPhone and iPad, but less an issue between iPad and macOS, as the resolution is already pretty great and users are accustomed to windowed applications.

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normen
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12 Feb 2018

Well I think mouse vs. touch is a bigger issue than screen size, the UIs would be substantially different I guess. The way its now the UI APIs are HUGELY different, they even have different coordinate systems (bottom left is 0/0 on MacOS, while it‘s top left on MacOS). I think thats one thing they want to soften a bit.

When you develop an application the UI and the rest of the code are usually pretty well separated, i.e. your core code that „does stuff“ has some „outlets“ where you can „connect“ UI elements, no matter from what UI type (touch, web what have you). And technically you could already copy-paste a lot of that „core code“ between iOS and MacOS projects. Apple will just make it easier to actually have it in one XCode project without duplicating the „core code“ into separate iOS and MacOS projects.

But yeah, good chances to see iOS-only apps or MacOS-only apps on both platforms sooner or later.

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joeyluck
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12 Feb 2018

Yeah one of my bigger questions might be if the decision is still ultimately left to the developer to allow something to run on macOS, and what that will mean for price structuring. As apps for iOS are typically much cheaper than their macOS counterpart. In some cases I imagine it's priced differently because of different markets and/or because of developing time and support for a different platform. Curious to see what actions are taken by developers in that situation.

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normen
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12 Feb 2018

joeyluck wrote:
12 Feb 2018
Yeah one of my bigger questions might be if the decision is still ultimately left to the developer to allow something to run on macOS, and what that will mean for price structuring. As apps for iOS are typically much cheaper than their macOS counterpart. In some cases I imagine it's priced differently because of different markets and/or because of developing time and support for a different platform. Curious to see what actions are taken by developers in that situation.
Mhm, I guess the hope is that it will bring down the price for MacOS apps because of the huge market for iOS that they can be sold to as well then. The way I see it MacOS is the "legacy" platform for Apple.

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Psuper
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12 Feb 2018

I love Marzipan, the almondy good stuff british cake toppings are made out of.
Reason needs to DAW.viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7504985

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joeyluck
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12 Feb 2018

Psuper wrote:
12 Feb 2018
I love Marzipan, the almondy good stuff british cake toppings are made out of.
Whenever I hear marzipan, I think of Homestar Runner :lol:

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fieldframe
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12 Feb 2018

joeyluck wrote:
12 Feb 2018
Right. And I imagined developers could update previous iOS apps to offer a better macOS version UI, or those apps could be run on macOS the same as 'iPhone only' apps can be run on an iPad now, using the app's available UI.
That's a totally reasonable prediction, given the precedent of iPhone apps running on the iPad, but I have reason to believe they wouldn't do that today.

In 2010, it was still up in the air whether or not the iPad would be a success. To help ensure that success, Apple made the decision to allow iPhone apps on the iPad, even if it was a very temporary measure. The important thing was to give developers the tools to make new iPad UIs that would let them reuse and combine the parts they used on iPhone.

I think the proof is in how iPhone compatibility mode works on the iPad eight years later: They never updated it; the screen size it simulates is still an iPhone 4. The problem was to kickstart the iPad ecosystem, which they definitely succeeded at. The MacOS ecosystem is more mature than iOS, so it doesn't need kickstarting, just a boost, which is just what new developer tools to make reusing iOS code should do.

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selig
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12 Feb 2018

joeyluck wrote:
Psuper wrote:
12 Feb 2018
I love Marzipan, the almondy good stuff british cake toppings are made out of.
Whenever I hear marzipan, I think of Homestar Runner :lol:
I was just going to say the same thing!!!
;)


Sent from some crappy device using Tapatalk
Selig Audio, LLC

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theshoemaker
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13 Feb 2018

normen wrote:
12 Feb 2018
Well I think mouse vs. touch is a bigger issue than screen size, the UIs would be substantially different I guess. The way its now the UI APIs are HUGELY different, they even have different coordinate systems (bottom left is 0/0 on MacOS, while it‘s top left on MacOS). I think thats one thing they want to soften a bit.

When you develop an application the UI and the rest of the code are usually pretty well separated, i.e. your core code that „does stuff“ has some „outlets“ where you can „connect“ UI elements, no matter from what UI type (touch, web what have you). And technically you could already copy-paste a lot of that „core code“ between iOS and MacOS projects. Apple will just make it easier to actually have it in one XCode project without duplicating the „core code“ into separate iOS and MacOS projects.

But yeah, good chances to see iOS-only apps or MacOS-only apps on both platforms sooner or later.
Apple should finally implement a touch screen into their MacBooks. Waiting for this since years
:PUF_figure: latest :reason: V12 on MacOS Ventura

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normen
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13 Feb 2018

theshoemaker wrote:
13 Feb 2018
normen wrote:
12 Feb 2018
Well I think mouse vs. touch is a bigger issue than screen size, the UIs would be substantially different I guess. The way its now the UI APIs are HUGELY different, they even have different coordinate systems (bottom left is 0/0 on MacOS, while it‘s top left on MacOS). I think thats one thing they want to soften a bit.

When you develop an application the UI and the rest of the code are usually pretty well separated, i.e. your core code that „does stuff“ has some „outlets“ where you can „connect“ UI elements, no matter from what UI type (touch, web what have you). And technically you could already copy-paste a lot of that „core code“ between iOS and MacOS projects. Apple will just make it easier to actually have it in one XCode project without duplicating the „core code“ into separate iOS and MacOS projects.

But yeah, good chances to see iOS-only apps or MacOS-only apps on both platforms sooner or later.
Apple should finally implement a touch screen into their MacBooks. Waiting for this since years
No they shouldn‘t. I tried that years ago. Desktop UIs suck with touch. Reason sucks with touch. iOS works great with touch.

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theshoemaker
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13 Feb 2018

normen wrote:
13 Feb 2018
theshoemaker wrote:
13 Feb 2018


Apple should finally implement a touch screen into their MacBooks. Waiting for this since years
No they shouldn‘t. I tried that years ago. Desktop UIs suck with touch. Reason sucks with touch. iOS works great with touch.
Yeah agree, that's the point. The UI and the apps suck, not the screen. That's a chicken/egg problem. They would have to provide a proper solution like they did with iOS.

Imagine Apple never introduced iOS and its app store?
:PUF_figure: latest :reason: V12 on MacOS Ventura

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normen
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13 Feb 2018

theshoemaker wrote:
13 Feb 2018
Yeah agree, that's the point. The UI and the apps suck, not the screen. That's a chicken/egg problem. They would have to provide a proper solution like they did with iOS.

Imagine Apple never introduced iOS and its app store?
Yeah, thats why I really appreciated Apple going the way of a "completely new" (actually its the same core BSD) operating system for touch and kept laughing at MS for trying to "unify" that. It backfired for MS but to be honest, by now they somewhat fixed it on the OS level - most applications are still unusable in touch mode though.

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theshoemaker
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13 Feb 2018

normen wrote:
13 Feb 2018
theshoemaker wrote:
13 Feb 2018
Yeah agree, that's the point. The UI and the apps suck, not the screen. That's a chicken/egg problem. They would have to provide a proper solution like they did with iOS.

Imagine Apple never introduced iOS and its app store?
Yeah, thats why I really appreciated Apple going the way of a "completely new" (actually its the same core BSD) operating system for touch and kept laughing at MS for trying to "unify" that. It backfired for MS but to be honest, by now they somewhat fixed it on the OS level - most applications are still unusable in touch mode though.
Totally agree. I mean MS had their windows mobile. Which I really appreciated, but the UI just sucked. And then there was iPhone ... they just did the right thing.
:PUF_figure: latest :reason: V12 on MacOS Ventura

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O1B
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10 Mar 2018

Nice heads up! Thanks!


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O1B
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21 Mar 2018

It's Real.

All Fred Anton Corvest (alias FAC) plugins are now available on macOS in addition to iOS!

Note: The plugins are based on the new audio unit v3 technologies, which is currently supported by Logic Pro X, GarageBand and Hosting AU.


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