A Stellar Concept Video for iOS 11 and the Rebirth of the Mac

The Particle Debris item of the week isn’t a written article. Instead it’s a concept video, a joint effort by Federico Vittici at MacStories and designer Sam Beckett in the UK. The reason it’s so cool is because it punctuates the hunger we all have for a new iOS on the iPad that leaves the past behind, truly enables and excites. You’ll love these concepts.

There are several chapters in this concept video.

1. Drag and Drop


2. The Shelf


3. App Picker


4. Pro Features

The Pro Features break with tradition and expose part of the file system. Even though we might think that Apple would never expose the file system this way, it’s tempting to contemplate how Apple might break with tradition and make an exciting, quantum leap into the future.

That kind of capability, combined with the previous three concepts, is just what Apple needs to breathe new life into the sagging iPad sales. The concepts are daring, tantalizing, and immediately make one think about the creative possibilities these features would unleash.

I know Apple can’t just appropriate these concepts. There would be legal entanglements even if they were offered up freely. The point is that Apple has the engineering talent to take the iPad to the next level with its own unique brand of visually exciting features that would have us standing in line for a new iPad…

… at the Apple Store at 0600 in the morning. Wouldn’t that be a sight?

Next Page: The News Debris For The Week Of May 15th. The rebirth of the Mac is coming.

Page 2 – News Debris For The Week Of May 15th

The Rebirth of the Mac is Coming

Apple has taken some heat lately for its Mac lineup. The new iMacs, possibly with Xeon CPUs, are expected until the fall. The new Mac Pro isn’t expected until some time in 2018. This would seem to make it imperative that Apple introduce (if not ship) new notebooks at WWDC next month. Jonny Evans at Computerworld has the scoop. “WWDC: Apple’s Kaby Lake MacBook upgrades coming soon.”

Why does Apple’s new (2016) MacBook Pro have only USB-C ports? Doc Searls describes that as “passive-aggressive” behavior. Conversely, why doesn’t the new Microsoft Surface Laptop have any at all? The Verge has the answer: “Microsoft doesn’t think USB-C is ready for the mainstream.”

Even if you never purchase Apple’s next Mac Pro, Jason Snell explains why it “holds an important place in the lineup.” See: “Championing the Mac Pro.”

The truth is, every professional user is the most vertical of niches: a target market of one, with specific needs and desires that need to be fulfilled. Very few of us are lucky enough to have the perfect product emerge from Apple’s factories, so we have to pick and choose and find the closest approximation that we can afford.

That’s the advantage of making professional products not just powerful, but flexible in terms of specs and features. The more flexible the product line, the more fuzzy space there is for professional users to fit inside.

And so. Might we expect a slightly different, more flexible port configuration for the Kaby Lake MacBook Pros?  That would be an amazing, welcome concession to customers. Perhaps the Mac community, having had so long to formulate its thoughts about Apple,  Macs, the competition and their own needs will have an impact on future designs.

In any case, my instincts suggest that it won’t be too long before Apple’s Mac lineup starts to look much better. WWDC will be the litmus test.

One More Debris

Email on the Mac is beleaguered. There have been several misfires in the history of trying to one-up Apple’s Mail app, but none have gone the distance. Whenever I see an article that discusses alternatives to the Mail app, one that’s always mentioned is the trusty Thunderbird.

And now this: “Mozilla to Thunderbird: You can stay here and we may give you cash, but as a couple, it’s over.” No, the app isn’t done for, but it’s being relegated to 2nd tier status.

Once upon a time, a unified code base for Mozilla’s Firefox and Thunderbird sounded great… What’s happened now is a divorce-of-convenience… the Firefox and Thunderbird source code will diverge. It’s over between the two – not with a bang, but a whimper.

Email is one of those things that’s terribly important for some people, but not for many others. It’s not very sexy anymore. And so, we remain stuck with the Mail app, Thunderbird, Outlook and a few others. Things will probably never get any better for email.

And so we limp along with less than stellar solutions. It’s sad.

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Particle Debris is a generally a mix of John Martellaro’s observations and opinions about a standout event or article of the week (preamble on page one) followed on page two by a discussion of articles that didn’t make the tmo headlines, the technical news debris. The column is published most every Friday except for holidays.

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