I agree, bring back some WiFi routers and repeaters!
- An Apple e-ink device would be an instant buy for me, and would help push the iBooks Store (or whatever it is called) against the Kindle Store. And it they add productivity capabilities like a Remarkable I would pay through the nose. But this would cannibalise the iPad.
- Put Logic in a real musical instrument with 88 keys, could very well be something like an iPad glued to a MIDI controller.
Maybe the answer to this would be a Mac Mini + Studio Display + KB/M bundle that knocks a few hundred bucks off (or just reduce the price of the Studio Display but I digress).
I love that idea as a DIY project. Battery-powered MIDI keyboard plus iPad in kiosk mode in Logic or GarageBand. Duct tape and 3D-printed grips to hold it together. I’d go with fewer keys for portability but full range with weights would be nice, too.
I never really used Bento and by the time there was a “need” for it Apple had dropped it. What I do see as parallel between it and Panorama X is the use of templates rather than a facility for the user to create their own databases; my requirement is for an SQL database system that will allow me to define multiple tables after third/fourth/fifth normalisation of the data model which will require the facilities of MariaDB or postgreSQL to manage. My data has out grown SQLite3 (from the Terminal command line) for my canvassing purposes.
And sometime soon I want to import the ever-growing XML export from Apple Health into a database for analysis; my last export — a month ago — resulted in a 400+ megabyte XML file plus 350+ workout routes.
You are not wrong about the fact that it would cannibalize the iPad but maybe an iPad with Eink might solve the existential angst we all feel every time a new iPad comes out
Apple is the only global ebook reader with sideloading of books.
Amazon only sell ebooks in a few large countries, and has only opened 1 bookstore in 10 years (Netherlands). So you cant buy ebooks in your national language n Amazon.
You can sideload your own books on a Kindle, but you cant read them on the Mac Kindle reader. Thats Mac only.
When you said Kindle, I assumed you meant Kindle hardware.
BTW, where there’s a will, there’s a way. You can deDRM the book and sideload into Kindle reader Maybe?
I’ve had that dream for a phone for years. Imagine if the UI of the device was dependent on its use case. Standalone? it’s got the iOS UI. Docked to a keyboard, monitor, and mouse? Present the macOS UI. Same filesystem layout, same data underneath, different access to the data.
I had an email exchange with John Gruber about this a while back, and he disagrees with me. He thinks that the edge cases like “what happens to background apps in macOS when you undock your phone?” would present mostly unsolvable problems. Or at least problems too difficult to solve with existing technology. He’s right on one thing, macOS would destroy an iPhone’s battery life. Maybe an iPad would be better suited though.
Anyway, if they could make it, Apple would make an absolute killing on accessories. Imagine all the docks and cases they could make. A MacBook with an iPhone-sized slot in the side. Same for an iMac. Or a standalone dock with lots of ports. So many options.
So have I. But at my last job I watched many of the programs we used move from on-device to server based to cloud. And now that we are seeing how AI may be changing things, I doubt we will be using different operating systems on all our devices in the not so distant future.
At my age I may never see a reliable Siri, much less a AI powered replacement for our current devices. But I don’t see things staying the way they are.