Apple's year 2017 ended with a report that the company sought to close the gap between its iPhones and Macs by allowing universal applications as early as 2018. This effort -with the code name & # 39; Marzipan & # 39; – apparently this is not going to happen this year, and it may never have existed in the informed capacity.
Or at least that's what the notorious Apple blogger John Gruber is saying in a new publication that cites both "first and second-hand sources," whose notes are "All Consistent with Each Other." Referring to Mark Gurman's initial report on Bloomberg regarding Marzipan, Gruber notes that although "there is an active multiplatform user interface project in Apple for iOS and macOS", "at some point it could have been called & # 39; Marzipan, but only in its early days. "
But today, Gruber notes that the cross-platform project is not a structure for universal applications, but a" declarative control API "that could allow applications to be built to multiple interfaces at the same time.
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What is the difference? Well, even applications for Macs and iPhones could allow multiple user interfaces; the rest of the program code would still be written for iOS and MacOS. Gruber writes about this as a solution for encoders that "abstract the API differences between UIKit (iOS) and AppKit (MacOS)".
Hypothetically, this technology could allow a Mac application to support different interfaces, which could be useful if Apple ever decides it needs a touch design, which generally requires larger touch targets. It's not that we're holding our breath for a Mac based on touch.
Oh, and as for when will it come to light? While Gurman claimed that this could be released as early as 2018, Gruber writes: "It's a 2019 thing, for MacOS 10.15 and iOS 13.1 would set your expectations accordingly for this year's WWDC."
Gruber's report coincides with an interview that Apple CEO Tim Cook gave in April, discrediting the original Bloomberg report. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald in Australia, Cook stated: "We do not believe in one kind of water for the other." Cook continued, explaining that "both [The Mac and iPad] are incredible." One of the reasons why both are incredible is because we press them to do what they do well, and if you start merging the two … you start doing concessions and commitments. "
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