Doubtful rumor: macos on ipad M2

[Cmaier]

Rumor that macos may be coming to ipad, but won’t run macos apps?

Apple rumored to be testing macOS for M2 iPad Pro | AppleInsider

A leaker has claimed that Apple is working on a version of macOS exclusive for the M2 iPad Pro, with it expected at some point in 2023.

appleinsider.com

I think what’s going on is likely what is speculated about later in this article - more macOS-like windowing and chrome on iPad. After all, macos and ipados already share a lot of code, they both now share stage manager, and stage manager clearly needs a ton of work.

 

[B01L]

Rumor that macos may be coming to ipad, but won’t run macos apps?

Apple rumored to be testing macOS for M2 iPad Pro | AppleInsider

A leaker has claimed that Apple is working on a version of macOS exclusive for the M2 iPad Pro, with it expected at some point in 2023.

appleinsider.com

I think what’s going on is likely what is speculated about later in this article - more macOS-like windowing and chrome on iPad. After all, macos and ipados already share a lot of code, they both now share stage manager, and stage manager clearly needs a ton of work.

If Chrome comes to iPadOS (or a newer macOS Lite), then I also hope Firefox makes the same transition...?

Regardless, looks like I might be waiting for the next (NeXT...?) gen iPad Pro; OLED screen, landscape cameras & junk, M3 SoC, more than one port, possible larger (14.1") model...

A new generation of Apple Pencil would be sweet; color options (OG white, Space Black, & #2 pencil yellow) and "flip to erase" capability would be nice...

 

[Nycturne]

They do share a lot of code, although this is the place of the biggest split between the two. iOS' window manager as I understand it is a bit of a clean slate project, and doesn't share much with macOS' window manager. UIKit is similar in that sense, being a clean slate project that has many things that are more modern than AppKit. And other differences that are choices specific to the needs of iPhone/iPad (software keyboard being one of them).

I wouldn't be surprised if Stage Manager is not so much "shared" code-wise, but simply shares the design language because of that. I'd expect there would be some work to get more of the macOS chrome into UIKit and iOS' window manager. But perhaps stage manager is the start of that work.

If Chrome comes to iPadOS (or a newer macOS Lite), then I also hope Firefox makes the same transition...?

Not that chrome.

 

[Yoused]

If Chrome comes to iPadOS (or a newer macOS Lite), then I also hope Firefox makes the same transition...?

There is a Firefox app that you can get for iPadOS. However, it is quite spare in functionality, and Apple requires that any web browser running on iOS/iPadOS must render pages using WebKit (khtml), so it is not really Firefox underneath. Chrome, by contrast, does use a khtml rendering engine, so running it on iOS/iPadOS gets you, what, Google looking over your shoulder?

 

[Colstan]

Rumor that macos may be coming to ipad, but won’t run macos apps?

This leaker is less reliable than Gurman, Kuo, and Max Tech, and that's saying something. This is the same person that posted that schematic that they alleged was from the Apple Silicon Mac Pro. You remember seeing this thing? @Cmaier immediately identified it as nonsense, and considering the source, this may be more of the same. It's entirely possible that this person is receiving breadcrumbs, but is adding their own interpretation and speculation on top, to spice up the alleged leak.