Apple unveiled its major new macOS update at its annual developers conference. The yearly Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2020 was held as an online only event this year because of the current global coronavirus crisis. However, that did not seem to affect Apple’s ability to push rich software updates or even compromise on the quality of the keynote and workshops. Many top YouTube tech reviewers applauded Apple for the fabulous production and the video quality of the keynote.
The operating system that powers the Mac is getting some big design changes. The new macOS 11.0 Big Sur update brings the design of the Mac operating system closer to iOS’s look and feel. The reason why Apple redesigned macOS is quite obvious as it plans to further unify its operating systems. At WWDC, Apple announced its plans to move away from using Intel chips on its Macs to using its own custom ARM based chips – Apple silicon.
Developers that have access to macOS Big Sur report that UI elements on the Mac look very similar to iOS. Opinion pieces have also added that a lot of macOS Big Sur elements look like they have been designed for touch input devices and not specifically for pointer type of devices such as the Mac.
It’s not to say that macOS Big Sur is unusable with a pointer device but it looks like the design of UI elements look very much like the iOS and iPadOS counterparts. It is very much possible that Apple will release a touch enabled Mac machine in the future or a Mac/iPad hybrid.
Microsoft is already very good at creating touch enabled devices. It makes the Surface Pro, the Surface Go, and the Surface Studio. Apple could also be on a very similar path going forward but the implementation could be better as the company will use their own chips.