All you need is a copy of Mac OS X, an app that lets you run virtual machines, and plenty of storage space. There was a time when many iPad users longed for a tablet that ran macOS — a full desktop operating system. Using an app called UTM, it’s possible to run Mac OS X Leopard — and earlier versions of Apple’s operating system — in a virtual machine. The process has no impact on iOS or iPadOS, so there’s no need to worry about breaking your device. And it uses software, albeit unauthorized by Apple, that you can easily install without a jailbreak. A copy of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard (or earlier): We can’t tell you how to obtain this, but a simple Google search will.
Plenty of free time: Although running Mac OS X on an iOS device isn’t complicated, it is lengthy. Although running Mac OS X on an iOS device isn’t complicated, it is lengthy.
To install UTM without a jailbreak, we will use AltStore, the self-described “home for apps that push the boundaries of iOS.” Follow our guide on how to install AltStore if you don’t already have it running on your iPhone or iPad. Tap the + button in the top-right corner to begin creating your virtual machine. Note, however, that if you give the machine too much memory, iOS or iPadOS will kill the UTM app. Here’s where we’ll give the machine a virtual hard drive and the Mac OS X disk image.
Then tap Import, and locate and select the Mac OS X .ISO file you downloaded earlier. You will need to allocate around 15GB (15,000MB) for Mac OS 10.5 Leopard, but earlier versions may require less. Your new Mac OS X virtual machine should appear in UTM with a play button. If, after a few minutes, you see the Apple logo on your screen, you’ve done everything correctly and you are booting into Mac OS X setup.
Before you can start installing Leopard, you will need to format your virtual hard drive by following these steps: Once this process is complete, you can close Disk Utility and return to the Mac OS X installer.
This will be familiar to anyone who’s installed Mac OS on a computer before — just follow the steps. Note that it takes a long time to install Mac OS X Leopard.
As I mentioned above, getting Mac OS X running on an iOS device isn’t too complicated — it’s just long-winded.
Not only is Leopard old now, but you’re running it on a virtual machine that has a PowerPC processor (using an X86 CPU doesn’t seem to work) that isn’t compatible with modern software. If you have spare time to kill and you feel like taking a trip down memory lane, it’s certainly a lot of fun. Just don’t expect to be making Mac OS X your primary operating system on iPhone or iPad.
macOS On iPad Pro? It’s Complicated.
It’s been a year since I wrote a story about WWDC 21 and how Apple lost a new M1-based iPad sale due to mismanaged expectations.
I converted my iPad into a Mac, and now I love it
iPadOS has come a long way since the early iPads, introducing lots of multitasking features and gestures that make it a decent work device. Way back when MacOS Catalina was released, Apple tried to bring iPads and Macs closer together with Sidecar. This lets you use your Mac’s keyboard on your iPad, and vice versa, and even share content between the completely different devices. Literally, anything, and in any room of my house, as long as the Wi-Fi is stable enough and the Bluetooth connection stays.
It feels awesome to use the Apple Pencil on drawing apps on Mac OS, where you get a full desktop-like experience, rather than a mobile-first layout. It packs a lot of space to multitask with, but it’s an older LCD monitor so things sometimes seem dull when editing videos on it.
Yet, when Apple released the iPad Pro 2021 model, it played up the benefits of Mini LED technology. Despite it being a remote session through Wi-Fi, the colors in videos are much more vibrant, the display gets better peak brightness. I watched some nature videos, and I really couldn’t help but be blown away when I saw the details in the greens of trees, and the browns of rocks in a scene where a helicopter was flying over Switzerland.
Even when typing this post, the whites of the WordPress UI looked a lot more vibrant against the black text of my paragraphs, and it is all thanks to my iPad Pro.
It wasn’t an issue for me, as my Mac Mini was connected on the first floor in an open space, and my home has pretty good Wi-Fi coverage. Sidecar doesn’t support this, so I resorted to using my AirPods connected to my Mac Mini to fill the gap.
With Luna Display, you can do some of these same things, if not more by using a dongle and installing a companion app on your Mac and iPad. At the very least, it shows that a merging of the iPad and the Mac in the future might not be as bad an idea as Apple has always insisted.
Put macOS on the iPad, you cowards
Here’s my reasoning: at Tuesday’s Spring Loaded event, Apple finally unveiled a long-rumored update to its iPad Pro. While the device doesn’t look too different from iPad Pro models of years past, it’s a huge leap forward on the inside because it’s powered by Apple’s eight-core M1 processor. On a MacBook, I can duck in and out of Zoom calls to mess around in Chrome and keep several tabs and applications open on my screen at once. Doing that on the iPad is, comparatively, a mess — I can reasonably look at one or two apps max, resizing is a pain, and it doesn’t take full advantage of my external display.
And many of the tweaks the company made to macOS Big Sur seem specifically designed to bring the operating system closer to the look and feel of iOS — from the rounded window corners and iOS-ified dock icons to the newly translucent layers — and some of its new features (like the new Control Center and the native iOS apps) are iPad staples that don’t make a ton of sense to have on a non-touch device. It seems like a point where Apple’s goals of “creating a seamless ecosystem” and “selling you many different products” are starting to butt heads.
In addition to the touch capability and stylus support, the new iPad Pro makes up for the MacBook’s greatest weakness: its grainy garbage webcam. This is a great feature for students and professionals who have to take a lot of conference calls from home (myself included) and don’t want to deal with an external device.
That said: video calls are kind of a pain on iPadOS (in part because the camera is still on the side, in landscape mode), and, as I noted above, multitasking during them is a lot harder than it is on a MacBook. This isn’t hardware that the average office user needs — but in a laptop, it would be one of the best screens you can get at its price point, hands down. Many folks care more about having a full-featured PC in a convertible and super versatile form factor than they do about having a big screen. That’s why I’m convinced there would be an audience for a convertible iPad Pro — especially if its performance and battery life are finally up to par with that of a MacBook.
macOS on iPad: After iPadOS 16, is it only a matter of time?
Even back when iPads ran plain old iOS, some enthusiasts argued that a full-blown desktop OS would make for a better tablet experience than a scaled-up mobile interface. The latest iPadOS release adds a couple of key features that make the iPad act a whole lot more like a full-fat desktop platform. First, Virtual Memory Swap — new to iPadOS but absolutely ancient in the broader world of computers — lets the iPad siphon off internal storage to use like additional RAM.
Virtual memory, combined with fast flash storage, is the main reason Apple can get away with shipping MacBooks with 8GB of RAM that still perform well even in demanding activities like video editing and heavy multitasking.
That means more stuff can run in the foreground, which is important for the other major feature set added in iPadOS 16: the new window system, led by Stage Manager, along with full external monitor support. Although its multitasking capabilities have opened up significantly, the iPad remains infinitely more locked down than your average Mac, particularly in terms of extensions and access to the file system.
Apple may launch a hybrid iPad tablet with MacOS in the future
That might still change in the future as the latest Apple patent hints towards an upcoming hybrid iPad -MacBook device through the use of an external accessory. As for the design, it resembles a typical MacBook keyboard with a trackpad and extended docking system based on the sketches. This is the second Apple patent related to an input device that employs the same design to connect an iPad or iPhone. The first batch was depicted as a modular accessory that works both as a keyboard or secondary display similar to a dual-folding device.
So, we’re not dismissing the possibility of Apple eventually bringing these into an actual product, especially the Mac OS version for its tablets.
M1 iPad Pro review: Why Apple will never put macOS on iPad
If I had a nickel for every time someone said they wished the M1 iPad Pro ran macOS instead of iPadOS, I’d be going into space with Jeff Bezos. Apple has once again created the most powerful tablet on the planet, but iPadOS 14 (and the upcoming 15) seem to squander the M1’s incredible performance. The general consensus seems to be: what’s the point of putting the M1 chip in the iPad Pro if it doesn’t do “real” desktop/laptop-class things? Capable of tasks from both, but with tricks of its own like Apple Pencil support, Center Stage for video calling, and adaptations of existing human-computer interaction like the circle-based pointer for mouse and trackpad added in iPadOS 14 and the new visual multitasking menu in iPadOS 15.
It’s remarkable how cogent Jobs’ description of the original iPad was and even more impressive how closely Apple has stuck to it. But the iPad’s raison d’être as a computing device that fits between a smartphone and laptop has not changed at all in over a decade.
The addition of cursor support in iPadOS 14 was seen as a first step towards macOS (or some kind of mouse-based OS) coming to iPad. While the cursor from a trackpad or mouse adds precision like Apple Pencil, the way Apple has designed it as a circle-based pointer and not an arrow, tells you everything you need to know about how the company views iPadOS: touch-based input (from either a finger or a mouse/trackpad) is the core method for iPad interaction and everything else is secondary, tertiary, and so forth.
As they are currently implemented on iPadOS, mouse and trackpad are just a slightly more precise version of finger-based touch input. These three levels would suggest that the iPad’s core input — basic touch — is holding the platform back.
We’d still be stuck in the stone age of command-line computers if we resisted GUI-based interfaces just because it was a different way to do things. Give an iPad to any person who’s not very tech-savvy (children and the elderly are great test subjects) and I’m positive they can figure out how to navigate around iPadOS faster than it takes to teach them how to use a mouse to drag windows around and left- and right-click on things.
iPadOS becomes more versatile when you throw in an Apple Pencil or Magic Keyboard — you get that extra precision — but they are not required for a functional experience. If iPads ran macOS and full-blown Mac desktop apps, it’d have the same usability problems as the Surface Pro. As a “middle” device, Apple needs to double down on making iPadOS a more robust platform of its own designed around the iPad’s strengths and weaknesses. iPadOS 13 enabled pinned widgets (albeit in a column) to the home screen, multiple apps in Slide Over, Sidecar connectivity with Macs, and new gestures for editing text.
enabled pinned widgets (albeit in a column) to the home screen, multiple apps in Slide Over, Sidecar connectivity with Macs, and new gestures for editing text. iPadOS 14 added Universal Search, scribbling recognition, the ability to set third-party apps as default in place of some of Apple’s own. added Universal Search, scribbling recognition, the ability to set third-party apps as default in place of some of Apple’s own. iPadOS 15 adds full support for widget pinning anywhere on the home screen grid, a new multitasking menu to make Split View and Slide Over easier to use, Quick Note, a system-wide Translate app, and more.
Apart from the challenges of designing UI/UX for touch input, why is Apple taking its sweet time developing new ways to do existing computer things that laptops/desktops running desktop OSes have seemingly already solved? I don’t think, in 2010, Apple ever thought the iPad would have to be more laptop-like; the iPad was presented mostly as a content consumption device — kick back on a sofa and enjoy web browsing, video, and ebooks — not as a content creation machine. Competition and the explosion in content creation and social media (and the business of it all) forced Apple to reconsider the iPad’s software and featureset. New hardware inputs were slowly bolted on over the years and new features added to iOS to warrant spinning off the software into iPadOS.
But more than just solving difficult (and perhaps limited) UX and input, I can think of two other reasons why Apple hasn’t caved into user demands and scuttled iPadOS for macOS: the definition of “work” is constantly changing and the iPad mini. To the first point: for many of the iPad’s early years, most people couldn’t use the tablet for proper work things because the apps didn’t exist or services hadn’t moved to the cloud.
The moving of a lot of work and services into the cloud and the growth of apps around that shift has made using an iPad far more possible.
Why then would the iPad, even one with Apple’s most powerful chip, need the weight of a desktop OS if more apps and services migrate to the cloud, accessible via a web browser?
macOS is barely legible and usable on my 12-inch MacBook; it’d be horrible on an iPad mini’s small screen. Even if the rumors are true and Apple is planning to revamp the iPad mini with a 8.5- or 9-inch display, the screen would be smaller than netbooks (remember those?)
Shipping macOS on iPad mini would mean Apple really would have to include sandpaper with it “so that the user can sand down their fingers to around one quarter of the present size” as Steve Jobs once said about 7-inch Android tablets. Because “clunky old PC software” (as Steve Jobs put it) can’t be the only way to design for computer hardware. As much as any diehard Final Cut user, but only if Apple can design a UI and UX that feels native to iPad. I’m not concerned about performance — the M1 can handle — but Final Cut should allow you to do things that you can’t on the Mac version, like write and draw right on top of clips. But as an avid iPad user (with and without a Magic Keyboard) who switches between it, macOS, and Windows 10 daily, I think the complaints about its computer-ness are greatly exaggerated. If you watched this year’s WWDC, Apple was quite clear on the iPad’s messaging: complementary or adjacent to Macs.
Craig Federighi’s demo of Universal Control, where he dragged a file from an iPad through an M1 MacBook Pro over to an M1 iMac and dropped it into Final Cut Pro said it all; Apple is invested in making iPads connect and work alongside Macs, not replace them.
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