Technology is a choice. Technologies gives options. Apple devices has been one of my main choices for a while. While I still use non-Apple computers, phones, and other devices, my preference has been Apple. There are a list of good reasons to buy Apple products. One of them is that they are quality products that last for a long time and get the job done. More important reason for me has been the integration of all devices, and how well they work with each other. How easy it is to go from mobile to laptop, or to desktop and continue with the same flow of work or activities. They have been Apple secret in successful retention of their customer base. We probably could make a similar observation for other companies and products as well. Some products are actually even better than of what Apple offers. Apple may have been the pioneer in interrogation of devices and brining continuity to how we use these tools, they have been lagging in some areas.
Cloud is one the big innovation in computing. Apple has done ok with iCloud, and it works ok. But in recent years I have been use Microsoft's OneDrive more, a lot more than I would normally use iCloud. OneDrive makes access to all files and data so much simpler, and I use it on Apple devices as well. I doubt I would be doing same with iCloud anytime soon.
Today's topic is iPhone Mirroring. Apple has announced that they are brining iPhone Mirroring to Mac computers with the next iteration of MacOS, Sequoia. This may seem a very simple feature, and should have probably been already in Mac computers many years ago. For some unknown reason Apple never thought of it as a useful feature, or even if considered never though to make one happen. There may be other issues like keeping apps for multiple platforms and not letting users use iOS apps on macs. I don't know why they have never done this before. What I know though is that this feature was already possible long time ago. I have seen iPhone being mirrored to a mac and being controlled on mac years ago. However this was on a jailbroken iPhone device. I don't jailbreak my iPhone, so never actually was able to have this feature.
I really wanted this feature in the past. It just makes sense. When we are on the go we carry our phones, when we are at our desk even though the mobile devices are near by, the focus shifts. Instead of using touch we use keyboards, mouse, touchpads. While focus is on what is displayed on the screens of computer, having quick access to the phone would make things a lot simpler. Especially when technology already exists. Apple already had iphone simulators for developing apps on mac computers. They could have easily made this possible. While apps might work slightly differently, and operating systems are slightly different, the capabilities were always there. We already use multiple windows for different apps on our computers. iPhone mirroring would be just another window that we could minimize, push to a side, or hide. Added productivity would just be amazing. But Apple never made that a possibility, until now.
Apple didn't completely disregard the ability of users to continue interacting with apps on iPhones when using macs. They integrated apps like messages, facetime, calling, notes, etc. They even came up with a feature where iPads could extend as another screen, continue working on documents or other projects from one device to another. But that never was the same as having the full access to the device. That is much more powerful.
I don't like the naming of the feature as "iPhone Mirroring". I don't think it properly describes what it does. It is not just mirroring the screen of the iPhone. I believe this was possible to do before by taking some hacky steps on macs. I am not sure. iPhone Mirroring seems like will give full control over the device and ability to rotate through screen pages, use apps, etc. I don't think the phone itself should be near by either. Correct me if I am wrong. At the same time when iPhone mirroring is used, the phone itself will be in locked mode for security reasons. That is great. I definitely want to use this feature. Unfortunately, I may not be able to with my current macs. Both my iMac and macbook pro are older versions and most like MacOS Sequoia will work. This might be a time to consider an upgrade. I wouldn't buy another mac just to use this feature, but knowing that it exists would be one of the pros to consider.
This could be really useful if it allows moving files to and from the devices. There is already an Airdrop feature that makes it moving files between Apple devices easy. However, just drag drop within the same screen could be a lot more efficient to use on daily basis. It does seem like iPhone Mirroring will allow this as well. I am sure this technology already exists and other platforms probably utilize it. Apple does lag at some things from time to time. I am glad they were finally able to realize how useful this feature is.