After 15 years as OS X, Apple’s Mac operating system is getting a new name. In the future, it will only answer to macOS, or its latest California-inspired codename, Sierra. The format makes it more consistent with other Apple OSes. [emphasis added]
The WWDC keynote on Monday spent about as much time talking about the iMessage app (BIGGER EMOJIS!) than on upcoming improvements to the Mac OS, which I’m going to keep writing that way because I do not hate my readers and because the English languages has rules that mean things for reasons.
Still have those old eBooks you’ve read? How about email dating back before the Destiny’s Child reunion? Those tens of thousands of iPhone photos can take up a lot of space in your 250 GB drive. macOS Sierra will push old, unused files to the cloud where you can still access them on demand, but your hard drive will thank you for the extra breathing room.
That last sentence is horrifying, and not just because it starts with a lowercase letter. Files on the hard drive, or an external hard drive, mean instant retrieval. Files on “the cloud” mean, at the very least, a lag time for the network, and that’s based on the assumption of an always-accessible, robust high-speed connection. What happens without one?? Apple doesn’t particularly seem to care. (Remember, Apple is showing some hostility to having dedicated USB ports, period.)
WWDC did nothing to dissuade the notion that Apple is firmly a mobile device company that happens to make computers, and those of us who want something more substantive than a Minnie Mouse watch face are the poorer for it.