Apple Freeform | Hacker News Reader

Apple Freeform

apps.apple.com

62 pointsBrajeshwar36 comments

So just to be clear, this of the Apple version of Google's Jamboard and Microsoft's Whiteboard?

The same as Pages is their version of Docs/Word?

I'm wondering if there's anything this does that they don't, but at first glance nothing stands out.

But seeing as a lot of people have never even heard of Jamboard/Whiteboard, it's interesting Apple thought this was important enough to create their own version of.

As a person who haven't used any of these, I thought it's a Notion alternative?

Nope. It's basically an infinite whiteboard or canvas, primarily to write on.

more like a Miro, Mural, or Figjam competitor I believe

Rated 4.5 out of 5. It would be nice if this was split for the iPhone experience vs iPad. I suppose if we had install/usage counts for iPhone/iPad we might be able to tell if it was good on one or both.

Would be nice if See All link would actually show all reviews, not just 5 star ones. Is this limitation of their web interface?

I don't think it will be, as the intention is for this to be used across Mac, phone and tablet, synced via iCloud.

"Requires ios 16.2 or later" - wont this rule out a LOT of users?

At the moment, yes. In a year, no.

So this is a MS OneNote/Apple Notes mashup, right? I'm sure some subset of their user base will love it.

Not quite OneNote/Notes. It’s more of a collaborative white boarding tool.

I didn’t even know there was an update until I clicked the download button, however my iPhone is telling me I’m on the latest version

Same here. i wanted to check it out and it refused to install.

Manually checked and 16.2 is available.

FWIW once i installed 16.2 it was preinstalled.

same, I was a little confused what happened until just now!

Initially, but by summer 2023, about 70–80% of iOS users will be on a version of iOS newer than 16.2.

The next round of Macs will probably ship with Freeform pre-installed. It’s already part of macOS Ventura beta.

Seems like an app with artificial limitations to force an update?

What does it NEED 16.2 for?

Why does a data scientist NEED pandas version 0.24.7a? Because they want to use some part of the API that didn’t exist in prior versions.

so what "API" does it need from 16.2?

Your response really is a non-answer.

Apple hasn’t said, but it’s probably to offer the new Pencil 2 features announced a week or two ago for the iPad.

(Apple also doesn’t have any particular reason to develop support for 16.0 or 16.1 OSes as their user base will be almost fully updated with a month.)

Thanks!

The first person to provide an actual answer.

Not so much force as encourage. Having everyone running the latest version of the software is a good safety measure; it also definitely helps encourage repeat hardware purchases, so it’s not completely altruistic.

It’s a complex app. There is no reason it shouldn’t use something specific to 16.2.

If you are suggesting it could have been backported, that’s probably true, but by that logic most software has ‘artificial limitations’.

That said, from what I can tell this is part of 16.2 - I.e. it’s a new built-in app on a par with notes or photos. The store entry is just a way to get it back on the Home Screen if you delete it.

What does it NEED 16.2 for?

For perspective, Freeform was announced as a macOS Ventura/iOS 16 feature in June at Apple’s World Wide Developers Conference [1].

It didn’t make the initial releases but it makes sense to require the most current operating system version with the latest bug and security fixes.

[1]: https://www.macrumors.com/2022/06/06/apple-previews-new-free...

> It didn’t make the initial releases but it makes sense to require the most current operating system version with the latest bug and security fixes.

Why? There should be nothing preventing an app built against 16.0 or whatever other version from still working with 16.2, unless Apple is really incompetent and/or malicious?

Sounds like it’s a built in, automatically installed app like Mail that comes with iOS 16.2 and can be removed. If you then want it back it can be reinstalled from the store.

Obviously nobody's going to be able to provide you with a definitive answer, but almost certainly because it was built using some API requirement that doesn't exist in 16.1...? And it's quite likely the iOS API wasn't finalized for release until the app was?

You don't need conspiratorial thinking about forcing an update to a minor version of an OS for goodness' sake. If Apple wanted to force updates, they wouldn't be doing it via some random app most people have no need for.

> You don't need conspiratorial thinking about forcing an update to a minor version of an OS for goodness' sake.

you dont need to read conspiratorial thinking about a simple question.

It just seems odd that it needs 16.2.. not 16.1... I'm very curious as to what this specific release has that the app needs?

Normally apps are more closely tied to MAJOR releases, not point updates.

List a reason that it shouldn’t need the currently available OS version? There is no downside as every iPad that supports the pencil has this version available.

No, why would it?

Generally speaking, about two-thirds of iOS users upgrade to the newest version within 2 months.

You might be worried about people on old devices who can't upgrade, but this seems designed especially for Pencil users, and as far as I can tell, all iPads that support the Pencil (like the first iPad Pro) support the current version of iOS.

Apple is super good at supporting the ipads. Around 7 years support for the iPad Air 2.

It seems to be aimed at people who are running the beta iOS 16.2 which is expected to ship in December.

An app that I’d consider somewhat similar is Concepts with its unlimited canvas size.

I am looking forward to seeing what this offers though.

Updated to the beta specifically for this app. Loving it so far. I’m beginning to work on a new project, and this is awesome for having my papers, documentation, sketches, and notes in one area

So... OneNote?

No, it is an infinite-canvas whiteboard that is shareable.

OneNote, got it.

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