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What Is The Future Of SkySafari 7 On Mac? (Answer: For Now, Get The iPadOS Version For Free)

I own SkySafari 6 Pro for the Mac, and SkySafari 7 Pro on my iPad.  I noticed that the recent update of the iPad version has been updated to allow it to run on the Mac as a Catalyst app.  I just gave it a try, and frankly, it's much more of a pain to use on the Mac than the native Mac version.  It's been my experience with iPad apps running on a M1/M2 Mac under catalyst is a poor user experience.  The iPad version was designed around a touch interface, and it just doesn't translate well to a mouse/trackpad interface.  The Mac also has a lot more screen real estate that is going to waste.  I much prefer the Mac native version with its icon bar at the top and the side panel to input stuff as opposed to pop up windows to enter stuff.

My question is this the approach for the Mac going forward?  There was some talk a year or two ago about a Mac native version of SkySafari 7, but it seems it's been shelved.  Is this the approach going forward for Mac support.  If so, I'm going to start looking for an alternative for the Mac, as I find running non-trivial iPad app on the Mac to be next to useless.  

My biggest frustration with the Mac SkySafari 6 app is that it's not Apple Silicon native.  The startup time for SkySafari on my maxed out M1 Max Macbook Pro is terrible.  It's easily the slowest app to startup on my machine.  I'm not sure if that's due to running under Rosetta, but my other old Intel based apps don't seem to have the slow startup problem after the initial run which Rosetta translates the app.

 

 

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8 comments

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    Keiron Smith Official comment

    DevOps reference: https://starrynight.unfuddle.com/a#/projects/7965/tickets/by_number/2693

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    Waves

    I would like to know this info as well

  • 0
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    Keiron Smith

    Thanks for your feedback, Alex.  I don't see any issue regarding startup time.  SS7 Pro on my M1 MacBook Pro starts in 5 seconds.

    I don't know if/when SS7 will get a native Mac release.  It is possible developers will listen to feedback and continually improved the iPadOS version.

    But, if there is enough interest in the native version they would probably consider that too.  At the moment, everyone is listening for feedback on the iPadOS version.

    Thanks!

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    Alex Ranous

    The startup time of SS7 is fine.  Like you, it's about 5 seconds.  It's SS6 Pro that's the problem, it's almost 20 seconds.  That's my dilemma, I'm constantly annoyed at the slow startup time of SS6, but I greatly prefer to use it on my Mac than the iPad version of SS7 Pro running under catalyst.

    When the day comes that Apple drops Rosetta support, I'll move onto another planetarium app.  I much prefer Sky Safari 6 over alternatives like The Sky or Stellarium, but I feel SS7 is such a step back in usability on the desktop that I'd bite the bullet and switch to one of them.

     

    Alex

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    Alex Ranous

    If you guys don't want to commit resources to a Mac native version of SS7, then perhaps it would be possible to recompile SS6 so that it's a universal binary with a Mac Silicon version.

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    Keiron Smith

    After the 20 seconds startup time, once SS6 is running, is there any issue with app running on an M1/M2 Mac?

    Is SS6 still slow to respond to keyboard input or mouse actions?

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    Keith Fowler

    Keiron Smith, Like Alex Ranous I too find the SS7 iPad version awkward to use on an Apple Silicon Mac, and much prefer the native macOS SS6. Is there any chance SS6 can be recompiled as a universal binary? It does on an M2 Mac take 16 seconds to start up (which is amazing considering the raw power of the machine)

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    Keiron Smith

    Thanks Keith, developers will review your feedback.

    But, I can't offer any promises.

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