WWDC 2021 ‘Universal Control’ workstation lives on [Setups]

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The resemblance is uncanny.
The resemblance is uncanny.
Photo: kinky_unicorn@Reddit.com

Remember those heady days of WWDC 2021, when Apple Senior Vice President of Software Engineering Craig Federighi performed a magical drag-and-drop demo of Universal Control that made the near-future world of macOS Monterey seem especially cool? Oh, yeah. It was just last month.

Anyway, Redditor kinky_unicorn certainly remembers it. They recreated Federighi’s workstation from the video, took a photo of it and posted it on Reddit, after all.

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If the photo above doesn’t jog your memory — because surely you watched WWDC 2021 keynote vids in their entirety — you can watch the demo below.

And of course you can read Cult of Mac coverage of the whole affair. And then some.

Kinky_unicorn’s setup includes an M1 iMac, an apparently not-at-all-new MacBook Pro, an iPad with a keyboard and a Magic Trackpad 2.

And, of course, the setup would not be complete without something special with which to take the photo. In this case, it was a Sony A7R IV camera with a 35mm F1.4 GM lens.

But the irony is crushing

And the tragic irony of it all? kinky_unicorn’s MacBook Pro, the one in the photo, won’t be able to handle Universal Control. It’s too old.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PcKvaW5jzw

 

“My MBP is too old for Universal Control and it makes me sad,” they said. “It’s too old even for Sidecar although I use another app for that purpose.”

That suggests kinky_unicorn’s MBP dates to at least early 2016. Other Redditors were pulling for kinky_unicorn, though.

“Ahh that’s a shame,” said one. “There’ll be a time in the future when you can upgrade. I made the risky decision of upgrading recently to the m1 iPad and MacBook, largely in the hopes that universal control will work well.”

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If you would like to see your setup featured on Cult of Mac, send some high-res pictures to info+setups@cultofmac.com. Please provide a detailed list of your equipment. Tell us what you like or dislike about your setup, and fill us in on any special touches or challenges.

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