And So It Begins...

If you're like me, you spend a little time reading Apple news and listening to podcasts about our favorite company in Cupertino. Since Lion's release with its striking similarities to iOS, speculation in the press has run amuk predicting the death of OS X as we know it. Without getting into particulars, everyone knows about the many UI features Lion "borrowed" from iOS. Now, Apple has just released an update (ver. 6.0) to the AirPort Utility for OS X that looks like a port of the relatively new iOS app that bears the same name.

OS X Version

iOS Version

As you can see, the resemblance is uncanny. For those of us who love OS X for what it is (and has been for over ten years) this is more than just a little disconcerting. Make no mistake. I love iOS, but not so much that I want it to supplant my desktop goodness! Seeing things like this makes me more than a little fidgety. 

UPDATE (02/13/2012): I've gotten some questions from folks who updated their AirPort Utility to version 6. Doing so overwrites the previous version. That would be OK if the new version didn't omit some of the more advanced features like logging and statistics, SNMP and IPv6. Fortunately, the previous version (5.6) will co-exist on your Mac with version 6 and you can get it here.  If you want it, I'd suggest you get it soon. There's no telling how long Apple will make it available.