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MauiPa

macrumors 68040
Apr 18, 2018
3,438
5,084
But the power isn’t really that important given it doesn’t need it for the tasks it can do
That is just incorrect, sorry. There are a lot of video, music, photo editing applications available that definitely benefit from the speed, and cool operation. With playgrounds you can even (finally) compile and create applications, definitely benefit from the M1. Sure it would be nice if a whole lot os stuff was added already, but this has been out so long we should have definitely seen more. Oh wait, it just came out recently and iPadOS beta was just released. I bet developers are having a field day with all this power, stay-tuned.
 

Unregistered 4U

macrumors G4
Jul 22, 2002
10,612
8,636
I have a thunderbolt drive that is formatted in HFS+ or exFAT. I want it formatted as APFS. I only have an M1 iPad Pro. How do I do it?
You don’t. Which is fine because 99% of folks working with computers today don’t need to do it either. Which is kinda the point. I can come up with another 1% answer that includes the Mac, too, without trying hard. :) What if I wanted to use some custom factory machinery that only connects via a proprietary connector card and requires Windows XP for configuration and I only have a 16-inch MBP? How do I do it? I wouldn’t.
 
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spiderman0616

Suspended
Aug 1, 2010
5,670
7,499
The Apple you grew up with was focusing on marketing TO YOU. You aged out out Apple’s target demographic, you can’t blame Apple for that!
The Apple I'd guess MOST of us grew up with only made desktop PCs. Now they're making watches, phones, tablets, PCs, tracking devices, streaming boxes, etc. AND upgrading the OSes that run all of them on a yearly basis in tandem with each other. Why? Because it's become clear that smaller, specialized personal gadgets can easily take over jobs that only our Macs/PCs used to be able to do. The iPad can do things only the Mac used to be able to do. The iPhone can now do things only the iPad and Mac used to be able to do. And so on and so on down the list. We don't necessarily need large screen devices to do these small tasks anymore.

The miniaturization of these powerful processors inside of these powerful devices is enough innovation for me. All I have to do when I take my dog for a long walk is put in my AirPods Pro and tell Siri to start an outdoor walk workout. My favorite cardio music automatically starts playing, the Apple Watch starts tracking my activity, the tiny cellular radio takes over once I get too far away from my network, and I don't miss a call, email, message, or text, even though I leave my iPhone at home 99% of the time when I'm walking or biking anywhere.

As for the question of "aging out", I sometimes feel like that's born out of stubborn-ness. I'll be 44 years old soon, and I am fascinated by all this stuff. Laptops are boring--bring on the AR glasses!
 

spiderman0616

Suspended
Aug 1, 2010
5,670
7,499
You don’t. Which is fine because 99% of folks working with computers today don’t need to do it either. Which is kinda the point. I can come up with another 1% answer that includes the Mac, too, without trying hard. :) What if I wanted to use some custom factory machinery that only connects via a proprietary connector card and requires Windows XP for configuration and I only have a 16-inch MBP? How do I do it? I wouldn’t.
Yeah, that logic drives me nuts.

"What if I need to hook up my old SCSI drive where all my important files are kept and I only have an iPad? Can't do it!"

No normal iPad user in 2021 needs to do any of that garbage. That's like 1% of 1% of users and those users should know better than to think things like that can be done on an iPad.
 
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Unregistered 4U

macrumors G4
Jul 22, 2002
10,612
8,636
As for the question of "aging out", I sometimes feel like that's born out of stubborn-ness. I'll be 44 years old soon, and I am fascinated by all this stuff. Laptops are boring--bring on the AR glasses!
LOL I wonder how many of the folks now tasked with having to set up their parent’s devices will need to have their kids set up their tech for them in the future as they got settled with laptops and never tried to learn anything new?
 

spiderman0616

Suspended
Aug 1, 2010
5,670
7,499
LOL I wonder how many of the folks now tasked with having to set up their parent’s devices will need to have their kids set up their tech for them in the future as they got settled with laptops and never tried to learn anything new?
My teenager was just yelling at me the other day because my old eyes couldn't tell where the bluetooth button was on his portable speaker.
 
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jdb8167

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2008
4,859
4,599
You don’t. Which is fine because 99% of folks working with computers today don’t need to do it either. Which is kinda the point. I can come up with another 1% answer that includes the Mac, too, without trying hard. :) What if I wanted to use some custom factory machinery that only connects via a proprietary connector card and requires Windows XP for configuration and I only have a 16-inch MBP? How do I do it? I wouldn’t.
I wouldn’t buy a MacBook for a specific task that it is unsuited for. But the interesting thing is that if there was a market for your hypothetical connector it could be developed and deployed on a MacBook. The same can’t be said of needing to do a technical but fairly common task on the iPad like formatting a drive. Only Apple can supply the tool and they are uninterested.

I wouldn’t purchase an iPad Pro if all that I needed it for was to format SSDs but it is easy to imagine the frustration of finding that you need to do that task after owning an iPad Pro for a while and being told, “you can’t do that, you don’t need to do it.“ Obviously it’s not the end of the world but it is death by a thousand cuts.

As these sorts of unsolvable problems crop up on your very powerful new iPad Pro it is inevitable that frustration sets in. I have been all in on the iPad Pro since the first 12.9” version. I had hopes that it would evolve into the best possible mobile computer. It hasn’t and Apple seems to be just fine with requiring access to a Mac to use in conjunction with a iPad Pro instead of just giving us a way to solve normal, everyday problems that occur when using any computer system.
 
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spiderman0616

Suspended
Aug 1, 2010
5,670
7,499
I wouldn’t buy a MacBook for a specific task that it is unsuited for. But the interesting thing is that if there was a market for your hypothetical connector it could be developed and deployed on a MacBook. The same can’t be said of needing to do a technical but fairly common task on the iPad like formatting a drive. Only Apple can supply the tool and they are uninterested.

I wouldn’t purchase an iPad Pro if all that I needed it for was to format SSDs but it is easy to imagine the frustration of finding that you need to do that task after owning an iPad Pro for a while and being told, “you can’t do that, you don’t need to do it.“ Obviously it’s not the end of the world but it is death by a thousand cuts.

As these sorts of unsolvable problems crop up on your very powerful new iPad Pro it is inevitable that frustration sets in. I have been all in on the iPad Pro since the first 12.9” version. I had hopes that it would evolve into the best possible mobile computer. It hasn’t and Apple seems to be just fine with requiring access to a Mac to use in conjunction with a iPad Pro instead of just giving us a way to solve normal, everyday problems that occur when using any computer system.
I do agree with your overall point. "Death by a thousand cuts" is exactly the point I got to earlier this year when I switched back to the Mac full time. Just realized one day that it was starting to require too much effort and forethought to use the iPad Pro naturally as a laptop and that I wasn't enjoying it as a tablet very much. I guess I was just able to put up with it all the way up until I wasn't, and the conclusion was that it was not the right tool for me anymore.

That doesn't mean I hate the iPad or think it's not a productivity device. I love the iPad and created tons of good content with it. It's just not the right device for me anymore. I still like having one around, I just don't need the Pro.
 

Unregistered 4U

macrumors G4
Jul 22, 2002
10,612
8,636
I wouldn’t buy a MacBook for a specific task that it is unsuited for. But the interesting thing is that if there was a market for your hypothetical connector it could be developed and deployed on a MacBook. The same can’t be said of needing to do a technical but fairly common task on the iPad like formatting a drive. Only Apple can supply the tool and they are uninterested.
There’s very little market for specialized single use factory equipment which is why I used the example. If you’ve got the time and the money, you can make it work on a MacBook, sure, but if you’ve got the time and the money you can make it work on an iPhone! :) I wouldn't put it past someone doing just to say they could.

I wouldn’t purchase an iPad Pro if all that I needed it for was to format SSDs but it is easy to imagine the frustration of finding that you need to do that task after owning an iPad Pro for a while and being told, “you can’t do that, you don’t need to do it.“ Obviously it’s not the end of the world but it is death by a thousand cuts.

As these sorts of unsolvable problems crop up on your very powerful new iPad Pro it is inevitable that frustration sets in. I have been all in on the iPad Pro since the first 12.9” version. I had hopes that it would evolve into the best possible mobile computer. It hasn’t and Apple seems to be just fine with requiring access to a Mac to use in conjunction with a iPad Pro instead of just giving us a way to solve normal, everyday problems that occur when using any computer system.
It’s ONLY death by a thousand cuts IF you continue to run into razors. If all the razors are in that OTHER hallway over there and you’re walking in the one without razors, then you can walk the entire length of the hall with no cuts. Which goes back to, at THIS point that the things the iPad can’t do are insignificant to the vast majority of folks purchasing iPads… iPads WITHOUT access to any Mac.

Are there folks that NEED to do things beyond the capabilities of an iPad? Absolutely, there are millions of them and iPads are limited. Will those folks still buy iPads? Maybe, iPads are cool to use, light, can always be connected to the internet, etc. BUT, that is more related to that individual’s:
1. Need to do things that iPads can’t do, those normal, everyday things most folks never need to do, combined with
2. Their need to own an iPad[/i]
 
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grmlin

macrumors 65816
Feb 16, 2015
1,110
777
I'm debating to get Adobe's photography plan, as that will give me two things.
1. The ability to use my iPad and that's something I'm kind of aching to do
2. move my pictures to the cloud

I'm not sure I want be committed for the foreseeable future to a subscription, I'm a hobbyist and I'm not sure I'm wanting to pay $$ for something that will probably be used rarely.
I love Lightroom, but I HATE the subscription model that forces me to put my images into the cloud. I don't want that. Capture One also handles my Fuji Raws much better, so I will wait for the iPad version of that and see what they are doing. If they come up with a similar subscription solution, I'm not interested anyway.

When you invest into Adobe you'll loose access to your library and changes once you stop paying for it. That is ridiculous. There is no standalone version I can pay big money for that will still work 10 years from now.
 

secretk

macrumors 65816
Oct 19, 2018
1,494
1,229
No, when you were in school, would determine what tools were being suggested. Many teachers provide their own materials or materials they source. If that’s a Windows app because that’s what they wanted to use, then that’s what you’d have to use. A lot of schools now are trending towards web interfaces that can be run on anything, forcing the teachers to adopt that. In THAT case, you could even have a Chromebook and still get your homework done/turned in.
This is a good point. I am talking 2005-2008. I needed tools like SolidWorks, 3D max Studio, few IDEs for programming and the usual Microsoft Office suite.
 

Unregistered 4U

macrumors G4
Jul 22, 2002
10,612
8,636
Ah
That doesn't mean I hate the iPad or think it's not a productivity device. I love the iPad and created tons of good content with it. It's just not the right device for me anymore. I still like having one around, I just don't need the Pro.
OK, I think I better understand the frustration. For an individual that is working with an iPad and grows outside it’s capabilities, I can see how needing to go back to a mouse/trackpad and keyboard could be like going backwards. EVEN if it’s the right tool for the job, you’ve seen what’s possible when the features and touch interfaces work together to create that experience. If it would ONLY just do these few things that the device is MORE than capable of.
 
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jdb8167

macrumors 601
Nov 17, 2008
4,859
4,599
If you’ve got the time and the money, you can make it work on a MacBook, sure, but if you’ve got the time and the money you can make it work on an iPhone!
Not really. Not without the help of Apple. If Apple says no then you aren’t going to develop it without a jailbreak. But on the iPhone this is not really a problem in my view. No one would ever expect it to be possible. On a MacBook, people would only expect it to happen if there is a market for it. That’s the point. The iPad Pro with Apple’s current approach can’t be used in a general purpose way and the restrictions are entirely artificial and unnecessary.
 

laptech

macrumors 601
Apr 26, 2013
4,136
4,459
Earth
The Apple you grew up with was focusing on marketing TO YOU. Of course you wanted to buy what they were advertising TO YOU. You aged out out Apple’s target demographic, you can’t blame Apple for that!
What on earth are you going on about!!?? Apple was advertising to EVERYONE. The apple products I mentioned were the talk of the town, college campuses, universities and in workplaces. Anyone involved in IT could not escape the talk of those apple products. I am too old for college or university but in the work place, do I hear the same conversations about todays Apple products in the same reverence as was heard back then?, no, not a chance. The only thing that created a buzz in the IT world i work in was the new M1 chip. What gets people talking in my IT world is the latest different designs of windows laptops and desktops, the shape, material, the colours, the textures.

Apple could have been so so much more but they chose money over substance.
 

ggibson913

macrumors 65816
Sep 11, 2006
1,119
643
Apple showed their true colours today, the M1 iPad was nothing more than a easy marketing cash grab.

They basically gave their customers the middle finger, never seen anything more lacklustre than iOS/iPadOS 15, all that hype about the M1 and extra ram was never going to benefit us in the end.

Love my apple products, but I won’t be upgrading as often as I have in the past, it’s time apple started earning our money, leave out new features and hardware that can easily be added to new products, you won’t be getting my money from now on.

Everyone true colours eventually come out, apple showed theirs today in a BIG way.
I honestly don't understand why you would think it would be different. As far as I know, there aren't any iPad Pro only apps in the app store. Every app runs on every iPad. Why would Apple change that?
 

Shreducator

Cancelled
Oct 17, 2020
201
309
Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me.
Seriously Apple has been pretending the iPads are computers for years now as part of their marketing. If you got fooled this far down the line that’s on you bud.
 

rui no onna

Contributor
Oct 25, 2013
14,920
13,269
Not really. Not without the help of Apple. If Apple says no then you aren’t going to develop it without a jailbreak. But on the iPhone this is not really a problem in my view. No one would ever expect it to be possible. On a MacBook, people would only expect it to happen if there is a market for it. That’s the point. The iPad Pro with Apple’s current approach can’t be used in a general purpose way and the restrictions are entirely artificial and unnecessary.

For the factory equipment, I reckon it's possible if you convert the interface to network-based.
 
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Bea220

macrumors 6502a
Oct 16, 2020
624
1,469
SoCal
The Apple I'd guess MOST of us grew up with only made desktop PCs. Now they're making watches, phones, tablets, PCs, tracking devices, streaming boxes, etc. AND upgrading the OSes that run all of them on a yearly basis in tandem with each other. Why? Because it's become clear that smaller, specialized personal gadgets can easily take over jobs that only our Macs/PCs used to be able to do. The iPad can do things only the Mac used to be able to do. The iPhone can now do things only the iPad and Mac used to be able to do. And so on and so on down the list. We don't necessarily need large screen devices to do these small tasks anymore.

The miniaturization of these powerful processors inside of these powerful devices is enough innovation for me. All I have to do when I take my dog for a long walk is put in my AirPods Pro and tell Siri to start an outdoor walk workout. My favorite cardio music automatically starts playing, the Apple Watch starts tracking my activity, the tiny cellular radio takes over once I get too far away from my network, and I don't miss a call, email, message, or text, even though I leave my iPhone at home 99% of the time when I'm walking or biking anywhere.

As for the question of "aging out", I sometimes feel like that's born out of stubborn-ness. I'll be 44 years old soon, and I am fascinated by all this stuff. Laptops are boring--bring on the AR glasses!
I’ll be 40 next year and when I picked up the M1 MBP in November it felt boring and not too different from my 2013 MBP. I’ll bet with the redesign it’ll feel more exciting but for now I’ve ventured into trying out the iPad. I still long for the bigger screen. The price and screen size is a set back but the ability to digitally draw… well it’s the only reason I went for it. I don’t want to move away from an actual laptop for too long because I don’t want to forget how to operate an actual computer. Hehe.
 
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Unregistered 4U

macrumors G4
Jul 22, 2002
10,612
8,636
The apple products I mentioned were the talk of the town, college campuses, universities and in workplaces. Anyone involved in IT could not escape the talk of those apple products. I am too old for college or university
My point. Exactly. AND too old for high school as well, where getting in good with these groups can lead to 20-30 years of purchases. Also, “Why aren’t folks as amazed with this tech?” Sure, at one point, the “automobile” or any new technology was the talk of the town. Hardly anyone is amazed anymore by four wheels with a metal frame propelling itself down the street. :)

And, again, just the fact that an older user is saying “Apple could have been so so much more but they chose money over substance.” is proof that they’re focusing on the right people at the right time. You SHOULD think that it’s no longer the company you remember. They’re still in business because they found millions of customers other than you (and the people surrounding you) to purchase their products.

Awhile ago, you could probably find a similar statement referring to when Apple dropped the Apple II. In another 20-30 years, today’s iPad users will be bemoaning the lack of focus on the iPad when it can do so more than [whatever the next thing is]. And, again, it will be because Apple’s looking to make a profit from a new group of customers.
 
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kristalsoldier

macrumors 6502a
Aug 10, 2013
818
523
Which is fine, and even make sense, but then you have Apple running "what's a computer?" ads and doing everything they can to suggest that the iPad can be your everything device, when in fact they're working diligently behind the scenes to keep that from being true. It just strikes me as super shady, especially now that the iPad and the Mac are internally identical for the first time ever.
Well, that tag line -what’s a computer - is something for you/the user to decide not for Apple or anyone else to determine for you/us.

I suppose I have a different orientation towards this debate about the M1 chip in the new iPads and the hard feelings that some are expressing.

I think back to Steve Job’s description of what the iPad was/is meant to be, or at least how Apple conceptualised it at the time. Simply put, it was an in between machine - something that sat between a phone and a computer.

When I consider my use (with an emphasis on the word “my”), that is precisely how I use it. I suppose one advantage I have is that unlike many here, I am not locked into any one s/w paradigm (the so-called walled garden). I use what is arguably an excellent Windows laptop, I use a good Android phone, and I use what I consider to be - relative to my use - the best tablet available. My point is that I don’t wish to substitute any one of these devices for the other. I did try that experiment with three generations of the Surface Pro (at least trying to integrate the laptop and tablet functions). It did not work well mainly because of - surprisingly - the hardware. The aspect ratio of the Surface is just not conducive for my purposes and does not serve my needs as the iPad does.

By integrating the M1 chip with more RAM (which Apple curiously mention), I don’t think Apple is straying from that initial Jobsian vision of the iPad. It remains their classic in between machine though that has not stopped avid users of a particular stripe to try to use the iPad as their primary and sole computing device. Such folks, in my opinion, tend to think that a “universal machine” would serve their purpose and likely it can, but that’s not Apple's concern. They likely want to maintain their product portfolio vision (from which they have not strayed too far, btw) and, naturally, maximise profit.

In this connection, it’s worth keeping in mind how Apple dealt with the iPod and the iPhone. With the former they had a killer device. It was, arguably, a revolutionary product. But they also recognised that maintaining it as an independent device would stymie what was then emerging as a critical communication device, namely, the phone (for Apple, specifically, the iPhone). Thus, their collapsing of the iPod into the iPhone was understandable. But there is no such imperative for Apple right now between their three primary products - the iPhone, the iPad and their Mac series of laptops.

Thus, in my opinion, while it is likely Apple will go some ways to unlock some of the potential of the iPad, there is likely a glass ceiling which they won’t transgress. Of course, much is contingent on how the IT industry trends. It could very well be the case that if we transition into a condition of ubiquitous connectivity supporting advanced cloud computing, the iPad could serve as a critical thin client. But we are not there yet.
 
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cp1160

macrumors regular
Feb 20, 2007
150
136
Love my apple products, but I won’t be upgrading as often as I have in the past, it’s time apple started earning our money, leave out new features and hardware that can easily be added to new products, you won’t be getting my money from now on.
Several things:

1) Will you be upgrading less often, as in the first part of the sentence, or will you not buy another product from now on based on the last half of the sentence ("won't be getting my money from now on.").

2) Post the products you have again if I missed them. Does it include a iPad M1? Are you being harmed my not having this features? Are you just posturing because it might make you feel better?

I have a M1 iPad Pro 12. It's a beast of a tablet. Is it perfect? No. I'm far from perfect too and I don't hate myself for being imperfect. I make the most of who I am, just as I make the most of my Apple products. What does that mean? When all you do is complain about the bad things the glass must be half empty or less and people are just looking for a way to complain.

3) Are you a developer? Are you in charge of a hardware product? Are you responsible for a billion dollar product? Most of us are not. I had responsibility for a $32 million product line. I can assure you I made tough decisions that clients did not like. Did I balance it out? Sure. Running a business is tough. Can you make an optimal set of decisions to ensure your employment and keeping every client fully satisfied?

Enough of everyone saying "I'll never buy another thing from Apple". Enough of calling them a soulless, heartless, spineless and gutless company. I'm fine with that. Don't buy. I'll go on. Apple will go on. People will buy. Get your Android phone and good luck with OS upgrades, get your Windows 10 / 11? machine and good luck with multi-device environment, get your Samsung tablet and good luck with some mission critical apps for photo editing, moviemaking, and much more. Sure they exist. Sure are not used by anyone I know.

Sell your things. Give them to a school or charity that needs them. Make them feel good, take a donation, and buy the things you want. The sun will rise another day,
 

Abazigal

Contributor
Jul 18, 2011
20,395
23,899
Singapore
Which is fine, and even make sense, but then you have Apple running "what's a computer?" ads and doing everything they can to suggest that the iPad can be your everything device, when in fact they're working diligently behind the scenes to keep that from being true. It just strikes me as super shady, especially now that the iPad and the Mac are internally identical for the first time ever.

I view that ad as getting people to rethink just what it is they really want in a computer.

When you think about what many people buy a laptop to do, it’s really just to access the internet. But they don’t really want a PC, just internet access. In this context, the ipad is a better tool for the job, because it lets them access web content from the comfort tof their sofa without having to deal with all the complexities of a PC.

I realise this doesn’t exactly justify the existence or the price tag of the iPad Pro, but I think the value of an ipad comes when you realise that the majority of consumers are actually being overserved by PCs, in that for all the technological improvements we have had, we still are not giving users more of what they want, but instead just saddling them with more issues to contend with.
 
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sparksd

macrumors G4
Jun 7, 2015
10,013
34,356
Seattle WA
I view that ad as getting people to rethink just what it is they really want in a computer.

When you think about what many people buy a laptop to do, it’s really just to access the internet. But they don’t really want a PC, just internet access. In this context, the ipad is a better tool for the job, because it lets them access web content from the comfort tof their sofa without having to deal with all the complexities of a PC.

I realise this doesn’t exactly justify the existence or the price tag of the iPad Pro, but I think the value of an ipad comes when you realise that the majority of consumers are actually being overserved by PCs, in that for all the technological improvements we have had, we still are not giving users more of what they want, but instead just saddling them with more issues to contend with.

Except if they want to access the Internet on a larger screen. With a PC, you get a nice experience. With an iPad you get a picture like a 70’s TV.
 
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Slartibart

macrumors 68040
Aug 19, 2020
3,145
2,819
Let’s see if the courts tear down the App Store rules. That could also have significant impact on things moving forward.
How? Why would that in any form impact on things? Why would that move any developer of a “Pro”-app to develop it for iPadOS e.g. AutoDesk bringing Maya (please insert software area and corresponding application of your choice ?)?

Most of the developers of the current available “Pro”-apps on iPadOS haven’t even delivered functional parity and - admitted that’s just personal guess here - that isn’t most likely not because they can’t offer it in their own store or because the OS or hardware were holding them back.

To be clear: there are things that need to be fixed - but it seems that iPadOS 15 is delivering on that front, the “vocal minority” here apparently doesn’t know about that or choose to ignore it.

And yes, there were/are hardware/OS restrictions which might lead to the decision to not developed an iPadOS version of an app - but my educated guess here is that it has more to do with the perception of the audience on what’s an acceptable price to pay for an app.
I am well aware that professionals will pay for having the tools they need available - but again: even this hasn’t lead to functional parity for most of the existing “pro”-apps so far.
 
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