Are iOS 13's rumored features compelling enough for you to give iPads another try?

[sniffies]

So, I had bought the latest iPad Pro 12.9 because I thought it was time to give iPads another try since my last (and only) iPad from 2010. While, I appreciated the generous screen real estate, weight, and speed, it still mostly felt like a giant iPhone due to iOS limitations, even 9 years later. Needless to say, I returned iPad Pro 12.9.

So, the thread title is my question for all of you who bought and returned, or were on the fence but never pulled the trigger.

What will compel me to buy it again:

- Wireless trackpad support
- Free-floating windows like on Mac
- Some sorta macOS Finder or Downloads Manager
- A homescreen that's similar to macOS Desktop

 

[ssledoux]

I have no clue what the rumored features are, but I'm pretty much a die-hard iPad user (no computer in nearly 3 years). I can do pretty much anything I need to do with iOS, and anything useful that gets added will just be a bonus!

 

[Dave-Z]

I was iPad-only (well iPad-primary, really) for over a year. I stopped when my 2nd gen 12.9" iPad started having serious touch issues and light bleeding. (I still have the device but don't use it much.)

I'm using Windows 10 now (2-in-1 Lenovo and just picked up a Surface Go) as my primary.

I think for me the biggest issue is the artificial barriers Apple has put in place. While iOS is still my favourite operating system, I find I'm substantially more productive in Windows (more so than macOS, but I never really liked macOS anyway).

Top feature for me would be Bluetooth mouse/trackpad support. Not even in the regular user interface, but for text areas. I really have a hard time moving the insertion point, copy/pasting, etc. when writing text.

Next would be a proper file system support. Safari should be able to download files without having to pass them off to some other app, I shouldn't have to install apps like PDF Expert to get a place to store things or for use as a means to access SMB and WebDAV shares and I should be able to connect storage devices and move stuff around.

After all that, I would like some better hardware. I paid a lot of money for my iPad only to have these touch issues and (eventually) light bleeding. I baby my devices so there's really no excuse. I was ready to upgrade to the third gen 12.9" but Apple's price hikes really make it not worth it (not when there's computers out there for cheaper that don't have artificial barriers like a lack of mouse and file system support). If I'm going to pay the prices Apple's asking, I need better reliability and utility.

 

[AutomaticApple]

So, I had bought the latest iPad Pro 12.9 because I thought it was time to give iPads another try since my last (and only) iPad from 2010. While, I appreciated the generous screen real estate, weight, and speed, it still mostly felt like a giant iPhone due to iOS limitations, even 9 years later. Needless to say, I returned iPad Pro 12.9.

So, the thread title is my question for all of you who bought and returned, or were on the fence but never pulled the trigger.

What will compel me to buy it again:

- Wireless trackpad support
- Free-floating windows like on Mac
- Some sorta macOS Finder or Downloads Manager
- A homescreen that's similar to macOS Desktop

Definitely worth it.

 

[secretk]

Are you talking about the using the iPad as your only computing device or using it as a complementary device to your other devices (smartphone, laptop or desktop machine).

For the first use case scenario personally for me iPad is miles away from it. iOS is just too restrictive for me to use it on regular basis as my only device.

I have regular 6th gen iPad for complementary device and for that price is OK. I would not pay more than that for a device that serves me as a digital notebook though.

To be honest the iPad Pros do not offer enough to justify their price. For their current price I can buy quite powerful laptop with far more options. In fact like I have said my current laptop (Asus) is the same price but offers:

1. 1 TB HDD
2. 512 GB SSD. SSD can be changed freely and I can expand the storage if I need it
3. Internal video card plus external video card NVDIA 1050
4. 8 GB RAM but I can upgrade it up to 32 GB RAM
5. Thunderbolt port for external monitor
6. HDMI for external monitor
7. Obviously supports mouse pointer
8. Has 3 USB ports

Yes, it's 15'6 inch laptop but honestly anything below 13 inch does not have good ergonomics for long usage anyway when it comes to keyboards. And it does need the option to extend monitors. Not with paying for apps. I am sorry but this is not acceptable for me. I need a device that plays nice with other devices. This means having the ports (HDMI, USB C) and having software compatibility with others OS (so not just MacOS specifics stuff, but also playing nice with Windows and Linux).

I have Windows 10 on my laptop and I can tell you that iOS devices just do not integrate easy with Windows computers. iTunes is PITA on Windows. I cannot transfer files to iPad without going through hoops like installing a specific app. I cannot sync my music properly (as it syncs folders and not just files). I am used with my Android phone to plug it in in the computer and use the file system to transfer music, photos etc. Having to go through iTunes which has awful User interface btw is a hassle to me that I do not want to go through. As a result I use the device even less to save myself the trouble.

 

[AppleHaterLover]

- Wireless trackpad support
- Free-floating windows like on Mac
- Some sorta macOS Finder or Downloads Manager

An Apple device with "trackpad support" and "free-floating windows" is a Mac!!!!!! An iPad is not for you. Maybe a MacBook?

iOS already has a finder/download manager built-in and it works very well

 

[EugW]

The iOS 13 feature leaks are still just rumours. However, if what is said is true, that means I likely still won't be able to use my iPad as a complete laptop replacement.

I currently have a iPad Pro 10.5" with Apple Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil.

What I still need to make it a laptop replacement are:

1) Proper identification on websites so that I don't just get the cut down mobile website.
2) Mouse/trackpad support.
3) Proper external storage support.

We will likely get #1, and may get #2, but #3 is still missing in action. Expanded app support for importing images and video simply isn't good enough.

Thus, I likely won't be buying the latest iPad Pro any time soon, as I feel I'd just be wasting money. I want to see those three factors fixed, and the base model iPad Pros get 6 GB RAM, and then I'll consider buying. That said, I'm good with my 10.5" for now, since it's already fast so I won't need to buy for a few years anyway. Perhaps we'll get #3 by 2021-2022.

 

[Digitalguy]

So, I had bought the latest iPad Pro 12.9 because I thought it was time to give iPads another try since my last (and only) iPad from 2010. While, I appreciated the generous screen real estate, weight, and speed, it still mostly felt like a giant iPhone due to iOS limitations, even 9 years later. Needless to say, I returned iPad Pro 12.9.

So, the thread title is my question for all of you who bought and returned, or were on the fence but never pulled the trigger.

What will compel me to buy it again:

- Wireless trackpad support
- Free-floating windows like on Mac
- Some sorta macOS Finder or Downloads Manager
- A homescreen that's similar to macOS Desktop

Based on the rumors so far these feature may all be coming in IOS 13, in some ways at least.
As for mouse support, have a look here https://www.notebookcheck.net/iPads-may-finally-gain-mouse-support-with-iOS-13.418961.0.html
Mouse support will allow the use of the ipad with an external screen, better remote desktop, and, as far as I am concerned, to use the ipad in some situation where I don’t want to touch it (kitchen).
As for the file app I hope they’ll display folders first by default, without the need of tedious workarounds as tags... (that’s all I am asking for).
Floating windows may be nice for my 12.9, but I don’t see me using it anywhere else... Spit view for every app would be a more importat feature to me...
Desktop Safari (by default) is a big time saver too. You can do it know with other broswers like opera and edge, but they are slower and crash relatively often...

Personally I am not into replacing laptops entierly, as I need a software available on Windows only for a big part of my job. And for that, the only way I can use my ipads is via remote desktop...

 

[Ambulater]

For me, the single biggest improvement would be to have a desktop-grade browser. That is, Safari for iOS needs to be able to do anything Safari (or Chrome) can do on MacOS.

It’s incredibly frustrating when you’re trying to do something a little more complex where you have to enter quite a bit of information and interact with multiple screens, like say book a trip, and you run into a pop-up window, drop-down menu, or embedded calendar that just doesn’t work right in Safari for iOS. You’re forced to go get a laptop to do what should be a relatively straight forward task. That shouldn’t happen with an iPad dubbed “Pro” costing as much or more than most laptops.

 

[tps3443]

Is this real?

 

[sparksd]

Is this real?

Key words in that picture - "may", and "could eventually". Those same words in this context were true last year.

 

[jimmy_uk]

An Apple device with "trackpad support" and "free-floating windows" is a Mac!!!!!! An iPad is not for you. Maybe a MacBook?

iOS already has a finder/download manager built-in and it works very well

Do you not want mouse support? Do you think it will harm the experience or improve it?
There's no real reason to not include it now.

 

[sracer]

So, I had bought the latest iPad Pro 12.9 because I thought it was time to give iPads another try since my last (and only) iPad from 2010. While, I appreciated the generous screen real estate, weight, and speed, it still mostly felt like a giant iPhone due to iOS limitations, even 9 years later. Needless to say, I returned iPad Pro 12.9.

So, the thread title is my question for all of you who bought and returned, or were on the fence but never pulled the trigger.

What will compel me to buy it again:

- Wireless trackpad support
- Free-floating windows like on Mac
- Some sorta macOS Finder or Downloads Manager
- A homescreen that's similar to macOS Desktop

I agree with your assessment of the current state of iOS. I passed my 12.9 iPad Pro on to my wife and bought a 2018 iPad and I won't consider anything beyond that (in price or capabilities) until the following are added:
- mouse/trackpad support
- universally accessible file system
- (bonus) extensive support for USB peripherals (I say "bonus" because this has a remote chance of happening)

I have those 3 capabilities with my Android tablets and 2-in-1 chromebook.

Given the current state of iOS on iPads, I'm more inclined to buy a chrome OS tablet than an iPad Pro.

 

[sonicrobby]

My personal need/want of a cursor has diminished over time. Ive managed to adapt most of what I do onto the iPad. My biggest gripe is when Apple's own apps are on Mac and iOS, but the iOS version is still severely lacking on features when compared to its MacOS counterpart. So even though my iPad gets me 95% of the way there, I still occasionally need my Mac to get me to the end.

Ill be happy with:
-The trivial function to open mp3 files in the native music app.
-More control and proper syncing of faces/people in the photos app
-Being able to correct "location" and "dates" of photos in the photos app (for all my old scanned photo albums)
-A native "preview" like app, where I can freely modify pdf apps to a certain extent

And less to do with iOS specifically, but other shortfalls, Id need Banktivity to create the "report" function into their iOS app (and of course force me to pay another $20 for that update) and OnShape to allow drawing creation on its iOS app and not need me to be using a web browser.

Ive greatly adapted my 3D modeling from Solidworks to OnShape, picked up Pages and Numbers as my new go-to instead of MS office, and Files is enough for me in terms of a file explorer. I have a few more "wants" and not "needs" such as more customization options, but Im happy with where iOS has come from. All of this being said, I would still welcome a desktop-like OS that could be run on an iPad. Using remote desktop apps such as Splashtop, its a very manageable workflow as well.

 

[muzzy996]

My personal need/want of a cursor has diminished over time. Ive managed to adapt most of what I do onto the iPad. My biggest gripe is when Apple's own apps are on Mac and iOS, but the iOS version is still severely lacking on features when compared to its MacOS counterpart. So even though my iPad gets me 95% of the way there, I still occasionally need my Mac to get me to the end.

Ill be happy with:
-The trivial function to open mp3 files in the native music app.
-More control and proper syncing of faces/people in the photos app
-Being able to correct "location" and "dates" of photos in the photos app (for all my old scanned photo albums)
-A native "preview" like app, where I can freely modify pdf apps to a certain extent

And less to do with iOS specifically, but other shortfalls, Id need Banktivity to create the "report" function into their iOS app (and of course force me to pay another $20 for that update) and OnShape to allow drawing creation on its iOS app and not need me to be using a web browser.

Ive greatly adapted my 3D modeling from Solidworks to OnShape, picked up Pages and Numbers as my new go-to instead of MS office, and Files is enough for me in terms of a file explorer. I have a few more "wants" and not "needs" such as more customization options, but Im happy with where iOS has come from. All of this being said, I would still welcome a desktop-like OS that could be run on an iPad. Using remote desktop apps such as Splashtop, its a very manageable workflow as well.

This sort of summarizes where I'm at with my gen 2 12.9" IPP as well in general terms. I've come up with my workflows for note taking and PDF annotation for my work utilizing cloud storage and various applications to accomplish my goals. It works for the most part but can be a little clunky sometimes. With the touch panel sensitivity issues I'm experiencing and the connection of my smart keyboard starting to fail on me I grow more and more frustrated with the device. I'm hoping to ride things out and see if future software releases help make workflows easier and fix the touch screen issues, otherwise my next tablet is likely to be a next gen Surface Pro if they end up adding USB-C to it.

 

[Davefevs]

My personal need/want of a cursor has diminished over time. Ive managed to adapt most of what I do onto the iPad. My biggest gripe is when Apple's own apps are on Mac and iOS, but the iOS version is still severely lacking on features when compared to its MacOS counterpart. So even though my iPad gets me 95% of the way there, I still occasionally need my Mac to get me to the end.

Ill be happy with:
-The trivial function to open mp3 files in the native music app.
-More control and proper syncing of faces/people in the photos app
-Being able to correct "location" and "dates" of photos in the photos app (for all my old scanned photo albums)
-A native "preview" like app, where I can freely modify pdf apps to a certain extent

And less to do with iOS specifically, but other shortfalls, Id need Banktivity to create the "report" function into their iOS app (and of course force me to pay another $20 for that update) and OnShape to allow drawing creation on its iOS app and not need me to be using a web browser.

Ive greatly adapted my 3D modeling from Solidworks to OnShape, picked up Pages and Numbers as my new go-to instead of MS office, and Files is enough for me in terms of a file explorer. I have a few more "wants" and not "needs" such as more customization options, but Im happy with where iOS has come from. All of this being said, I would still welcome a desktop-like OS that could be run on an iPad. Using remote desktop apps such as Splashtop, its a very manageable workflow as well.

My main reason for firing up my MBP is a bit of serious Excel, but mainly adding Descriptions, Tags, etc in photos using right click “info”. This syncs back to my iOS devices as I have photo sharing on. I can then search for photos on iPhone and iPad easily. I take a lot of sports photos, and add various descriptions such as opponent, score, etc as well as tags like player names, “dunk”, “freethrow”, too. I’ve tried various iOS apps that say they support editing exif data, but none of them do quite what I want. One of them appeared perfect for new tags until I found it didn’t pull through all my existing ones! Wish they’d bring editing descriptions and tags to ios13.

The other thing already talked about is desktop safari versions rather than defaulting to mobile versions on iPad. A particular basketball live scoring website I use, loses so much info in mobile mode when I split screen. I’m happy to scroll left and right, but don’t want to take it off split!!

So, little things really.

Of course, some form of external storage via usb-c (or even lightning) would be most welcome, even if they restricted to Apple storage devices only.

 

[s15119]

I don't need anything to compel me to by another iPad. We have several in the household and when those need replacing, we will replace them with whatever iPad fits our need at the time. Probably soon. If it was today, I'd buy the new Air without any reservation.

 

[safetyobc]

I sold my original iPad Pro 12.9 last year because I wasn’t using it. I got a Surface Go and really like it. However with the rumored new updates coming I just got an iPad Pro 11. That and I really was missing the sit back and relax tablet experience. The Go is a great small computer. But it is not a good tablet.

 

[Koh Phi Phi]

I have been advocating for years that iOS needs some key revamps to push the iPad Pro into laptop replacement territory:

• Trackpad/mouse cursor
• Full file management system
• Desktop web browsing
• Desktop grade apps

When that happens, I will give the iPad Pro another try.

 

[EugW]

I have been advocating for years that iOS needs some key revamps to push the iPad Pro into laptop replacement territory:

• Trackpad/mouse cursor
• Full file management system
• Desktop web browsing
• Desktop grade apps

When that happens, I will give the iPad Pro another try.

We will get desktop web browsing for sure this year. In fact, we can already do that right now, although it's a pain because we have to specifically request it for each site.

Desktop grade apps have been appearing over the years as well, and one of the biggies, Photoshop, is landing this year.

I'm 80% convinced we'll get mouse/trackpad support as well. And not just USB as some rumours suggest, but of course wireless Bluetooth as the primary method.

So, we are probably 3/4 of the way there in 2019.

The only hold out will likely be the full file management system. Apple seems still to be taking baby steps with that, for whatever reason. I bought into a higher end version of the iPad ecosystem this time around with my iPad purchase in 2019. However, I haven't gone all in yet with the top of the line setup, because we still need that fourth factor, the proper external storage support, before it makes sense to me. But I could see it coming sooner rather than later.

We are oh, so close.

 

[canesalato]

That was my experience. The Surface is a laptop which can function as a

We will get desktop web browsing for sure this year. In fact, we can already do that right now, although it's a pain because we have to specifically request it for each site.

Desktop grade apps have been appearing over the years as well, and one of the biggies, Photoshop, is landing this year.

I'm 80% convinced we'll get mouse/trackpad support as well. And not just USB as some rumours suggest, but of course wireless Bluetooth as the primary method.

So, we are probably 3/4 of the way there in 2019.

The only hold out will likely be the full file management system. Apple seems still to be taking baby steps with that, for whatever reason. I bought into a higher end version of the iPad ecosystem this time around with my iPad purchase in 2019. However, I haven't gone all in yet with the top of the line setup, because we still need that fourth factor, the proper external storage support, before it makes sense to me. But I could see it coming sooner rather than later.

We are oh, so close.

but we have been "so close" for many years. It's time to deliver. Realistically, if what you wrote comes, this will be a very good year. But next year they need to finish, not wait until 2021...

 

[cookiemonster89]

Thsi feature would be very cool to have:

https://www.idownloadblog.com/2019/04/23/ios-13-media-import-third-party-apps/

But in the next step Lightroom needs a feature to transfer the files directly to the mac afterwards (+adjustments). Nobody wants to sync 30+ GB over the cloud with lightroom mobile or how do you handle this today?

I still import everything on my mac and only sync the smart previews to lightroom mobile. This is very fast, uses nearly no storage space and gives me the opprtunity to do basic edits on the iPad.

 

[rosschang]

I'd been using an Ipad Pro 10.5 as my main device for years now.

The one thing that I would really like to have is a universal file system to share and store files, not restrictive like the FILE app.

In addition, an option not to key passcode on lock screen (to unlock) once you set the passcode. i.e, I just want to use the passcode for wallet app.

 

[The Samurai]

Its a funny one.

It depends on how well they implement it. If they offer the features (mouse support, multi tasking windows, better file support, USB drive support) in baby steps (half-arsed attempts), it won't win me over.

If they offer it in a way that resembles a Mac or better, then they may win me over but I doubt it.

It may be 2030 before we get something to what we have now on the Mac.

 

[Dave-Z]

We will get desktop web browsing for sure this year. In fact, we can already do that right now, although it's a pain because we have to specifically request it for each site.

But not really. I mean, it'll probably be good for most users, but a real desktop browser allows third-party extensions, has a web inspector, and can be adjusted in size so responsive web sites can be viewed at different widths. I know most users don't necessarily care about that stuff, but since using my Windows tablet having a real desktop browser has been so much better of an experience.