I've used Affinity & Lightroom on the iPad Pro for RAW photo processing but have found it just too inefficient for working with large numbers of images to process - >>100. I find it much better/preferable to working with a machine with a larger monitor/display, full mouse support with a real pointer, full-up Lightroom, and other s/w with extensive DAM support for files spread over multiple storage locations. On a recent 3-week trip I took both for comparison but quickly ended up just using the laptop. I'll stick with the laptop (and home desktop) for now and I don't anticipate changing with iPadOS.
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iPad Pro Can we finally say an iPad can replace a laptop/MacBook?
- Thread starter Mhotep
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I've used Affinity & Lightroom on the iPad Pro for RAW photo processing but have found it just too inefficient for working with large numbers of images to process - >>100. I find it much better/preferable to working with a machine with a larger monitor/display, full mouse support with a real pointer, full-up Lightroom, and other s/w with extensive DAM support for files spread over multiple storage locations. On a recent 3-week trip I took both for comparison but quickly ended up just using the laptop. I'll stick with the laptop (and home desktop) for now and I don't anticipate changing with iPadOS.
I have two kids that recently graduated from college, and I think they would agree with you. Hands down, they prefer a laptop (MacBook Air/MacBook Pro). My son was a Math and Econ double major. He was frequently running Stata and R. I think that would be problematic with an iPad. My daughter was an International Relations major, and she worked on more papers and writing, so it might have been more feasible for her, especially with the new multi-tasking and File management features in iPadOS. Also, the lion share of papers were done in Google Docs, so maybe the new desktop class Safari would make it more manageable.
Finally, my youngest is starting University in the Fall as a Business Major, and he absolutely wants to take a MacBook (just bought him a new MBA 2017 for $750) rather than an iPad. The base iPad Air 3 plus ASK and Pencil would have cost the same ($500 + $159 + $100), so it isn’t about the money.
I do think my kids have some bias toward laptops. They started in a “laptop” program in middle school and used laptops all through high school. Even though they are young and adaptable, the laptop is really more in their comfort zone for productivity and school work. They frequently use iOS, but primarily in the context of their iPhones. This makes me think that it is going to take some time for students to really embrace the iPad as an alternative to the traditional laptop.
Need to use it to determine. Mostly, its lack of full 3rd apps that keep my iPad from fully replacing a laptop.
The only things Apple can do for me:
-have the Photos app include the full features of the Mac Version (add faces, modify dates & metadata), etc.
- "open in Music" option for mp3s
-Recovery tool to fresh reinstall iPadOS without requiring a computer
Some 3rd party apps:
-Banktivity needs to include their reports and export features in the iOS app
-OnShape allowing drawings to be generated on the mobile app (though if the desktop version of safari might be able to address this one)
The only things Apple can do for me:
-have the Photos app include the full features of the Mac Version (add faces, modify dates & metadata), etc.
- "open in Music" option for mp3s
-Recovery tool to fresh reinstall iPadOS without requiring a computer
Some 3rd party apps:
-Banktivity needs to include their reports and export features in the iOS app
-OnShape allowing drawings to be generated on the mobile app (though if the desktop version of safari might be able to address this one)
I don't mean to nitpick but have you used MS Office on the iPad? Office was a day one launch item when the iPad Pro debuted. I may not be a Word or Excel power user (though I have put together some crazy spread sheets) but I use them almost daily and really don't see much difference between the iPad versions and the versions installed on my Mac. What about Office on the iPad is not "powerful" and not to be taken seriously? I'd honestly like to know because I have zero problems with it.
Please open an Excel sheet with Macros and then write back here how this went.
Also, open Word and create an outline of your document and add a table of contents. Please report your experience with that. Thank you
You also can't create or edit document styles. Even without macro support, Word for iOS still needs a lot of work to become truly production-ready.
Valid. You've also chosen two features I never use. So I've never encountered these issues. In my daily use, both Word and Excel on the iPad have exceeded my expectations, especially when starting or updating a document on the go.
That the iPad versions lack features doesn't make them any less "serious" than the Mac versions. They're just a bit more stripped down. I, for instance, wouldn't say Scrivener for the iPad is less "serious" than the Mac version even though it doesn't have certain features...
I don't really have a dog in this fight. I think the iPad is a very capable machine. I do many things on it. I also have a Mac because there are things I can't do on it. But I don't know that I'd call it unserious because some apps don't have some things.
I think Scrivener for iOS is in an even worse state than Word. Unless you hand off your manuscript to someone else for editing and publishing, Scrivener for iOS is at best a companion app to the desktop version. I can write in Scrivner for iOS -- as long as I don't care about a lot of features. Which to be fair, some of them I may not.
However, the other half of Scrivener is its fantastic compile and export section. Scrivener for iOS uses a different compile engine, and doesn't support any sort of ebook format. I can't even use a compile format I created on my Mac.
And that is not even going down the whole modal sync path.
I haven't chosen any features! I need this functionality in my work. What should I do? Say that it doesn't matter because the iPad is cool and just create documents with no table of contents? Or should I tell my customers that wait for my feedback on Microsoft sizing calculators that are based on Macro enabled Excel sheets, that I can't do my job because I have an iPad?
It is a fact that most if not all iPad apps are not as functional and feature rich as the ones found in desktop operating systems. Now the thing is, is it a showstopper or not? For me definitely.
Sorry for being 5 thread pages late, but one thing I require as an academic is a reference manager like EndNote. AFAIK, none can hook in to Word like they do on the desktop. Otherwise, the iPad does much of what I need, but not all. Still will use both a laptop and an iPad.
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Mad Mac Maniac
macrumors 601
You don't think students use external hard drives?
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I honestly think this might be the only thing over the past year or two where I have NEEDED to use my Macbook Air. I'm on my iPad Pro (9.7) at least 90% of the time. There are certainly moments where I've preferred to use my MBA, but the photo app is the only holdout that makes me realize I couldn't go 100% iPad.
There might be other things that have slipped my mind, but I know this is a key one.
Edit: one other thing which can be an extreme annoyance is multitasking management on iPad. I haven't seen enough iPadOS demo to know if it's fixed, but moving around multitasking apps and adding non-dock side-by-side apps is just horrendously annoying.
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No one is going to publish your manuscript straight from Scrivener. If you believe otherwise, you've been sold a bill of goods.
External hard drive? Who does that?
The students that I interact with who are already mobile have created workflows that don't require physically attaching a USB thumbdrive to their devices. For those students, they're already using their iPads so the additional features of iOS 13 won't change that.
For the students I interact with that don't currently use iPads, they based that decision on their need to have a desktop-strength OS. iOS 13 doesn't bring that to them.
It's essentially a matter of, "too little, too late". People have hardware that they've invested in, and those who make financially wise decisions aren't going to prematurely move on to something new simply because it is new.
Those who are within a window of needing to upgrade/replace their hardware when iOS 13 is available, then that would be an opportunity for them to re-evaluate their needs at that time to see if their non-iPad hardware is still a better option for them.
You do realize that "features" are "functionality", right? And you picked two that I do not use. That you can't finish something you'd send to a customer on the iPad does not make what's available on the iPad unserious. You can still start a doc, write a doc, edit a doc, and then, if you need to do other stuff, finish a doc elsewhere. But nowhere along that process is the iPad "unserious." Limited perhaps. But not in a way that has hampered my use of the iPad "as a laptop."
Which, returning to the topic of this thread, maybe it's not yet up to where Mac version of Office are yet. So... maybe the iPad can't replace a Mac yet. But maybe Microsoft also needs to see sales and numbers to see that it's a platform worth bringing those features to. Maybe iPadOS/13 might do it. Maybe not.
Self publishers do. People that send copies to beta readers create ebooks. Also, it's clear from the lack of updates (last one in Dec 2017) where the iOS version is on the developer's priority list.
Edit: I would say that if you wanted to do end-to-end publishing on an iPad, Ulysses is probably the better solution.
This would totally disrupt my workflow and is something I would never do. I always try to use tools that offer me all the functionality I need.
Feature is not functionality. Features are functions that when put together give us a specific functionality. But anyway, I would be afraid of opening a design document by using Word on my iPad, because it might screw up formatting so bad, that I would need to recover the document from a backup. I just don't trust iPad as a platform.
Mad Mac Maniac
macrumors 601
External hard drive? Who does that?
The students that I interact with who are already mobile have created workflows that don't require physically attaching a USB thumbdrive to their devices. For those students, they're already using their iPads so the additional features of iOS 13 won't change that.
For the students I interact with that don't currently use iPads, they based that decision on their need to have a desktop-strength OS. iOS 13 doesn't bring that to them.
It's essentially a matter of, "too little, too late". People have hardware that they've invested in, and those who make financially wise decisions aren't going to prematurely move on to something new simply because it is new.
Those who are within a window of needing to upgrade/replace their hardware when iOS 13 is available, then that would be an opportunity for them to re-evaluate their needs at that time to see if their non-iPad hardware is still a better option for them.
Sure, students who have already gone iPad would have to have developed cloud-based storage solutions (because there is no other option), but I have a hard time believing that none of the students who still use a PC (which I would guess is a majority) don't use any sort of external thumbdrive. This was still the primary student method 6 years ago and I don't think cloud-based solutions haven't improved enough to make physical storage completely obsolete. But I could be wrong.
And I agree with the second half of your post, but I believe that was the going-in assumption with this thread. It's not "will everybody drop their hardware and buy an iPad now?", but more "If someone is buying a computing device right now, can the iPad be enough to replace a laptop for the majority of computing needs for the majority of people?" This is a harder question to answer, and there are most certainly individuals/workflows/jobs that would still require MacOS/Windows, but if we focus on the "majority of functions for the majority of people" part of the question, I think that answer has certainly moved closer to the "Yes".
YES THERE IS!!!!
Endnote in conjunction with Endnote web allow for a 100% iOS workflow
I don’t know, but I speculate that Apple doesn’t expect any entrenched users *today* to switch hardware based on iOS 13. They have their workflows fully developed and optimized. They’re not going anywhere. Rather, I suspect Apple is targeting *future* young users who as yet are not set in their ways. Particularly iPhone users who otherwise might go for a Windows laptop... instead “lookie here, iOS on a bigger form factor, don’t need that weird Windows big beast”. YMMV.
I just completed a Masters programme in organizational behavior completely on the iPad. The work included doing reading, research, video conferencing, and writing case papers and a master's thesis. In fact, in many ways it was more practical than having a laptop, and in other ways less.
Some examples in which the iPad was superior or at least as good as a laptop:
- Taking notes, and especially annotations from the board or teacher's presentation. You just snap a photo and annotate it with the Pencil. Also as a plus, I used Evernote and for especially complex lectures I would record the audio as I took notes
- Reading PDF files (most of our reading was distributed to students on PDF), and marking them up with my notes/reflections (PDF Expert on the iPad is fantastic)
- Pages was sufficient for my needs to write the case papers and the thesis. I didn't need any fancy formatting. I also tried to use Scrivener for the thesis, which was great but I felt overkill for my needs.
- WebEx for video conferencing was easy to use on the iPad
- I did all research on the iPad (EbscoHost, etc.). Again PDF management, reading, annotation, etc., with PDF Expert is great. The ability to turn the iPad into portrait orientation and read as you might a book or magazine was also welcome
- I did some basic illustrations on the iPad (lots of apps for that). Easy to import into Pages
- I conducted a number of interviews and was able to record the interview and take notes in parallel
- Light to carry and easy to charge (you can manage to find a USB charger most places these days)
- With the right app, the iPad is essentially a lightweight scanner. Easily convert paper documents into PDF
My overall experience with the iPad was that it is a really focused device. You work on one thing at a time and my productivity increased as a result. Laptop is quite a more distracting.
There were also ways in which the iPad was not as good:
- One app at a time was a bit cramped when doing research, where it might be easier to open multiple windows. My workaround was to split my workflow into mass article download first, and then review as a separate step.
- Switching between apps (for example between the research article and Pages to write) isn't so seamless. The cursor often gets reset and pages refresh. Evernote is particularly guilty of this, and Safari sometimes has to refresh. Very annoying, especially as I use an iPad Pro 10.5" so thought I would have enough memory to allow easy app switching
- Opening video conference with another app in parallel turns off my video feed to others (i.e. they can't see me anymore). I tried this with several apps with the same result. Annoying since sometimes I would want take notes as I participated in the call.
I have to say though that deciding to use the iPad exclusively for this took some effort and trial and error initially to figure our the right workflow and apps. If you try to replicate the laptop experience exactly it doesn't always work. There's a tendency on the iPad for apps to be much more focused, whereas you'll find much more feature rich software on a laptop that can do several things. So an iPad workflow often jumps through several apps but each one will do their task much more effectively. Once you figure it out it's a breeze.
The OP's question cannot be adequately answered until we have installed, and have been using iPadOS for a period of time.
As for right now, the answer is: depending on the workflow, for some - yes, for others - no.
End of discussion.
As for right now, the answer is: depending on the workflow, for some - yes, for others - no.
End of discussion.