The Mac is a 40 year old OS and iPad is younger than 14 years old. I dont understand how people expect Apple to have feature parity between MacOS and iPadOS. Just look at how long it takes for Google to develop the simplest elements, like multitasking UI, for Android tablets. OS development takes a long time. iOS brings in half of Apple’s revenue, has all of Apple’s talent and resources, and even that OS is moving at a snails pace.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad Pro Craig and Joz discussing iPad on The Talk Show
- Thread starter Rogifan
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It's all a matter of priorities. Tablets haven't been a priority for Google before foldables. Samsung has done some great work on multitasking well before Google. Apple has shown they could go much faster when they want. The 40 vs 14 years mean absolutely nothing. iPadOS has sometimes received more enhancements in 1 year than in 5 or even 10 years.
Samsung just looked at a desktop OS and literally copied how those OSs manage multitasking. They didn’t put in any effort to rework these old way of doing things. Apple is clearly trying to create a new OS from the ground up and at every step they are trying to take a MacOS feature and modify it for a touch-first computing paradigm. Stage Manager is a dumpster fire but I bet Apple are saying to themselves that they’d rather be “different” than just copy and paste their own homework from MacOS. Right now they look foolish but thats how Apple rolls for better or worse.
Infinitely close to macOS without BEING macOS is what Apple has been doing for a few years now For iPadOS.
They must add new features to newer devices so to entice people to upgrade, and thus bear the consequences. Unless they also remove features at a similar pace each year, iPadOS is going to be very bloated itself, a necessary evil.
You are probably referring to Dex, which, on an external monitor works better than Stage Manager, and I don't care about being different, I want functionality.
On the tablet it's a different story. Dex is not a great solution, but OneUI which is perfectly optimized for touch, does multitasking a lot better than iPadOS, not even close.
The main reason why I prefer the iPad to Samsung tablets it not iPadOS. It's the hardware (better aspect ratio, less reflective screen, better SOC, much better keyboard and trackpad, and some better apps, but apps are not huge difference nowadays, it's mainly the hardware).
I need an example here, because I'm not understanding what's the difference between syncing single files vs full folders. And if I'm not mistaken, we are able to download full folders from the File app on iPadOS 18... is that what you are asking for?
download is not syncing, syncing is what happens on desktop, on the Dropbox app it's for paid customers only
And that's why I asked for an example? Paint me a picture of exactly the workflow you are trying to do... for which the iPad is incapable of.
So, I download a full folder... to work on files for offline use, each file I open will be able to sync to that folder.
Last edited:
I'm sure it will have its fans, but I bet multitasking on Samsung tablets is used way less often than on the iPad. Using floating windows on touch devices results in quite a bad experience; touch doesn't have the precision of a mouse, overlapping is more difficult to manage, gestures must be performed in a small area, etc. Apple tried their best with Stage Manager, but I still think windowed multitasking on tablets will never take off. That's why I don't buy this argument I usually read: "Apple tries to re-invent the wheel when windows have worked perfectly on the PC/Mac for years". The problem is that a tablet is a very different kind of device, and here it doesn't work great at all. It's not about being different, but about being good.
“You can have my toaster-fridge when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.”
— Charlton Heston
Last edited:
Ha I said this, and ended up going with an M1 iPad Pro 12.9" off Swappa.
It’s a computer so obviously there’s no hardware restriction as we all know. It’s a design choice similar to the choice to not give the iPhone mini or 15 Pro Max multiple account login — even though the devices are more than capable of supporting the feature. Apple gets to choose what features they add to their devices. Nothing more. But I’m curious: what does "weaponizing incompetence" mean? Whose incompetence is being weaponized, against whom, and for what purpose? Please answer this question. 🤔
Have you added some sort of Macbook to your setup? And I'm curious... why isn't there some sort of backlash against the MacBook Pro? Similar to how it is with the iPad Pro... the differentiators with MBP are better screen and additional ports.
Now with the iPad Pro... there is better transfer speeds, LiDAR scanner and a better screen. And looking through the comparison sheet between the Air and Pro... there's Portrait Mode & Lighting effects not found in the Air. I kind of wish Apple upgraded to a 48MP main camera to the iPad Pro (now that they removed one) ... not to make the iPad into some photography/videography powerhouse, but to get better segmentation.
The Magic Keyboard is an optional compromise introduced because of the one major deficiency that the tablet form factor has that many even basic users can’t get around, which is poorer text input. It reintroduces good Mac-like text input, but it adds weight and thickness (as much as or more than Mac equivalent), hassle, and makes it no longer a tablet while being used (and adds cost too of course). This is why it’s still an optional accessory and not sold as one package with the iPad. To make the iPad exactly on par with the Mac, more compromises would have to be introduced, which unlike the MK would not be optional. Assuming the MacBook Air 13” is the baseline performance/UX that Apple considers acceptable for macOS, then the iPad would need to be considerably thicker and heavier to accommodate the same sized battery plus the same thermal envelope. Keep in mind the iPad has a display adjacent to its internals which not only blocks heat escaping but generates more heat, so it would need to be thicker than just the base of the MBA, maybe nearly as thick as the entire laptop. But on top of that, in order to keep two levels of usability—“regular user” and “power user”—it would require even more resources than a Mac which doesn’t have that requirement. Software UI l-wise, I don’t know what that would entail.
The only way to make these compromises optional would be to make a whole new product line, but that requires a solid market size for this product, but I see no indication of this, and I doubt it exists because of the ergonomics of touch and the tablet form factor and with touch requiring large touch targets, it seems to me that the iPad is more conducive to “car” usage than “truck” usage.
I don’t know how you define artificial in this case but the iPad’s sandbox file system and limited background processing are fundamental design choices that have benefits along with trade offs.
What are your specific unmet needs regarding the file system?
Please provide citations of Apple giving those reasons/excuses for not delivering whatever it is that you’re disappointed with. I don’t recall any Apple employees making those statements that you’re attributing to them.
They look more like crowd-sourced explanations for why Apple refuses to deliver the crowd-sourced changes that some are insisting that Apple introduce. With the exception of the answer given to the recent Gruber-prodded interview question, Apple is historically been largely silent on things they are not doing because the opposite is a waste of time.
So this looks like you are attributing things to Apple that they’ve never said; but I may have missed something. Can you provide some citations for these attributions?
Last edited:
This is your experience. It is not my experience or that of many people who take the time to learn the device and use it as it was intended to be used.
I already have an M1 Macbook Pro 13" 16/256. Eventually I will either (depending on pricing) upgrade to a 15" Macbook Air 16/512 or one of the new M4 Macbook Pros (and maybe Airs) released this fall if they up the baseline RAM.
I think it's because there is a clearly defined reason for being on each. If you need heat dispersal, better screen, and additional ports (and really high end RAM amounts), you go for the Macbook Pro.
If you don't really do anything high-end performance wise and don't need the screen or the ports, then you can go with the MBAs. That's me, honestly.
I would have gone for the bigger iPad Air, but it ended up being more money and the screen is worse.
But you do bring up a great point. Personally, I say get what you can afford, and what meets your needs. Kind of like the Apple Watch Ultra. Not for me, but my Uncle has more that enough money, and likes Tech. He has one and likes it. He doesn't climb mountains and the like. He just wanted one. Good for him!
I do agree with this. I just am careful not to mentally complain when I take it too far. It can really do a surprising amount. And it isn't like Mac doesn't have its limitations. Try gaming. Or using a pencil or touchscreen on it.
Now I am starting to sound like you LOL. Right tool for the job. And they all have different jobs.
Except that multitasking on a Samsung tablet is not Dex. Dex is great on an external monitor. But those who use Dex on a tablet are generally unexperienced people who are starting to use a Samsung tablet (e.g. coming from iPad) and have heard about Dex. Multitasking on the tablet is done much better with OneUI, which is optimizied for touch and is much more capable that either split screen and slideover or stage manager. And is much better Dex on a tablet. Those who use Dex on the tablet don't know OneUI enough (I mean there may be people who still prefer Dex, but there are strange people everywhere...🙃). Of course this is if you use the tablet with no keyboard and mouse, just with touch, with keyboard and mouse Dex is great, either on a monitor or on the tablet.
Last edited:
I am not sure I am following you. Syncing means sync to the all my other devices that have dropbox. So if add or change a file in a folder on my computer it's automatically downloaded to the file app, and ready to be opened on my iPad even if I am offline.
iPadOS is not a new OS from the ground up - it is a branched version of iOS which is an OS designed to run a phone. IMO, a lot of the problems people are dealing with are because of this starting base vs developing something from the ground up.
“Designed to run on a phone” should be rephrased as “designed for a touch-first UI paradigm”.
People refuse to accept that Apple fundamentally views touch-first as a different category of device than desktop, and all the confusion some power users seem to have is based on their willful disregard of that distinction.
Especially since, at every opportunity, Apple says that it is not ever going to be Mac. They view the iPad as a fundamentally different product than a MacBook—and vice versa.