I think your item 4,5 and 8 are definitely nice to haves that should be addressed. Especially the Home Screen was not an improvement in OS15 vs 14 with its cleaner today view
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iPad as a laptop replacement
- Thread starter Omar Comin' Yo
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NO change for me either. More multitasking does not turn mobile apps into desktop apps.
To replace a laptop I would need several desktop apps (MS Office, Dropbox, Onedrive, Whatsapp desktop, Chrome with extensions, plus a couple of Windows-only softwares that can be used on Mac via Parallels). I would also need a clipboard manager (I don't think there is one for iPad) and support for more than 1 external display.
Never gonna happen...
To replace a laptop I would need several desktop apps (MS Office, Dropbox, Onedrive, Whatsapp desktop, Chrome with extensions, plus a couple of Windows-only softwares that can be used on Mac via Parallels). I would also need a clipboard manager (I don't think there is one for iPad) and support for more than 1 external display.
Never gonna happen...
The homescreen is a terrible mess 14v 15, iPadOS 14 homescreen was fine, nice even, within the restrictions of the device. But 15, when you go from landscape to portrait, all the icons randomly move to different places?! 😂 don’t know what the hell they are thinking with that. Why can’t it just mimic the landscape mode? Why can’t the icons just swivel in their place?!
Did you know that if you adjust your icons and widgets in landscape mode and then put it in portrait and adjust them how you want them, that they will stay adjusted just how you put them so when it switches orientations either way will be adjusted how you want. Kind of hard to explain. Maybe a video will help.
For me, there are still things I prefer doing on my ipad or that I either can’t do on a phone or PC. For example, I teach with my ipad in the classroom. When vetting my peer’s student remarks, I am willing to go through the hassle of convert their document from excel to pdf, airdrop it to my ipad and then mark it up in pdf expert or notability, the same way I would grade essays. It just feels more personal.
During my school annual sports day, I had a timer and google forms open side by side, though my back was killing me after standing under the sun for 2 hours while holding the ipad and another clipboard. A galaxy fold (or maybe the mini) might have been the ideal form factor here.
When I accompanied my students overseas a couple of years ago, I left my laptop at time and did my blogging on my ipad (benefits were the longer battery life, cellular, inbuilt camera and detachable keyboard). So it was like this smartphone / laptop hybrid. I could probably do the same with a 13 pro max today; this was back when iPhones like the 5s had pretty pitiful battery endurance overall.
I also do a lot of reading on my ipad. For the stuff I do, there’s still room for a giant iPod touch in my life.
HobeSoundDarryl
macrumors G5
To the thread question, one could answer with a confident "YES" or an equally-confident "NO"... because the information not shared would fill in crucial information after "it depends..."
For example, someone who does only basic, mostly-consumption things on even a Mac Pro has had the ability to replace ANY computer with an iPad, iPod touch or iPhone for years now. On the other hand, if anything you need to do regularly is cumbersome/complicated/overly time-consuming trying to do it on an iDevice but will be much more efficiently/easier done on a "real" computer, while you still might be able to do the job on an iDevice, you will likely prefer to switch to the right tool for the job.
Analogy: I can hammer in a nail with screwdriver with enough effort & time... or I can use the right tool for the job. I suspect for just about anyone, the latter will get that nail driven much quickly than the former. But, if someone is willing to take whatever time and go to whatever trouble, they will likely eventually get that nail driven with a screwdriver too.
The fact that iPadOS adds some new features may cover a few more bases in this direction... or may stray from some scenario for someone else hoping for that destination. It really comes back to what specific computing tasks does the asker want to do... and then, are those about as easily & efficiently done on an iDevice vs. a laptop/desktop? If their specific answer is:
If a person ONLY has a screwdriver and no access to a hammer, the screwdriver is also their hammer... and vice versa. Again, the answer is YES in this scenario too because its the only computing tool available. The fact that the OS has a few new features doesn't really change anything... any more than if- say- Apple had removed an equal number of features instead of adding some.
For example, someone who does only basic, mostly-consumption things on even a Mac Pro has had the ability to replace ANY computer with an iPad, iPod touch or iPhone for years now. On the other hand, if anything you need to do regularly is cumbersome/complicated/overly time-consuming trying to do it on an iDevice but will be much more efficiently/easier done on a "real" computer, while you still might be able to do the job on an iDevice, you will likely prefer to switch to the right tool for the job.
Analogy: I can hammer in a nail with screwdriver with enough effort & time... or I can use the right tool for the job. I suspect for just about anyone, the latter will get that nail driven much quickly than the former. But, if someone is willing to take whatever time and go to whatever trouble, they will likely eventually get that nail driven with a screwdriver too.
The fact that iPadOS adds some new features may cover a few more bases in this direction... or may stray from some scenario for someone else hoping for that destination. It really comes back to what specific computing tasks does the asker want to do... and then, are those about as easily & efficiently done on an iDevice vs. a laptop/desktop? If their specific answer is:
- YES, the answer to the question is YES.
- NO, the answer to the question is NO.
If a person ONLY has a screwdriver and no access to a hammer, the screwdriver is also their hammer... and vice versa. Again, the answer is YES in this scenario too because its the only computing tool available. The fact that the OS has a few new features doesn't really change anything... any more than if- say- Apple had removed an equal number of features instead of adding some.
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Sure, those are welcome improvements. That said, those changes are more like starting points or building blocks. They don’t drastically improve the apps that run on iPadOS now. I rarely get reloads on 16GB RAM anyway.
Swap would probably have been more immediately useful if they had added it to 4-6GB RAM iPads.
Granted, I expect swap probably helps for those who will use Stage Manager multitasking. There’s a possibility the 64GB Air might not get swap. If so, it’ll be interesting to see how it fares for Stage Manager versus devices with more storage.
im just curious... do you ever think the iPad could or should be usable in this manner?
Id suggest... no... it was never designed to do so.
There is today, and will be for a long time a very clear differentiable use case for each device until such time as they do merge into one - but to fans of the multi windowed environment then a laptop is still the device for you.
Many users of iPads im sure actually value its simplicity and the full screen app experience you get from it and have no real need or intention to start juggling multiple open apps to do what they set out to do.
I accidentally ran across that when I was setting up my iPad. That was a pleasant surprise and a big positive to optimizing use in those respective orientations.
I think there’s different responses to this question because there’s different levels of PC use represented. I’m completely switched over to my M1 iPad Air and no longer use my laptop, but I don’t consider myself a “power user”. But I also see a tendency to dismiss the iPad because it’s “just” an iPad without investigating whether it can be expanded in its use.
Why not? It now has an excellent screen, a trackpad and a keyboard. What more do you need?
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Number 8 will never happen since they want one family member buys one device to maximum their profit
So really only M1 iPads will have stage management, not even iPad Pro 2020, wow Apple really push people to buy another expensive iPads faster
In addition, I need to be able to format external drives, update data & f/w on non-wireless devices, and read/write DVDs.
I am guessing keeping up to four apps in memory at once may press up against the limits, requiring virtual memory swap, which could potentially be restricted to M1/M2 for technical reasons.
No way iPad Pro 2020 cannot do that, it is just forcing customers to buy new expensive iPads lineup again
Hey Dg! I found a couple of clipboard managers that look pretty good on the app store if you are interested.
I’ll take a look ta!
Edit: WOW. I wish I knew this before! Solved a major usability issue for me. Cool - thanks for bringing it to my attention!
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I think that stage manager is is a bad solution, I just want to be able to properly use fullscreen, split-view and slide-over on the external screen … I have a 27” LG Ultrafine connected to my Mac and don’t even use floating overlapping windows on it, I use Magnet to tile them in basically the same way I do on iPad… Stage manager is pointless window management because people complained that this would somehow make the iPad more of a pro device… I am sad that they were so loud and got listened to ….
On my iPad 11” I generally use many of the Split View options but I agree that the screen is kind of small - my next iPad will be the 13” for that reason.
Another thought, make Slide-Over better by letting it appear over the home screen.
But I don’t want to have to use stage manager to keep my app from being suspended, I want to be able to have apps in fullscreen and start something in the background and then ignore it while it runs…
Well, I understand.
But I see it working like this: stage manager is a kind of app really. A container app which allows a set amount of apps to be working at the same time. I assume this is to get around or to be in keeping with the nature of the way the iPad works as opposed to traditional os’.
It seems you can indeed remove the app stack and the dock from view if you like. I can’t test it but the windows are resizable I understand. Do they not resize to full screen when the stack and the dock are removed from view?
I use yoink after years of trying to find a decent clipboard manager. It’s not really the same thing, but it’s useful nontheless.
(on a mac you can just look at your history without having to do anything, can’t seem to do it on iPadOS or iOS)
Here is a video from a favorite YouTuber that explains Stage Manager. It looks like you can turn it off if you want to.
