iPad as a laptop replacement

[jm31828]

Umm... it's an iPad only app, so I'm not sure you could purchase it from the iPhone (I could be wrong though).

But I highly doubt the sale goes out after Christmas... due to people gifting iPads, I think Affinity will have their sale all the way up until New Year's (don't quote me on that lol).

Ah, yeah- makes sense since they don't have a version that would work on the iPhone.

I look forward to testing out the app! I originally intended to cough up the $55 for Pixelmator since I knew a bit more about that app, but I am glad to have had this conversation here now about Affinity Photo.

 

[Boil]

But I highly doubt the sale goes out after Christmas... due to people gifting iPads, I think Affinity will have their sale all the way up until New Year's (don't quote me on that lol).

Right on the front page of their website, 40% off all apps until 25 January 2023...

 

[bondr006]

Yeah, great call!
I technically won't have my iPad out of the box until Christmas, but I assume if I buy it on my iPhone via the app store, that will lock in my purchase (no difference buying it from a phone or an iPad, I'll be buying the same version I assume?)

Sorry for all the questions! I agree with you, for that price, I would rather just buy it and support the developers instead of nit-picking and doing a 30 day trial to determine if it's worthy of spending that small amount of money.

Umm... it's an iPad only app, so I'm not sure you could purchase it from the iPhone (I could be wrong though).

Unfortunately you are right, there is no iPhone version🙁 But, as mentioned earlier, there is also a desktop version.

 

[sananda]

Do any of you out there truly use a non-Pro iPad as essentially a laptop replacement, or is that thought mostly reserved for those that have a Pro?

I use an iPad Air 4 pretty much as a desktop. It’s on a small stand throughout my working day with the Magic Keyboard that I bought for my Mac mini and a Mighty Mouse from our defunct iMac G5. I have to record my time which I do in Notes, draft certain documents in Pages (then export as a Word document and transfer over to my work issued laptop), refer to my research notes in Notablity, and manage my projects in Things 3.

I also use it in this way for my personal spreadsheets and Pages documents.

I do still go to my elderly Macs from time to time: I find numbering much easier in Pages on the Mac and I use Lightroom on my Mac mini for photography.

 

[jm31828]

I use an iPad Air 4 pretty much as a desktop. It’s on a small stand throughout my working day with the Magic Keyboard that I bought for my Mac mini and a Mighty Mouse from our defunct iMac G5. I have to record my time which I do in Notes, draft certain documents in Pages (then export as a Word document and transfer over to my work issued laptop), refer to my research notes in Notablity, and manage my projects in Things 3.

I also use it in this way for my personal spreadsheets and Pages documents.

I do still go to my elderly Macs from time to time: I find numbering much easier in Pages on the Mac and I use Lightroom on my Mac mini for photography.

Thanks for sharing! Does your Air 4 hold up well, or are you feeling it is bogging down in any way?

 

[Slartibart]

I picked up an iPad (Air 5) on sale on Black Friday, not opening it until Christmas.
I am excited about it for a lot of reasons, but for one I really want to start editing photos on it vs. my old iMac.

Unfortunately, the app that I really like and use almost 100% of the time is Luminar AI- it doesn't have an iPad app and looks like it never will. So, this means I'll have to start using something different (looking at Pixelmator Photo, which seems very similar, minus a few of the additional creative tricks that Luminar AI has). I will just have to move images over to my iMac for anything additional that I want to do that is available in Luminar that I can't do in Pixelmator or whatever other app I choose for the iPad.

Otherwise, I have gone over what I do on my iMac, and honestly the iPad will cover the rest 100%.... I suppose the 1TB of storage that I have on the iMac will be the other benefit that device has over the iPad.
But that's OK I suppose, as the iMac isn't going anywhere, I'll be keeping it for the rest of its life- and I'll likely move images to it after working with them on the iPad for storage.

If you haven’t already get a pencil (Apple’s or one of the cheaper ”clones” ) - editing photos is muuuuch more fun using one. 😎

Regarding machine learning (ML)-based optimization: Pixelmator Photo is quite unique regarding this (on iPadOS). Affinity Photo or RAWPower (check out the trial) offer several “auto”-function - e.g. auto-enhance in RAWPower. I any case the results are equally good as a start8ng point IMHO.

Pixelmator Photo offers a great ML-based healing brush, Affinity Photo has a great “in painting”-brush, again the results are similar when applied to smaller areas.

If you want to stitch panoramic photos Affinity Photo is the only program, from the ones mentioned so far, which does that.
Talking panoramas or photos with larger dimensions (e.g. 20000x50000 pixel): Affinity Photo or RAWPower will easily allow to open and edit such images, Pixelmator Photo will not.

 

[jm31828]

If you haven’t already get a pencil (Apple’s or one of the cheaper ”clones” ) - editing photos is muuuuch more fun using one. 😎

Regarding machine learning (ML)-based optimization: Pixelmator Photo is quite unique regarding this (on iPadOS). Affinity Photo or RAWPower (check out the trial) offer several “auto”-function - e.g. auto-enhance in RAWPower. I any case the results are equally good as a start8ng point IMHO.

Pixelmator Photo offers a great ML-based healing brush, Affinity Photo has a great “in painting”-brush, again the results are similar when applied to smaller areas.

If you want to stitch panoramic photos Affinity Photo is the only program, from the ones mentioned so far, which does that.
Talking panoramas or photos with larger dimensions (e.g. 20000x50000 pixel): Affinity Photo or RAWPower will easily allow to open and edit such images, Pixelmator Photo will not.

Thanks for sharing! It sounds like Affinity Photo truly isn't lacking some of these features that Pixelmator has- I will check it out!

And yes, I did pick up a very highly rated knockoff Pencil on Amazon for $20 on sale, likely returning the Apple Pencil 2 that I purchased on sale on Black Friday for $89, mostly just feeling guilty that I won't use it enough to justify the $89 price. lol

But, neither has been opened yet, I might decide to just keep the true Apple Pencil.

 

[sananda]

Thanks for sharing! Does your Air 4 hold up well, or are you feeling it is hogging down in any way?

Feels snappy to me.

 

[cwosigns]

I am about to put this to the test; I have someone coming to buy my iMac after work today. Aside from my work-issued MacBook Pro, this leaves my M1 12.9” iPad Pro as my main personal computing device, supplemented by LG UltraFine monitors, an iPad mini 6, and my iPhone 14 Pro Max. I will no longer own a MacOS device for this first time since 1999. It’s exciting and a little nerve wracking as well. We’ll see how this holds up.

 

[Boidem]

I have an iPad Air 5, with a Zaggs keyboard case. Previous to that, I had a iPad Air 2, with a Belkin keyboard case. These are used mainly around the house and for travelling. I have no need for a 'proper' computer in these situations, and the iPad can cover pretty much any eventuality when I might need something a bit bigger than my iPhone. This has proven a perfect solution to having a mobile 'computer' with me. I suspect most laptop users don't really need anything more, perhaps a larger screen. The iPad and case combos are significantly smaller and lighter than a full laptop, so excellent for travelling with.

 

[GerritV]

I am about to put this to the test; I have someone coming to buy my iMac after work today. Aside from my work-issued MacBook Pro, this leaves my M1 12.9” iPad Pro as my main personal computing device, supplemented by LG UltraFine monitors, an iPad mini 6, and my iPhone 14 Pro Max. I will no longer own a MacOS device for this first time since 1999. It’s exciting and a little nerve wracking as well. We’ll see how this holds up.

This reminds me of the time (mid eighties ;-) I wanted to switch from my drafting table to CAD. The very moment I decided and purchased my first computer (Macintosh SE + Radius 19" monitor + ClarisCAD), I boldly sold my drafting table. Meaning, I had no more room to doubt my choice, no more going back and all the motivation possible to make my new configuration work. It did, but not painlessly.
I think you made the right move, and wish you all the best with the switch !

 

[sananda]

I asked my employer for a 12.9” iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard. They agreed and gave it to me without App Store, Files, Notes, Pages, Numbers and Keynote (and many many other apps missing) and with Word, Excel and PowerPoint which I can’t use to create or edit documents (because the 365 account doesn’t allow it).

Pretty sure I can’t get much work done on it and pretty sure they just wasted £1,808.

I can email from Outlook and have meeting on Teams but that’s about all I can do.

Update:

I found someone in IT who thought the above situation wasn’t good. He transitioned me to OneDrive which somehow meant that I can now create and edit Word documents (probably Excel and PowerPoint too but I haven’t tried). I still can’t access the corporate file system but apparently that system will soon by read only and we will transferred to SharePoint.

Next stage is to try to persuade the Head of Cyber Security to let me use Notes, Things 3 and iA Writer.

 

[luzsa2004]

Update:

I found someone in IT who thought the above situation wasn’t good. He transitioned me to OneDrive which somehow meant that I can now create and edit Word documents (probably Excel and PowerPoint too but I haven’t tried). I still can’t access the corporate file system but apparently that system will soon by read only and we will transferred to SharePoint.

Next stage is to try to persuade the Head of Cyber Security to let me use Notes, Things 3 and iA Writer.

OneDrive (OD) offers an excellent alternative to saving local. It’s quick, easy to use and leveraging the iPad Files with the OD app is seamless.

 

[KPOM]

OneDrive (OD) offers an excellent alternative to saving local. It’s quick, easy to use and leveraging the iPad Files with the OD app is seamless.

My employer recently implemented OneDrive for Business and it has made my iPad significantly more useful since I can edit documents on my iPad and it syncs with my PC. Plus most of our internal reporting is internet or cloud-based. I can do about 90% of my daily tasks on an iPad now. Plus an 11” iPad is much easier to use while traveling on a plane or an Uber/cab to/from the airport.

An iPad won’t totally replace my laptop but it’s getting really close.

 

[KPOM]

Update:

I found someone in IT who thought the above situation wasn’t good. He transitioned me to OneDrive which somehow meant that I can now create and edit Word documents (probably Excel and PowerPoint too but I haven’t tried). I still can’t access the corporate file system but apparently that system will soon by read only and we will transferred to SharePoint.

Next stage is to try to persuade the Head of Cyber Security to let me use Notes, Things 3 and iA Writer.

Most employers with IT controls won’t allow the consumer versions of OneDrive or Office 365 for security reasons. But Microsoft also sells OneDrive for Business, which is more secure and is able to create “sandboxes” keeping corporate data and apps segregated from personal data and apps that are on your mobile devices.

 

[sananda]

OneDrive (OD) offers an excellent alternative to saving local. It’s quick, easy to use and leveraging the iPad Files with the OD app is seamless.

OneDrive looks like it should work pretty well for me too (especially once my team’s files are copied into SharePoint and so accessible from OneDrive I hope). No Files app on my work iPad but I still see bits of it in the process to save Word documents.

My employer recently implemented OneDrive for Business and it has made my iPad significantly more useful since I can edit documents on my iPad and it syncs with my PC. Plus most of our internal reporting is internet or cloud-based. I can do about 90% of my daily tasks on an iPad now. Plus an 11” iPad is much easier to use while traveling on a plane or an Uber/cab to/from the airport.

An iPad won’t totally replace my laptop but it’s getting really close.

I think I could do 100% of my tasks on my work iPad if they would let me use Notes, Things 3 and iA Writer.

Most employers with IT controls won’t allow the consumer versions of OneDrive or Office 365 for security reasons. But Microsoft also sells OneDrive for Business, which is more secure and is able to create “sandboxes” keeping corporate data and apps segregated from personal data and apps that are on your mobile devices.

I think its OneDrive for Business that I have.

 

[DeepSix]

I wish there was detachable bluetooth keyboards available that came with a stand that allows you to keep your current TPU case on it.

 

[luzsa2004]

My employer recently implemented OneDrive for Business and it has made my iPad significantly more useful since I can edit documents on my iPad and it syncs with my PC. Plus most of our internal reporting is internet or cloud-based. I can do about 90% of my daily tasks on an iPad now. Plus an 11” iPad is much easier to use while traveling on a plane or an Uber/cab to/from the airport.

An iPad won’t totally replace my laptop but it’s getting really close.

Agree, extremely near to absolutely removing the practical need for a laptop, especially on travel.

 

[KPOM]

OneDrive looks like it should work pretty well for me too (especially once my team’s files are copied into SharePoint and so accessible from OneDrive I hope). No Files app on my work iPad but I still see bits of it in the process to save Word documents.


I think I could do 100% of my tasks on my work iPad if they would let me use Notes, Things 3 and iA Writer.


I think its OneDrive for Business that I have.

Do you have access to OneNote? It’s part of the Microsoft 365 enterprise package. While it’s less intuitive than Notes, it’s workable enough for me.

 

[sananda]

Do you have access to OneNote? It’s part of the Microsoft 365 enterprise package. While it’s less intuitive than Notes, it’s workable enough for me.

I don’t have OneNote on the work iPad. I used Outlook 2016 for a while on my Work laptop and didn’t particularly like it. I picked up a new work laptop last week and your post prompted me to try Outlook to see if the newer version is better for me. Unfortunately it seems none of my notes are on my new laptop.

Update: I found my previous notes.

 

[KPOM]

I know a lot of the discussion here is around whether or not to use an iPad Pro or maybe a late model Air as a laptop replacement.... but depending on the use case, are there any out there who are using a "regular" iPad as a laptop replacement- such as a 9th or even 10th gen?

I mentioned above buying an Air 5th gen, but I also just picked up a 10th gen iPad because it was on sale at Costco for $389 (and I got another $20 or so off with reward points)- and having not opened either yet, I will be returning one of them once a decision is made.

My usage would not be very heavy- documents, online banking, maybe a couple of light spreadsheets on Google Drive, social media, web browsing, and photo editing using Affinity Photo or Pixelmator. Not heavy batch editing, but just one photo at a time editing....

One consideration is that the Air has proper Stage Manager support, so if you have an external display, you can get extra functionality vs. the 10th gen iPad.

 

[washablemarkers]

I have a 2019 MacBook Air that is probably my least-favorite Apple product I've ever had - the keyboard is not great, (to be fair, I knew what I was getting into when I bought it), the camera is lousy, the fans kick in noisily all the time, and the battery life is mediocre at best. In the past few years I've thought a lot about what I actually use a computer for, and it's mostly just daily Internet browsing and backing up 20+ years of files / music / photos, etc. I don't need a laptop for any of my day-to-day, aside from the backups. I've been thinking about switching back to a desktop, either a Mac Mini or an iMac, but the MacBook Air is running fine, at least fine enough to get the job done. I've also been spending a lot more time watching video and looking at apps on my iPhone, and wanting to have a larger screen for that plus all of the above, I took the plunge today on a used iPad Air 5 that I picked up for a song from Amazon. (If the quality is poor I'll just return it, fingers crossed!) Years ago I had an iPad 2 gifted to me that I loved, and used pretty consistently for about four years - it was a really great little device so I'm looking forward to having one again!

 

[Beefbowl]

I am having to migrate almost all of my online accounts to a new email address thanks to the Rackspace nonsense that’s been going on for the last month, and I figured this would be a good time to see how Stage Manager could handle having browser / email / preferences / Apple Notes / Numbers / Pages all on an external display. I’m rapidly turning into quite a fan. It’s not the same sort of free positioning and resizing that I’m used to from the Mac but having one app center screen with the other five off to the side for when I need them is maybe even better for this sort of task.

Though it’s been a little easy to go OK, updated Disney password, let’s log into the Disney+ app to ensure that it worked, ooh let’s see if this can go full screen on the external display, you know, just to test… (one episode of Tales of the Jedi later, I get to the next account that needs updating)

Stage manager almost justifies a new thread called “iPad as a desktop replacement” 😄

 

[KPOM]

I am having to migrate almost all of my online accounts to a new email address thanks to the Rackspace nonsense that’s been going on for the last month, and I figured this would be a good time to see how Stage Manager could handle having browser / email / preferences / Apple Notes / Numbers / Pages all on an external display. I’m rapidly turning into quite a fan. It’s not the same sort of free positioning and resizing that I’m used to from the Mac but having one app center screen with the other five off to the side for when I need them is maybe even better for this sort of task.

Though it’s been a little easy to go OK, updated Disney password, let’s log into the Disney+ app to ensure that it worked, ooh let’s see if this can go full screen on the external display, you know, just to test… (one episode of Tales of the Jedi later, I get to the next account that needs updating)

Stage manager almost justifies a new thread called “iPad as a desktop replacement” 😄

Stage manager is a great feature. It takes some getting used to, and will undoubtedly be refined in future versions, but it is a great addition to iPadOS.

 

[tkmyzw]

I and my wife used only iPad(mine is Pro 11" and hers is mini) for two years after retirement, but finally gave up and bought a Mac.
The reasons are:

1. 11" is slightly small when we see large space documents or drawings(we started room renovation project)
2. She likes mini but sometimes I had to pass my 11" which is my always carry device
3. There are minor annoying bugs related to Magic Keyboard, Split View and Numbers app
4. Some web services don't have suitable UI for iPad but apps only have limited feature

Despite we won't use the Mac quite so often, we hope the Mac increases our productivity.