iPad as a laptop replacement

[cybersecPat]

I made a video on my thoughts on the iPad Pro as a laptop replacement. Full disclosure: I have full permission to light up anyone who disagrees with me in the youtube comments. These streets are full of pimps and hustlers. But also wimps and busters.

 

[bondr006]

I made a video on my thoughts on the iPad Pro as a laptop replacement. Full disclosure: I have full permission to light up anyone who disagrees with me in the youtube comments. These streets are full of pimps and hustlers. But also wimps and busters.

I replaced my laptop (2019 16" i9 MBP) with my M1 iPad Pro 11 back in Nov 2021 for a mobile solution to run my real estate business and have never looked back. Love my iPP, and will be upgrading to a new 12.9" M4? iPP soon for the extra screen real estate(no pun intended). For me, the iPP is Apples most flexible device....yes, even more flexible than a MBP, and makes my work enjoyable. I could replace my MBP with my tablet computer, but there is no way a MBP could replace my iPP for the work I do. There are things a laptop just cannot do....like turn to portrait orientation, take photos, scan documents, sketching property and house dimensions, filling contracts, pdf's, and documents, marking up pdf's, etc.I also have the Apple Pencil and Logitech Combo Touch.....which I like a lot better than the iPad Pro Magic Keyboard.

 

[Digitalguy]

Well, go write and compile a program for your iPad on your remote machine and then run and use it on your iPad. That’s jumping through quite some hoops, and probably nothing you want to do regularly.
Interested in machine learning? Exploring the world of Python comes directly to mind - well, if only you could compile various nice things locally…
Data visualisation out side the simple things e.g. Numbers, Excel or Collabora are allowing - well, you’re in for a world of limits in which some incredible nice partial solutions exist…
for further examples, please start reading for example here.

There are plenty of occasions where of course it matters whether you run something remote vs. local. I mean, interested in 3D? Blender comes to mind, right? Run it remotely… and then try using Blender shortcuts… “we guys” wait.

As you so eloquently put it: “many” things can be “used”... but there are many scenarios in which you can’t… or just partially… or due to non-hardware limitations it takes unnecessary long time … or…

Enjoy that the things you want to do work perfectly using your iPad for you. Assuming that your proposed solution is a panacea for whatever and suggesting that otherwise it’s a user problem… well, that’s seems, to quote A.Boleyn, “Just a little off the top!"

Good points. I'll add some of mine. I use remote desktop at home all the time, and not just from iPad, from all sorts of devices (Windows PCs, Macs, Android tablets). Bug fan of it. But relying on the internet doesn't always work or work well.
And I say this as someone who has invested a lot in cellular. Almost all my iPads are cellular. Many of my Windows laptops and tablets are too, and so are some of my Android tablets.
And I have 3 unlimited data SIM cards, in addition to my phone SIM.
Still, internet is not always an option. Sometimes in some places it's too poor.
At my girlfriend house (she has no internet at home other that her phone) cellular is very poor with my data carrier because of thick walls (her carrier works better). Basically I should work glued to the Window with remote desktop, while with a laptop I can just work and then go put it close to the Window when I need Internet.
In other places internet doesn't even work at all. It's a minority of places, granted, but if the point is just keep a desktop at home and and iPad on the go, it's not (always) possible.

 

[Zest28]

Well, go write and compile a program for your iPad on your remote machine and then run and use it on your iPad. That’s jumping through quite some hoops, and probably nothing you want to do regularly.
Interested in machine learning? Exploring the world of Python comes directly to mind - well, if only you could compile various nice things locally…
Data visualisation out side the simple things e.g. Numbers, Excel or Collabora are allowing - well, you’re in for a world of limits in which some incredible nice partial solutions exist…
for further examples, please start reading for example here.

There are plenty of occasions where of course it matters whether you run something remote vs. local. I mean, interested in 3D? Blender comes to mind, right? Run it remotely… and then try using Blender shortcuts… “we guys” wait.

As you so eloquently put it: “many” things can be “used”... but there are many scenarios in which you can’t… or just partially… or due to non-hardware limitations it takes unnecessary long time … or…

Enjoy that the things you want to do work perfectly using your iPad for you. Assuming that your proposed solution is a panacea for whatever and suggesting that otherwise it’s a user problem… well, that’s seems, to quote A.Boleyn, “Just a little off the top!"

You can build and deploy apps from a remote machine no problem. This is not jumping through hoops, this is even superior. Because now you don't have to manage 2 separate environments both on your desktop at home and on your laptop for when you are outdoors, potentially causing all kinds of potential conflicts and also duplicating all the data both on your desktop at home and on your laptop for outdoors.

Data visualisation? Again, you can run the real Windows version of Microsoft Office (superior to the Mac version) on a remote machine .... and since you brought up Python, Python is way superior for this and you can do this in the cloud from the iPad (which can be shared across your iPhone and your desktop computer at home).

Btw, everytime I walk by Starbucks and out of curiosity I look at what people are "working" on, pretty much everybody is doing very basic Word, Excel or using some web application that you can even do locally on the iPad version of Microsoft office. You'd be surprised what very basic things people do on their laptops outside of the house.

 

[TPadden]

Btw, everytime I walk by Starbucks and out of curiosity I look at what people are "working" on,... You'd be surprised what very basic things people do on their laptops outside of the house.

I'm surprised that anyone still does anything at Starbucks...

Tom

 

[Melbourne Park]

Much easier (and cheaper) to buy a Windows tablet or a 2 in 1

Which was why I bought the HP Elitebook x360 1030 G2. It's got a touch screen and is convertible ie you fold it over and use the screen as a pad. But it's too heavy and thick. Maybe too big ... she tried it couple of times but said the iPad kills it.

Someone else said the smart thing to do is get a non Apple Pad. I presume that could have nice keyboard and run a native windows ... or at least operate a full version of Word and Outlook. My wife found on her iPad Pro 10.5" - as did I - that Word didn't work well at all. My wife does a lot of tables. But it crawled, staggered, etc etc.

 

[Melbourne Park]

You can build and deploy apps from a remote machine no problem. This is not jumping through hoops, this is even superior. Because now you don't have to manage 2 separate environments both on your desktop at home and on your laptop for when you are outdoors, potentially causing all kinds of potential conflicts and also duplicating all the data both on your desktop at home and on your laptop for outdoors.
...

So while you buy an iPad with its low power capability, you have to add cellular, and a data plan, plus a computer turned on and running away which cost money and burns through power.

All Apple had to do was allow a virtual Windows app to work and then you'd save all that remote waste of money.

IMO of course!! Not everyone wants to run a Windows computer in order to have a good Office implementation that matches the one they used at work places while operating on PCs.

 

[Melbourne Park]

I'm surprised that anyone still does anything at Starbucks...

Tom

Fredrick Forsythe said in one of his books that it was the best coffee in the world.

I have often wondered how much they paid him for that. A bit like James Bond drinking various brands of whisky I guess ...

 

[chmania]

Which was why I bought the HP Elitebook x360 1030 G2. It's got a touch screen and is convertible ie you fold it over and use the screen as a pad. But it's too heavy and thick. Maybe too big ...

There are many detachable Windows laptops around, Surface Pro, Lenovo Duet, Asus VivoBook, Lenovo Yoga etc. I suppose Dell makes some too.

 

[Melbourne Park]

There are many detachable Windows laptops around, Surface Pro, Lenovo Duet, Asus VivoBook, Lenovo Yoga etc. I suppose Dell makes some too.

Yep. But they weigh over 1 kg. An 11" iPad is under 500 grams. And thinner too. Just a shame that they cannot feel like Windoze computer for doing Word and Outlook as well as a below average and cheap Windoze unit can.

 

[bcortens]

Yep. But they weigh over 1 kg. An 11" iPad is under 500 grams. And thinner too. Just a shame that they cannot feel like Windoze computer for doing Word and Outlook as well as a below average and cheap Windoze unit can.

An 11" iPad doesn't come with a keyboard, if you want windows you're going to need that Magic Keyboard too which puts the weight over 1kg anyway.

 

[chmania]

Yep. But they weigh over 1 kg. An 11" iPad is under 500 grams. And thinner too. Just a shame that they cannot feel like Windoze computer for doing Word and Outlook as well as a below average and cheap Windoze unit can.

Sure, but iPad cannot run Windows (or Linux).

 

[MrGunny94]

Yet another year I’m skipping. So much power with M4 and we still cant work properly as a coder/engineer.

- No proper Terminal
- No full file share support
- No way of installing apps outside the App Store
- No proper way to code and sync Githuhb repos
- No Virtualization layer
- No Rosetta

I won’t even start on the Stage Manager, as it’s a disaster by itself

Multi tasking is still a joke 4 iterations in

 

[cflem]

Yet another year I’m skipping. So much power with M4 and we still cant work properly as a coder/engineer.

- No proper Terminal
- No full file share support
- No way of installing apps outside the App Store
- No proper way to code and sync Githuhb repos
- No Virtualization layer
- No Rosetta

I won’t even start on the Stage Manager, as it’s a disaster by itself

Multi tasking is still a joke 4 iterations in

We dont know what the future holds for iPadOS... thats why im waiting for this summer before I upgrade... The hardware was never the issue... iPad OS is a mess.

 

[bcortens]

Yet another year I’m skipping. So much power with M4 and we still cant work properly as a coder/engineer.

- No proper Terminal

This doesn’t hold back very many use cases, but I do wish Apple would allow a fully encapsulated terminal like environment in which you can install any packages you want (including tensorflow for example). Pythonista gets close but isn’t allowed to use anything that isn’t pure python.

- No full file share support

I have outlined endlessly how iCloud Drive sync breaks things but I don’t think file sharing (like SMB drives) is really holding anyone back. This is a niche of a niche.

- No way of installing apps outside the App Store

Yeah this is a fair critique

- No proper way to code and sync Githuhb repos

Working copy exists and has existed for quite a while and lets you sync GitHub repos easily - I’ve used it for several projects.

- No Virtualization layer
- No Rosetta

Meh
These aren’t things that really matter to iPad, virtualization is niche on mac and would be even more niche on iPad.
iPad Apps have always been native, why would you want Rosetta?

I won’t even start on the Stage Manager, as it’s a disaster by itself

Multi tasking is still a joke 4 iterations in

Stage Manager is bad but it isn’t why multitasking has issues on iPad OS
Everyone gets distracted by windowing and equating that with multitasking but it isn’t multitasking.

The real major problems with multitasking on iPad OS are really just these:

1. Apps are backgrounded and suspended too quickly - they should have a 2-5 minute window during which they can keep running in case you are just switching away briefly
2. Apps that need to do long running background tasks have no way to do so. It should be easy for an app to request permission to run some long render or export in the background.

 

[prospervic]

Yet another year I’m skipping. So much power with M4 and we still cant work properly as a coder/engineer.

- No proper Terminal
- No full file share support
- No way of installing apps outside the App Store
- No proper way to code and sync Githuhb repos
- No Virtualization layer
- No Rosetta

I won’t even start on the Stage Manager, as it’s a disaster by itself

Multi tasking is still a joke 4 iterations in

Umm, did you notice that Apple emphasized CREATIVE WORK in this announcement? Did you watch the original 2015 iPad Pro announcement that emphasized the VERY SAME THINGS?
So many people here are trying to shoehorn iPad into Mac/PC kind of work, and then trash it because it doesn’t perform well in that mode!
The name of this forum should be changed to “IPAD AS A KINDA, SORTA, UH, JUST MAYBE LAPTOP REPLACEMENT (IF YOU SQUINT WHILE LOOKING AT IT).”

 

[Ludatyk]

Stage Manager is bad but it isn’t why multitasking has issues on iPad OS
Everyone gets distracted by windowing and equating that with multitasking but it isn’t multitasking.

The real major problems with multitasking on iPad OS are really just these:

1. Apps are backgrounded and suspended too quickly - they should have a 2-5 minute window during which they can keep running in case you are just switching away briefly
2. Apps that need to do long running background tasks have no way to do so. It should be easy for an app to request permission to run some long render or export in the background.

I think you are downplaying the purpose of Stage Manager. Because it adds the ability to have multiple apps actively on screen.

That helps with the two reasons you listed... especially if you are running M1 iPads equipped with 8GBs of memory as well as virtual memory swap capabilities. Because I've never had those issues you listed with my current iPad.

 

[bcortens]

I think you are downplaying the purpose of Stage Manager. Because it adds the ability to have multiple apps actively on screen.

That helps with the two reasons you listed... especially if you are running M1 iPads equipped with 8GBs of memory as well as virtual memory swap capabilities. Because I've never had those issues you listed with my current iPad.

The fact that the windows have to be on screen is a bug not a feature.

I know you love Stage Manager, but it is such a narrow and restrictive solution that in many cases it just isn’t a solution at all.

Edit: Just tried this with League of Legends Wild rift in stage manager mode and it still freezes when I bring up control centre. So no, Stage manager does not solve the background app pause problem.

Edit 2: Trying to have an app fullscreen with another app in the same stage doesn’t work either. Again I know you love it, but Stage Manager has problems too.

 

[Ludatyk]

The fact that the windows have to be on screen is a bug not a feature.

I know you love Stage Manager, but it is such a narrow and restrictive solution that in many cases it just isn’t a solution at all.

Edit: Just tried this with League of Legends Wild rift in stage manager mode and it still freezes when I bring up control centre. So no, Stage manager does not solve the background app pause problem.

Edit 2: Trying to have an app fullscreen with another app in the same stage doesn’t work either. Again I know you love it, but Stage Manager has problems too.

But you didn't even acknowledge what I said at the end... you have a 2018 iPad Pro., you don't think that plays apart in background processes getting suspended?

 

[bondr006]

The name of this forum should be changed to “IPAD AS A KINDA, SORTA, UH, JUST MAYBE LAPTOP REPLACEMENT (IF YOU SQUINT WHILE LOOKING AT IT).”

Excuse me, but that's how I use mine...

 

[bcortens]

But you didn't even acknowledge what I said at the end... you have a 2018 iPad Pro., you don't think that plays apart in background processes getting suspended?

Unlikely, considering that if I have two apps open in stage manager and dont try and use one fullscreen then I have no problem with both staying live. Both apps will be paused if the control centre comes down over top. This is more of a design problem with the way Apple auto-backgrounds things than it is a 2018.

Responding to the last thing you said: those two problems are still not solved, even if we take for granted the idea that the apps in the same stage wont pause, it still limits you to a single stage, it still requires that any long running processes be in the stage you’re working in. Suppose you need to do a long export or render, now you have to leave that app running in your stage, you can’t switch stages, and you can’t close your iPad.

 

[chmania]

I think you are downplaying the purpose of Stage Manager. Because it adds the ability to have multiple apps actively on screen.

Well, if you've experienced Samsung DeX, the classic one, and the new one, you'd know that Apple's Stage Manager is half way product, playing catchup... The Classic DeX came a long time ago...

 

[Ludatyk]

Unlikely, considering that if I have two apps open in stage manager and dont try and use one fullscreen then I have no problem with both staying live. Both apps will be paused if the control centre comes down over top. This is more of a design problem with the way Apple auto-backgrounds things than it is a 2018.

Seriously? More RAM helps with background process.

Suppose you need to do a long export or render, now you have to leave that app running in your stage, you can’t switch stages, and you can’t close your iPad.

I just tried exporting/rendering a video from LumaFusion while browsing Safari on a different stage... it exported in the background successfully.

Well, if you've experienced Samsung DeX, the classic one, and the new one, you'd know that Apple's Stage Manager is half way product, playing catchup... The Classic DeX came a long time ago...

You are entitled to your opinion. But I have a Galaxy Fold... with DeX capabilities and I prefer Stage Manager over it when using an external monitor.

And no doubt about it, DeX is a dope feature... being able to plug my phone into a monitor/TV and get a whole different experience is game changing.

 

[bcortens]

Seriously? More RAM helps with background process.

I wasn’t saying that more RAM wouldn’t help keep things in memory, but in memory isn’t the same as actively running. I’ll be getting a new iPad soon (I have yet to decide which one) but I’ll run some tests by building some Apps from Xcode and see how they respond to different states, I strongly suspect that the app backgrounding will still happen when I open up control centre and that Apps will be paused if they get pushed out to another stage.

Here I mean UI pausing not background task pausing, the app’s UI can be paused while long running background tasks are schedule and there are APIs to handle that.

I just tried exporting/rendering a video from LumaFusion while browsing Safari on a different stage... it exported in the background successfully.

I’ll defer to you on this, I actually suspect that background tasks (not UI tasks like I am referring to with League of Legends) can run for quite a long time when the app isn’t part of the active stage.

I am actually not sure exactly how long a background task can run before the OS gets picky about it, something to try later when I have a chance - I’ll see if I can simulate a long running task And see how easy it is to keep alive.

I also wonder if many of the complaints with respect to background processing are app related rather than OS related, but I’ll figure that out once I simulate a long running task. Based on my initial reading of the docs I suspect any App should be able to setup a long running task and keep itself alive to do work in the background.

You are entitled to your opinion. But I have a Galaxy Fold... with DeX capabilities and I prefer Stage Manager over it when using an external monitor
And no doubt about it, DeX is a dope feature... being able to plug my phone into a monitor/TV and get a whole different experience is game changing.

I think iOS/iPad OS could kind of do this. Plug your iPhone into an external monitor + keyboard and trackpad and get the iPad Stage Manager UI. I think that would be pretty cool and would further demonstrate just how Amazingly flexible iPadOS/iOS is.

 

[chmania]

But I have a Galaxy Fold... with DeX capabilities and I prefer Stage Manager over it when using an external monitor.

And no doubt about it, DeX is a dope feature... being able to plug my phone into a monitor/TV and get a whole different experience is game changing.

I wasn't talking about the device connected to an external monitor, but the device itself working in desktop working environment. Apple's Stage Manager can't do that, even on a MacBook.