This is why I switched to an MX Keys and MX Master 3S keyboard and mouse - support for 3 different devices. I have one channel mapped to my company MBP, one to my Mac Studio and one to my iPad Pro.
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iPad as a laptop replacement
- Thread starter Omar Comin' Yo
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That would be really nice, but I am pretty skeptical. iPadOS is still way too limiting for certain tasks for some of my use cases. I can do general email/browsing and photo/video editing now with not many limitations (aside from the previously mentioned annoying mobile web sites).
Multiple audio streams and better multitasking are pretty high on my list of things needed for me to get closer to using it as a computer replacement.
I own both of those, actually! Big fan of Logitech going quite literally back to their C7 serial port mouse from 1985. I don’t use the MX Keys with my Mac anymore, because it doesn’t have TouchID, but I do use the MX Master mouse.
I’d still like the ability to manage Apple input devices from the iPad! Like, we got the ability to format drives from the iPad and that was a nice step towards “real computer” status.
I mean, alternately Apple could put a sync button on their devices. But I don’t think we’re getting that.
You could always modify the Apple keyboard and use the TouchID standalone... if I had a desktop Mac, that's what I would have done.
My Touch ID button is fully deconstructed
I wanted to do a quick follow-up on my recent post about attaching an Apple Magic Keyboard with Touch to the underside of my desk, because I’ve now done what I threatened to do at the end of …
sixcolors.com
That is pretty clever.You could always modify the Apple keyboard and use the TouchID standalone... if I had a desktop Mac, that's what I would have done.
My Touch ID button is fully deconstructed
I wanted to do a quick follow-up on my recent post about attaching an Apple Magic Keyboard with Touch to the underside of my desk, because I’ve now done what I threatened to do at the end of …
Funny you say that about Touch ID. I have toyed several times with switching to the Apple keyboard just to get it but your exact issue of the difficulty of using it with multiple devices has stopped me.I own both of those, actually! Big fan of Logitech going quite literally back to their C7 serial port mouse from 1985. I don’t use the MX Keys with my Mac anymore, because it doesn’t have TouchID, but I do use the MX Master mouse.
I’d still like the ability to manage Apple input devices from the iPad! Like, we got the ability to format drives from the iPad and that was a nice step towards “real computer” status.
I mean, alternately Apple could put a sync button on their devices. But I don’t think we’re getting that.
Just a layer that apple could apply and that would need a mouse and keyboard to launch the app. If you look at what they did with Rosetta… they should be able to do the same with iPad.
I own Ipads since the very first hit the market and switched every 2 or 3 years to a new one.
But typing on the touchscreen of my 11“ m1 iPad is still pain in….
bought a second hand Logitech Bluetooth keyboard (Slim folio, smart folio) and now I am absolutely happy.
It is like typing on a really good keyboard.
highly recommend that.
I regret only that I did not purchase one many years ago.
Logitech has a lot of different solutions - I got a combination of case for iPad plus keyboard (exists as bluetooth-type with USB-C cooector for loading its battery and as connectable directly via smartconnector, with or without touchpad). The keyboard then is at the same time a foldable protection for the screen and adds about 150 g weight.
There are as well very, very lightweight Keyboards for IOS apple products (Keyboard that are good and ergonomic, that weight nearly nothing and are extremely thin. Nice to have if you type using your iPhone or iPad and you can take it always with you. the keyboard is even including backlight out/soft/high light.
I bought also one of this mince little keyboard and have it always in my car in case of… these are as well chargeable via USB-c connector and one charge is enough for at least a month or three…
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But typing on the touchscreen of my 11“ m1 iPad is still pain in….
bought a second hand Logitech Bluetooth keyboard (Slim folio, smart folio) and now I am absolutely happy.
It is like typing on a really good keyboard.
highly recommend that.
I regret only that I did not purchase one many years ago.
Logitech has a lot of different solutions - I got a combination of case for iPad plus keyboard (exists as bluetooth-type with USB-C cooector for loading its battery and as connectable directly via smartconnector, with or without touchpad). The keyboard then is at the same time a foldable protection for the screen and adds about 150 g weight.
There are as well very, very lightweight Keyboards for IOS apple products (Keyboard that are good and ergonomic, that weight nearly nothing and are extremely thin. Nice to have if you type using your iPhone or iPad and you can take it always with you. the keyboard is even including backlight out/soft/high light.
I bought also one of this mince little keyboard and have it always in my car in case of… these are as well chargeable via USB-c connector and one charge is enough for at least a month or three…
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Having just travelled with a Macbook Pro and an iPad Pro I am wondering if I could just switch to a 13" iPad Air with magic keyboard?
From what I can see most of my tasks would work? Anything I’ve got wrong in the below list?
From what I can see most of my tasks would work? Anything I’ve got wrong in the below list?
- Microsoft Office Suite – mostly using Word/Excel – I think these work well on iPad now, any gotchas?
- Access to long term saved files on OneDrive.
- Microsoft Remote desktop – works fine in iPad
- Download GPX files from Strava and upload to an app on iPhone/Watch. I think the Files app would allow me to do this – need to trial it
- Video conversion – I use handbrake occasionally to downscale a video from 4k to 1080p to watch when travelling. Is anything like this possible on an iPad
- I occasionally run a Windows VM using VMware fusion – guess this isn’t possible on an iPad but I can probably live without this
- I have Final Cut Pro that I paid for, I don’t use it much, assume I’d need to re-buy for iPad or is there a way to “trade in” the license?
- I think the only app that needs MacOS is this one? I assume the iPad wont run this? https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/ai-ecg-analysis-system/id1582117738?mt=12
I can’t speak to all of those points/questions, but I can help with some of those, and some others I may be able to try testing out for you. 👍🏻
- Microsoft Office apps. They work fine for normal document stuff for the most part. I don’t use them because they are missing a couple desktop features that I use, so I use Apple Pages and Numbers instead (which have pretty much all of the desktop features). The missing features that I’ve run into in Microsoft Word on the iPad are as follows: 1. Lack of ability to create custom document templates. This is extremely handy for being able to create forms. In pages you can export any document as a template which is added to your template options. Then you can simply create a new document from that template whenever you need it and fill in the information. With Word, there is no such option in the iPad version. You can, however, duplicate a document and then edit it to get similar functionality, it’s just some more steps involved. 2. Insert image option only has Photos. There’s no option to insert images from Files or even OneDrive in that button. You can, however, copy a photo from one of those sources in a separate window and paste it into the document. So depending on how you’re used to inserting images into your documents, that could be a difference. And the 3rd. difference I’ve run into would be precision positioning options for things like images and charts and such. There’s no position options like “Center”, Left justified, right justified, etc. You have to manually position visual objects when you don’t want an image the same width as the page, and so you have to align things by eye. It’s not the end of the world or anything, but another thing that Pages has on iPad that Word doesn’t. Other than those things, nothing’s stuck out to me as very different from the desktop version of Word. So if those don’t affect your workflow, then you’re probably okay with the iPad versions. 👍🏻
- Yes, you can save offline files in the OneDrive app on iPad. This is useful, and definitely works.
- Yep, believe works perfectly fine.
- I’ve never tried that, but sounds doable.
- Also haven’t tried video conversion, but there’s likely an app for it I would think.
- So that’s probably not going to work as well, but you could use UTM SE from the App Store (I had a VM running Windows 7 reasonably well). Depending on what version of Windows and what you’re running, there’s ways to get it running decent. It won’t perform as well as VMware fusion does. Also, there’s the option of remote VM software (UTM makes an app for accessing VMs remotely), and/or VNC software (provides remote desktop access).
- Yes, Final Cut Pro on the iPad is a separate license, it costs $50 a year, which isn’t bad at all in my opinion. You can also just subscribe for a month at like around $5 for the month if there’s a month you’re more likely to use it. Also, there’s Davinci Resolve, which is another great video editing app that has a free tier. It’s different from Final Cut Pro, but still has a lot of the same pro tools. There’s also LumaFusion which I believe is a single purchase app. But Final Cut Pro could definitely work, it would require a little added expense.
- If it doesn’t have an iPad version or a web app version, then no. But there may be apps that are good alternatives on the iPad. 👍🏻
I hope that’s helpful for you! 👍🏻
@kitenski
Just to say....
I read a lot of reviews about keyboards for iPads and I recommend just to have a look at the Logitech keyboards as well as for the "Magic Keyboard"...
Most of the reviewers came to the final result, that the Logitech is at least on par with the MagicKeyboard, not only a few prefered even the Logitech ones.
As a plus the Logitech keyboards are at the same time even a lot less expensive... so have a look at both and try to test them. The touchpad of Logitech is told to be as good as apple´s "Magic" one ....
Just to say....
I read a lot of reviews about keyboards for iPads and I recommend just to have a look at the Logitech keyboards as well as for the "Magic Keyboard"...
Most of the reviewers came to the final result, that the Logitech is at least on par with the MagicKeyboard, not only a few prefered even the Logitech ones.
As a plus the Logitech keyboards are at the same time even a lot less expensive... so have a look at both and try to test them. The touchpad of Logitech is told to be as good as apple´s "Magic" one ....
Yeah, I’ve heard good reviews about the Logitech keyboard case for the iPads. I decided to go with the Magic Keyboard because I think it has several advantages:
- Better balance in the lap and smaller footprint than kickstand cases.
- An additional charging port which frees up the iPad’s USB-C port for other use.
- Magic Keyboard feel for those who prefer to type on Apple’s keyboards.
- Aluminum deck on new Magic Keyboard Case.
Again, I’ve heard the Logitech keyboard cases are great, but I think these would be some of the biggest advantages of the Magic Keyboard case, and are some of the primary reasons I chose to go with it over the alternatives like the Logitech. 👍🏻
Ok,
of course everyone has his own preferences. For you, evidently, the Magic keyboard fits better to your needs.
As for me, I need just a good and precise keyboard with a good key haptic.
And my M1 iPadPro 2TB has battery life for more than a whole day of my daily work and privat use.
So - even a transfer of a lot of photos or data transfer of other type is not a problem. The wonderful low energy consumption of the M-processors don´t make even "on the road" pressure on me to charge at the same time that I need the Port for other actions. At least, there is also WiFi and Cellphone-Net to help out.
But that might not be so for other users, that´s clear.
At home, I have two Thunderbolt docks, one from OWC and one from ORICO.
They both are very helpful and have a lot of diffenet ports.
So - while plugging in my iPadPro I get all at the same time: Charging and contact with everything I need (like externeal SSD, etc.) with just one single cable.... nice.
My recommendation was more about the Logitech-keyboard as a very comfortable and easy to use keyboard.
If it is all or mostly about just that - the Logitech is worth at least a test and perhaps will be the choice - as for me.
Cheers
The Logi is a nice keyboard - I've owned them for two different iPads. But I've switched to the MKB as I like the smaller footprint and having the iPad slightly raised and closer to me plus the addition of the charging port. Adding the function keys was also a big plus, bringing that aspect into line with the Logi. The big drawback of the MKB of course is its steep price.
well...
I purchased a Logitech "Slim folio" second hand and as new for just 25 EUR (= about 22 USD) ... That is unbeatable....
And this Logitech KB has as well function keys, like most of the newer ones.
Had the ZUGU case before, very stable and you can adjust it at nearly ANY angle you want. Loved it to use the ZUGU.
After I purchased the Logitech one I thought about cutting the case of the Slim folio and synthesize both by glueing it especially the stand-part of the ZUGU with the Slim-Folio to have best of both worlds....
But I hesitated because the Zugu was not too cheap (but nevertheless worth the price of it). And I must say: BOTH are extremely stable at their possible angles.
After some days, I adapted myself to the Logitech.
Only weak point at the beginning ist that the Logitech slim folio´s case is not as precise easy to use for the three buttons +/- and on/off.
The corners of the case are more thick and protective (at least I think so) but that means less precise.
After some days I adapted myself and now there is no problem ... except when taking some screen-shots. you have to press more precise than with the fantastic ZUGU.
After all, I can live with that, because the Logitech slim folio is damn good for typing and the functional keys are as precise as the other keys of it.
BTW: I don´t miss the additional touch pad because the footprint of the slim folio is just as big as the screen of my 11" iPadPro. The screen is just behind the keyboard and so there is no problem to touch on the touch-screen as fast and precise as it would be with an additional touchpad integrated in the keyboard itself. And at least for me, it is more comfortable to type on an additional keyboard without a touchpad if the 11" touchscreen is just behind the keyboard - no problem at all, even better than the other way round (for me).
So very nice and extremely helpful solution for just 25 EUR/22 USD second hand...😊
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Agree on the Zugu - I've had 5 and have one for both my 13" Pro and Mini 6. I'll use the Zugu when I don't need the keyboard but want the protection. Really well made.
Oh, I’m definitely not saying that the Logitech keyboard cases are inferior or anything, I think they’re great. They can be a better option for many people than the Magic Keyboard Case. I was just highlighting what I see to be a couple of the pros in favor of the MKB. But I definitely think the Logitech is a great option, sorry if it came across like I was saying it wasn’t. I agree that people should definitely consider both. 👍🏻