iPad as a laptop replacement

[LovingTeddy]

1. Ravpower file hub to an external Hdd as big as you want.

2. SanDisk iDisk. Lightning / usb flash drive.

There’s ways.

hum...

Let us see:

You bring your iPad outside for the portability. Then you went to carry an file hub and external hdd. Work as intended.
2. I got by 128GB SanDisk USB drive for 30 bucks at Costco. Same storage option, lightning based USB cost more than 120 dollars.

In the conclusion: There is no easy way or cheap way to transfer file between external devices and iPad without using iTunes or third party software/hardware. Where i can just plug in USB devices to my laptop or Windows tablet and transfer files between without much issue.

Maybe there are rich Apple users that just can buy all the dongles and adopters, but I am not willing to shell out tons of money for things just work with iOS devices.

 

[eVolcre]

hum...

Let us see:

You bring your iPad outside for the portability. Then you went to carry an file hub and external hdd. Work as intended.
2. I got by 128GB SanDisk USB drive for 30 bucks at Costco. Same storage option, lightning based USB cost more than 120 dollars.

In the conclusion: There is no easy way or cheap way to transfer file between external devices and iPad without using iTunes or third party software/hardware. Where i can just plug in USB devices to my laptop or Windows tablet and transfer files between without much issue.

Maybe there are rich Apple users that just can buy all the dongles and adopters, but I am not willing to shell out tons of money for things just work with iOS devices.

Your exact words “you have to rely on iCloud or iTunes”. I offered a counterpoint with no comment on convenience or cost. Fact is, there’s ways. Don’t make blanket statements.

 

[mk313]

hum...

Let us see:

You bring your iPad outside for the portability. Then you went to carry an file hub and external hdd. Work as intended.
2. I got by 128GB SanDisk USB drive for 30 bucks at Costco. Same storage option, lightning based USB cost more than 120 dollars.

In the conclusion: There is no easy way or cheap way to transfer file between external devices and iPad without using iTunes or third party software/hardware. Where i can just plug in USB devices to my laptop or Windows tablet and transfer files between without much issue.

Maybe there are rich Apple users that just can buy all the dongles and adopters, but I am not willing to shell out tons of money for things just work with iOS devices.

No wonder you don’t like buying dongles/ adapters/ drives etc for iPads. At the prices you are listing, I wouldn’t buy them either. But just so that people who read this thread don’t get the wrong impression: The very first lightning equipped 128 gb Sandisk drive I pulled up listed for $60 on Amazon, not $120.

 

[eVolcre]

No wonder you don’t like buying dongles/ adapters/ drives etc for iPads. At the prices you are listing, I wouldn’t buy them either. But just so that people who read this thread don’t get the wrong impression: The very first lightning equipped 128 gb Sandisk drive I pulled up listed for $60 on Amazon, not $120.

@sracer pointed out that new readers and non MR members do check out the forums. So it's important to be specific and absolutely separate opinion from fact. If you think it's inconvenient to use a filehub/lightning drive so be it. Pick up a Surface Pro. Different topic. But there ARE external storage options available (take away added cost or inconvenience) and if you're willing to adjust work flow you can use the IPP as a laptop replacement. I'm going to try. Plenty of facts here, people can evaluate and decide according to their needs and budgets. I just don't like opinions or blanket statements or individua preferences passed off as fact.

BTW depending on what you're moving back and forth even 32 GB is plenty for music, photos, movies and documents. I think I saw a SanDisk 32GB drive for around 25 bucks.

 

[Momof9]

I just bought a 128gb SanDisk sd card for $35 at BB. I do have the dongle that reads SD cards somewhere LOL.
[doublepost=1535988570][/doublepost]If I use my iPad Pro heavily, is that going to wear it out faster. I know that I am a Power User on the computer. I was going to try and do the same on the IPP. I also was thinking of using 2 12.9s iPP (my old one and new one) - be like dual monitor etc

I have been a Windows and android until more recent with iOS. I have also done linux. I would wear out laptops in about 2 years, plenty of life left for kids, but too slow for PS. I bought an Asus desktop 2.5 years ago, with all the bells and whistles, but it is starting to have issues.... all the hardware is working, but...

 

[akash.nu]

Is there a roll back option? Nope. When you own an iPad, its performance and usability is permanently in Apple's control.

You own the hardware. Not the software. That’s how software licensing works.

 

[gobikerider]

Storage?

First of all, you need shell out more money for higher storage option as there is no expandable storage option.

Second of all: The way that transfers files between iPad and computer is stupid. You either rely on iTunes or cloud storage. For all that matters, upload and download files from cloud is slow and painful. I have like 60GB worth of lecture videos (as i am taking online courses), there is no easy way for me to transfer these videos to my iPad. And I refuse install iTunes on my computer. Where i am using my Android or Windows based tablet or laptop, i can just copy these video to USB or MicroSD card. Simple and easy.

Just for the file transfer alone, iPad will not replace laptop anytime. Unless Apple give us access to the file system.

Where were those lecture videos stored initially? Everything in my classes goes through Canvas and is accessible for download directly through the app or website on the device. Did you just receive a usb stick with a bunch of lecture files?

 

[sosumi99]

With iPads and most modern computing devices, you don't have nearly as much control over the machine as you did in the "old days" -- that's the price you pay for integration and convenience.

 

[sledgehammer89]

- not possible to write an ISO/IMG file to a SD-Card, eg. for my Raspberry. Raspberry Pi is a learning Computer. Can't prepare the system with an iPad.
- not possible to do local backups of all preferences and data (the stuff in ~/Library on a Mac) - iCloud don't store everything = iCloud isn't a proper Backup solution
- Example 1: my saved offline Pages in Pocket App won't be backed up. It need to be loaded again - if they still exists. I can lost important pages
- Example 2: offline Maps won't be backup to iCloud, need to remember (better not 1 minute before a trip with only mobile data) and download it again
- Example 3: even if it's a encrypted backup, some App passwords won't be backuped - need to write it down somewhere
- there are a lot more examples that won't be "backuped". The word "backup" is joke if it comes it iCloud backup. iCloud Backup isn't a real backup in this form - never ever.
- not possible to do local backups to external USB drive or network share of all my files
- long running downloads in the background are impossible. I need to be a slave of my iPad and let the App always be in the foreground or don't forget it after 10 minutes, when iOS kills the App
- not possible to have a Terminal for basic Unix commands
- not possible to attach it to an external monitor to have a bigger display with external Keyboard and Trackpad for ergonomically work
- not possible to do even basic web development, because display is too small. For web development it's also needed to check against other Browsers (Firefox, Chrome), but they all need to use Safari Render Engine in iOS.
- it's even not possible to look into the mail header if a suspicious mail arrives
- it's even not possible to export my Bookmarks from Safari and import into Chrome Browser if I decide to switch to this Browser...

This list can be filled 10x.

iPhone and iPad are really great additional devices, really like it. But they are far away as a one and only device, if the user want to go up one step from very light IT technology to light IT technology. Both devices are also ok, if a user never cares if he lost personal informations.

 

[gobikerider]

- not possible to write an ISO/IMG file to a SD-Card, eg. for my Raspberry. Raspberry Pi is a learning Computer. Can't prepare the system with an iPad.
- not possible to do local backups of all preferences and data (the stuff in ~/Library on a Mac) - iCloud don't store everything = iCloud isn't a proper Backup solution
- Example 1: my saved offline Pages in Pocket App won't be backed up. It need to be loaded again - if they still exists. I can lost important pages
- Example 2: offline Maps won't be backup to iCloud, need to remember (better not 1 minute before a trip with only mobile data) and download it again
- Example 3: even if it's a encrypted backup, some App passwords won't be backuped - need to write it down somewhere
- there are a lot more examples that won't be "backuped". The word "backup" is joke if it comes it iCloud backup. iCloud Backup isn't a real backup in this form - never ever.
- not possible to do local backups to external USB drive or network share of all my files
- long running downloads in the background are impossible. I need to be a slave of my iPad and let the App always be in the foreground or don't forget it after 10 minutes, when iOS kills the App
- not possible to have a Terminal for basic Unix commands
- not possible to attach it to an external monitor to have a bigger display with external Keyboard and Trackpad for ergonomically work
- not possible to do even basic web development, because display is too small. For web development it's also needed to check against other Browsers (Firefox, Chrome), but they all need to use Safari Render Engine in iOS.
- it's even not possible to look into the mail header if a suspicious mail arrives
- it's even not possible to export my Bookmarks from Safari and import into Chrome Browser if I decide to switch to this Browser...

This list can be filled 10x.

iPhone and iPad are really great additional devices, really like it. But they are far away as a one and only device, if the user want to go up one step from very light IT technology to light IT technology. Both devices are also ok, if a user never cares if he lost personal informations.

iCloud Backup literally images your device to restore for you...not sure how that’s not everything.

 

[Brammy]

iCloud Backup literally images your device to restore for you...not sure how that’s not everything.

it's not a complete image.

It doesn't backup items it thinks can be downloaded again, like my Kindle/iBooks books and PDFs. After I do a restore i need to go back into the app and download them again. Also, the iCloud restore forces a download of the most recent app, so if you were putting off upgrading an app for a reason, you're getting the new one anyway.

I do not know how iCloud backups work for documents saved in "On my iPad." Apple's KB on what is backed up doesn't say it does, or does not backup local files.

 

[musicpenguy]

it's not a complete image.

It doesn't backup items it thinks can be downloaded again, like my Kindle/iBooks books and PDFs. After I do a restore i need to go back into the app and download them again. Also, the iCloud restore forces a download of the most recent app, so if you were putting off upgrading an app for a reason, you're getting the new one anyway.

I do not know how iCloud backups work for documents saved in "On my iPad." Apple's KB on what is backed up doesn't say it does, or does not backup local files.

Just for clarification - the way the iCloud restore works is that some items like those in certain apps won’t pull down until you open the app to speed up the process of getting you up and running. Depending on how the app is coded this can also be the opposite where it’ll take a long time for that app to install because it is waiting for all fo that data to be downloaded first. Ferrite and LumaFusion being examples of this where it did backup everything and restore the 200GB of data I had in those apps.

I personally prefer this way of computers working and have lost less data in the iCloud world versus what I had to manage by myself with Time Machine in the past. I think for most people the current way of managing data is more safe than prior. I also am glad that the iPad doesn’t work the way the Surface Go works where I need to manage which apps should be open otherwise the system will get bogged down to the point of me having to figure out what should be running or not. It’s not perfect, audio for example needs to do a better job of staying open when browsing LinkedIn etc. But overall I’m glad to be using an iPad as my main computer over what is now an accessory device for me the Mac.

 

[gobikerider]

it's not a complete image.

It doesn't backup items it thinks can be downloaded again, like my Kindle/iBooks books and PDFs. After I do a restore i need to go back into the app and download them again. Also, the iCloud restore forces a download of the most recent app, so if you were putting off upgrading an app for a reason, you're getting the new one anyway.

I do not know how iCloud backups work for documents saved in "On my iPad." Apple's KB on what is backed up doesn't say it does, or does not backup local files.

Any files you want backed up you need to be storing in the iCloud Drive not “on my iPad”. As for having to redo load your books and pdf’s once you’ve restored its not exactly a terrible thing. I dont know many people that would want to download their entire book/pdf collection rather than recent/relevant resources. You seem to not like utilizing the cloud yet its very seamless for me. I use Office 365 and even then I save all my files to my iCloud Drive seamlessly vs using the mess that is Onedrive.

 

[Brammy]

I personally prefer this way of computers working and have lost less data in the iCloud world versus what I had to manage by myself with Time Machine in the past

As for having to redo load your books and pdf’s once you’ve restored its not exactly a terrible thing.

I agree to both of these. I was just refuting the claim that is a complete image. When I think of a complete image I think of things like a SuperDuper backup, which this is not.

 

[musicpenguy]

I agree to both of these. I was just refuting the claim that is a complete image. When I think of a complete image I think of things like a SuperDuper backup, which this is not.

Gotcha - something to note also you can restore backups that aren’t the most recent iCloud will keep older ones around as long as you have storage in your account for it. But agreed it behaves differently from SuperDuper etc.

I VERY MUCH would love the iPad to be able to do a restore of an iPhone or iPad that is misbehaving you do still need iTunes on Mac or Windows for that if your system just totally craps out for whatever reason. The platform is maturing and am not worried that these things will never come its just in a fun transition right now. To me its a fun time having all of these options. I wasn’t using the Mac during the OS 9 to X transition and know this is quite a bit different, but at the same time its fun to be here for the switch over for many to a new primary platform.

 

[UOThief]

With iPads and most modern computing devices, you don't have nearly as much control over the machine as you did in the "old days" -- that's the price you pay for integration and convenience.

I agree. And I'm okay with that.

For me, the iPad is a replacement for the features I would use on a laptop, except it's more compact and easier to use on the go. But it's not a laptop replacement. Never was and never will be in its current form. And I'm okay with that too.

Some people need additional features for what they do in their daily lives. And for those people, iPad + keyboard won't ever be enough.

(I feel like I'm stating the obvious.)

(Weird this thread is 31 pages long.)

 

[charlituna]

I wonder where they got such an idea?

“I think if you’re looking at a PC, why would you buy a PC anymore? No really, why would you buy one?” Cook told the British publication. “Yes, the iPad Pro is a replacement for a notebook or a desktop for many, many people. They will start using it and conclude they no longer need to use anything else, other than their phones.”

https://www.macworld.com/article/30...-ipad-pro-why-would-you-buy-a-pc-anymore.html

key here is "many, many people". many not all. the number of folks that need something for reading emails, surfing the web, watching netflix etc is probably way more than the number of folks that are doing hard core video editing, audio production, macros filled office documents etc. so the latter would need a computer but the former could probably do it all on their iPhones but a bigger screen like on an iPad is more comfy

 

[Momof9]

In the past week or so, i have gotten used to doing all my email on my iPad pro. I have been working on an external monitor... Using 1080 32" tv right now. We got it to pretty much match my iPP, using 3rd gen apple tv. Text is another issue, but i was looking at it more for QC for graphic design.

I have noticed some glitches more, as i use my 2015 iPP. But i am sure the newer ones will be that much faster.

Some things that are keeping me on my computer is...

1. I use 2 monitors, multiple windows of chrome with about 12 tabs open on each.

2. Same when i am doing graphic design, multiple file folders open at once

3. How to handle my 3tb hard drive and the files on it.

I am planning on getting the new iPP, I have thought of using both, like multiple monitors. I have an Asus tablet, i sort of done this. But i keep using my pc for this.

 

[scottcarmich]

the number of folks that need something for reading emails, surfing the web, watching netflix etc is probably way more than the number of folks that are doing hard core video editing, audio production, macros filled office documents etc.

Years ago, when I did heavy graphic+web design and a good deal of video editing professionally, I couldn't get away from Adobe software on a real computer. Nowadays though, since changing fields to IT support over half a decade ago, I rarely need to do anything visual, and I'm 100% fine with an iPad w/ keyboard. And, now that a pretty full-featured version of Word+Excel is on there and I have a pencil + Affinity apps, that's good enough for me. I just switched over to an iPad 2018+pencil setup & iPhone and I have no plans to return to a traditional PC at home. Plus, with me focusing on minimalism this year, I can finally get rid of all the PC junk I have and just have a few Apple devices, and nothing else. I wouldn't have been comfortable making this iPad/iOS switch years ago.

 

[Synergie]

So in the photos below you will see our setups - my husband and I each have the same setup for a workstation. He has my older 2015 IPad Pro 12.9 WiFi and I have the 2017 12.9 WiFi/Cellular.

We use Logitech’s charging stand, which allows us to still access the lightning port. We use Apple’s wireless BT Magic keyboard as it gives full desktop experience of typing. When out we can either throw the keyboard in our bag or just use on screen keyboard for small emails etc. But most typing is done at home anyway.
Cases used are the Tech21 Impact clear back with the pencil holder and We just use the smart covers. I have white and he has the charcoal one.

For file management outside the device we use a Mediashair2 Travel Router which has a USB port for external storage. Currently it has a 2TB portable hard drive attached. We have full access to and from every app thanks to an app called File Browser which allows us to access any external HDD this way (or USB stick or SD card as it also has an SD slot).

I had done desktop class video editing with this setup. An app called LumaFusion is awesome on iPad pros huge screen and the layout is exactly like desktop video editing software. I also use a high end music production app called Auria and I use the full Adobe suite as I have a subscription.

For office we just use Pages, etc or MobiSystems OfficeSuite Pro.

I would say software is really the only problem now keeping the vast majority of people from being able to survive with an iPad Pro as their primary computer.

 

[Synergie]

The iPad is a very good device but I don’t understand why it has to be a laptop replacement. I use an iMac for music production which definitively can’t be done on the iPad. I sometimes use the iPad for secondary tasks like basic notation after I’ve exported from a daw. I use the iPad to take notes with the pencil but my MacBook Air or iMac to type essays. I watch Netflix in the sofa on the iPad and do browsing etc. I also use it on trips where I know I don’t have to work a lot. So basically, I like using both macs and iPad for different things!

For music production have you tried Auria full????

 

[akash.nu]

Enjoy your setup. Glad it worked out for you.

 

[skaertus]

Very nice. Looks good.

Unfortunately this would not work for me, as I rely on the full-blown Microsoft Office to get the work done. Plus, I prefer the desktop/laptop experience.

But nice to see that people can get by with the iPad only.

 

[Freida]

Yes, it is possible for light users but not for pros.
I would not be able to do my 3D od that setup.
So yeah, average joe can maybe do it. Professionals not.

 

[Synergie]

Yes, it is possible for light users but not for pros.
I would not be able to do my 3D od that setup.
So yeah, average joe can maybe do it. Professionals not.

Depends on what you are doing as a professional...

Graphic artists, Photographers etc can get by just fine. (Btw by training I am a graphic artist) I also do full video editing on here (using a 2 TB external hard drive) and the app I use (paid) allows me to do that using almost identical setup to the software I used at the local TV station to edit video. I think that qualifies as professional.

So - some - professional things might require a super advanced set up. Most people, professionals included can get by with a setup like this. I know a few people who even use their iPad Pro as a Remote Desktop and access their work computers (works even with a mouse) and do full MS Office stuff that way. Many stores and restaurants are now using IPads as their main POS system. Doctors are using them to store patient data and look up drug info, etc.

There’s far more that CAN be done (even professionally) than cant be done now... and most of that is due to lack of software... (like a good WYSIWYG web editor - but then, a good many sites are now using Wordpress anyway).