My idea of productivity sometimes can mean 5 or more MS Word/Excel documents opened at the same time. Seems that right now, iPad OS can only do two at a time (side-by-side). That might work for some, but not enough for some cases like mine.
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iPad Pro iPad as a REAL Productivity Device
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A few years ago, I planned on shifting to iOS/iPadOS as my main personal computing environment by 2020. The venerable Mike Tyson said that everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.
Enter COVID-19, face puncher extraordinaire.
Working from home quickly brought me back to earth on using iOS/iPadOS. It wasn’t a need to use a corporate specific app, or an IDE or fancy video editor. What broke me was the issues with the lack of features in available on the browsers for the iPad.
Any non-standard server configurations or requirements caused problems.
Enter COVID-19, face puncher extraordinaire.
Working from home quickly brought me back to earth on using iOS/iPadOS. It wasn’t a need to use a corporate specific app, or an IDE or fancy video editor. What broke me was the issues with the lack of features in available on the browsers for the iPad.
Any non-standard server configurations or requirements caused problems.
Just want to chime in here. If I was not using web-based productivity software for work (Google Suite), the iPad would not work for me at all either. There are still UX issues with mobile Safari that are irritating. When the Apple Silicon Macs came out I got one for experimentation and it is just so much easier...
Glad I returned the 2020 iPad “Pro” These new M1 based iPad Pro models that Apple announced today are perfectly more than capable enough to run macOS so there’s no reason why iPadOS can’t be reimagined and over hauled. If anything, iPadOS should combine the power of macOS with the power of touch from iOS.
iPadOS today is just iOS with some big screen exclusive features.
iPadOS today is just iOS with some big screen exclusive features.
Not asking them to merge anything, just give a device with desktop class hardware the proper desktop class powerful software it deserves.
Hopefully WWDC 21 brings a real iPadOS for the new iPad Pro.
What’s the point of this new even more powerful hardware if the software doesn’t utilize the hardware to its full potential?
Yep—it’s going to be the apps, not the OS, that utilize the M1. I wouldn’t be surprised to see these for iPad in the summer. I would DEFINITELY be surprised to see macOS on iPad though. It’s just not happening. Ever.
I still stand by my theory that the hybrid touch screen laptop some people want Apple to make is actually going to be a whole new device that can replace both the MacBook and iPad all at once. Today was a major hint of that future—those new iMacs are a prime example of what you can do when you’re not constantly trying to dissipate heat and cater to Intel’s roadmaps.
Web developers like me are still looking at this new model with the same puzzlement as the old ones. It's incredibly powerful and has an even better screen now than the laptop counterparts (which is great for the UX Design part of my job).
However things fall apart when it comes to the coding aspect, you cannot have tasks running in the background (like Spotify can) - say for pushing to GitHub). Multitasking and cursor pointing is still limited. And most importantly, because of the app store rules and how the OS works, we can't get a full blown IDE on the device.
I realize many would say why would you want too, but the idea of coding using the magic keyboard, switching to pencil based design, and then enjoying some entertainment via the screen only mode would be an ideal method of delivery.
That being said... this new M1 Pro certainly has improved in a few areas: (for those working in jobs that wouldn't traditionally rely on an iPad), the 1TB+ storage model has significantly more RAM going from 6GB up to 16GB which would pretty much wipe out the few ram issues I've ever seen on one of these devices.
Additionally, apps are getting better. While focus is still placed on the Mac for serious coders, more devs are thinking about the potential of the iPad and I'm seeing more tools including a code editor that came out a couple of months ago which can actually grab from NPM, has a built in local server, and there are cheap hosted versions of VSCode for the purists.
However things fall apart when it comes to the coding aspect, you cannot have tasks running in the background (like Spotify can) - say for pushing to GitHub). Multitasking and cursor pointing is still limited. And most importantly, because of the app store rules and how the OS works, we can't get a full blown IDE on the device.
I realize many would say why would you want too, but the idea of coding using the magic keyboard, switching to pencil based design, and then enjoying some entertainment via the screen only mode would be an ideal method of delivery.
That being said... this new M1 Pro certainly has improved in a few areas: (for those working in jobs that wouldn't traditionally rely on an iPad), the 1TB+ storage model has significantly more RAM going from 6GB up to 16GB which would pretty much wipe out the few ram issues I've ever seen on one of these devices.
Additionally, apps are getting better. While focus is still placed on the Mac for serious coders, more devs are thinking about the potential of the iPad and I'm seeing more tools including a code editor that came out a couple of months ago which can actually grab from NPM, has a built in local server, and there are cheap hosted versions of VSCode for the purists.
Definitely true but for me multitasking is not just for coders. I am former Developer and don't want to use my iPad for doing code. That being said I do for example use Lumafusion. The idea that I have to wait and watch the Lumafusion app progress bar while exporting video is absurd to me. It works for 2 minutes video, I would so not want to do it for a video of over 5 minutes. I need to be able to let Lumafusion do things in the background while I browse Safari for example.
I also want to be able to Skype friends while watching youtube video. It is those simple things where iPad feels primitive to me. I can do only one things at given time which is rather slow, inefficient and quite often frustrating. I have more threads in my brain and asking me to narrow them down to one results in me forgetting stuff I want to do
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Back when I was podcasting weekly, my co-host was in Canada so we had to do a "double ender" to make it sound like we were in the same room. We both had the same mics and software and all that, but were thousands of miles away from each other. We would each record our own isolated audio with our nice mics as well as record the phone conversation. I would sync all three tracks up and then remove the phone call audio, and it would sound like we were just sitting across the table from each other. It was an absolutely awesome result--very high quality sound.
As I got better and better at my recording/publishing/editing workflow, the fan noise was a constant that remained a major headache. I started using my 9.7" iPad Pro instead, and started recording, editing, and publishing from that machine. It was awesome, and produced even better results than the Mac, because it wasn't having to hold up macOS in the background while doing all that, AND didn't have a fan to deal with anyway.
The problem is that I couldn't do the whole workflow on that, because iOS didn't allow for multiple audio streams. So I had to figure out a janky workaround for recording the phone call on my iPhone and then I would do the rest simultaneously on the iPad Pro.
Guess what--that's STILL how I would have to do it on iPad 6 years later. They STILL don't let you have multiple audio streams. If I were podcasting now, I'd ditch every single piece of the iPad setup I described above and do it all on my M1 Mac because the OS allows an all-in-one solution AND doesn't have any fan noise to deal with either. The more hardware they dump into the iPad Pro, the more iPadOS feels like drinking water from a firehose.
To be fair, there is a solution to your particular situation that maybe you haven't thought of (hence why I'm replying in case it's useful) and it's not so convoluted. Granted it's not all-in-one but it's very close and a pretty smooth workflow:
- Set Voice Memo on iPad to Record Audio
- Place iPhone next to iPad microphone & dial friends number (and importantly, put it on speaker-phone)
- Have your chat and say everything you want to include in the podcast (the iPad microphone should pick up the iPhone speaker easily).
- Save the voice memo to iCloud Drive. (You also would have a transcription available if you used an app like Just Press Record instead).
- Open the audio file in a multi-track iPad audio editor like Auditor and you can work on cleaning it up (with multi-track you could even separate yours and his audio).
- Party because you did a podcast with just an iPad and an iPhone with no Mac.
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haha--that's actually not ENTIRELY unlike what I was doing back in the day. We were recording our phone call on RINGR on my iPhone and then exporting that to GarageBand, and then he would send me his isolated audio and I would do all the rest on the iPad. Still requires two devices though, which is a shame. An iPad can't truly be a mobile recording studio if it can't handle more than one audio stream at a time.
It depends though on how the recording is being done. If you're doing it remotely (via a phone call) - then yep you're correct, and the probable reason why Apple don't let you record Phone calls (or at least make it easy todo it) is because nearly everywhere it's illegal unless you've got their consent - and these days, that means a signed release form in case they decide to deny it and take you to court.
However, if you are recording in person (and doing so professionally) then it's (again) possible - so podcasters, TV crews, radio people, and celebrities can rejoice; you just need to buy an Audio Interface controller and a microphone. You can pick up a USB3 one that'll work on an iPad for around $150 (about the same price as a decent Pro Microphone) and you can connect them up to 20 microphones if you wanted (on some models). Oh and yes using an iPad audio editor like the one I mentioned would be able to handle such a setup. Like I mentioned, one for the pro's for sure but since when would a pro-sound guy shy away from gadgets. Mixers, amps and decks being a classic example.
I guess my point (if there is one) is that the iPad shouldn't be ruled out because external hardware is needed for some stuff. Heck, if we did that you'd have to rule out MacBooks as well for certain jobs. Hardware compliments, and in the earlier instance - a phone should be used for calls so the idea of using it for that to relay and record to your main iPad doesn't make the iPad a failure... though for my use-case (web development), there's no alternative than a MacBook, lol