All iPads iPadOS Really Needs Its "Mac OS X" Release

[turbineseaplane]

Having macOS, exactly as it is today, on the iPad with the trade-off of having to buy a keyboard + mouse/trackpad would be absolutely OK with me. That way, (almost) no rework to be done on macOS.

This is where a Gruber type would tell us that "Apple would never do something like this because they don't think it's a great experience" -- like Apple gives a toss about the "great experience" anymore. Their software is mostly bug filled hot garbage.

Gruber is mentally stuck in about 2010 when it comes to Apple

 

[Wando64]

Nope. Only iOS, iPadOS is not affected and it's the same as in the US, at least for now...

I didn’t know that, but regardless, it is a limitations imposed by Apple not a limitation of the OS architecture.

 

[muzzy996]

Here is ONE major reason why… the iPad Air/Pro is more versatile than a MBA in regards to hardware (imo), I can transform my iPad Pro into a laptop (or desktop)… the MBA cannot be used as a tablet.


Tbf, I think what you desire… is a touchscreen Mac (some 2-1).

But there is this consistent narrative that Mac/PC users continue to harp on being that Apple needs to fix iPadOS or something… it never fails. Yet, they refuse to acknowledge how much Apple has done to improve on it. It’s as if the narrative has been Apple made no improvements.

They have added external display support that runs Stage Manager, introduced PlayGrounds (I think this gets overlooked), virtual memory swap, tons of keyboard shortcuts and desktop class API’s. But the features you are seeking might never come to the iPad… and that’s why the Mac exist.

Yup, that's certainly what I would like - a 2-in-1 Macbook. I held out upgrading my 2017 iPP when the new design language came out in 2018 and I was excited when Apple Silicon was announced, hoping that eventually Apple would leverage their unified silicon and architecture to the fullest by adding a touch enabled Mac to rival the Surface Pro. Hasn't happened yet and that's fine with me, I decided not to wait any longer and spoke with my wallet by purchasing a Surface Pro 9 last year. No regrets for me other than subpar battery life but I'll live with it. We're all different and need different things.

 

[Digitalguy]

Yup, that's certainly what I would like - a 2-in-1 Macbook. I held out upgrading my 2017 iPP when the new design language came out in 2018 and I was excited when Apple Silicon was announced, hoping that eventually Apple would leverage their unified silicon and architecture to the fullest by adding a touch enabled Mac to rival the Surface Pro. Hasn't happened yet and that's fine with me, I decided not to wait any longer and spoke with my wallet by purchasing a Surface Pro 9 last year. No regrets for me other than subpar battery life but I'll live with it. We're all different and need different things.

Surface pro 10 with Windows on Arm and Snapdragon X Elite should solve the battery life problem (and be fanless too), while being similar to Apple Silicon

 

[macfacts]

Problem with those devices is X86 and its heat, noise and short battery life / stand-by time.

Google has a x86 Chromebook (i7 pixel book) is thin/light, fanless and runs 8 hours+.

 

[Rafterman]

Apple should, but they won't. Maybe one day, but we are talking 5-10 years down the road, not a year or two. Maybe some great merger of MacBooks and iPads.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

As long as

Apple should, but they won't. Maybe one day, but we are talking 5-10 years down the road, not a year or two. Maybe some great merger of MacBooks and iPads.

Absolutely not happening in the foreseeable future.

Well, not unless iPad or MacBook sales, respectively or collectively, drop drastically down the line and Apple is faced with retiring their tablets product category altogether due to abysmal sales.

Some sort of "super device" would have to disrupt the entire computer/tablet/laptop market for this to happen, either a product from Apple or another brand.

As long as that's not happening, Apple will keep iPads and Macs separate:

No business in their right mind would merge two successful product categories if both are performing well in terms of sales.

Consumers have accepted the (mostly) arbitrary separation and feature limitations of the various product categories of Apple's products and Apple profits have been climbing proportionally.

No need to change and start doing combo devices as long as sales keep going strong.

It's more likely the E.U. would enact some law that would force Apple to open up iPads to running MacOS than Apple ever doing it by themselves.

 

[ApplesAreSweet&Sour]

Tim makes more money selling 2 devices, why sell one device that can do the job of both?

Bingo.

Apple won't even let you make cellular calls on your cellular iPad that you have a cellular data plan for if you don't have an iPhone with a cellular plan logged in with the same Apple ID.

-Your XXL iPhone (aka iPad) does not support cellular phone service despite it being fully able to access 4G or 5G to get data over cellular!!

And exactly why can't Apple Watch eSIM work without an iPhone? Why can't you use your Apple Watch at all without tethering it to an iPhone? The World's most advanced smart watch can't operate independently of a smartphone? Please!

A company this keen on getting you to buy a device for every use case would surely be the last to "eat" its own product categories with combo devices.

 

[muzzy996]

Surface pro 10 with Windows on Arm and Snapdragon X Elite should solve the battery life problem (and be fanless too), while being similar to Apple Silicon

I hope so. Based on reviews the SQ3 wasn't that great in the SP9 5G in terms of performance. We shall see - if things are much improved it might garner a look for me.

 

[Rafterman]

I hope so. Based on reviews the SQ3 wasn't that great in the SP9 5G in terms of performance. We shall see - if things are much improved it might garner a look for me.

Macs runs Intel apps with Rosetta very well. Virtually no performce loss. But Windows ARM's x86 emulator is not great, there is definitely a performance hit.

 

[Shirasaki]

If I recall it correctly, the punch line was "maybe your next computer is not a computer", perfectly describing a iPad. Amazing the so many Mac user have difficulties with this idea.

Because they tried and finds out iPad is not a computer, and disregard everything Apple touts in that campaign completely before going back to use their Mac to do their real work.

 

[Shirasaki]

Surface pro 10 with Windows on Arm and Snapdragon X Elite should solve the battery life problem (and be fanless too), while being similar to Apple Silicon

Not similar in many aspects imo, mostly notably performance penalties when running x86 applications and very few native arm applications. Battery life tradeoff is much easier to manage than slow performance, issues running applications and more.

 

[muzzy996]

Macs runs Intel apps with Rosetta very well. Virtually no performce loss. But Windows ARM's x86 emulator is not great, there is definitely a performance hit.

Yup and if I recall the single core and multicore performance of the SQ3 wasn't stellar in comparison to Intel chips in the SP9. For those reasons (emulation performance and raw performance) I opted to just get the Intel i7 version of the SP9 to trade performance for poor battery life. Apple has the means to build a great 2-in-1 machine but that market doesn't seem to interest them, it is unfortunate for a handful of people like me who would love to have one but it is what it is. I'll continue to look forward to an updated iPad Mini for now and live with my SP9 LOL.

 

[transpo1]

I enjoy using the iPad... plan on being an iPad user for the foreseeable future, so not sure what you mean by the iPad is Apple’s product.

The challenge the iPad faces… is that folks always compare it to the Mac, I don’t consider it a stepchild.. but the middle child. Stuck between the iPhone and Mac, never fully taking all Mac features… because it’s in Apple best interest to make the Mac preferable.

Fingers crossed the new iPad Pros will turn into macOS machines when combined with the Magic Keyboard. This will provide Apple the Mac-like revenue they want (almost as much as a higher end Mac when buying the keyboard, too) and provide us with a more powerful, Mac-like experience on iPad. This would be the optimal solution.

 

[bcortens]

Fingers crossed the new iPad Pros will turn into macOS machines when combined with the Magic Keyboard. This will provide Apple the Mac-like revenue they want (almost as much as a higher end Mac when buying the keyboard, too) and provide us with a more powerful, Mac-like experience on iPad. This would be the optimal solution.

It really isn’t a good idea because you have to think about how this would actually work.

To make this actually work they would have to kill iPad Apps, otherwise it’s just two operating systems on the same machine, which isn’t going to ever be a viable consumer strategy. Sure a few techies might dual boot but most people don’t.

Let’s consider what this would actually look like.

I undock my iPad and suddenly all of the open windows aren’t just reconfigured into iPad mode but are simply no longer accessible because they are part of macOS not iPad OS.

To make this idea of macOS - iPadOS dual system work there are two paths:
1. Apple kills iPad OS and just builds an iPad OS shell for macOS and all macOS apps are reworked to feature an iPad like UI when undocked.
2. Apple builds a micro-OS subsystem that sits below both macOS and iPad OS and coordinates between the two to make sure that all the apps and windows you have in one mode are also being generated and presented in the other mode.

 

[Rafterman]

Yup and if I recall the single core and multicore performance of the SQ3 wasn't stellar in comparison to Intel chips in the SP9. For those reasons (emulation performance and raw performance) I opted to just get the Intel i7 version of the SP9 to trade performance for poor battery life. Apple has the means to build a great 2-in-1 machine but that market doesn't seem to interest them, it is unfortunate for a handful of people like me who would love to have one but it is what it is. I'll continue to look forward to an updated iPad Mini for now and live with my SP9 LOL.

I agree, Surface Pro i7 is the way to go. The 32GB RAM/1TB is a really solid machine. If only they had a cewllular version, but there hasn't been a cellular Surface Pro Intel since the Surface Pro 7.

My dream machine would be a Surface Pro "10", with i9/64gb/1TB, with cellular, microSD slot and a 4050 equivalent graphics card. Sure, the battery would be 1 hour, and would burn a hole in your lap, but still

 

[geta]

I agree, Surface Pro i7 is the way to go. The 32GB RAM/1TB is a really solid machine. If only they had a cewllular version, but there hasn't been a cellular Surface Pro Intel since the Surface Pro 7.

My dream machine would be a Surface Pro "10", with i9/64gb/1TB, with cellular, microSD slot and a 4050 equivalent graphics card. Sure, the battery would be 1 hour, and would burn a hole in your lap, but still

If only it would run MacOS or at least iOS.

 

[hagjohn]

So what you want is a touchscreen Mac not an iPad... may as well argue for that instead

Doesn't have to be touch but yeah, why not. Surface type device (with detachable keyboard and mouse) only being an iPad and MacOS. Best of both worlds.

 

[sparksd]

I agree, Surface Pro i7 is the way to go. The 32GB RAM/1TB is a really solid machine. If only they had a cewllular version, but there hasn't been a cellular Surface Pro Intel since the Surface Pro 7.

My dream machine would be a Surface Pro "10", with i9/64gb/1TB, with cellular, microSD slot and a 4050 equivalent graphics card. Sure, the battery would be 1 hour, and would burn a hole in your lap, but still

I'd go for one of those. My current is a 16GB i7 SP7.

 

[Rafterman]

I'd go for one of those. My current is a 16GB i7 SP7.

Actually, thanks to that little magnetic door on the back, Surface Pros can be upgraded to 2TB storage now.

 

[sparksd]

Actually, thanks to that little magnetic door on the back, Surface Pros can be upgraded to 2TB storage now.

It is handy. I put a 512GB uSD in mine.

 

[transpo1]

It really isn’t a good idea because you have to think about how this would actually work.

To make this actually work they would have to kill iPad Apps, otherwise it’s just two operating systems on the same machine, which isn’t going to ever be a viable consumer strategy. Sure a few techies might dual boot but most people don’t.

Let’s consider what this would actually look like.

I undock my iPad and suddenly all of the open windows aren’t just reconfigured into iPad mode but are simply no longer accessible because they are part of macOS not iPad OS.

To make this idea of macOS - iPadOS dual system work there are two paths:
1. Apple kills iPad OS and just builds an iPad OS shell for macOS and all macOS apps are reworked to feature an iPad like UI when undocked.
2. Apple builds a micro-OS subsystem that sits below both macOS and iPad OS and coordinates between the two to make sure that all the apps and windows you have in one mode are also being generated and presented in the other mode.

I like the idea but you’re right, no easy to implement. But if anyone can do so and make it look easy, it’s Apple.

 

[muzzy996]

It is handy. I put a 512GB uSD in mine.

Me too , went from 256gb to 1tb.

 

[iPadified]

...until one tries to get any number of things done in the "real work" category
(without wanting to throw the tablet against the wall out of frustration)

We aren't all magically going to just become writers, and/or whatever subset of people can do all their work on an iPad - or prefer to

Here we go again...

Subset? Have you not realised that those who need Terminal, Xcode and hang out in finder/files app are a minority. Wake up. People do real work in a number of ways and reality check: they do not need the terminal or Xcode to get the pay check.

Why do you expect that all computers and OS should be designed for terminal/Xcode people in mind? That is really what is bothering you is it not? The iPad is not for you. You have been excluded.

Throughput the decades, billions of persons have been excluded from an easy access to computing by much too complicated "computers" designed for the terminal/Xcode people.

I was there from the beginning: Do you know how Macs and GUI was seen upon from the mainframe people: toys. Interesting how history repeats itself.

 

[iPadified]

Because they tried and finds out iPad is not a computer, and disregard everything Apple touts in that campaign completely before going back to use their Mac to do their real work.

Real work? What is that?