iPad Pro Is iPad Pro capable of being my one device?

[CaptainAmerica95]

The Macbook would be the workhorse where you do most of your actual work. It’s simply far more capable in terms of file management, the programs offered, multi-tasking, ability to work connected a larger monitor, and so on.

The iPad, especially a newer ipad that is Pencil compatible, functions great as an accessory device. Use it next to the Macbook, connected with Sidecar, and you have a second screen which flips out of the way at a moment’s notice like any other app. You can then use the iPad for note taking, sketching, editing, drawing, etc. with the Pencil. The two work wonderfully together - little things like copy/paste from one device working immediately on the other, and so on. My iPad is also my main personal device day in and day out, but every time I try to do even a simple portion of my real workflow on it, it’s frustratingly limited. This is improving, and will continue to now that we have trackpad support, but it’s not there yet.

FWIW, I owned several Surface Pro’s over the years and have found that splitting the functions into a great laptop and a great tablet is worth every penny.

Thanks Zhenya, that makes a lot of sense to me, and it’s great to get the perspective of another former Surface owner.

Having spent yesterday thinking what you and others in this thread have said, I feel perhaps I was jumping the gun and trying to make the iPad something it currently isn’t. Maybe in three to four years we’ll finally be at a place where the iPad could be my sole device, but that’s not reality at this moment.

The decision I’ve come to is to definitely sell the Surface Pro. As mentioned in my original post, I simply don’t like using it and for me, you shouldn’t have to spend hours working on a device that doesn’t bring any joy and creates resistance in workflow. I’ll also be selling my current iPad Air 2.

Instead, I’m going to opt for a MacBook Pro 2020. I’ll also purchase an iPad 10.5 with Apple Pencil support as a complementary accessory device for drawing. I’ve never used Mac before so this will be an exciting and slightly unknown change!

Thank you everyone 😁

 

[kristalsoldier]

Thanks Zhenya, that makes a lot of sense to me, and it’s great to get the perspective of another former Surface owner.

Having spent yesterday thinking what you and others in this thread have said, I feel perhaps I was jumping the gun and trying to make the iPad something it currently isn’t. Maybe in three to four years we’ll finally be at a place where the iPad could be my sole device, but that’s not reality at this moment.

The decision I’ve come to is to definitely sell the Surface Pro. As mentioned in my original post, I simply don’t like using it and for me, you shouldn’t have to spend hours working on a device that doesn’t bring any joy and creates resistance in workflow. I’ll also be selling my current iPad Air 2.

Instead, I’m going to opt for a MacBook Pro 2020. I’ll also purchase an iPad 10.5 with Apple Pencil support as a complementary accessory device for drawing. I’ve never used Mac before so this will be an exciting and slightly unknown change!

Thank you everyone 😁

You can buy my IPP 10.5Pro (with Pencil) and 2 ASC (of which one is leather) if you want...😉 All in immaculate condition, I might add!!

 

[TomOSeven]

Headless Mac mini coupled with iPad Pro 12.9 2018

What does headless mean in this case? Do you not use a monitor apart from the iPad? How does that work?

 

[cupcakes2000]

What does headless mean in this case? Do you not use a monitor apart from the iPad? How does that work?

In this particular case, it’s not truly headless. It’s attached to a dual port monitor via a long hdmi cable, some distance away, which is dedicated to an Apple TV under normal circumstances. This is to get around the very rare case that upon restart my VNC software doesn’t auto run. Normally I use that On my iPad to log in to the mac when necessary, and start Sidecar like that.

It actually works surprisingly well, despite the above description sounding long winded.

 

[TomOSeven]

Man, sidecar just has me itching to get a Mac. I know I shouldn't, but the urge...

 

[cupcakes2000]

Man, sidecar just has me itching to get a Mac. I know I shouldn't, but the urge...

Sidecar is a game changer, though Luna Display works very well too, and I believe that’s available on windows now, if that’s what you use. I can only speak for the Mac version but very impressive.

 

[malkovich87]

Only reason why I still have a Surface Pro next to my MacBook Pro 16 and iPad Pro is the fact that my employer makes me have one. There’s really no advantage using the surface pro over a 12.9” iPad Pro in our work environment, but Apple devices = banned and Microsoft devices = allowed. So I literally carry around a Surface Pro 7 for shows. As soon as one of my bosses is around, that’s the one on my lap.

 

[secretk]

Only reason why I still have a Surface Pro next to my MacBook Pro 16 and iPad Pro is the fact that my employer makes me have one. There’s really no advantage using the surface pro over a 12.9” iPad Pro in our work environment, but Apple devices = banned and Microsoft devices = allowed. So I literally carry around a Surface Pro 7 for shows. As soon as one of my bosses is around, that’s the one on my lap.

Interesting. Do you have an idea why Apple devices are banned in your company?

 

[malkovich87]

Interesting. Do you have an idea why Apple devices are banned in your company?

the state decided to go all-out Microsoft (I work for two separate state organizations).

 

[spiderman0616]

I organize my files exactly like you described in your original post, and I’ve basically been iPad Pro-only for my personal uses for years. When I’m working in Affinity Photo, Affinity Designer, Procreate, LumaFusion, or any other content creation app, I put all my saves and exports in iCloud and then when I’m done working on things for the day, I make copies of them to my external SanDisk drive. That way if my iPad takes a crap and it didn’t get backed up to iCloud first, I have backup copies. This was also great when I upgraded to the 2020 iPad Pro because I had just finished a LumaFusion project right before upgrading, and LumaFusion doesn’t really do automatic iCloud backups for projects. (I’m assuming because of all the space they would take up.) But I had made a copy of the local LumaFusion folder on my old iPad and put it in my backup drive. When I started up the new iPad, a quick copy and replace gave me all my projects back on my new iPad.

I haven’t used WordPress in a long time, but I did used to co-host a podcast and our website and file hosting was all on SquareSpace. I was iPad-only back then too, and recorded, edited, published, and uploaded every episode right from my iPad. I also helped maintain the actual Squarespace site content right from my iPad.

Don’t forget—web pages now treat Safari in iPadOS as a desktop version of Safari, so you should be able to get the storefront functionality on your iPad Pro, but I would try testing that out first.

 

[lyngo]

That’s what I have. Headless Mac mini coupled with iPad Pro 12.9 2018. I love it, it’s not remotely limiting once you get your head around it, and it feels very much like the future, the iPad being the primary interface. The Mac is only there for a single specific task which I can’t do on the iPad due to lightroom being the limiting factor. If it wasn’t for that I could easily cope with only and iPad. I like the Mac so I wouldn’t want to, but I could.
(I must add have a nas for mass file storage though).

I honestly havent been this excited for the future potential of personal computing since the era of 8/16/32 bit computing in the 80’s and 90’s.
It’s been stale and ‘samey’ for so long - I really don’t know what’s coming or how it will be but it’s going to be refreshing and different.

It’s new territory really, like in the old days.

I have an interesting question for you. When it comes to partnering the iPad with the Mac Mini, are you able to run Zoom video calls or other video conference applications on the Mac using the iPad camera. Let me share why I ask and provide some context.

Macs are great for multitasking in terms of video conferences and also pulling up a document and doing both things at once. On the iPad, whenever I am in a conference, I cannot open another app without the video feed cutting out. I guess what I am asking is can you use the camera on your iPad for performing operations on your Mac? I hope I am making sense in asking these questions.

Thanks for sharing your experiences!