All iPads No evolution or revolution for iPadOS 18

[Isengardtom]

I was clinging to that slim hope—maybe that 0.01% chance—that Apple would announce an option for iPad Pro users to boot into macOS or use it in some capacity. But once again, I'm disappointed. It's baffling that Apple charges the equivalent of a mid-range MacBook Air or MacBook Pro for an iPad Pro, which offers significantly less functionality for power users and multitaskers.

The hardware continues to outpace the software on these devices and I still don't understand what Apple is trying to achieve with this class of device. Insane. Frankly insane....

Apple behaving kinda like Google in this regard where it shows that they don't have any idea of what to do with the iPad Pro.

MacOS is never going to happen, or it would have already.

I think they actually have a pretty good vision of what they want the iPad to be: its own separate thing

As for the price, you’re paying for the tech that’s in the device, which is ahead of the Macs.

 

[sleeptodream]

A reminder to buy a product based on what it is, not what it could be in theory based on it’s hardware

I for one am excited about the updates to notes, and the AI features look awesome

 

[Flabasha]

I do. I may be in the monority, but i'm not the only one. typing entries on my phone is nonsensical.

another thing to keep in mind is that a lot of news reports were saying apple was shifting resources to go all in on AI. I don't want to project into the future, but it's hard for me to believe that apple won't continue to put most of their resources on AI.

AI will write your journal for you! 😳

 

[henkej]

Making music will continue to be great. KorgGadget, KB-1, AUM, Animoog Z, Logic and more will all continue to be as great as they have been. iPad is an awesome piece of machine. Especially the Airs.

 

[Surfsalot]

13” getting picked up today, no reason to cancel the return now.

 

[Aka757]

I thought the handwriting features looked pretty useful 🤷‍♂️

I’ve been a typist-first for 20+ years. This might actually make my handwriting legible.

I agree, I thought the improvements to Notes were really slick. Might make me consider moving away from Craft / Goodnotes as my main note taking apps. I would have loved the math notes feature when I was in high school and college, but hey one day my daughter will make use of it!

 

[SnyG]

On the bright side, my 12.9” M2 makes a very snazzy placemat.

 

[MNTVJunkie]

I remember being here when the M1 came out and everyone hoping that meant iPadOS was going to get better because iPads were so powerful. The lesson I learned then, and the lesson I hold now, never buy a product for what it MIGHT do. We've all been holding our breaths for 3 years for iPadOS to get better. It's not happening.

The iPad Pro M4, except in very specific use cases, is OVERKILL just like the iPad Pro M1 was 3 years ago. I don't see this changing until Microsoft really gets serious about a true "2 in 1" competitor. Without that, Apple knows they have nothing to worry about.

 

[Apple Mac Daz]

Shame iPadOS didn’t get the iPhone mirroring that would of been pretty cool

 

[Zdigital2015]

I don’t dislike the potential of AI to help, but nothing today excited me much as I feel like shareholder pressure to articulate an AI strategy or by threats of a lawsuit by some activist investors drove almost all of the keynote. Substantive upgrades and fixes for outstanding issues in iOS, iPadOS and macOS got superseded by AI promises to pacify the shareholders. Oh well, maybe next year.

 

[JamesMay82]

Glad I’m not alone in my disappointment! All I wanted was an improved files app!

 

[sparksd]

I don’t dislike the potential of AI to help, but nothing today excited me much as I feel like shareholder pressure to articulate an AI strategy or by threats of a lawsuit by some activist investors drove almost all of the keynote. Substantive upgrades and fixes for outstanding issues in iOS, iPadOS and macOS got superseded by AI promises to pacify the shareholders. Oh well, maybe next year.

maybe next year - Waiting for Godot.

 

[NT1440]

I don’t dislike the potential of AI to help, but nothing today excited me much as I feel like shareholder pressure to articulate an AI strategy or by threats of a lawsuit by some activist investors drove almost all of the keynote. Substantive upgrades and fixes for outstanding issues in iOS, iPadOS and macOS got superseded by AI promises to pacify the shareholders. Oh well, maybe next year.

Can you elaborate on this? I’ve been watching WWDC for well over a decade now and rarely if ever has a bug fix been mentioned *in the Keynote*.

 

[Siliconguy]

Literally nothing changed about Stage Manager, multitasking, or Files app, or anything to make it work better.

The calculator and the contour lines in Maps are the only things I noticed that might be interesting as well.

 

[Rafterman]

AI will write your journal for you! 😳

Yakov Flabaha Smirnoff:

"You don't write journal, journal writes you!"

 

[Isamilis]

they didn't even bring the journal app over to ipad os. this is probably the most disappointing "ipadOS" update in years IMO.

m4 to remain vastly overpowered

And calculator app too, lol

 

[Siliconguy]

i think a lot of people were hoping for M4 specific refinements. That's the theory for why they got the M4's out the door so quickly. WWDC was supposed to convince people to upgrade.

Now everything announce works at least on M1s, what's the point of anybody on M1 upgrading go M4?

I was wondering about that myself. AI is a memory hog both in RAM and in storage to hold the models. Do they mean any M1 can call the server? Or do they mean any M1 can actually run the model? Or do you need an M1 Max with 32 GB RAM to stay on device? A base 8/256 Mac doesn't have a lot of free memory left to work with anyway as has been pointed out many times.

We'll find out soon enough. I definitely will not updating to Sequoia in the first wave. Possibly not at all, I tend to skip alternate upgrades.

 

[erasr]

What are people expecting with these M4s?! I’m loving mine without any software update.

I go back to my M2 MBA and it feels cheap and sluggish compared. Something I never thought I’d expect to happen.

Feel like replacing my MBA with iPad. It’s that good.

 

[Digitalguy]

What are people expecting with these M4s?! I’m loving mine without any software update.

I go back to my M2 MBA and it feels cheap and sluggish compared. Something I never thought I’d expect to happen.

Feel like replacing my MBA with iPad. It’s that good.

M4 is what allows the iPad to be so thin and light thanks to efficiency and what allows tandem oled, not something that would allow more software capabilities that the other M-series chips, at least not for a few years.

 

[Seelachs.ivan]

I don't understand it.

Is Apple so afraid of cannibalizing Mac sales?

2800€ for an iPad Pro 13" 1TB including pen and keyboard.

2700€ for a 13" M3 MbAir 1TB and an 11" iPad Air.

With macOS on iPad, a large proportion would definitely choose the first option. More in sales with lower production costs.

For me, it would even be okay to tie macOS to conditions like 1 TB or only with the original keyboard.

But this...

 

[UltimateSyn]

I generally try to stay cautious on my optimism levels for iPadOS reveals, but this one was genuinely disappointing. Zero changes to make it a more full-fledged ‘computer’ or address the longstanding Stage Manager / external monitor / Files complaints. I get not being able to appease everybody’s desires, but they just genuinely changed nothing in those areas…

Long live the Calculator, at least.

 

[FrozenDarkness]

also the reason why it's important for ipad users that it gets mentioned in wwdc is because so little is done outside of these ipados updates.

 

[sparksd]

I generally try to stay cautious on my optimism levels for iPadOS reveals, but this one was genuinely disappointing. Zero changes to make it a more full-fledged ‘computer’ or address the longstanding Stage Manager / external monitor / Files complaints. I get not being able to appease everybody’s desires, but they just genuinely changed nothing in those areas…

Long live the Calculator, at least.

I have a couple of calculator apps that I bought for my phone also installed on my iPads and I can't remember that time I used one on an iPad.

 

[shadowfrost]

Lol, I do not have much expectation and my only reason for upgrading is the tandem oled screen. If the ipad os limitation is a bother for me I will just move to samsung already Instead of waiting on apple doing something. Surface is out of question because I just dont like windows and my limited experiemce with surface pro is just not very good that I rather have the base ipad, as despite its limitation, it does these tasks really well.

I stick with m4 because of apple gift cards and trade ins, I paid less if I stick with m4 as to trade in with samsung, and there is this notetaking app that I am not willing to part with (zoomnotes). Finding infinite zoom whiteboard/note app is a pain on android. Samsung notes dont have it unfortunately. I have checked with my s24 U. Tried searching on reddi for similar questions too but the solution seems abysmal.

As much as I am happy with my m4, if you ask me to shell out > 500$ for this there is no way I would do it.

 

[tothemoonsands]

Yeah it made me feel better about not shelling out for the M4 iPads.

I’m here to tell you, you are still missing out! Coming from the 2020 iPad Pro, it’s a huge jump IMO.