[Poll] Studio users, what is your mobile machine?

[blen]

What are you using to do stuff away from your desk? Do you typically do most “pro” workflow on your Studio or supplement/do other creative tasks with another device, like an iPad Pro?

I’m debating between a MacBook Air or an iPad Pro 13” as my secondary device. The MacBook Air would let me run Capture One on the go, but the ipad would give me some great complimentary experiences (including using Apple Pencil w/ sidecar and Capture One on the Studio).

I also do light programming, but I could relegate those tasks to the Studio (including favor of getting advantages from the iPad).

How are you using your machines together?

 

[wdhpgx]

Years ago on a trip I tried using an ipad to do my remote work, and it didn't work well for me at all. I bought a MacBook Air shortly thereafter and it's worked great. I needed to upgrade it last year, and checked out the MacBook Pro as well; the pro was more weight, more cost, and more cpu than I needed, while the air was a better match for me on all three of those counts, so I opted for that again.

 

[blen]

Years ago on a trip I tried using an ipad to do my remote work, and it didn't work well for me at all. I bought a MacBook Air shortly thereafter and it's worked great. I needed to upgrade it last year, and checked out the MacBook Pro as well; the pro was more weight, more cost, and more cpu than I needed, while the air was a better match for me on all three of those counts, so I opted for that again.

what’s your approach to managing 2 Macs?

 

[wdhpgx]

what’s your approach to managing 2 Macs?

I have a shell script that rsync's the files I need, to my laptop.

 

[JSRinUK]

I bought a MacBook Pro in November and recently got the Studio for my desk. I do have an M1 iPad Pro, but I hardly do anything with it beyond browsing and emails. I use the MacBook as a satellite device. The RAM isn’t as great as the Studio, so I’m limited on which LLMs I can run, but it does pretty much all that the Studio does.

If I need files on both machines, I use the cloud.

I have my LLM models on an external SSD and, should I need to use those on my MacBook (I have some smaller models on the internal SSD), then I just unplug from the Studio and take the external SSD with me.

 

[JaredJenkinsDesign]

I've got my Mac Studio handling my main workflow and heavy tasks for my business and I use an 11" iPad for light admin related tasks on the go. However, I am thinking about picking up a 13" M4 MacBook Air in the near future to replace the iPad as iPadOS is still not the best experience and I would likely be more productive with MacOS and a MacBook.

 

[blen]

I've got my Mac Studio handling my main workflow and heavy tasks for my business and I use an 11" iPad for light admin related tasks on the go. However, I am thinking about picking up a 13" M4 MacBook Air in the near future to replace the iPad as iPadOS is still not the best experience and I would likely be more productive with MacOS and a MacBook.

What is holding you back on iPad? The new pro with the keyboard is basically the air with an incredible screen (this is my toss up). I understand there are things the iPad just can’t do (programming) but for the everyday stuff it seems quite amazing. The 13” iPad size gives you real desktop websites and stage manager is pretty good for having multiple apps open at the same time.

 

[Ifti]

I had a MacBook Pro 16" M1 Max as my desk machine.
I have now sold this and replaced it with a MAC Studio / ASD

I also have a M3 MacBook Air 13" as my 'mobile' machine, although I'm in 2 minds as to whether I will keep or sell it. I'm not mobile any more, and only ever use my computer on my desk now, so the MBA has been sitting unused. I'll wait a little while longer first, as knowing my luck I will sell it and realize I could have use din after all! lol

 

[JaredJenkinsDesign]

What is holding you back on iPad? The new pro with the keyboard is basically the air with an incredible screen (this is my toss up). I understand there are things the iPad just can’t do (programming) but for the everyday stuff it seems quite amazing. The 13” iPad size gives you real desktop websites and stage manager is pretty good for having multiple apps open at the same time.

It’s been mostly good and gets the job done for the most part. At least for my use case, there are some minor quirks that have annoyed me such as:

- Google Sheets app unable to copy and paste multiple rows
- Google Docs app not opening properly on external monitor (though it works fine in Safari)
- Notion app unable to open multiple tabs (although Safari has resolved this for me)
- Pinterest strangely opens only the mobile version of their site and not the desktop version.
- Photoshop and Illustrator apps being more limited than their desktop counterparts (thankfully, I haven’t had to use them as much on the go and I get my creative work done on the Studio)
- File management has been ok but Finder is just much more efficient for transferring files.

Other than those minor issues, it’s been all-in-one great device to travel with and handles the admin work for me nicely. No issues with it as a tablet as it’s been fantastic for handwriting notes, doing sketches or showing clients photos (the display is simply stunning.)

I suppose with the recent M4 MBA announcement and being a bit cheaper, it has intrigued me and would open up a few more possibilities for doing other tasks on the go.

If you are able to relegate certain tasks to the Studio and don’t have a need to do them while on the go, then the iPad is a good choice to consider. If you have any more questions, I’ll be happy to answer!

 

[blen]

Yeah I feel like most of the “X app doesn’t work well” is typically resolved with using the website version of the service (E.g. Google Sheets). This is much better on 13” vs 11” iPad.

100% agree on Finder, Files is incredibly limited and cumbersome to use.

 

[SammyG7]

I have a shell script that rsync's the files I need, to my laptop.

Can you tell me more about this?

 

[wdhpgx]

Can you tell me more about this?

Re: "I have a shell script that rsync's the files I need, to my laptop."
Well, it's a shell script -- ie a script using /bin/bash, written in the Terminal. And it uses rsync (a unix command line utility) that provides for essentially synchronizing a directory tree to another location (in this case over ssh to the laptop).

 

[Allen_Wentz]

What are you using to do stuff away from your desk? Do you typically do most “pro” workflow on your Studio or supplement/do other creative tasks with another device, like an iPad Pro?

I’m debating between a MacBook Air or an iPad Pro 13” as my secondary device. The MacBook Air would let me run Capture One on the go, but the ipad would give me some great complimentary experiences (including using Apple Pencil w/ sidecar and Capture One on the Studio).

I also do light programming, but I could relegate those tasks to the Studio (including favor of getting advantages from the iPad).

How are you using your machines together?

My intention was to have a Studio + MBP workflow and I waited for the M2 Studio for months, but it was delayed so long that I was forced to buy an M2 MBP with 96 GB RAM. So I ended up with a pricier mostly desktop M2 MBP/96 plus the 2016 MBP/16 for mobile.

The M2 MBP is exactly as strong as an M2 Studio would be unless I did some heavy long-term processing operations that made heat for hours, in which case the Studio might [or might not] remove heat better. I never do that. The M2 MBP fills the desktop role perfectly for me.

Interestingly, performance-wise the 15" 2016 Intel w/16 GB generally still works OK for mobile as long as I do not multi-task (essential for when I am doing real work). However under many conditions the lesser 2016 MBP display and speakers just fail to be good enough. If I had bought a Studio I would never have had the great M2 MBP display to compare against, but after using the M2 MBP display I constantly find myself pulling the M2 MBP off the desktop for mobile usage instead of just using the 2016 MBP already in my hands. With Netflix in particular the M2 MBP far outperforms.

It used to be a PITA to move the Intel MBP back and forth from desktop mode driving 2-3 displays to mobile mode. It would take 10-15 minutes for the displays to stop hippity-hopping around. On the M2 MBP it just takes a few seconds to resynch, placing 5-10 windows and apps in their proper locations and very stable.

So bottom line is that with a top end MBP properly loaded with maximum RAM most of us do not also need a Studio for desktop unless we need to be going up the next step to a Studio Ultra.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

What is holding you back on iPad? The new pro with the keyboard is basically the air with an incredible screen (this is my toss up). I understand there are things the iPad just can’t do (programming) but for the everyday stuff it seems quite amazing. The 13” iPad size gives you real desktop websites and stage manager is pretty good for having multiple apps open at the same time.

Some of us just find the Mac OS substantially more facile than iPad OS or iOS. Those who used iPads many hours daily as children logically may find iPad OS very workable. Personally I have been using all the devices since their respective inceptions, but the Mac OS is the one that I feel most comfortable with when doing real work, by a lot.

 

[blen]

Some of us just find the Mac OS substantially more facile than iPad OS or iOS. Those who used iPads many hours daily as children logically may find iPad OS very workable. Personally I have been using all the devices since their respective inceptions, but the Mac OS is the one that I feel most comfortable with when doing real work, by a lot.

+1 to that, agree.

 

[Allen_Wentz]

It’s been mostly good and gets the job done for the most part. At least for my use case, there are some minor quirks that have annoyed me such as:

- Google Sheets app unable to copy and paste multiple rows
- Google Docs app not opening properly on external monitor (though it works fine in Safari)
- Notion app unable to open multiple tabs (although Safari has resolved this for me)
- Pinterest strangely opens only the mobile version of their site and not the desktop version.
- Photoshop and Illustrator apps being more limited than their desktop counterparts (thankfully, I haven’t had to use them as much on the go and I get my creative work done on the Studio)
- File management has been ok but Finder is just much more efficient for transferring files.

Other than those minor issues, it’s been all-in-one great device to travel with and handles the admin work for me nicely. No issues with it as a tablet as it’s been fantastic for handwriting notes, doing sketches or showing clients photos (the display is simply stunning.)

I suppose with the recent M4 MBA announcement and being a bit cheaper, it has intrigued me and would open up a few more possibilities for doing other tasks on the go.

If you are able to relegate certain tasks to the Studio and don’t have a need to do them while on the go, then the iPad is a good choice to consider. If you have any more questions, I’ll be happy to answer!

You reference "handwriting notes, doing sketches..." What apps for those two usages have you been happy with? I would like to do both things with an iPad (really I want the iPhone to support a stylus) but have not yet found apps that I like.

 

[JaredJenkinsDesign]

You reference "handwriting notes, doing sketches..." What apps for those two usages have you been happy with? I would like to do both things with an iPad (really I want the iPhone to support a stylus) but have not yet found apps that I like.

For note taking, I keep it simple with Apple Notes as I like that I can quickly take a note with the quick note feature by swiping from the bottom right corner, can use it offline and it will sync back to Mac Studio when I get home and the handwriting refining makes legibility easier. For sketches, Procreate has been my go to and has worked for me.

Some of us just find the Mac OS substantially more facile than iPad OS or iOS. Those who used iPads many hours daily as children logically may find iPad OS very workable. Personally I have been using all the devices since their respective inceptions, but the Mac OS is the one that I feel most comfortable with when doing real work, by a lot.

I feel the same way, even if it's just light work, I feel like I could get more done with MacOS as I'm far more comfortable with it. It also makes sense that somebody who has been using an iPad for many years might be more efficient at it despite its limitations.