iPad Pro Q: What’s a Computer?

[Analog Kid]

I wouldn't be surprised if iPadOS 18 is just the Calculator app coming to iPad. 🤣

But for real -Avoiding having iPad sales eat into MacBook sales is far more important to Apple than making iPadOS live up to its many promises.

Nothing would be worse for Apple than iPad users relying exclusively on iPads and not needing a Mac too.

What would be worse is coming up with some Frankenstein solution that makes it both a lousy tablet and a lousy laptop giving it a sales profile like the Surface.

If it's just a risk of cannibalizing Macbook sales, that can be resolved through pricing.

Why fix iPadOS when they just keep selling as long as the hardware specs are impressive?

If they're selling well enough, it's not broken-- nothing to fix. I think that's what underlines the whole argument-- people are happy enough with what it is to buy it.

 

[Abazigal]

I would say it just makes me mad each time when people around call iPad OS “enough for pro work”. Lol it can’t even open Wordpress (which my 12 years old iMac with unsupported macOS 10.12 can do!). While Wordpress made some silly app, it is barely usable.

Sure I can do a lot on iPad, but I can do it 5x faster on my MacBook with proper browser and adequate desktop environment. Maybe it is just me or maybe iPad is “not enough of a computer”

Is the Wordpress app that bad now? I remember going on an overseas trip with my students many years back, where I was tasked with updating the school blog with our trip experiences. My computing device of choice was my iPad 3. I was able to update the blog almost in real time via the Wordpress app (photos taken were of decent quality thanks to its 5mp camera). The battery life was more than enough to make it through a day (which was a good thing because the battery life of the 4s at the time wasn't all that stellar). The cellular connection meant I was never caught dead without wifi. The form factor made it convenient to use while on the move and in cramped places like in the bus or at restaurants, meaning I was pretty much done by the time we returned to the hotel at the end of the day.

My school would subsequently move away from Wordpress, which was a shame, because I really wanted to try out the "export to Wordpress" feature in the Bear notes app. But I will say. that in all my years as a teacher, I have gotten a fair amount of work done on my iPad, and what made me prefer working on it over my other computers (27" iMac, MBA, work laptop) was precisely that it ran iOS, and therefore had the advantage of battery life, ease of use and portability in the situations where I valued them more than raw computing power.

That's where the iPad excels for me. There are these tasks that can technically be done on a smartphone, but I prefer to do it on a larger screen. At the same time, I don't want to deal with the complexities of a desktop OS or web UI, and under the right situations, iPad apps really help in stripping away the cruft, leaving me with just what I need to get the job done.

My iPad Pro would also be invaluable during the pandemic when the school pivoted to online learning, but that's another story for another day (if anyone is interested in listening). But my point is that the iPad is what it is - a digital canvas (made all the more so by the Apple Pencil), a simplified computer (I use split-screen a fair bit, but I feel that was the start of the slippery slope towards trying to turn the iPad into something it was not), and a personal TV (which is why I am willing to pay a premium for the best iPad that Apple has to offer at any one time).

I feel that the iPad is better at being these three things than the iPhone and the Mac, and this in itself gives it a reason to exist alongside the others. Somewhere along the way, I came to peace with this epiphany, and perhaps more people need to as well. That the iPad is what it is. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[ericwn]

I would say it just makes me mad each time when people around call iPad OS “enough for pro work”. Lol it can’t even open Wordpress (which my 12 years old iMac with unsupported macOS 10.12 can do!). While Wordpress made some silly app, it is barely usable.

Sure I can do a lot on iPad, but I can do it 5x faster on my MacBook with proper browser and adequate desktop environment. Maybe it is just me or maybe iPad is “not enough of a computer”

It’s simply a computer not suited for your needs. And depending on the task, well established, many different types of computer quality for being the wrong tool at the wrong time. There are plenty people doing professional work - getting paid for their labor - with all different types of computers.

 

[shadowboi]

Is the Wordpress app that bad now?

They haven’t updated it ever since the iPad 3 days🤣 App constantly quits for no reason, UI is horrendous and barely reflects the real website experience.

But for sure it is a great story of real case use. I have done a lot of stuff too on my still functioning-well iPad Air 2.

had the advantage of battery life

Totally agree. Back then there simply were no devices on the whole market capable of 10 hours of battery. Yes iPad was limited but I just loved how it compared to my Windows laptop.

Nevertheless, there is another thing that changed (apart from sluggish Wordpress app🤣) – Apple finally ditched Intel and installed their power-efficient chips into MacBooks. I have almost foreseen this move, especially when they were comparing iPads and MacBooks during their keynotes back in 2018 or 2017. Now my Air M1 has 60% more juice than all new iPads, and I cannot say I am not amazed, especially considering I can connect it to external monitor/TV and have the same OS but in larger form factor.

Windows Intel/AMD/Nvidia laptops at the same time are lagging far behind. There is simply no performance/gaming model capable of more than 4 hours of battery life. There were few ARM attempts too but Microsoft does not seem to be interested in power efficiency at all

 

[Zest28]

I guess a Mac is not a computer either, because a Mac cannot replace a PC. Plenty of things don’t run on Mac.

 

[prospervic]

I guess a Mac is not a computer either, because a Mac cannot replace a PC. Plenty of things don’t run on Mac.

And vice versa

 

[FeliApple]

So now you should sell the iPad to buy a Mac... and you should sell the Mac to buy a Windows PC. That’s an even better argument against those who wish to obliterate the iPad.

 

[Rafterman]

Just to add a new wrinkle:

Apple Reportedly Bringing Touchscreen Support To Its Macs In The ‘Next Few Years’ But Its Current Priority Lies In Product Differentiation

Touchscreen-capable Macs could be available to purchase in a few years, but Apple is reportedly not focused on these right now

wccftech.com

 

[Flowstates]

I guess a Mac is not a computer either, because a Mac cannot replace a PC. Plenty of things don’t run on Mac.

So, are we negating division of labour ?

 

[allenvanhellen]

A computer by definition is a device that computes code equations to run mature pieces of software.

In this an iPhone or iPad is no different to a Raspberry Pi, PC or PlayStation

I don’t work with a TI-85. I tried to work with an iPad “Pro”. Some days were fine, but there were enough where I couldn’t do something essential or had to figure out some inefficient workaround.

 

[Abazigal]

Just to add a new wrinkle:

Apple Reportedly Bringing Touchscreen Support To Its Macs In The ‘Next Few Years’ But Its Current Priority Lies In Product Differentiation

Touchscreen-capable Macs could be available to purchase in a few years, but Apple is reportedly not focused on these right now

wccftech.com

I will believe it when I see it.

 

[Ctrlos]

I don’t work with a TI-85. I tried to work with an iPad “Pro”. Some days were fine, but there were enough where I couldn’t do something essential or had to figure out some inefficient workaround.

Apple probably knows this. They’re 90% devices for 90% of the people. There will always be those who need to do more complex things, even if it’s only to format a USB stick into FAT.

 

[iPadified]

I will believe it when I see it.

I think it will the folded device that has been splashed at the home page, which is a cool concept.

I cannot see which benefits touch will bring to MacOS. I think the only substantial contribution of touch will be fingerprint on a perfectly fine screen.

Fingerprints on Mac screen bothers me but not on the iPad. Strange. Something to do with the viewing angle?

 

[tomtad]

The owner of the company I work for does all his work on an M1 iPad Air. Signs documents, sends angry emails, inspects materials remotely via Facetime, coordinates with overseas factories, reviews and marks up excel and pdf reports. Doesn't even use an external keyboard.

If steering the corporate ship isn't 'pro' then I don't know what is.

It's all fun and games until someone sends you a Google Sheet

 

[kc9hzn]

It's all fun and games until someone sends you a Google Sheet

That’s more on Google, though. Google’s always been a poor iOS citizen. One wonders if it’s part of an active conspiracy to promote Android and ChromeOS, a complete lack of care/interest/assigned developers on Google’s part, or if Google’s just slow as molasses in general.

 

[Digitalguy]

Windows Intel/AMD/Nvidia laptops at the same time are lagging far behind. There is simply no performance/gaming model capable of more than 4 hours of battery life. There were few ARM attempts too but Microsoft does not seem to be interested in power efficiency at all

The you are definitely not up-to-date with the latest developments (Snapdragon X series)

 

[ProbablyDylan]

It's all fun and games until someone sends you a Google Sheet

Sheets is nice, but not as feature rich as Excel. My fellow office drones know better than to use Sheets for anything intended to be useful.

 

[shadowboi]

The you are definitely not up-to-date with the latest developments (Snapdragon X series)

SX? It is worse than A14 that was introduced years ago

 

[Rafterman]

I will believe it when I see it.

I don't know why everyone is shocked or won't belive it's coming. If Windows has it, Macs will follow eventually and vice versa. Even if you use a mouse 99 percent of the time, there's that one percent where you would just like to reach to the screen and manipulate something. It doesn't hurt anything to have a touchscreen.

 

[Abazigal]

I don't know why everyone is shocked or won't belive it's coming. If Windows has it, Macs will follow eventually and vice versa. Even if you use a mouse 99 percent of the time, there's that one percent where you would just like to reach to the screen and manipulate something. It doesn't hurt anything to have a touchscreen.

It doesn't hurt the iPhone to have expandable storage either, yet the iPhone has never supported it, and in time, many android phones stopped doing so as well.

The thing isn't about whether it hurts to have a feature or not. Simplicity is about stripping away everything not considered absolutely necessary in a product. It's easy to add in a million buttons, toggles, switches and features. What's even harder is saying "I don't think this is what makes a great product, and I am instead going to focus on the areas that do, such as a better trackpad, so that users will not need a touchscreen".

That's real courage.

 

[allenvanhellen]

Apple probably knows this. They’re 90% devices for 90% of the people. There will always be those who need to do more complex things, even if it’s only to format a USB stick into FAT.

Or edit video from a recent Fuji camera? iMovie for iPad inexplicably lost audio one minute into my clips for my grandmother’s memorial video, despite repeated and differentiated import attempts. I then tried my 2012 MacBook Pro… et voilà! Imported, edited, and exported no problem.

 

[NastyMatt]

That’s more on Google, though. Google’s always been a poor iOS citizen. One wonders if it’s part of an active conspiracy to promote Android and ChromeOS, a complete lack of care/interest/assigned developers on Google’s part, or if Google’s just slow as molasses in general.

I use GSuite (or Workplace or whatever this week’s name is for it) and use a browser most of the time, hence why I’d like true desktop class browser on iPadOS (amongst other apps).

 

[kc9hzn]

I use GSuite (or Workplace or whatever this week’s name is for it) and use a browser most of the time, hence why I’d like true desktop class browser on iPadOS (amongst other apps).

Well, if it’s GSuite we’re talking about, that’s still on Google, just on their web development teams instead of their iOS teams (but I’m not sure the Google Docs app isn’t just a web view anyway). Of course, they’re doing browser sniffing and delivering a sub-par experience to the iPad (when Safari on iOS is basically as capable as Safari on macOS for most things) on the grounds that it’s a touch screen “mobile” device. (Mobile browsers have been as capable as desktop browsers basically since the iPhone launched. Memory might have been a restraint for a while, but it really shouldn’t be today* with as much RAM as phones and tablets have now. But a lot of websites still treat them as second class citizens for some reason.)

Alas, Google Chrome is the new IE6 these days. Google uses its position as the maker of the dominant browser to propose a bunch of new web “standards” that really only make sense for its portfolio of web properties and operating systems/browser and has the temerity to ding other browsers for being less “standards-compliant” (despite those “standards” being weaponized standards). That’s neither here nor there, though.

* Well, as a software developer myself (with some experience in web development, even), I strongly suspect that most web developers do little to no performance testing. Page load times, memory profiling, JavaScript speed optimizations, most web developers seem to be pretty weak at the whole “software engineering” side of software development. And then there’s the incentive structure of the web that incentivizes loading your page full of third party trackers and third party ads that bloat page load times and memory usage. And that’s without all the extra steps developers do to make their sites “mobile optimized” (which probably just means “more billable hours”, but you didn’t hear it from me).

 

[dk001]

The real question you should be asking, is why you iPad enthusiasts are so excited about not being able to use the market-leading hardware that sits inside your iPads?

Why are you excited about a $999+ fully fledged computer that only has a single(Thunderbolt) I/O port?

Why don't you run apps that benefit from or need more than 16GBs of RAM?

Why do you want a computer that has enough power to run the desktop version of Final Cut Pro or Logic Pro, but forces you to get a subscription-only versions of these, that won't even bounce/export/run in the background if you multitask and switch to another app window?

Why don't you want to run all the plugins for Final Cut and Logic that you bought for your Mac on your iPad?

Why don't you need a computer that lets you use the full suite of Adobe CC apps but limits you to much less capable iPad versions?

Why don't you need better file management than what iPadOS offers?

Why don't you need to run Xcode?

Why don't you need full, app-specific key commands, but are fine with the limited or completely absent ones found in most iPad apps?

Why don't you need to run any and every kind of third-party app but are fine with the limited selection of apps found on the iPad App Store?

The answer is that your needs in a computer are very limited and fit exactly into the box that Apple has put iPad in and won't let take out of.

I'm not pointing fingers at you. None of us can or should tell each other what we should want or need.

But this goes the other way too -You all know very well of the myriads of apps, plugins, hardware, use cases, etc. that are not possible on iPad and shouldn't argue that we can all swap our desktops and laptops for an iPad Pro.

It does not matter what exact words or verbal definitions we use for iPads and Macs, respectively. Discussing what the word "computer" means is semantics and futile.

TLDR:
The fact that I can install and run anything I want on a Mac but not on an iPad is inarguable and also precisely where the key difference between the two lies.

It's not about the meta-level of iPad vs. Mac, the semantics of the word "computer" compared to "tablet". From that perspective, they are equally capable, both Apple Silicon computers.

It's about the exact specifics of all the big and small things that Apple blocks the user from doing on iPadOS while not providing a valid alternative that's optimized for iPad and equally capable to the Mac version. All while the same restrictions and limitations are nowhere to be found in macOS.

You getting your needs met in an iPad doesn't mean that others don't need a whole lot more, like a Mac.

*Don't @ me about how desktop/laptop apps aren't optimized for touch or Pencil and thus would suck or break the UI design dogma of iPadOS. That's obviously true.

But you don't get the same features and functionalities on iPad versions of "pro" desktop apps, if you even get any version of the app at all.

And on that note, I bet we wouldn't even been having this discussion if it weren't for Apple's many, all too expensive App Store fees, as every third party dev would happily make great iPad versions of their best apps, with no compromises.

So so true and nicely said.

One aspect I’ll add-on is that Apple limitations prevent developer/vendors (irrespective of the cost model) from porting their app or suite to the iPad. Unless they want to cripple it. If that is even doable.

Something I deal with in my world.

 

[dk001]

You would think this truth would be self evident, but my post is aimed at the people on these forums that continue, despite evidence to the contrary, to insist that iPad is only for content consumption, and that it's really just a "blown up iPhone."

Chuckle.

Count me in that group.
As a content consumption / email / blogging device it is great and primarily what I use it for. And yes, the OS is pretty much iOS with some spaghetti thrown against the OS wall added on.

What it can’t do I have MBP / PC / PC w Linux / Android. I don’t have a single device that can do it all. However, based on the current limitations in iPadOS, it has been relegated to be a “content consumption” style device for me. I would love to have Apple “fix” iPad OS so I can do more of what I need with it. Not holding my breath.

Been a fine reading thread.