iPad Pro The end of the iPad era for me, the dawn of M1 era

[rui no onna]

iPadOS is a marketing name. The OS that the iPad runs is 10 years old and its "infancy" is less about age and more due to it being treated like caged veal. Its lack of growth is intentional.


We've been saying that for 5 years and the iPad has not matured anywhere near the same rate as the hardware. So a more likely scenario is that the M1 Mac will continue to differentiate itself from the Legacy Mac and the iPad will remain the same.

I think there's been some strides.

1. Fewer websites that don't work in Safari for iPad
2. Access to "On my iPad" storage (granted, not full file system access)
3. Ability to mount network shares
4. File handling (still buggy especially when dealing with large transfers)
5. Addition of mouse and trackpad support
6. Improvements to home screen/dock and some native app layouts to take better advantage of screen real estate

Memory management is still an issue on iOS. Apple needs to add more RAM or use an actual swap file.

It's not like the CPU, GPU, RAM and SSD improvements were for naught. They need that in place first before they can tackle software.

The flash storage on these things used to have random 4K write performance lower or equivalent to HDD. I just ran Jazz Disk Bench on my 512GB Pro 10.5 and it only does 4.3 MB/s, 1090 IOPS and on the 256GB Air 3, it's 8.7 MB/s, 2230 IOPS. Even the 1st gen Intel SATA2 SSDs did 15-20 MB/s 4K writes. I don't know how much that has changed in A12X/Z and A14. Looking at these benchmarks, that plus low entry level storage capacities may be why they haven't implemented swap files in iOS.

 

[Ludatyk]

This is my main thinking behind the theory that Apple won’t merge the iPad and Mac lines soon. Apple benefits by having 2 separate devices that you can buy. If you have an iPad/Mac hybrid that does it all, it’s less money for Apple. I guess they could still sell Macs and iPads separately, alongside a hybrid, for those only want those certain experiences only, but idk ?‍♂️

I don’t think Apple mindset is the money aspect, I think it’s more a philosophy with the Mac. They want to avoid it from becoming a touch-based interface. I know it’s leaning that way.. with BigSur, but I think that would never happen. Similar to iMessage not coming to Android, now.. I do feel with the introduction of Apple Silicon, it will help bring those powerful desktop software that was specifically on macOS.. to the iPad.

 

[blurryvision]

iPadOS is a marketing name. The OS that the iPad runs is 10 years old and its "infancy" is less about age and more due to it being treated like caged veal. Its lack of growth is intentional.


We've been saying that for 5 years and the iPad has not matured anywhere near the same rate as the hardware. So a more likely scenario is that the M1 Mac will continue to differentiate itself from the Legacy Mac and the iPad will remain the same.

I personally feel like this is a very pessimistic view, but yes I agree most people would think this.

I think it might be okay to be a little more optimistic this time about the future of iPad especially now that the Macs are starting to transition to Silicon. This is unprecedented and hasn’t happened in the last 10 years. It may mean something will come soon, most likely through slow incremental updates.

iPadOS is a rebranded name but I don’t believe its just there for marketing - I believe that it’ll get there and changes in utility will slowly come.

Biggest change this year is Mac being crosscompatible with iPad apps. That alone will likely have a big impact.

Realistically this is the first year that Apple really pushed the laptop aspect of iPad when they released the Magic Keyboard. This already signals that changes will be coming and are in the works.

 

[007p]

I think that would never happen

Never is a strong word. Touch is going to happen sooner or later. It’s inevitable.
There is already a generation growing up on touch. Once they are the ones building and using these devices, touch will, at worst, be an option. It may never become the only or primary method of input but it will be added eventually.

I really don’t know why people are opposed to it so strongly tbh. It’s only an input option. Unless what they are actually scared about is that once it’s an option, it will quickly become the only method of input - which just seems crazy. Every other device, now including iPad, has both.

 

[Ludatyk]

Never is a strong word. Touch is going to happen sooner or later. It’s inevitable.
There is already a generation growing up on touch. Once they are the ones building and using these devices, touch will, at worst, be an option. It may never become the only or primary method of input but it will be added eventually.

I really don’t know why people are opposed to it so strongly tbh. It’s only an input option. Unless what they are actually scared about is that once it’s an option, it will quickly become the only method of input - which just seems crazy. Every other device, now including iPad, has both.

Fair enough. I should never use absolutes... your right. It would eventually happen, and as you just mention.. it could at the very least be an option.

 

[rowspaxe]

Realistically this is the first year that Apple really pushed the laptop aspect of iPad when they released the Magic Keyboard. This already signals that changes will be coming and are in the works.

It seems to me that "progress" associated with the iPad and iPad OS is tied to iPad being used as a
laptop with a keyboard, trackpad and mouse. Can we agree idea of touch based apps and OS supplanting
keyboard/trackpad/mouse technology is dead? I use the iPad for art: it is a transformational tool because
of touch. But for other productivity use cases--excepting notes- I think touch has been massively overhyped.

 

[blurryvision]

It seems to me that "progress" associated with the iPad and iPad OS is tied to iPad being used as a
laptop with a keyboard, trackpad and mouse. Can we agree idea of touch based apps and OS supplanting
keyboard/trackpad/mouse technology is dead? I use the iPad for art: it is a transformational tool because
of touch. But for other productivity use cases--excepting notes- I think touch has been massively overhyped.

I agree with you on that one. Any app that utilizes the pencil is worth it and extremely functional, but in every other use case I prefer to use the Magic Keyboard to navigate my iPad. I don’t touch the screen anymore unless I’m writing notes or drawing.

After having used the keyboard, I don’t know what the benefits of touch are without the Pencil. The iPad really is far better with a keyboard/trackpad. Even in gaming, most people would rather use a wireless controller. There’s not much you can do with touch.

I guess the benefits of a touchscreen like iPad is mostly its light weight. I find that the option of having a detachable keyboard is definitely a plus and I find it really convenient going back and forth between tablet mode and keyboard mode. Using it as a book, newspaper, drawing, scanning documents & 3D enviroments, Facetime, VS sending emails, browsing, typing long notes, having something plugged in while charging with the Magic Keyboard port, and other heavier tasks.

 

[Digitalguy]

Never is a strong word. Touch is going to happen sooner or later. It’s inevitable.
There is already a generation growing up on touch. Once they are the ones building and using these devices, touch will, at worst, be an option. It may never become the only or primary method of input but it will be added eventually.

I really don’t know why people are opposed to it so strongly tbh. It’s only an input option. Unless what they are actually scared about is that once it’s an option, it will quickly become the only method of input - which just seems crazy. Every other device, now including iPad, has both.

I think it should be distinguished between those that don't want touch on mac (because they are scared Apple would do something bad to the UI while they implement touch) and those that think that Apple will not implement (at least over the next 5-10 years), like me (in order to protect iPads), but not only would like it, but it's almost a condition to buy a laptop. All the Windows laptops I have bought over the last 3 years have touch, except one, which I bought because it was the lightest 13in in the world (Samsung notebook 9) but which at home I use via a 14in touch monitor with pen support. By the way most of my laptops also support pen. As a University teacher that's pretty useful to me for annotating documents. And I have grown used to using touch for several Windows apps and websites. Even my desktop is connected to a touch monitor. Unfortunately as far as I know, Macs don't support touch via usb C I think....

 

[Amplelink]

I agree with you on that one. Any app that utilizes the pencil is worth it and extremely functional, but in every other use case I prefer to use the Magic Keyboard to navigate my iPad. I don’t touch the screen anymore unless I’m writing notes or drawing.

After having used the keyboard, I don’t know what the benefits of touch are without the Pencil. The iPad really is far better with a keyboard/trackpad. Even in gaming, most people would rather use a wireless controller. There’s not much you can do with touch.

I guess the benefits of a touchscreen like iPad is mostly its light weight. I find that the option of having a detachable keyboard is definitely a plus and I find it really convenient going back and forth between tablet mode and keyboard mode. Using it as a book, newspaper, drawing, scanning documents & 3D enviroments, Facetime, VS sending emails, browsing, typing long notes, having something plugged in while charging with the Magic Keyboard port, and other heavier tasks.

Yes, it's the fact that you can manipulate it much more easily than a laptop. It's a very versatile form factor. There's no reason from a hardware perspective that Apple can't do Mac OS on an iPad. They just choose not to.

I think with Apple pushing universal apps, developers really have little to do iPad-specific apps, right? Or is it rather that the biggest market is still iPhone apps and that now developers can reach Mac users as well by building a universal app?

 

[kristalsoldier]

I agree with you on that one. Any app that utilizes the pencil is worth it and extremely functional, but in every other use case I prefer to use the Magic Keyboard to navigate my iPad. I don’t touch the screen anymore unless I’m writing notes or drawing.

After having used the keyboard, I don’t know what the benefits of touch are without the Pencil. The iPad really is far better with a keyboard/trackpad. Even in gaming, most people would rather use a wireless controller. There’s not much you can do with touch.

I guess the benefits of a touchscreen like iPad is mostly its light weight. I find that the option of having a detachable keyboard is definitely a plus and I find it really convenient going back and forth between tablet mode and keyboard mode. Using it as a book, newspaper, drawing, scanning documents & 3D enviroments, Facetime, VS sending emails, browsing, typing long notes, having something plugged in while charging with the Magic Keyboard port, and other heavier tasks.

Yes, but see, the whole logic of the iPad was (and, arguably remains) to facilitate touch-centric use. Moreover, the very design philosophy of the iPad was to be a tablet (almost like a thin client for other more processor-intensive machines/ activity). Sure, Apple seems to be deviating from this. But then again, by deviating from this path (which is not a matter of being “good” or “bad”), they are veering into Microsoft’s Surface territory. So, can we say that the iPad is evolving? Possibly. At a personal level, do I welcome this evolution? I have mixed feelings about it. Why? Because, for me - and it’s important to emphasize this - it would mean a dilution of the purity of the original iPad design philosophy.

 

[Zazoh]

Touch is so bad on a vertical surface when using a keyboard that Apple added mouse and trackpad support. Even built in on the option Magic case trackpad keyboard.

In fact, on a laptop, the trackpad allows one to virtually touch the screen. In a very comfortable way.

And, without getting your fingerprints on the screen, you filthy animals.

 

[007p]

it would mean a dilution of the purity of the original iPad design philosophy.

Isn’t that the benefit of an iPad Pro though? They can leave the iPad, iPad Air/Mini untouched with regards to the ‘original philosophy’ and experiment with the Pro.

The problem with iPad at the moment is purely software. We are now at a stage where the Air almost has the same hardware as the Pro, something needs to differentiate them. For me, that can no longer be the latest screen technology or some faster GPU. There needs to be a reason to need that power, and based on the 2018 iPad Pro it was needed 2-3 years ago too...

 

[kristalsoldier]

Isn’t that the benefit of an iPad Pro though? They can leave the iPad, iPad Air/Mini untouched with regards to the ‘original philosophy’ and experiment with the Pro.

The problem with iPad at the moment is purely software. We are now at a stage where the Air almost has the same hardware as the Pro, something needs to differentiate them. For me, that can no longer be the latest screen technology or some faster GPU. There needs to be a reason to need that power, and based on the 2018 iPad Pro it was needed 2-3 years ago too...

That depends. For example, stripping the Air 2020 of Promotion and of 128GB storage with 6GB RAM is what deterred me from buying it. I opted for the Pro 2020 instead. My use case? As a pure tablet.

 

[Apple_Robert]

My biggest gripe with my iPad Pro right now, is the lack of ability to readily download files from the websites etc. I don’t have the need every day but, it would be nice to have the feature, instead of waiting until I get home and then having to log into my mini and use a third party app.

 

[Zazoh]

My biggest gripe with my iPad Pro right now, is the lack of ability to readily download files from the websites etc. I don’t have the need every day but, it would be nice to have the feature, instead of waiting until I get home and then having to log into my mini and use a third party app.

How to manage downloads in Safari on iPad

Manage your downloads in Safari like a pro. Here's how to get those downloads organized.

www.imore.com

 

[Apple_Robert]

How to manage downloads in Safari on iPad

Manage your downloads in Safari like a pro. Here's how to get those downloads organized.

www.imore.com

Thank you very much for the link. I am glad to now know that I can download a lot of different things from regular websites.

 

[Joseph_DiMaggio]

I think it’s pretty clear that Apple never intended the iPad Pro to be the replacement for a Mac in a professional setting. Just look at the lack of things such as macro support in any spreadsheet application or the lack of any reference manager integration or the lack of any integration for extremely commonly used and necessary plugins.

Unfortunately I bought an iPad Pro as a replacement for a 10 year old Mac without fully researching these issues and now need to get a Mac in order to write academic papers. I’ll keep the iPad for surfing Reddit, watching movies, and other useless stuff but for actual professional tasks it’s definitely the Mac.

I don’t see a place for a fully capable iPad Pro in the Apple lineup. It’s more expensive that the equivalent MacBook Air (based on storage) before you include the cost of a keyboard or pencil. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the current iteration of the iPad Pro killed off.

 

[yurc]

As mostly a desktop person who sitting in front multiple monitors entire time, I think iPad is like support devices, additional assist tools.

E.g, rather than cluttering my Resolve window with mail app, I prefer check on the iPad, is also faster with a few finger sweeps (unless replying), usually just to check if something important entered my inbox. It's also good for reading my entire book collection, reading manual, watching tutorial, while I can still focus on my main desktop monitor.

I still old fashioned dude who prefer not to put everything in one basket where came to computers. I would use 'truck' (desktop) with bunch of peripheral connected, while I want iPad as simple as possible, unit + pencil at max, without psychical keyboard attached.

The merit of iPad are camera, accelerometer, touchscreen, it was great handheld all purpose computer, in the single thin package.

The merit of more traditional computer are more open (OS side), peripheral connectivity like scanner, capture cards, specialized input device (tangent panel, pen tablet) ad many more as your computer permit.

 

[throAU]

I'm very much on the verge of doing similar but not quite:

• dropping from iPad Pro to iPad air
• switching from intel MacBook Pro/MacBook Air to M1 MacBook Air.

 

[KittyKatta]

So, can we say that the iPad is evolving? Possibly. At a personal level, do I welcome this evolution? I have mixed feelings about it. Why? Because, for me - and it’s important to emphasize this - it would mean a dilution of the purity of the original iPad design philosophy.

Not arguing, just want to tackle the whole “evolution” secret.... The existence of a Pro-level iPad wasn’t intentional.

The answer to why the iPad has such a huge hardware/software gap is hinted right here:

“We overshot,” says Federighi. “You have these projects where, sometimes you have a goal and you’re like, ‘well, we got close, that was fine’. This one, part of what has us all just bouncing off the walls here – just smiling – is that as we brought the pieces together, we’re like, ‘this is working better than we even thought it would.“

Thats Federighi talking about the 2020 Mac but he could have easily have been saying the exact same thing 5 years ago about the iPad. It seems that Apple was using the iPad as a test bed for their processor development but never actually intended for the iPad to be this powerful. It just happened and suddenly a “Pro” tablet was born with no mother.


In parallel universe where the iPad got a proper amount of attention then the 2016 iPad Pro would have been Apple‘s detour to ARM based computers in a more versatile form factor and Macs would be the legacy product on its way out. But as it is then Apple put all its apples in the Mac basket and the iPad is “only” the worlds greatest tablet but its directionless as a computer platform.

 

[Greybrick]

I’m currently on the fence with purchasing the M1 MacBook Air. I don’t like having too many gadgets around the house so I’d be selling my iPad Pro 2018 (also would want to recoup some value from it while I can). I love the screen quality, streaming app support, touchscreen interface and top-notch security of the iPad as my primary computer. iOS’ relative security is actually one of the primary reasons I have favored it over the past two years; I don’t mind running antivirus / antimalware and am always careful with information & websites but as you truly don’t have to fuss with added security software in the case of iOS it just provides extra peace of mind.

At the same time, file management and USB transfer speeds have been abysmal when managing my photo library on iOS. So many file relocations failed and Dropbox syncing is messy! I also miss simple things like being able to order photos from most web services without having to load them into my Apple Photos library. Finally, I’ve never gotten used to typing with either the Magic Keyboard or Logitech Folio in my lap which means I’m locked to a desk for some tasks with my otherwise portable device. I’m at a real crossroads over this purchase, as I see many pros & cons with each device.

 

[rui no onna]

Not arguing, just want to tackle the whole “evolution” secret.... The existence of a Pro-level iPad wasn’t intentional.

The answer to why the iPad has such a huge hardware/software gap is hinted right here:

“We overshot,” says Federighi. “You have these projects where, sometimes you have a goal and you’re like, ‘well, we got close, that was fine’. This one, part of what has us all just bouncing off the walls here – just smiling – is that as we brought the pieces together, we’re like, ‘this is working better than we even thought it would.“

Thats Federighi talking about the 2020 Mac but he could have easily have been saying the exact same thing 5 years ago about the iPad. It seems that Apple was using the iPad as a test bed for their processor development but never actually intended for the iPad to be this powerful. It just happened and suddenly a “Pro” tablet was born with no mother.


In parallel universe where the iPad got a proper amount of attention then the 2016 iPad Pro would have been Apple‘s detour to ARM based computers in a more versatile form factor and Macs would be the legacy product on its way out. But as it is then Apple put all its apples in the Mac basket and the iPad is “only” the worlds greatest tablet but its directionless as a computer platform.

5 years ago, the A9X just touched upon Core 2 Duo performance which was already 7 years old at the time. Apple was still playing catch up back then.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Not arguing, just want to tackle the whole “evolution” secret.... The existence of a Pro-level iPad wasn’t intentional.

The answer to why the iPad has such a huge hardware/software gap is hinted right here:

“We overshot,” says Federighi. “You have these projects where, sometimes you have a goal and you’re like, ‘well, we got close, that was fine’. This one, part of what has us all just bouncing off the walls here – just smiling – is that as we brought the pieces together, we’re like, ‘this is working better than we even thought it would.“

Thats Federighi talking about the 2020 Mac but he could have easily have been saying the exact same thing 5 years ago about the iPad. It seems that Apple was using the iPad as a test bed for their processor development but never actually intended for the iPad to be this powerful. It just happened and suddenly a “Pro” tablet was born with no mother.


In parallel universe where the iPad got a proper amount of attention then the 2016 iPad Pro would have been Apple‘s detour to ARM based computers in a more versatile form factor and Macs would be the legacy product on its way out. But as it is then Apple put all its apples in the Mac basket and the iPad is “only” the worlds greatest tablet but its directionless as a computer platform.

In philosophical terms, existence and/ or evolution is not intentional, it’s accidental.

 

[Kostas3000]

It seems to me that "progress" associated with the iPad and iPad OS is tied to iPad being used as a
laptop with a keyboard, trackpad and mouse. Can we agree idea of touch based apps and OS supplanting
keyboard/trackpad/mouse technology is dead? I use the iPad for art: it is a transformational tool because
of touch. But for other productivity use cases--excepting notes- I think touch has been massively overhyped.

Great point about the limitations of touch interface.
The biggest limitation is the whole ergonomics aspect. Instead of having the screen at eye level and working with your spine straight, you end up looking down in a position that is not optimal for your spine for long working sessions.
If you end up attaching a keyboard, track board etc, then what is the point of using iPad vs traditional laptop/desktop? You lose the portability and you are still stuck with a limited OS.

The other big limitations is that Siri dictation neven really got close to a functional system that would negate the need for keyboard. For some simple short messages, it is ok, but for anything more complicated it is better to type it vs dictating it and having to go back for corrections. I wish there was a way to officially train Siri dictation for someone's particular needs/vocabulary/accent. I guess some ML training is already happening on the background, but I takes time and initial frustration, if it ever reaches a functional level.

The other issue is that the touch interface never really got a way get an precise input (precision level of cursor with the mouse on traditional platforms). The Pencil could have been the precise input method, but they focused on the writing /drawing aspect rather than a general purpose UI instrument. Try also to select multiple objects (e.g. Powerpoint presentation editing) and you will experience an unnecessary frustration.

At this point, the only remaining advantage of iPad for my use case is the portrait orientation that is comfortable and immersive for reading pdfs.

 

[rowspaxe]

Great point about the limitations of touch interface.

Did we all forget the talk of non-touch pc/mac apps as being 'legacy apps'? Now the discussion is about
bringing these apps to the iPad with keyboard/trackpad/mouse support.