"The future of computing is the iPad"

[mrex]

Hmm!!!

iPadOS...

uhm... uhm... yes for people who only know how to tap pretty pictures and write using pictogram because they are too lazy to learn anything that needs brains...

"look, banana! now i have two bananas!"
no tim, the other is an apple! try to find another banana.
"tim wants cake now!"
how do you spell it?
"three taps! tap that, then this and finally that!"

 

[alba63]

I think Apple will keep the iPad where it is to avoid it competing with it lap and desktops.

There will be updates and improvements to the iPad OS but there will be limits.

You may - unfortunately - be right, but opening up iOS would create a much bigger user base for iPADs than the Macs will ever have. There are much more iPADs sold than Macbooks and iMACs. Mac computers are a niche, and probably will ever be. iPADs with a real OS could be much more mainstream. I can type 80% as fast on the virtual iPAD keyboard (9.7 iPAD) as I do on a real PC keyboard.

With an iPAD running a (only slightly) slimmed down OS-X with a proper filesystem people could finally use iPADs as a real computer. For some it would not be enough, but for many it would. Current tablets with iOS are just too limited in almost every sense. They are not very good at a lot of things.

 

[richinaus]

This might make sense for the general population, but what about business professionals? I need document storage, access the database files, the ability to download, create, edit, and save documents. I know a cloud based system might help, but in my business many documents are sensitive and privacy is an issue. Storing them on a cloud server is out of the question. I would also need a keyboard for extended periods of typing. So if I add a keyboard mine as well bring a laptop.

As a matter of fact I just added a desktop to the mix. Keep sensitive docs at home. I also edit a lot of video. iPad or iPhone is rudementary at best. Not very productive.

For people like my wife it makes perfect sense. We are talking about selling her laptop because she never uses it. Most of her time is spent with an iPhone or iPad. For me that would not work.

Your are right. By the time I had the keyboard cover on my 12" iPad Pro I may as well have a laptop, and I did. the laptop serves me way better than the iPad for my work.
However, as a general home use computer, the pro did fine and I can see how it can work for a lot of people. Just not me and the work I do.

I do believe though that laptops and iPads will merge at some point, although I also do tend to feel that I am much more comfortable doing a lot of tasks on a laptop / desktop than iPad. The real benefit for me and an iPad is sketching and viewing images.

 

[Count Blah]

Document management: check Devonthink
Video editing: check LumaFusion

After checking these apps, you will be convinced that iPad can serve you even better

So third party apps, that can disappear/lose support at any time, is enough to get people to compromise their digital lives?

Nah. Until a file system is built in, it's only completely replacing the computer for rudimentary of users

 

[rowspaxe]

With an iPAD running a (only slightly) slimmed down OS-X with a proper filesystem people could finally use iPADs as a real computer. For some it would not be enough, but for many it would. Current tablets with iOS are just too limited in almost every sense. They are not very good at a lot of things.

What is the benefit, aside from pen input, of doing productivity work on an ipad? If apple added trackpad and mouse support, usb support, etc, then you end up with an apple Surface.

 

[alba63]

What is the benefit, aside from pen input, of doing productivity work on an ipad? If apple added trackpad and mouse support, usb support, etc, then you end up with an apple Surface.

No, not mouse support, I wouldn't consider carrying one around : as many keep asking, simply a proper file system that allows finding, opening and saving files with any appripriate app. Plus simple file transfer onto an SD- card or USB-stick. Without a filesystem iOS is not a real operating system for me. It makes everything so complicated!

 

[0098386]

The OS certainly needs an upgrade. I really enjoy my iPad - I use it for web browsing, news reading, drawing, and occasionally Netflix/Youtube/iPlayer if all the TV's are in use. I especially love the white balance shifting display and how light it is but even for more casual use I can't rely on it. Photos, iTunes are much more useable on OSX... I can understand and appreciate how simple iOS is on telephones though.

I can see it being the future, with some big improvements. I think it's on the right path though.

 

[Brammy]

So third party apps, that can disappear/lose support at any time, is enough to get people to compromise their digital lives?

Well, even 1st party apps can disappear/lose support (pours one out for Aperture), but the "file system" argument is pretty much gone these days on iOS. iCloud Drive/Dropbox/OneDrive, etc. are supported via the document extensions. The iCloud Drive document picker is a dumpster fire, but hopefully it will get better in iOS 11. And by better, I mean "the way it was in iOS 9."

I put all my stuff in either iCloud Drive or OneDrive, and I haven't had too many problems.

 

[sparksd]

Well, even 1st party apps can disappear/lose support (pours one out for Aperture), but the "file system" argument is pretty much gone these days on iOS. iCloud Drive/Dropbox/OneDrive, etc. are supported via the document extensions. The iCloud Drive document picker is a dumpster fire, but hopefully it will get better in iOS 11. And by better, I mean "the way it was in iOS 9."

I put all my stuff in either iCloud Drive or OneDrive, and I haven't had too many problems.

I do a lot of travel to places where Internet access is unavailable or extremely dicey at best so anything I need has to go with me in some form that is fast and reliable. I don't use the cloud other than to share photos with friends and family.

 

[pika2000]

I do a lot of travel to places where Internet access is unavailable or extremely dicey at best so anything I need has to go with me in some form that is fast and reliable. I don't use the cloud other than to share photos with friends and family.

Google Drive, Dropbox, etc allows you to selectively pick folders to be stored offline.
If you mean music/movies, there are plenty of external hard-drives now that can be accessed by iOS/Android via wifi.

 

[bufffilm]

The iPad Pro 12.9 decked out is $1000...$1130 w/cellular. It does some things well and other tasks, not so well or not at all.

If Apple is truly serious about people going to the iPad and ditching their desktops/laptops...then they have to get serious about enhancing iOS, rethinking the App Store, and adding things like mouse support, etc.

Otherwise, we will never realize the full potential of the iPad and sales will never progress beyond what we have now.

The choice is on Apple.

Meanwhile, I will continue to use my lowly ipad2 with the non-Retina screen because they are dragging their feet. I refuse to pay $1000 for something that half delivers.

 

[alba63]

the "file system" argument is pretty much gone these days on iOS. iCloud Drive/Dropbox/OneDrive, etc. are supported via the document extensions.

It isn't because there are files so big that an upload is very unconvenient, eats the monthly transfer volume etc. Plus, too slow. Photo RAW files are 20-50MB per file with high rez cameras, let alone video files.
As for documents, even if some do not understand: I simply try not to upload documents to a cloud server, specially if it is a non- European one. American laws for data security are different (less strict) than here in Germany. Ask whistle blowsers like Edward Snowden.
Exceptions are non- ciritical smaller files I want to share, like photos as downsized Jpgs. Which I do.

 

[sparksd]

Google Drive, Dropbox, etc allows you to selectively pick folders to be stored offline.
If you mean music/movies, there are plenty of external hard-drives now that can be accessed by iOS/Android via wifi.

Yes, but with no Internet they are not accessible.

I do use a FileHub for movies and straight backup from a camera SD card to an HDD but if I want to do something (edit & sort) with 10GB of photos on a daily basis while traveling I use a laptop.

 

[pika2000]

Yes, but with no Internet they are not accessible.

I do use a FileHub for movies and straight backup from a camera SD card to an HDD but if I want to do something (edit & sort) with 10GB of photos on a daily basis while traveling I use a laptop.

Use the right tool for the purpose. I use my Macbook Pro to edit my photos and videos (Lightroom + Final Cut). Doesn't mean the iPad is not a feasible computing device. I mean if people can get away with just a web browser (Chromebooks), then the iPad is more than feasible as a computing device.

 

[Huntn]

The iPad's convienent browsing ability is it's best feature. It's not nearly as good for general computing tasks. Mac hardware and the MacOS are superior in this regard, imo.

 

[alba63]

Mac hardware and the MacOS are superior in this regard, imo.

Just as: PC hardware and Windows 10. At home I use my PC nearly all the time for all my tasks, except showing photos to family and friends.

However I never liked the classic notebook form factor, when I am outside of my home or work (where I have PCs accessible), I would like to use a tablet.

 

[Huntn]

Just as: PC hardware and Windows 10. At home I use my PC nearly all the time for all my tasks, except showing photos to family and friends.

However I never liked the classic notebook form factor, when I am outside of my home or work (where I have PCs accessible), I would like to use a tablet.

I have a long parallel history using both Mac and PC OSs and the MacOS is my personal choice. I'll admit that Win 10 is the best Windows ever, but every Windows version (every version) I've used to date (starting with Win95) has required multiple clean installs as a matter of routine. Now I have yet to have to do a clean install on Win10, but I've never had to perform a clean install on MacOSX since it's original launch.

 

[alba63]

True, this is the main advantage OS-X still has compared to Windows, on the other hand I absolutely dislike (to say it politely) the finder and the way files, folders and data are displayed, copied, moved. Way more convenient in Windows.

Both OSses seem to have strenghts and weaknesses, and in the end habit plays a big role.

But let's not make this a "Mac versus PC" debate. Nobody on planet earth needs those anymore.

 

[subjonas]

Google Drive, Dropbox, etc allows you to selectively pick folders to be stored offline.

Just wanted to throw in a clarification: Dropbox allows you to selectively choose folders to store offline on an iOS device only if you are a paid Dropbox subscriber. Selectively choosing individual files is free. Not sure about google drive.

In any case, having to pay a subscription to store your files on your device is not ideal (and choosing to store individual files is not realistic for large numbers of files). A fully offline non-subscription file management app like FileBrowser would probably work better, although I haven't used it enough to fully vouch for it.

 

[IPadNParadise]

Hope its ok to ask this question here, but it is related to one day using my ipad and not replacing my mbp when its life expires. Question: today I received many large jpeg attachments via email. I chose to use my mbp to download the attachments and then exported them to PDF (they were document pages). If I had used my ipad they would have downloaded into my Photos app and taken up my limited remaining icloud storage. So what could I have done on the ipad to prevent this compared to what I was able to do on my mbp?

 

[Brammy]

Question: today I received many large jpeg attachments via email. I chose to use my mbp to download the attachments and then exported them to PDF (they were document pages). If I had used my ipad they would have downloaded into my Photos app and taken up my limited remaining icloud storage. So what could I have done on the ipad to prevent this compared to what I was able to do on my mbp?

Your Mac is the best option. One area with the iPad that really sucks is dealing with multiple files via an email. If you don't have iCloud Photos turned on, you could save the JPGs to Photos, use an app like PDF Photos to create the PDF, and then use an app like Documents by Reedle to store the final PDF.

An iPad is best with some sort of cloud storage.

 

[thelookingglass]

Your Mac is the best option. One area with the iPad that really sucks is dealing with multiple files via an email. If you don't have iCloud Photos turned on, you could save the JPGs to Photos, use an app like PDF Photos to create the PDF, and then use an app like Documents by Reedle to store the final PDF.

An iPad is best with some sort of cloud storage.

I wouldn't even use an iPad if it weren't for iCloud Drive and OneDrive. Those two apps make the iPad actually useable for work.

 

[alecgold]

Why can't people accept there is for the foreseeable future there is a need for a traditional OS and setup.

Says the guy with a commodore avatar , sorry, I found that very funny.

But what happens time and again in these forums is that people think their usecase is the prevailing one.
But macrumors isn't a good representation/crossection of the users of electronic devices. Not even the subgroup of Apple users. A lot of people here have much more interest in computers, laptops, phones tablets and whatnot. I think they also have a tendency to use more and heavier programs.

Why were netbooks such a success? Why are chrome books still somewhat popular? Cheap and the features people needed/wanted. Plus a bit of a hype.
iPads have been the same, (not-very-)cheap, friendly, easy to use. And they last really long. My iPad Original is still being used, as is the iPad mini original.
I plan to use my pro's for around 3-4 years professionally and then my kids will use them for a few more years.

I think it's safe to say that most team leaders/division managers/CEO/CFO's never need a laptop anymore. How often do they create original content? A few documents? Perhaps some numbers? Most writing is email, but that isn't any problem on an iPad. But ±80% is reading, commenting, reviewing, annotating.
So many business information systems are web-based or at least web-accessible, so that isn't a problem anymore either.
In meetings it is much more convenient to have a tablet then a computer. It is more open, less looking like playing battleship/stratego board games. And people can't check their Facebook/instagram/snap that easily anymore.

At home, how many people create documents/excel's/do Serious work stuff? Most, from what is see is around me, is binging series, doodling in pigment, viewing holiday photos and compiling the albums and reading comics. Why not do that on an iPad? iPad Pro 12.9"?
[doublepost=1495041883][/doublepost]

Your Mac is the best option. One area with the iPad that really sucks is dealing with multiple files via an email. If you don't have iCloud Photos turned on, you could save the JPGs to Photos, use an app like PDF Photos to create the PDF, and then use an app like Documents by Reedle to store the final PDF.

An iPad is best with some sort of cloud storage.

Documents 5 / PDF expert 6 could do it locally in the iPad as well. But clouds do make it much, much easier with multiple devices/ os's
[doublepost=1495042162][/doublepost]

Hope its ok to ask this question here, but it is related to one day using my ipad and not replacing my mbp when its life expires. Question: today I received many large jpeg attachments via email. I chose to use my mbp to download the attachments and then exported them to PDF (they were document pages). If I had used my ipad they would have downloaded into my Photos app and taken up my limited remaining icloud storage. So what could I have done on the ipad to prevent this compared to what I was able to do on my mbp?

Readdle scanner Pro could have combined the, in one PDF, perhaps documents 5 is able to do the same. Let me check.
Edit: documents 5 can merge files, so that should be possible as well. Printer pro/scanner pro could turn jpg's into pdfs and merge them as well.

 

[s2mikey]

I think most people already do this on their phone. So how big of a market can there be for people to put down their phones and pick up an iPad to continue doing the same thing (with the same limitations)?

The extra screen real estate alone is worth the switch to an iPad. Phones suck for anything other than texting and calls, IMO. Sceen is too damned small. I have no idea how anyone could use a phone for actual productivity or even most gaming.

As for the iPad - its a great device and replaces most of what people do on a laptop or whatever. That being said, I still have a laptop but thats for specific games and so we have a "computer" in the house. Also have to have a windows compatible system for the kids homework and school stuff.

 

[alecgold]

The extra screen real estate alone is worth the switch to an iPad. Phones suck for anything other than texting and calls, IMO. Sceen is too damned small. I have no idea how anyone could use a phone for actual productivity or even most gaming.

You are not a teenager...
Neither am I and I do agree with you so much.