iPad The iPad is not for traditional Mac users

[BanjoDudeAhoy]

The iPad is for anyone and everyone who can find a purpose in using it. Saying it isn't for the traditional user is wrong and very short-sighted on your part.

I agree.
I’ve had my own PC ever since I was 6, learned to use DOS, learned to use Windows, learned some Linux, even learned to program in Assembler a little.

These days my “around the house” computer is… my iPad. For long writing tasks, making music, editing photos I use my MacBook. But even shorter emails, iMessage etc… iPad. I love it.

 

[heinzdembowski]

The iPad is good for drawing. That's where it ends. Aside from that, it's not a bicycle for the mind, it's a TV for the mind. Sure, you could be watching all the education programmes there are but you're really force feeding on **** like news, braindead Netflix shows, and mindless scrolling. Oh and let me also assess that my opinion is humble.

 

[heinzdembowski]

The iPad is good for drawing. That's where it ends. Aside from that, it's not a bicycle for the mind, it's a TV for the mind. Sure, you could be watching all the education programmes there are but you're really force feeding on **** like news, braindead Netflix shows, and mindless scrolling. Oh and let me also assess that my opinion is humble.

What the **** is going on here you can't say s hit? Ridiculous

 

[subjonas]

Simplicity is its key selling point here, not complexity. I agree that there are still plenty of updates to be had, but I am wary of cramming it full of “power user” features requested by a small and vocal group of people, at the expense of making the whole iPad experience so much more confusing and overwhelming for everyone else.

I suspect having a lot of extra big features that most people don’t use might also bloat the software which would be detrimental to most of the user base.

 

[subjonas]

(Its kinda stupid to assume I am a ‘simpler person’)

He probably should have said “people with simpler needs”.

 

[subjonas]

The iPad is for anyone and everyone who can find a purpose in using it. Saying it isn't for the traditional user is wrong and very short-sighted on your part.

After reading OP’s post, I think the thread title misrepresented what OP was really saying, which was just that a certain subset of people who complain that the iPad isn’t more like the Mac are people who actually just need a Mac, and they don’t see (or accept) the iPad for what Apple intends it to be.

 

[Reggaenald]

so, lets make something quite clear - I dont want iPad to be more Mac like.

I would HATE IT if iPad became more Mac Like. I would hate it so much I would probably stop using the ipad and go back to the Mac / Windows. And there are lots of people like me. That is not to say iPadOS doesn’t have a lot to improve - it does - it has wayyy much to improve still. There are plenty of things that could be better - and especially when it comes to third-party software - we need more Pro apps, and full featured powerful apps. Some are already here, but others need to follow suit.

As for the iPadOS - I firmly believe its superior to MacOS not inferior. Its still not as feature packed or mature as MacOS is, but that is to be expected. What it lacks in maturity it provides with sophistication. iPadOS is by far the most sophisticated personal computing OS in existence today, in my humble opinion. What do I mean by this? How can it be ‘most sophisticated’ when it doesn’t have even basic features like - looking at folder size in Files App or formatting a usb drive (was this added?). Well, iPadOS may lack some tools like these, but it has incredible integration across the OS (so many ways for apps to talk to eachother), it has incredible security *(each app is sandboxed basically), it has really smart system wide features like ‘Shortcuts’ App, Share sheet, urls and app Apis (this is almost linux from 80s like), it has incredible app catalogue - and amazing Installing / Uninstalling / even offloading features, it has a wast variety of widgets, and it has completely new and unique memory management - where apps have ‘states‘ and can - depending on the state be chosen to be pre-warmed by the system / refreshed in background / active / not active but in memory / unloaded - and so on. Apps get apis to say what and how to transition these states so could save data and so on. Think about how great it is that iPad can hold literally infinite programs ‘open’ whilst the system itself decides if an app should be given more memory should have memory taken or closed and so on. think about ‘pre warming’ of apps! What an incredible concept! Or think about background running time , where app is given an opportunity to do some background housekeeping - but only when the OS decides its time to do so. And all this is there to make your device work snappier / quicker / use less battery and do more with its cpu. Think about this too - you never need to quit apps, yet the app in the foreground gets 100, or close to 100% CPU power! This is unheard of in the PC world, but in fact makes more sense than the PC way - since - in most cases - you want your app in the foreground to have all the resources for yourself - since you are working in it now.

And I could go on and on. iPadOS - in my mind - and by these examples - is way more sophisticated than MacOS, and iPads time is only yet to come.


/// We do need more people to realize this - and by more people mostly I mean more Pro tool developers - so more pro tools would come to iPad too.

Craig, is that you?

iPadOS is most certainly not the most sophisticated OS on the planet.
It’s literally just a derivative of iOS, which is practically a derivative of OS X.
If by “sophisticated” you mean severely held back, closed off with very limited compatibility and room for, let’s say, personal improvements, meaning the user can change settings and functions as they like and see fit (like very customisable keyboard shortcuts or specialised software for certain workflows), then yes, it is very sophisticated. You literally ignore that iPadOS is just a beefed up version of iOS and that macOS is by far more feature rich and had a lot more time to mature. I mean, you really want to claim that a basically 3 year old OS (15 years tops counting iOS) on a touch screen device with only 1 port is more sophisticated than an almost 40 year old (considering all Macintosh OS’s) computer operating system from the same company?
Look, you clearly aren’t one to benefit from an actually sophisticated version of iPadOS, but that doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t exist. You have your opinion and that’s fine, but it’s just an opinion, nothing to preach like you did.

 

[subjonas]

The iPad is good for drawing. That's where it ends. Aside from that, it's not a bicycle for the mind, it's a TV for the mind. Sure, you could be watching all the education programmes there are but you're really force feeding on **** like news, braindead Netflix shows, and mindless scrolling. Oh and let me also assess that my opinion is humble.

I assume you mean drawing is the iPad’s only useful advantage over Mac. But putting aside for a moment that consumption is not a useless thing, the iPad is also uniquely useful for hand notes, portrait PDFs, presentation, faster scanning (built-in back camera), and better mobility when needed. And probably other things I can’t think of at the moment.
But also consumption is not a useless thing.

 

[Danfango]

I love these threads and the thinking behind it. They break down into two things always:

Firstly, looking at what the device isn’t but not what it is.

Secondly, buying it without having a use case for it and then failing to find one.

I think someone said it’s not a bicycle for the mind. I disagree. Your mind is the problem if you can leverage it. I use mine for drawing, photography (check my forum media), managing my business and life, education and training and as a rather good notepad and mathematical tool. Not to mention the amazing mapping capabilities.

As a side note I actually put my mac in the cupboard for 3 months from September to December 2021 and used my basic 9th gen as an experiment and got on quite happily. And I’m a very very technical user.

 

[JokoWidodo]

Then they shouldn’t advertise it as a “computer replacement” ?

 

[subjonas]

Then they shouldn’t advertise it as a “computer replacement” ?

I don’t believe they do, not for everyone—only for people that it can.

 

[Bodhitree]

I think the iPad’s greatest problem is its legacy in iOS. It still looks and acts like a huge iphone, which is both an advantage, because it will be instantly familiar to anyone who has an iPhone, and a disadvantage because it is not leveraging the space the big screen provides into a new and optimal paradigm of computing.

The process of advancing the state of the art on iPad has necessarily been very slow. Apple seems to be intent on keeping simplicity and the link with the iOS roots intact, while at the same time slowly introducing abilities like multitasking, which the CPU is very capable of. As a work device the iPad is very specialized — I have seen a number of boiler installation engineers walking around with cellular models for instance.

But as a device around the office I think you need to rethink some of the capabilities of iPadOS to make a really good office companion to a desktop. For example creating a report with embedded tables from a spreadsheet, or a presentation with spreadsheet charts and graphs, something that would usually go through file import, is far from easy. There are other examples of places where working exclusively on an iPad is less than easy.

 

[Reggaenald]

Are you talking about Automator? I am aware of it - and use it plenty. It is however not the same as shortcuts - since shortcuts can do certain automations depending on System states or outside events. (do certain something - when you open an app / close an app / time of day / sunrize sunset / Battery at certain percentage / conected to power not contected / certain profile is activated / connected to wifi or certain wifi /certain geolocation / depending on callendar events / when you get a certain email or message / or even when ipad hears you say something). Its quite sophisticated and advanced. Way more so than on MacOS, as far as I am aware none of this is available on MacOS

Automator is Shortcuts now. Shortcuts on macOS doesn’t support automations as of now, but that will definitely change, maybe even this year.

 

[Reggaenald]

I am talking about Shortcuts, the same app that is the iPadOS. The Mac version is also a bit more advanced as it also allows for scripts to be run. It was released in macOS 12, last year.

Complete guide to the Shortcuts app on macOS

Building powerful shortcuts can save you time down the road!

www.xda-developers.com

Scripts can be run on iPadOS and iOS as well. At least in the web.
Also, Shortcuts for Mac doesn’t support automations which is a real shame.

 

[Digitalguy]

This thread shows the usual contrast between those who would like more desktop features from the iPad and those who are scared that this would make the iPad worse for their use case (and say that they are the majority and the others are a very small but vocal minority).
I think that the discussion should be limited to the iPad pro only (and the air 5 at best), when it comes to desktop features. And anyway the base iPad and the mini probably don't have enough RAM anyway.
And once we exclude those iPads, I don't how big are these majorities or minorities, but I think it's more than fair to expect desktop features (like extended monitor support) from the pro.
Given that Apple would never give MacOS to the iPad to avoid cannibilizing MacBook sales, a solution that would be a good compromise for everyone is a desktop mode, similar to what Samsung does with DEX.
That would solve the external monitor support issue, since you can now have the desktop mode on the monitor and the tablet mode on the tablet, and move between them (and why not, the desktop mode on the tablet too if you want).
That would change nothing for those who are afraid of changes that would make iPadOS more similar to a desktop OS, since it would be totally optional. Everyone is happy...

 

[boss.king]

I agree. The iPad is a new paradigm of computing.

Most of the complainers come from the traditional desktop OS. Meanwhile, new users who have smartphones as their first computers have no issues with the iPad. I myself have been using an Android tablet as my PC replacement, and I've been doing fine. In reality, majority of tasks are doable on these "post-PC devices."

If you read the complainers, they are all complaining basically the same things, ie things that they traditionally do on their desktops. It's like hearing truck users complaining that sedans cannot carry big loads in the trunk. Clearly there are the right tool for the job, but most people would be using sedans just fine to get from point A to point B.

You can always spot a bad argument when it comes in the form of a tortured car analogy.

 

[XIO[-]OIX]

The iPad is good for drawing. That's where it ends. Aside from that, it's not a bicycle for the mind, it's a TV for the mind. Sure, you could be watching all the education programmes there are but you're really force feeding on **** like news, braindead Netflix shows, and mindless scrolling. Oh and let me also assess that my opinion is humble.

Many people don’t agree. Maybe you should try supporting your opinion with arguments / elaborating it, so we could have a discussion about it. What do you think should be improved on iPad for it to truly become a bicycle for the mind

For me iPad is way more ‘bicycle for the mind’ than PC. If you are a creative person - iPad is such a creative device. And so effortlessly so. I love it.

*btw its a term coined by the inventor of ipad concept if I am not wrong? Alan Kay, and his Dynabook, but Steve Jobs also liked it a lot, and used it often to describe personal computers of the time.

 

[ian87w]

Then they shouldn’t advertise it as a “computer replacement” ?

If a Chromebook can be a computer for people, then I can't see how the ipad couldn't.

 

[zehoo]

Surely they could make the ipad pro with an m1 chip dual bootable.

 

[Xand&Roby]

There has recently been a lot of conversation among tech circles, here and on social media, about the iPad in and it's current state. Apple has practiced restraint and kept the iPad as simple to use as long as possible and tried to keep it a a separate product from the Mac.

Out of curiosity, I checked iPad commercials on YouTube and Apple's website to see how Apple themselves see the iPad and how they envision people using them. They have honed in and focused on note taking and drawing with the Apple Pencil as the core features and they're are all over the marketing material. It's the same situation with the Apple Watch: fitness and notifications.

Every year people are exited and hopeful that the next iPadOS version will make the iPad more Mac-like but aren't they setting themselves up for disappointment? The iPad and Mac bring in around the same revenue for Apple so their current strategy with the iPad is working. Anecdotally I have seen a ton of iPads all over high schools and colleges. There are a lot of happy iPad users.

The problem is one: iPad is born for those who a Mac does not know what it is and does not know what to do with it.

And in this context it is absolutely a paradigm shift, for this target.

However, Apple has an enormously conservative evolutionary line because, in fact, it does not know where to go: the times of Jobs, Ive and many innovators in other operating groups of the company have passed and the only thing the company can do is increase technology in small steps by continuing to increase the financial side at great leaps, which is what Cook does best.

Apple Watch is in the same situation: Ive hypothesized an evolution that would replace the iPhone, the management team and investors did not want to hear reasons.

That’s it.

 

[XIO[-]OIX]

You should watch this

 

[Digitalguy]

The problem is one: iPad is born for those who a Mac does not know what it is and does not know what to do with it.

And in this context it is absolutely a paradigm shift, for this target.

However, Apple has an enormously conservative evolutionary line because, in fact, it does not know where to go: the times of Jobs, Ive and many innovators in other operating groups of the company have passed and the only thing the company can do is increase technology in small steps by continuing to increase the financial side at great leaps, which is what Cook does best.

Apple Watch is in the same situation: Ive hypothesized an evolution that would replace the iPhone, the management team and investors did not want to hear reasons.

That’s it.

Apple knows very well where they are going. Everything is planned carefully to maximize long term profits. And they are pretty good at that.

 

[MauiPa]

You think maybe that is why it is a tablet not a Mac? Apple sees the devices differently even if a lot of functions are similar the UI is very different, for a reason. Agree or not it is what it is

 

[subjonas]

This thread shows the usual contrast between those who would like more desktop features from the iPad and those who are scared that this would make the iPad worse for their use case (and say that they are the majority and the others are a very small but vocal minority).
I think that the discussion should be limited to the iPad pro only (and the air 5 at best), when it comes to desktop features. And anyway the base iPad and the mini probably don't have enough RAM anyway.
And once we exclude those iPads, I don't how big are these majorities or minorities, but I think it's more than fair to expect desktop features (like extended monitor support) from the pro.
Given that Apple would never give MacOS to the iPad to avoid cannibilizing MacBook sales, a solution that would be a good compromise for everyone is a desktop mode, similar to what Samsung does with DEX.
That would solve the external monitor support issue, since you can now have the desktop mode on the monitor and the tablet mode on the tablet, and move between them (and why not, the desktop mode on the tablet too if you want).
That would change nothing for those who are afraid of changes that would make iPadOS more similar to a desktop OS, since it would be totally optional. Everyone is happy...

I think in these discussions there are actually three discussions going on simultaneously that get mixed up with each other—there’s 1) what we as individuals wish Apple would do with the iPad; 2) what we believe Apple should do (as obligation to us and/or for their own benefit), and 3) what we conjecture Apple actually will do. Sometimes it’s hard to discern which discussion people are partaking in. Personally, I usually stick to #3 and sometimes #1, but almost never #2 because I don’t believe a company is obligated to do anything except obey the law and not trick their customers, and I assume Apple has a much better vantage point than I do as to what is most beneficial for them.

Regarding separating the iPad Pro line with different major software features, even if only optional, though I would welcome it myself, I’m pretty doubtful Apple would do that. Because in the iPad line and all of Apple’s product lines, “Pro” just means better hardware, but pretty much same software (other than subtle differences based on things like different screen size/resolution). To add major software features to only the Pro hardware would be a new precedent for Apple, as far as I know. And there’s nothing I’ve seen that leads me to believe Apple has any plans to do that.

 

[subjonas]

You can always spot a bad argument when it comes in the form of a tortured car analogy.

Are you saying it’s a bad analogy? Why is that?