The Cloud is good for some things, but it’s not replacing powerful onprem personal computers. Apple’s approach to AI is interesting, and now being copied by Microsoft with on device NPUs precisely so the devices don’t have to rely just on the cloud and can process AI directly on the device. Benefits include low latency, more flexibility and improved security.
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All iPads The iPad will never be a Mac, and the Mac will never be an iPad
- Thread starter Kahnforever
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I don't think it's worth engaging with that person much more, they're giving strong chatbot vibes that will just keep responding with the same points over and over ad nauseum, with little ability to learn a new perspective or even coherently retain previous context.
It's unfortunate, as it does break up an otherwise rather intriguing discussion.
There is no “onus” here, you just literally don’t understand what an iPad app is.
It’s hilarious the lengths people go to on this site to erroneously argue. People spend so much time it seems doing it and they have little to no idea what they are talking about other than to have a seemingly inherent bias toward Apple and enough time in their life to argue devoid of facts and logic.
This thread is a good example. Somehow there are people in the world who think a tablet like an iPad can handle the kind of professional work that a Mac can… when it has no fans, a razor thin thermal envelope with its internals smashed up against a screen, is run on battery power, operates a smartphone operating system and has at best mostly shells of pro apps found on Macs and PCs.
I’ve seen the MacBook Air M2 dump 50% FPS playing games after 25 minutes because it’s getting too hot and it throttles, and its thermals are better than the iPad with its internals separated from the screen in a base with larger heat radiation surfaces. I’ve seen the iPad run 2 degrees C hotter than a MacBook Air running the same tasks as a comparison benchmark and dump 12% of its battery life in 20 minutes. I’ve seen MacBook Pros sustain high levels of performance for long periods of time. I’ve seen the Mac Studio run circles around MacBook Pros and not throttle at all on heavy load.
There’s reality, and then there’s people on here who argue nonsense.
Things like Autodesk fusion run on machines less capable than my 2013 Mac Pro and the current iPad pros outperform that significantly.
There is nothing to stop an application making use of mouse and keyboard support for precise input, I've been doing that using various Remote Desktop applications on the iPad since 2012.
As above, performance is fine.
Thermal constraints are fine.
Hardware moved on from 15-20 years ago or whenever you did your architecture work. Yes, PC is the dominant platform there but that is simply NOT due to the limitations of handheld devices in 2024. It's market inertia, nothing more.
In the future, being able to modify a design on a tablet in the field and then use AR to place it in the real world though the display to see how it fits, etc. is something that no desk bound PC will be able to compete with.
No, PCs won't go away, but claiming that mobile devices will never be able to do this is just pure ignorance of technological progress.
The first version of AutoCad I used ran on an 8086 machine in CGA monochrome.
We've come a long way from that.
No, thermal constraints are not fine on the iPad. It’s absurd what you are saying. On your 2013 Mac, goes to show what proper thermals can do. And software will run well on the hardware it was designed to run on. So even old software on old hardware will run well. There are many benchmark tests online showing the iPad and MacBook Air throttling, heating up. Dumping frame rates by over 50% and cycling down the CPU. There is no escaping this.
Using a remote desktop isn’t using an iPad. It’s using another computer through a Window and is also a crappy experience.
At some point in the future I am sure that processors on mobile devices like the iPad will be powerful enough, even given thermal constraints, to run some heavy applications, but that is missing the point. This isn’t a vacuum. Even if one can run it, there are other issues such as lack of a precise input mode and small screens along with operating system constraints. And mobile devices like the iPad will never be as powerful as Macs, so it’s moot: the most professional work… what demands more powerful computing, will always demand Macs and PCs.
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Hello? Are you from the past?
My Mac Pro 2013 puts out FAR MORE HEAT for less performance than my modern ipad air.
And that machine runs fusion just fine. I've run fusion on laptop hardware from 10 years ago. The ipad is much faster than than those machines, even throttled. Its not like the m1 clocks down to 50% or so like an intel thermally constrained machine. It drops off maybe 10-15%. Which is STILL faster than the mac pro at most things.
Seriously, i think you're basing your assessment of what mobile hardware is capable of on 10 year old performance expectations.
Software is holding the ipad back - NOT hardware. And like most apps - CAD is pretty bursty on CPU calculation. Like most apps it is spending most of its time idle waiting for user input. The ipad hardware can burst to much higher performance than most desktop CPUs still in use today (especially single thread) before it throttles, and likely get the burst of performance required done inside that thermal window most of the time.
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You’re running software on an old computer. You will not be natively running Fusion designed and optimized for M-class chips.
You can’t separate hardware from software, ever. Software is designed for the hardware it runs on, and when things get old, emulators are used so the translation layer adversely affects performance.
Any one of us can pick up old software and the old hardware it was designed to run on and today, it will perform great. In 10 years, the current iPad will choke on the software of that time, and this will never stop. As hardware evolves, software follows.
Now we can compare Apples to Apples. A new M2 Ultra Mac Pro to an iPad. Guess which one is more powerful…
Except apple silicon runs x64 software at virtually native speed - its the same CPU in the (entry level) Mac and the ipad you know. If this is a problem for the ipad it is a problem for the mac.
*shrug*
It is erroneous to compare a 10 year old computer with a new one. Compare the current Mac Pro with the current iPad.
That wasn't the point of this discussion. The point was whether the ipad will ever be able to become mac like and run mac software. For 99% of users, it will be able to run what they run, and already can given the software exists.
Never claimed high end workstations will go away, but they simply aren't required for 99% of people, including those doing things like design work in 2024. The power is available in a mobile platform. I've literally had engineers running things like autocad, minecad, mine24d, etc. on laptops that are way less powerful than a modern ipad - for years.
The benefits of being able to take that power into the field are profound, and worth more to a lot of people than incrementally improved performance from "already fast enough".
No, the iPad will never be the Mac. All of the latest software like AutoCAD, several Adobe Apps, etc. are not able to be run on the iPad because it lacks the ability to run them. That is why Adobe has shells of some of their Apps on the iPads as an example.
This will never change. Macs will always be more powerful and run the full versions of pro software and iPad will not for all of the reasons already mentioned. So in 5 years from now, 10 years from now, 15 years from now and beyond, the situation will be the same. The latest software in any timeframe will take advantage of the latest hardware.
Therefore, no, the point of this thread is not to engage in erroneous discourse by comparing decade plus old Macs to new iPads, it is to compare current Macs to current iPads and anyone arguing against the fact that Macs are more powerful than iPads and more capable not only doesn’t believe what they are saying, they are engaging in erroneous thinking for other reasons which I don’t care to try and understand.
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The iPad Pro and MacBook Air are almost identical in terms of performance, the only reason Adobe doesn’t bring the same apps to iPad Pro is because they don’t want to. The affinity suite of designer and photo are almost feature identical to their Mac versions. The most powerful Mac’s are more powerful than the most powerful iPads, but this doesn’t actually mean that the most powerful iPads are weaker than the least powerful Mac’s. You keep asserting that the iPads can’t run this software without evidence, sure they might not run it as well as the Mac Studio, but neither will the MacBook Air.
Roses are red, violets are blue, and you're unfortunately arguing with a brick wall...
You seem to keep making these assertions as if they’re fact, but reality is, they’re not. There’s absolutely no reason that Microsoft Office software on the iPad can’t run at feature parity with the Windows versions, or at least the Mac versions. It’s not because the hardware can’t handle it, it’s because Microsoft doesn’t want the iPad version to be at parity with the desktop version, likely (IMO) because that could threaten Surface Pro sales. Same with Adobe, Affinity’s suite of apps on the iPad are at near full feature parity with the desktop versions, in fact, I don’t even know which features it’s supposedly missing compared to the desktop version. I’ve used Affinity software for many years now, and I do all of my professional graphic design work on my iPad with the iPad versions of the Affinity apps. Adobe could likely deliver their iPad apps at feature parity as well, they just are slow on the uptake. These apps run very well, even on an M1 MacBook Air (or even older Intel powered MacBook Airs). An M4 iPad should be able to run them fine.
We know it's Apple wanting to separate the iPad from their notebook sales. Just like one needs an iPhone to operate an Apple watch - Apple wants to segment its devices so that there is a benefit in owning more than one Apple device. Hence there isn't a single MacBook which has a touch screen. If a user wants a touch screen notebook with lots of software choices, then one has to buy a PC notebook. The IOS software choices are too limited, and that is only partially due to IOS. It's because the software companies haven't seen the benefit. Such as with Micro$oft and its limited version of Office on the iPad. And Office needs little horsepower to operate.
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I don’t want the iPad to become a Mac, I also don’t really want it to run Mac apps. However that isn’t what I was disagreeing with you about, you have repeatedly asserted without evidence that the iPad cannot run full featured apps… the only reason it can’t run full featured apps is because developers refuse to treat it as a first class platform.
100% agree. I’m not saying the iPad will or should become a Mac. I don’t think it should. I think iPadOS should add more macOS features and functionality. But iPad apps like Microsoft Office aren’t at feature parity because Microsoft doesn’t want or care to make it desktop level, not because the iPad prevents it from being desktop level. This is the case with the vast majority of third party apps that aren’t at full feature parity with the desktop versions. It isn’t due to hardware or even OS limitations in most cases, it’s just due to developers not being willing to actually take advantage of iPadOS and the iPad’s hardware. And that’s where I disagree with him. He keeps claiming these apps can’t exist with full feature parity, even though the actual evidence proves him wrong, and even though he can’t provide a shred of evidence for his claims.
It is not a fact, it is merely your opinion, which also isn’t substantiated by facts.
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