iPad Pro What Can't you do on your iPad Pro ?

[Abazigal]

Create google forms
Publish google documents to the web (for embedding in blogs)
The mobile google classroom app sucks for managing assignments
I wish the document picker allowed me to select multiple files to attach at one go.

It's the little things that trip me up.

 

[Donka]

Can you send data both ways or stream from only?

Depends. Most allow you to upload photos and videos from the camera roll using their own app. Using an app like FileBrowser, you can treat it like a network share and upload pretty much any file to drive.

 

[upritbass]

I would love to be able to use the iPad Pro for my photography workflow. Although you can import raw image files on it, you can only edit them as raw from a Mac in Photos. Right now, when you import raw pictures on an iPad you get to edit the embedded JPG file inside it, instead of the file itself. That should be something fairly simple for Apple to implement. Without it, I'm stuck with Lightroom and my MacBook.

When did the iPP become unable to edit photo raw?

 

[Newtons Apple]

Why?

Why not?

 

[jeremiah256]

I love my iPad Pro but there's no way on earth it could replace my computers. For me, a typical day involves running the following:

VMWare Fusion
oXygen XML
Xcode
Netbeans
Visual Paradigm

None of these have any alternative that will work on the iPad and even in my down time it can't do basics such as smart albums in Photos (which is beyond annoying!)

What I love using it for is writing documents and taking notes with OneNote and with the Citrix mouse and Jump Desktop, it makes a great Remote Desktop client for customer support





You can certainly do that on an iPad (or any iOS device without force touch), but it's not exactly intuitive!
What you do is pinch outwards with two fingers on the preview at the bottom of the print window (so start with your finger and thumb together in the middle of the preview and spread outwards).

It then switches to the same PDF window you get by force touching and you can do what you want with the PDF file

Thank you my friend. That's perfect.

 

[Abazigal]

Why not?

I believe we will eventually get there.

 

[Newtons Apple]

I believe we will eventually get there.

I would pay well for a tablet with the guts of an MacBook Pro in it. Would not care if it were 3/4" thick so it would good battery life and a built in cellular modem. It would be heaven. The surface book is close except it need to be thicker and have an all day battery.

 

[Badrottie]

What Can't you do on your iPad Pro?

That is why Apple have Mac/Macbook available for you!

 

[tann]

Efficiently navigating when using a keyboard. Having to reach up and use a finger to move a cursor around in a word doc, and similar scenarios just makes it completely impractical.

It needs some sort of cursor support before I could even consider taking it seriously as a replacement.

Also I regularly find myself using 2-3 apps at once, and therefore split screen is not quite there.

 

[subjonas]

I would pay well for a tablet with the guts of an MacBook Pro in it. Would not care if it were 3/4" thick so it would good battery life and a built in cellular modem. It would be heaven. The surface book is close except it need to be thicker and have an all day battery.

I would also love a macbook pro slate, but not because I prefer touch input on a Mac--it's only because I need pen/pencil input for certain MacOS applications and I'd like to be able to do that without having to hook my mbp up to a whole other device (Cintiq). Sigh...it's never gonna happen though.

Edit- Well, there is the modbook pro, if you haven't looked into that. My problem with that is I want the quad-core dGPU 15" Pro X which may never actually be released.

 

[csurfr]

Open Illustrator files. If I could open files and change the visible layers to show clients other mockups on the fly of their websites I would be a happy to own an iPad Pro. . . as it stands now it is essentially useless to me.

Oh, and maybe Apple could stop forcing me to use the worlds largest icons on iOS. So much wasted space on the 12.9".

Apple just replaced my 12.9" under warranty today, and I won't even turn it on. I'll send it straight to craigslist and get a surface pro to replace it.

 

[960design]

Create google forms
Publish google documents to the web (for embedding in blogs)
The mobile google classroom app sucks for managing assignments
I wish the document picker allowed me to select multiple files to attach at one go.

It's the little things that trip me up.

Next in my queue is an easy to use SIS for schools. They seem overly complicated and unreliable in the spotty school networks. I've just started storyboarding the UI, while I close out two other projects.

 

[M. Gustave]

Efficiently navigating when using a keyboard. Having to reach up and use a finger to move a cursor around in a word doc, and similar scenarios just makes it completely impractical.

It needs some sort of cursor support before I could even consider taking it seriously as a replacement.

Also I regularly find myself using 2-3 apps at once, and therefore split screen is not quite there.

So to replace your laptop, the iPad has to look and function exactly like... a laptop? Ohh kayyy...

Here's a thought: why don't you just use a laptop?

 

[neutrino23]

IPP hardware is great. Obviously, we expect yearly improvements, but the hardware is already very good. It is the software which lags.

iOS seems to be made for doing one task at a time in isolation. Any task that involves grouping data from multiple sources or routing files through multiple apps is hard or impossible.

You can't select a bunch of files at once for moving or deletion.

There is no AppleScript (SwiftScript?) to automate tasks. I'm not a heavy scripter but I run at least one script every day.
As an example, I sometimes need to process a moderate number (>100) of data files by changing one parameter in each file and processing them again. iOS would have you manually edit each file. In macOS I run a script that does this in under a minute.

iOS won't support Parallels to let me run Windows programs. I need to run just one program, a scientific app made by my company.

iOS doesn't support drag and drop between apps.

iOS doesn't upport as many graphic and video formats as does macOS.

iOS doesn't support a general print to PDF as does macOS.

iOS versions of iWork don't export to Word and ppt as do the macOS versions. Numbers doesn't export to csv files.

There is no general place to exchange data, like the macOS desktop, but iCloud Drive is slowly evolving in that direction.

I just finished writing a couple of abstracts for a scientific conference I'll attend this summer. They requested a PDF and a Word document for the submission. I processed the data first in windows using my company app. I kept a lot of notes and outlines in Tex-edit Plus (which is also great for AppleScipts polishing of text), I used Numbers for some calculations and formatting, the layout was done in Pages, some image manipulation in Graphic Converter, charts made in DeltaGraph Pro. I used the Finder a lot to group relevant files (I'm late to the party but I like and use tags more and more). Sometimes I had multiple versions or older abstracts open together in different windows.

I love my iPP and I use it a lot. Aside from reading things it is also great for listening to podcasts or music while working in the lab. I use Concepts to take notes and to sketch out ideas. Presenting photos or other ideas is great with the large screen.

 

[bubbleboil]

Can't get the full iTunes experience, even if iTunes is a hated app! For example, can't apply changes to song names or artists in an iOS device.

Also, cannot quickly open links in new tabs. It might seem small, but it's a time-saver in the desktop.

It depends on where the songs came from. I doubt u need to rename if u bought the song from iTunes directly

 

[alecgold]

... It is the software which lags...

In the first place, horses for courses.
Mac Pro's/iMacs are for hardcore computer/video power.
MacBook Pro's for portable power, Macbook 12" for those that like the shape of a laptop and want to go light.
IPads are for lazy folks like me, I carry a 9.7 everywhere, always, anytime.

I use a 12.9 iPad as a notepad (check out Nebo, goodreader), PDF annotating device (Documents5 with paid PDF expert) and book reader. (I'm so bad, I buy brand new study books that aren't available in digital format, have the spine cut off, scan them and the OCR them on my MacBook Pro/MacMini).

I use my 9.7" like an A5 notepad, reading books, reading good quality PDF's, quick reference book, consuming (Three newspapers with good apps, several newspapers on the internet, a little bit of television or series).
Reading on an iPad is natural: portrait mode, full pages, annotating, it's (almost?) quicker to open an iPad then to open a book, having the power of google, knowledge databases like Wolfram Alpha or Legal Intelligence, having every (study) book always with you in 1 pound...


But in some of your problems I might be able to help you a little bit.

iOS seems to be made for doing one task at a time in isolation. Any task that involves grouping data from multiple sources or routing files through multiple apps is hard or impossible.
> that seems like a difficult one, there is the split screen, but I'm not sure how much that helps you.

You can't select a bunch of files at once for moving or deletion.
> you can with Documents5/PDFexpert, I use it as a kind of file browser and it works (for me) pretty well.

There is no AppleScript (SwiftScript?) to automate tasks. I'm not a heavy scripter but I run at least one script every day.
As an example, I sometimes need to process a moderate number (>100) of data files by changing one parameter in each file and processing them again. iOS would have you manually edit each file. In macOS I run a script that does this in under a minute.
>there are some automation apps, there is one called workflow, but I have no idea if this will do your trick.

iOS won't support Parallels to let me run Windows programs. I need to run just one program, a scientific app made by my company.
> I doubt your company will allow you, but I use Jump Desktop for those occasions when I need the power of a desktop and I'm not at home or in the office. Others are allowed to use some Citrix thing to login to their remote/virtual workspace, no idea how it works, but it might be a solution.

iOS doesn't support drag and drop between apps.
>No, not as such, but copy paste does work well (for me, again) and it does work between (Apple) devices these days as well.

iOS doesn't upport as many graphic and video formats as does macOS.
>No, not native, but VLC and other apps might help out. That is the power of iOS as well, the many, many apps that are available.

iOS doesn't support a general print to PDF as does macOS.
>Again, not native, but PDF Print will help out as there are many others that let you print almost anything.

iOS versions of iWork don't export to Word and ppt as do the macOS versions. Numbers doesn't export to csv files.
>I got a "free" copy of Microsoft Office 365 from the university that also works on both my iPads (12.9 and 9.7), Mac mini, MacBook Pro

There is no general place to exchange data, like the macOS desktop, but iCloud Drive is slowly evolving in that direction.
>If you mean by data to select/sort/duplicate files, then again Documents5 is what does this for me.

I really hopes this helps a bit, but as nice, beautiful and useful iPads are, there is no one size fits all. You can push an iPad (Pro) into tasks that it wasn't designed for, but at some point it's wiser to use a better fitting tool.
In the mean time I'm happy I'm not hauling around that old 17" MacBook Pro anymore. Man that was big and heavy and needed some serious protection!
Yesteryear wasn't always better

 

[M. Gustave]

IPP hardware is great. Obviously, we expect yearly improvements, but the hardware is already very good. It is the software which lags.

iOS seems to be made for doing one task at a time in isolation. Any task that involves grouping data from multiple sources or routing files through multiple apps is hard or impossible.

You can't select a bunch of files at once for moving or deletion.

There is no AppleScript (SwiftScript?) to automate tasks. I'm not a heavy scripter but I run at least one script every day.
As an example, I sometimes need to process a moderate number (>100) of data files by changing one parameter in each file and processing them again. iOS would have you manually edit each file. In macOS I run a script that does this in under a minute.

iOS won't support Parallels to let me run Windows programs. I need to run just one program, a scientific app made by my company.

iOS doesn't support drag and drop between apps.

iOS doesn't upport as many graphic and video formats as does macOS.

iOS doesn't support a general print to PDF as does macOS.

iOS versions of iWork don't export to Word and ppt as do the macOS versions. Numbers doesn't export to csv files.

There is no general place to exchange data, like the macOS desktop, but iCloud Drive is slowly evolving in that direction.

I just finished writing a couple of abstracts for a scientific conference I'll attend this summer. They requested a PDF and a Word document for the submission. I processed the data first in windows using my company app. I kept a lot of notes and outlines in Tex-edit Plus (which is also great for AppleScipts polishing of text), I used Numbers for some calculations and formatting, the layout was done in Pages, some image manipulation in Graphic Converter, charts made in DeltaGraph Pro. I used the Finder a lot to group relevant files (I'm late to the party but I like and use tags more and more). Sometimes I had multiple versions or older abstracts open together in different windows.

I love my iPP and I use it a lot. Aside from reading things it is also great for listening to podcasts or music while working in the lab. I use Concepts to take notes and to sketch out ideas. Presenting photos or other ideas is great with the large screen.

I'm not surprised you think the "software lags", you seem completely unaware of any app that didn't come preinstalled on your device.

@alecgold got you off to a great start. Now go play with Workflow, Documents, PDF Expert, Copied, Infuse, and Microsoft Office for iOS.

 

[PBG4 Dude]

Convert purchased iTunes audio file to MP3 and load onto my Tascam MP-BT1 bass trainer via USB. I do this almost weekly as I learn new songs for my bands.

 

[M. Gustave]

Convert purchased iTunes audio file to MP3 and load onto my Tascam MP-BT1 bass trainer via USB. I do this almost weekly as I learn new songs for my bands.

There's an app for that: Anytune Pro.

 

[mk313]

iOS versions of iWork don't export to Word and ppt as do the macOS versions. Numbers doesn't export to csv files.

While I don't disagree with most of what you wrote, this point is simply not true. I use the word exporting all the time from pages. I just double checked to be sure and iwork offers both PowerPoint and cvs exporting from keynote and numbers as well.

 

[maflynn]

I'll make this simple instead of praising the things we can do I'll ask what Can't you do on your iPad Pro that limits you to still need a PC or Mac?

MS office apps are limited on the iPad.
RAW editing
Photoshop
Running Windows
Effectively remoting into servers, yes I know I can use gotomypc and other apps, but its no where useful.
Lightroom
Maintaining my library of images.
Comparing files
FTP
Terminal usage
Virtualization

Email is more limiting in iOS, I can easily attach any file type

The iPad is a nice tool, but it does not have the features, flexibility, or options that a computer has and my needs are such that a laptop/desktop is a better solution.

 

[M. Gustave]

MS office apps are limited on the iPad.

Technically that's true, but practically speaking unless you're doing advanced layout work, what are you missing?

RAW editing

Available since iOS 10 was released.

Effectively remoting into servers, yes I know I can use gotomypc and other apps, but its no where useful.

?? Remoting either works or it doesn't. How are the dozen remoting apps available "no where useful"?

Maintaining my library of images.

Possible if you're willing to move to the cloud. I'm pretty sure I already know your answer.

 

[maflynn]

?? Remoting either works or it doesn't. How are the dozen remoting apps available "no where useful"?

Fair enough it doesn't work since I cannot do what I need to for my job

Possible if you're willing to move to the cloud. I'm pretty sure I already know your answer.

Possible but not cost effective, I'm not about to pay for hundreds of gigabytes just use an iPad, when my laptop or iMac can do it so much better without the added cost.

 

[mk313]

Technically that's true, but practically speaking unless you're doing advanced layout work, what are you missing?

I don't know. I use office on my iPad & while the apps are great, they are definitely limited in what they can do & not really just advanced layout work. Things like building a table of contents aren't supported on the app. These aren't the types of things that I'd consider advanced work. I love the iPad office apps & use them all the time, but they definitely work best in conjunction with, rather than as a replace for, the mac/windows apps.

 

[maflynn]

Pivot tables is a huge omission and many people use those. Various editing such as selecting non-contiguous cells is another omission.