I personally don’t think the iPadOS is all that hampered. What kind of thing do you want on it that macOS offers but iPadOS doesn’t? I’m genuinely curious.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad Pro Why do we need a more powerful iPad Pro 2021 when the OS is just iPad OS?
- Thread starter hajime
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I can't help, but feel this was a lead up to a very interesting WWDC.
This allows them to talk about the software after the hardware is in the hands of developers to build for it over the summer with iPad OS 15.
They are doing 16GB of RAM on 1TB+ and that to me feels like they are planning something macOS like that allows pros to be able to unlock that extra hardware.
This allows them to talk about the software after the hardware is in the hands of developers to build for it over the summer with iPad OS 15.
They are doing 16GB of RAM on 1TB+ and that to me feels like they are planning something macOS like that allows pros to be able to unlock that extra hardware.
Well, the M1 chip is basically the usual A line CPU that Apple makes since iPhone 4. It's just a marketing name. In terms of performance and energy efficiency Apple could put their processor in Mac years ago, but the macOS software was not ready. So, iPad having M1 chip doesn't mean anything. It's just a renamed A15 SoC. It's a natural progress.
- Can’t add music to my iCloud music library unless bought from iTunes store which doesn’t support Apple’s own ALAC
- iPadOS apps don’t have feature parity with desktop version (MS Office, Spotify big examples)
- Limited multitasking - background apps will terminate when low on memory.
- Can’t download files in bulk from iCloud Drive and they don’t stay downloaded to iPad. Many times I’ve tried to use a file on plane and it wasn’t downloaded. on Mac all iCloud Drive files are available on machine.
- Can’t use external webcam with iPad
- External display support poor
- Copy files with Files app is cumbersome and doesn’t show progress - frequent error copying to cloud provider
- iPadOS can't handle multiple audio sources like MacOS
Last edited:
Thats not an incentive to update. Aside from the 12.9 display tech theres literally zero reason for anyone even on a 2018 iPad Pro to upgrade. This was extremely underwhelming considering the hardware is capable of MILES more than the software will allow.
Wait for WWDC...16GB of ram says a lot and what’s on the way
iPad now has hardware parity with MBP13, it even surpass it in term of screen, speakers, camera & mic.
It might not mean much for now but as iOS apps are now available on Mac with M1, I could see MacOS apps being available on an iPad with M1.
It will probably take a couple years for iPadOS to catch up, but at least now there is no more hardware limitation for what the iPad Pro can do. All the limitations of iPad are now due to the OS and the OS only, Apple can’t hide behind the tech specs anymore, there is no excuse left for the lack of pro apps and complete OS.
Only thing is, M1 is supposed to be the less performant Mac processor while it’s the best iPad processor, so I’m afraid other iPad will keep holding back the Pro ones. Apple definitely need to separate iPad Pro from the rest of the family or it will just keep doing the same things as a $329 device, just better.
It might not mean much for now but as iOS apps are now available on Mac with M1, I could see MacOS apps being available on an iPad with M1.
It will probably take a couple years for iPadOS to catch up, but at least now there is no more hardware limitation for what the iPad Pro can do. All the limitations of iPad are now due to the OS and the OS only, Apple can’t hide behind the tech specs anymore, there is no excuse left for the lack of pro apps and complete OS.
Only thing is, M1 is supposed to be the less performant Mac processor while it’s the best iPad processor, so I’m afraid other iPad will keep holding back the Pro ones. Apple definitely need to separate iPad Pro from the rest of the family or it will just keep doing the same things as a $329 device, just better.
An additional device may be the better choice for some, especially developers, who traditionally have multiple boxes (physical and virtual) available anyway. But I think you’re thinking too much about how a tech user would use a Windows capable iPad tablet. A Windows capable iPad opens up it up to a ton on business uses and customers.
I suppose 6 is probably no longer an issue, as Thunderbolt displays are one of the few consumer uses of Thunderbolt. 5 might also be addressed, could be addressed in software perhaps. I don’t know how webcams are implemented, wrt USB HID profiles. That said, the iPad’s front facing camera is usually the best webcam I own, so third party webcams don’t have much appeal to me.
1) Fair, though I’m not entirely sure why you want lossless audio files on an iPad. Surely you should have a home audio setup with some great speakers, with lossless audio on a NAS, instead of trying to play lossless audio through headphones?
2) That’s dev’s fault (instead of iOS’s), and that’s been an issue for 11 years now.
3) That might be a fair point, but what kind of multitasking do you want that the system doesn’t give you? I haven’t used iOS 13 and 14 on an iPad, but the multitasking features are far better than the old iOS 9 multitasking features. They more or less resolve any issues I had with it.
4) I’ll grant you the bulk download bit. But there are a few different ways to address the “keeping files downloaded” issue. For anything essential you need offline, you can copy it to the On My iPad area of the Files app stick it on a USB C thumb drive.
7) That’s fair, but also possibly a bug with the storage provider extension. But that is an area Apple could improve (perhaps I see the Files app with rose-colored glasses because I remember the workarounds you used to have to do back when the iPad launched).
8) I’d assume Apple will fix that if they end up bringing Logic or Final Cut over. And their Pro apps seem likely, why else put a Thunderbolt 3 port in an iPad (and advertise it as a headline feature).
I can see how it doesn’t really work for your workflow, though I imagine most people, even most professionals, could work within the confines of iPadOS for at least some of their workflows. The workflow you describe is pretty niche (lossless audio in the Music app, external webcams, multiple audio sources, heavy duty file browser usage), after all. And there’s nothing about this that necessitates merging macOS with iPadOS (which is not your suggestion, but the suggestion from others in this thread), I’m still convinced that #2 is the primary issue with iPad workflows, and that’s not iPadOS’s fault.
I think number 6 is a S/W issue, not a H/W issue and for me remains a large problem. iPadOS support for external monitor display is poor due to the lack of aspect ratio matching. The H/W interface was already up to the task; the S/W support is lacking.
True, I’m thinking of my own usecase, I am a developer, after all. I’ve noticed, though, that more and more PC software (especially business-y software) is moving to the cloud and adopting a SaaS model. I could see iPadOS having virtualization (I wouldn’t mind running a sandboxed ARM Linux in something like Parallels for local development reasons), but Windows virtualization would be in Microsoft’s court, just like it is for M1 Macs.
Definitely not a hardware issue, I’m sure the GPU could drive a 16:9 display just the same as a 4:3 display. Are you talking about AirPlay Mirroring or HDMI output through the USB-C port? The former is definitely a software thing, probably intentional, the goal of AirPlay Mirroring seems to be to clone the internal display to a remote display, one-to-one style. I’ve never tried to use HDMI out on an iPad before, so I can’t really say anything about it. I’d be really surprised if the HDMI output is in 4:3 (though perhaps most third party software doesn’t support 16:9), but I doubt the home screen would show over HDMI.
I think it's not just about getting Final Cut Pro X, Logic Pro X or Xcode brought to iPad.
It's a completely different thing, it's about a more open way of working altogether. But that's something macOS can provide. And I doubt Apple will ever allow the iPad Pro run macOS. I want to be wrong though.
It's a completely different thing, it's about a more open way of working altogether. But that's something macOS can provide. And I doubt Apple will ever allow the iPad Pro run macOS. I want to be wrong though.
HDMI output works fine and is pure screen mirroring in 4:3, including home screen. The problem is the S/W not detecting and adjusting to a different aspect ratio. It is a S/W issue, not H/W.
Last edited:
Thanks, interesting. I don’t really see the home screen itself operating in anything other than 4:3, but I could see it filling the display with your wallpaper, maybe even expanding the dock to take advantage of the 4:3 display. But yes, that would be down to Apple and iPadOS. As for other apps, it should be fairly easy for any application using storyboards (which, to be honest, every iOS app that can should) to support a 16:9 size class. I’m surprised iPad apps don’t fill external displays.
But this is something I expect Apple to address in quick fashion, in some form in iPadOS 15, potentially with a more robust implementation a few years away. Thunderbolt displays are going to be one of the big things people will want to use with the Thunderbolt port, after all.
Unfortunately, "expect Apple to address in quick fashion" has been a long wait with zero response on their part as to any plans.
Problem is partly iPadOS partly apps. One big missing feature is multiple background apps and another, related, is the possibility to open multiple similar files at the same time. Like opening 5-6 Word, Excel files etc and keep them open at the same time. These features require a deep rewrite of the code of both iPadOS and apps. Let's hope that it happens at least for iPadOS at WWDC
id recommend anyone thats waiting or on the fence about upgrading to see what iPad OS brings For the next upgrade. I have a feeling the M series IPads will be getting lots of new features to cross platform with the Mac ...with the a series not getting that fusion. .
Funny you mention Microsoft cloud solutions, but GitHub (owned by Microsoft) is set to release a cloud version of Visual Studio Code that will start an instance when needed (using Azure, I’m assuming) this spring or summer.
I thought Apple added document tabs a few years back to the iPad for just that (same year as Yosemite or El Capitan, I think it was around the time they added tabs to the Finder). I guess that means Office and the like don’t support tabs? That would mean that, once again, it’s third party developers that hold the iPad back more than anything else. I don’t really want arbitrary windows from multiple applications interspersed together, especially on a device as small as an iPad (especially an iPad mini, but even a 12.9” iPad Pro, desktop OSes on such small screens get really annoying sometimes).
Of course, Visual Studio Code is written using Electron. That means the UI is basically running a web page in Chromium, but with a few extra native app features. I even worked out how to make a custom React app run in Electron a couple years ago and got the same thing working in OpenFin (even using Redux for state management between components). Electron is very Web-y, is what I’m saying, so it’s no real surprise Visual Studio Code will run in the cloud. Heck, GitHub for desktop is an Electron app, I’m pretty sure. Slack’s desktop app? Yep, Electron. I’d imagine that quite a few even professionals primarily use Electron apps for most of their work.
Which wraps back to the external monitor support issue - when additional real estate space is needed to handle multiple windows, proper monitor support is necessary. MS Office has multiple deficiencies in its iPad implementation, meaning that depending on your needs (like mine), the iPad can't replace the laptop.