All iPads Yikes (WWDC 2021)

[magicvash]

My takeaways:

1) Unless your workflow relies on needing Thunderbolt there was nothing in this keynote that warrants purchasing a 2021 iPad Pro for the slightly faster M1 chip vs what was in the 2020 iPad Pro which is now available at a significant discount

2) There still isn’t a default weather and calculator app on iPadOS?

3) iPadOS 15: Stuff that the iPhone had a year ago + some slight multitasking improvements. Overall a horrible disappointment

4) Digital Drivers Licenses is huge, and working with TSA is an amazing accomplishment but it’s going to need significant state government buy in, and not all states may want to play ball.

5) Same with corporate IDs - really awesome in theory, and I bet Apple will transition to this, but I can’t imagine other companies jumping to this in droves. Especially in healthcare. School IDs made sense and they really should roll this out to more institutions

6) Home keys - this is super cool and I wish my apartment building would adopt this but “no capital budget” seems to be the theme over the last year

7) The FaceTime updates are trying to make it a Zoom replacement which is cute but I don’t see my work switching to FaceTime when it’s not a true cross platform option. The watch a movie together thing with your Apple TV + FaceTime on is cool but now that the world is opening up, seems like something that would’ve been more useful a year ago than now, but still cool and Disney+ supporting this at launch is going to be great.

Otherwise a pretty unimpressive day - no huge “one more thing” moment sadly

 

[kc9hzn]

Would’ve thought they would’ve at least bumped up the app RAM usage, since giving an app 5GB on 6GB devices seems to work okay, so why not increase for iPads with 8 or freakin’ 16GB?

That’s not really the sort of thing they’d necessarily cover in the keynote (at best, it’s the sort of thing that would only be mentioned on those slides with all the miscellaneous features they didn’t mention during the presentation), I think you’d need to wait to hear from devs with the beta about that.

 

[bscheffel]

tweaked version = with the ability to code and deploy iOS/iPadOS apps while offering almost complete Pencil support. +

I've used my pencil like 5 times since I bought it - 90% of the people I see using iPads at the airport, office, etc. are not using the pencil. Swift Playgrounds is no Xcode - thus the "Playground" name.

 

[rui no onna]

Would’ve thought they would’ve at least bumped up the app RAM usage, since giving an app 5GB on 6GB devices seems to work okay, so why not increase for iPads with 8 or freakin’ 16GB?

They actually give ~4GB on 6GB RAM. The ~5GB is on 8-16GB.

 

[one more]

If you have 2020 iPad Pro or heck even 2018 iPad pro = Don't buy.
If you don't have any iPad Pro or later = It's worth it.

Simple as that.

Air 4 will also cut it for 90% of iPad users, IMO, with an added bonus of a TouchID. ?

 

[scupking]

Maybe we will see some big improvements in iPadOS 16 next year...

 

[Slartibart]

If they really wanted to make a pro statement they should have announced a full blown Xcode, Final Cut, or Logic Pro X port for iPadOS instead of whatever mods they've made to Swift Playgrounds.

Out of curiosity: what iOS/iPadOS app did you program and deploy in the new Swift Playgrounds app? What was specifically annoying?

 

[deaglecat]

Why add the RAM then?

Dunno... margin ?

 

[JayMysterio]

Dunno... margin ?

Or future proofing, in case they do come up with something later?

?‍♀️

 

[zakarhino]

Out of curiosity: what iOS/iPadOS app did you program and deploy in the new Swift Playgrounds app? What was specifically annoying?

What are you talking about? If Swift Playgrounds had the same capabilities as Xcode on desktop they would have called it Xcode. Don't need to be a genius to figure that out.

 

[deaglecat]

Or future proofing, in case they do come up with something later?

?‍♀️

Yeah. That to.

 

[FrozenDarkness]

I think people are disappointed when they explicitly expect things that apple has repeatedly tell you they won't do.

 

[one more]

Maybe we will see some big improvements in iPadOS 16 next year...

That’s the spirit! ?

 

[Slartibart]

I've used my pencil like 5 times since I bought it - 90% of the people I see using iPads at the airport,

Ah, the proof of anecdotical reference. … well… airports… the reason why people buy iPads. ???

office, etc. are not using the pencil.

again…

Swift Playgrounds is no Xcode - thus the "Playground" name.

trying to followed your train of thought/reasoning here: why might Apple differientiate between ”iPad” and ”Mac”?

Otherwise I really don’t care wether Raider is now called Twix. ?

 

[Adelphos33]

If they really wanted to make a pro statement they should have announced a full blown Xcode, Final Cut, or Logic Pro X port for iPadOS instead of whatever mods they've made to Swift Playgrounds.

A lot of people say this, but what percentage of MacOS customers use these apps, and what percentage of iPad customers would use these apps? Likely well below 1% in both cases.

 

[Xak444]

I was hoping for external monitor support, better multi-tasking (more than what was announced), a more robust files app and perhaps some pro apps like XCode or Final Cut Pro.

I guess we kinda got Xcode in a weird way

 

[lostngone]

Not yikes at all..

With iOS 15 and Xcode cloud we are one step closer to getting Xcode on the iPad.

 

[Slartibart]

What are you talking about? If Swift Playgrounds had the same capabilities as Xcode on desktop they would have called it Xcode. Don't need to be a genius to figure that out.

Tell me, what exactly is the difference between programming a Swift + Swift UI app in SP and XCode? Did you even use it so far? … Ever?

 

[zakarhino]

A lot of people say this, but what percentage of MacOS customers use these apps, and what percentage of iPad customers would use these apps? Likely well below 1% in both cases.

That's the case for almost every real "pro" tool, only a minority of people use them. Doesn't mean they shouldn't be built as there's a trickle down effect for regular consumers.

 

[Melodeath]

The event was a big let down. Still, I'm glad I got the 2021 Pro as my first iPad, over the iPad Air.

 

[bscheffel]

Ah, the proof of anecdotical reference. … well… airports… the reason why people buy iPads. ???


again…

trying to followed your train of thought/reasoning here: why might Apple differientiate between ”iPad” and ”Mac”?

Otherwise I really don’t care wether Raider is now called Twix. ?

You are the one that brought up these two items (pencil + swift playgrounds) as discounting the assertion that iPadOS isn't just some tweaked version of iOS...

 

[zakarhino]

Tell me, what exactly is the difference between programming a Swift + Swift UI app in SP and XCode? Did you even use it so far? … Ever?

I don't need to answer that question. The only question I need to ask is this:

Can the iPad be used interchangeably with my laptop for pro work?

The answer is currently "no." With Swift Playgrounds getting an update, the answer is still "no." If it had feature parity with Xcode desktop they would call it "Xcode."

 

[fwmireault]

I am very ambivalent on the new iPadOS. It was obvious that macOS wasn’t coming on iPad and I never had that expectation. The improvement on multitasking is welcomed, it will definitely better that iPadOS 14. But I doubt that it will be anywhere close to the mac regarding productivity and windows management. I’ll give Apple a chance and wait to try it this fall before making any bold statement, maybe I’ll be surprised.

But for me, no improvement regarding external monitor support is a massive letdown by Apple. It is one of the most asked software improvement in iPadOS, and we’ve seen 0 update regarding this.

Other welcomed features, like App Library, Xcode, etc. So overall mixed feelings regarding this update. I will still keep my M1 iPad Pro, but I hope Apple give us hope that a better OS is waiting people who paid them a very steep price.

 

[DreamPod]

Not yikes at all..

With iOS 15 and Xcode cloud we are one step closer to getting Xcode on the iPad.

XCode Cloud isn't any closer to Xcode on the iPad. It's just a cloud-build system, copying what other companies have done - push your code to the repository, it detects the push and builds the app, runs unit tests, emails out any build errors or failed tests to the team and then sends the completed builds to testers.

 

[AutomaticApple]

Well that was…disappointing.

What did you expect?