Please please add a trackpad to the add on keyboard. The irony about what Craig Federighi statement: “We really feel that the ergonomics of using a Mac are that your hands are rested on a surface, and that lifting your arm up to poke a screen is a pretty fatiguing thing to do.” is that is exactly what they've created with an ipad pro because they wont allow for a trackpad or mouse to be attached just a keyboard. Please please allow us to add one Apple.
That is just embarrassing.too soon. And I say this as someone who uses an iPad Pro for mobile work purposes for hours each day. Apple needs to supersede the software limitations of iOS before it can try this line on with any credibility.
Mr Cook should just tap his heels together three times and repeat:
”I don’t have Steve’s Reality Distortion Field” ”I don’t have Steve’s Reality Distortion Field” ”I don’t have Steve’s Reality Distortion Field”
Edit: I can can see the future myriad parody versions already. edit2: to replace computers the tag line should be “better than a computer”. But only once it is true. We aren’t there yet.
Close... but not before there is a core comprehensive, roubust file/folder management system with a consitant UI at the heart of ios.. accessible from every app for all types of files.
Lack of this is a massive handicap... plus the restricted usb-c io
Exactly. The iPad is perfectly capable of being a very powerful laptop replacement, but it's still hamstrung by iOS. iOS 11 was a huge leap forward with the files app, better ability to multitask, etc. Unfortunately it still has significant limitations in terms of capabilities and usability Apple just needs to mature things a bit more.
Everyone keeps saying things like "it can be a laptop replacement for some people," which is true. That's true of any device if your demands are limited enough. Heck, some people can replace their laptop with an iPhone. The problem here is that apple is marketing the iPad as a laptop powerful machine that can be a replacement for everyone and overpromising. In doing so they risk alienating a lot of people by selling them a $1500 machine that doesn't do what they promise it can.
iPad has always been about how the tools we use for doing work change according to the work we need to do, and that in turn changes the work we do, to take advantage of the tools available.
In 1960, it took a roomful of people with mechanical calculators on their desks to do the work that later generations could easily perform with a spreadsheet. But when spreadsheets and other business applications came along, the work they made possible was wholly different from the problem they were initially designed to solve.
iPads, and specifically the iPad Pro, is not designed to do the same work that a PC traditionally did. Those who are suggesting the iPad Pro is a poor replacement for a PC are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The tablet form factor has its own destiny, which will take on many, but not all the tasks of a PC, while enabling new forms of work and productivity that PCs are less adapted to accommodate.
iPad has always been about how the tools we use for doing work change according to the work we need to do, and that in turn changes the work we do, to take advantage of the tools available.
In 1960, it took a roomful of people with mechanical calculators on their desks to do the work that later generations could easily perform with a spreadsheet. But when spreadsheets and other business applications came along, the work they made possible was wholly different from the problem they were initially designed to solve.
iPads, and specifically the iPad Pro, is not designed to do the same work that a PC traditionally did. Those who are suggesting the iPad Pro is a poor replacement for a PC are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The tablet form factor has its own destiny, which will take on many, but not all the tasks of a PC, while enabling new forms of work and productivity that PCs are less adapted to accommodate.
Well said. On a side note, I still think the "What's a computer?" iPad ads with the young girl is the best iPad ad Apple's done to date. They should run with that concept for the new iPad Pro.
That is just embarrassing.too soon. And I say this as someone who uses an iPad Pro for mobile work purposes for hours each day. Apple needs to supersede the software limitations of iOS before it can try this line on with any credibility.
Mr Cook should just tap his heels together three times and repeat:
”I don’t have Steve’s Reality Distortion Field” ”I don’t have Steve’s Reality Distortion Field” ”I don’t have Steve’s Reality Distortion Field”
Edit: I can can see the future myriad parody versions already. edit2: to replace computers the tag line should be “better than a computer”. But only once it is true. We aren’t there yet.
Close... but not before there is a core comprehensive, roubust file/folder management system with a consitant UI at the heart of ios.. accessible from every app for all types of files.
Lack of this is a massive handicap... plus the restricted usb-c io
Exactly. The iPad is perfectly capable of being a very powerful laptop replacement, but it's still hamstrung by iOS. iOS 11 was a huge leap forward with the files app, better ability to multitask, etc. Unfortunately it still has significant limitations in terms of capabilities and usability Apple just needs to mature things a bit more.
Everyone keeps saying things like "it can be a laptop replacement for some people," which is true. That's true of any device if your demands are limited enough. Heck, some people can replace their laptop with an iPhone. The problem here is that apple is marketing the iPad as a laptop powerful machine that can be a replacement for everyone and overpromising. In doing so they risk alienating a lot of people by selling them a $1500 machine that doesn't do what they promise it can.
I remember when that first narration has appeared and that was discussed here too. Schiller never said “everyone” in that Keynote, he said “many” or “...for many”. At least semantically there is nothing wrong with that first formulation. That may virtually “alienate” only first time computer buyers, which are mostly millenials, to whom you must really explain why a computer is better (is it?) than a PS4. Millenials don’t give a shit about trackpad, mouse or keyboard, they have smartphones and game controllers. They even use the iPad or a trackpad with both hands, they’re kinda different creatures, their brains are already wired differently...
I still can admit that it may have created some confusion in non-millenials, but not as much to justify that hate speech. Because Apple maintains a consistent product strategy with clearly defined product specs and fixed architecture with well defined limits. That helps the confused to come to a correct decision about a laptop or iPad.
You can't replace a laptop computer without a computer operating system. General purpose computing is still where it is at (as it has been all along). An iPad running iOS is starting to look a lot like a Chromebook. Beautiful, fast and completely useless for most professional tasks due to the intentional limitations of the operating system.
iPad has always been about how the tools we use for doing work change according to the work we need to do, and that in turn changes the work we do, to take advantage of the tools available.
In 1960, it took a roomful of people with mechanical calculators on their desks to do the work that later generations could easily perform with a spreadsheet. But when spreadsheets and other business applications came along, the work they made possible was wholly different from the problem they were initially designed to solve.
iPads, and specifically the iPad Pro, is not designed to do the same work that a PC traditionally did. Those who are suggesting the iPad Pro is a poor replacement for a PC are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The tablet form factor has its own destiny, which will take on many, but not all the tasks of a PC, while enabling new forms of work and productivity that PCs are less adapted to accommodate.
I am not a power user. My iMac is almost 8 years old. Yet, the iPad Pro cannot replace it. I bought a drone, which got me into light video editing with iMovie. The thought of trying to do this on my iPad with my fingers, after importing from the sd card hanging in a dongle, horrifies me. I use spreadsheets a lot for budgeting and comparison shopping, but I’m not too interested in reaching across a keyboard to select cells. Writing letters and documents is probably fine; but again, text selection with my arm suspended horizontally is not ideal (just editing this comment on my non-pro iPad sucks).
So, what work is there are that an iPad Pro is so well-suited for that us old fogies are not able to grasp? it’s not productivity software. It’s not movie editing. Maybe it’s drawing or something? How many cartoonists and graphic artists and part-time DJs can Apple sell these to?
iPad has always been about how the tools we use for doing work change according to the work we need to do, and that in turn changes the work we do, to take advantage of the tools available.
In 1960, it took a roomful of people with mechanical calculators on their desks to do the work that later generations could easily perform with a spreadsheet. But when spreadsheets and other business applications came along, the work they made possible was wholly different from the problem they were initially designed to solve.
iPads, and specifically the iPad Pro, is not designed to do the same work that a PC traditionally did. Those who are suggesting the iPad Pro is a poor replacement for a PC are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The tablet form factor has its own destiny, which will take on many, but not all the tasks of a PC, while enabling new forms of work and productivity that PCs are less adapted to accommodate.
I am not a power user. My iMac is almost 8 years old. Yet, the iPad Pro cannot replace it. I bought a drone, which got me into light video editing with iMovie. The thought of trying to do this on my iPad with my fingers, after importing from the sd card hanging in a dongle, horrifies me. I use spreadsheets a lot for budgeting and comparison shopping, but I’m not too interested in reaching across a keyboard to select cells. Writing letters and documents is probably fine; but again, text selection with my arm suspended horizontally is not ideal (just editing this comment on my non-pro iPad sucks).
So, what work is there are that an iPad Pro is so well-suited for that us old fogies are not able to grasp? it’s not productivity software. It’s not movie editing. Maybe it’s drawing or something? How many cartoonists and graphic artists and part-time DJs can Apple sell these to?
Actually you own the best products of both platforms and you have nothing to worry about besides getting more fluent in both that I believe certainly you will. I edit this on my non-pro iPad too and without Pencil or stylus. It just works (not the forum editor, the iPad). I record a lot of videos from YouTube on it and trim both ends of the clips with my fingers. I wonder how my big fingers not so precise on my MBP’s trackpad becomes so precise on the iPad. I admit that spreadsheet work is hard and you need a lot of display to see the whole worksheet at once. But even in the limited display of the iPad it is a pleasure to work in Numbers provided that you get used to. It may be confusing at first because there is so much parameters for formatting and calculations and you may not figure out immediately what is where. The accurate touch interface of iOS is what makes working with cells so easy. Are any of these shortcomings? Well maybe, depending on the lifestyle and work habits. But despite all of those limitations you get an unprecedented mobility and versatility in organizing your daily tasks, which make the iPad a correct investment.
The headline implies Apple is promoting iPad Pro as a laptop repaclemnt but nowhere did the commercial say that. It merely said that it can be your next computer. My "next computer" is my iPad Pro 11.
iPad can be the next computer for many people but it won't be the primary computer for me as a software developer. I must have macOS with Intel inside.
iPad Pro is DEFINTELY more powerful than most laptops but the iOS is nowhere as powerful as MacOS.
I think they should market it towards digital artists, that is the safe choice. Because artists will surely be happy with the Apple Pencil and the ability to draw on the screen. Marketing it to everyday people looking to replace their ageing laptop is a riskier proposition because it might not do everything they want, creating ill-will towards Apple.
And before people say "But for most people an iPad will be enough," I would say you're right but you're not going far enough! For most people a phone is enough. Therefore people who are looking for a laptop probably have some specific requirement that their phone is not meeting. And since an iPad is quite similar to a phone in many ways, the odds it will not work for them is quite high. Market the iPad to artists and otherwise suggest the Mac.
What I would like to know is where are the video comparisons showing 2 (ideally 20) proficient users in both a laptop and an iPad completing similar tasks needed for their profession? Cause I am cautiously optimistic that for any particular profession, whereever anyone puts their needle, they are surprised to see the needle actually points a little closer to iPad. FullDisclosure: Regardless of the actual outcome, I find it time well spent contemplating and reading peoples opinions about it. I also have not searched to see if these videos actually exist. The only information I have is that I personally have not read an article or comment that has contained a link on it.
So many people complain that the iPad Pro can't replace their computer.
Nope. It’s so many people posting on anonymous tech blogs that the iPad Pro can’t replace their computer. Apple deals with the real world and real markets. Desktop and laptop traditionalists who rant on tech blogs are not the real world nor are they the real market. In the real world and real markets the iPad continues to make inroads in the Enterprise, education, home use. The iPad naysayers are the crowd that, when Apple changes a single feature or option, blows a gasket because their “workflow” has been disturbed, making their whole installation “useless”.
To me the issue isn't that the iPad can't replace the Mac in many things. It's a different tool. I don't think anyone would be complaining but for the fact that Apple keeps claiming it can and is pricing it above the Mac in some variants. When you claim and price a device as a Mac replacement expect to get criticism if it doesn't actually do that. Especially when you stick a "Pro" moniker on the end of it.
So many people complain that the iPad Pro can't replace their computer.
Nope. It’s so many people posting on anonymous tech blogs that the iPad Pro can’t replace their computer. Apple deals with the real world and real markets. Desktop and laptop traditionalists who rant on tech blogs are not the real world nor are they the real market. In the real world and real markets the iPad continues to make inroads in the Enterprise, education, home use. The iPad naysayers are the crowd that, when Apple changes a single feature or option, blows a gasket because their “workflow” has been disturbed, making their whole installation “useless”.
Lkrupp you always get it right in my book. Well said.
It certainly have the horsepower, but people still use it as cars, not trucks. If iPad wants to be serious, it needs to have features on a PC, like multi users, CLI interfaces, real file systems, etc, and possible to modify.
Not all USB-C accessories will work though, and iOS has yet to gain an open filesystem.
The perfect closing sentence that sums it all up.
I know Apple is in business to make a profit, but they are facing an uphill battle with the iPad UNTIL they break down and expand iOS into something much more. No, not a MacOS X clone, but iOS that really does make an iPad a laptop replacement.
If anything, that's what Apple is trying to do by stripping away all the "pro" features from their MacBook line -- dumbing it down so low that there is hardly a difference between it and the iPad. No SD card slot, no MagSafe, no USB-A (which is ubiquitous), a sorry keyboard in terms of key travel, no more glowing Apple logo, no extended power cord in the box, no LED on the charging cable -- wow! The MacBook line is almost an iPad! And when Apple switches Macs from Intel to its own processors, that will be the end of the distinctive mobile "computer" lines.
Close... but not before there is a core comprehensive, roubust file/folder management system with a consitant UI at the heart of ios.. accessible from every app for all types of files.
Lack of this is a massive handicap... plus the restricted usb-c io
The kids today do stuff with pictures,music and words. They don’t spend their time doing file admin.
Incorrect.
The kids today that are content to play in other peoples sandboxes do as you say.
The kids who make the sandboxes definitely need to access and organize their files the way THEY need to. Not according to someone else’s script.
I manage a creative team of 20- 25 year olds.
You know what they prefer to use? MacBook Pros.
One of them was offered an iPad Pro for social media and she refused it.
She has much more freedom and control with the Mac. Just uses her phone to publish.
People love to look at smartphone usage as a way to predict computing habits. But its wrong.
Heres why:
smartphones are so used because they are personal communication devices. Always on your person and seem to be private.
But they aren’t an indication of how people prefer to do everything. They are good for some things. Not for others.
A giant smartphone - otherwise known as a tablet - is even better at these capabilities, but loses the portable and personal factor.
Therefore, it’s an in-between and always Will be until it is made to function very similar to a Mac with similar extensibility, i/o, sand file access/organization.
Until then, it will never be a computer replacement. The only way it would be is if the actual computers disappeared and we were forced to use dumbed down “smart” devices.
Many factors of the current Mac OS are like the wheel - it’s already the best there is at what it does. It can come in many colors, materials, etc. But its still round and will always be. Because that’s the best shape for the job.
The same is true of longstanding file stystems.
You can refine it. But when you try to reinvent it, you Jesuit break what was already perfect.
The headline implies Apple is promoting iPad Pro as a laptop repaclemnt but nowhere did the commercial say that. It merely said that it can be your next computer. My "next computer" is my iPad Pro 11.
iPad can be the next computer for many people but it won't be the primary computer for me as a software developer. I must have macOS with Intel inside.
iPad Pro is DEFINTELY more powerful than most laptops but the iOS is nowhere as powerful as MacOS.
Yes. For those who want to experience the power of full macOS in an iPad footprint there is the Retina Macbook. Still not satisfied? Then there is the new Macbook Air. If iPads were a “replacement” then none of these Macbooks would exist. Apple just offers an alternative. Alternative does not mean “necessity”.
So many people complain that the iPad Pro can't replace their computer. Well, it's true that the iPad Pro can't REPLACE their computer, but remember this. In 1984, the 128K Macintosh couldn't replace my IBM Selectric typewriter. For instance, where do you put the piece of paper? What? You have to buy something extra to print something out? Well, that's not a replacement! Therefore, the Macintosh must have been garbage! It's now 2018, and I haven't used an IBM Selectric in 31 years. One of these days, I will no longer use a Macintosh. This isn't that day, but it's coming sooner than you expect. And some of the reasons are explained in this commercial.
The difference is the IBM you mentioned could do less things than a Mac, but a Mac can do more things can an iPad and faster. So your analogy isn’t a great one. When I say faster I don’t mean processor speed, but power and precision.
Why are people so offended by iPad and the term computer? It’s so bizarre to me how much iPad upsets some people. But it’s not like Apple has put a gun to your head and said you can only use iPad. If it doesn’t work for you use something else.
In part I believe what’s bothering people so much is the price of an iPad Pro considering how the software works.
No iPad, even the Pro, will replace my computer until I can play Skyrim and Elite Dangerous in VR on it, the latter with full HOTAS, rudder pedal and VoiceAttack support.
That said, it can replace a computer for many of the other tasks for which I use my computer, such as YouTube, email, general browsing, etc. Probably photo processing as well, given some of the demos I've seen. Certainly loads of other things I personally don't do, but others need, fall into the same category.
However, I believe the lack of a local, expandable file system (whether or not it's organized or accessed in any so-called "traditional" way) is a real bar for me. I have no desire whatsoever to store my precious documents, photos, etc in the cloud, no matter how safe and secure the provider claims it to be. Completely aside from security, should I be without internet (a not uncommon occurrence for me), I am without my stuff. Unacceptable. Until I can add a USB/ThunderBolt/whatever hard drive or SSD, or connect to a local network NAS device, and have it treated as an extension of the iOS file system already on the device, "computer replacement" is a buzzword, not an actuality.
Supplement? Abso-bloody-lutely. But not replace.
Also part of the equation is the fact that my computer (which, to be fair, I built myself), which can do the gaming along with everything else, was less expensive than an iPad Pro kitted out they way I think I'd want in order to do all the same non-gaming things in the same manner. I suspect that there are some things I haven't thought of that would bring the price down, but at a minimum, a keyboard and trackpad (though Pencil seems like it could replace the trackpad) would be required. Those raise the price to about 25% higher than what it would cost me to build my PC today, and about twice as much as I actually paid.
I realize that I'm somewhat atypical, but I don't think I'm especially unusual either.
Comments
Everyone keeps saying things like "it can be a laptop replacement for some people," which is true. That's true of any device if your demands are limited enough. Heck, some people can replace their laptop with an iPhone. The problem here is that apple is marketing the iPad as a laptop powerful machine that can be a replacement for everyone and overpromising. In doing so they risk alienating a lot of people by selling them a $1500 machine that doesn't do what they promise it can.
In 1960, it took a roomful of people with mechanical calculators on their desks to do the work that later generations could easily perform with a spreadsheet. But when spreadsheets and other business applications came along, the work they made possible was wholly different from the problem they were initially designed to solve.
iPads, and specifically the iPad Pro, is not designed to do the same work that a PC traditionally did. Those who are suggesting the iPad Pro is a poor replacement for a PC are trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. The tablet form factor has its own destiny, which will take on many, but not all the tasks of a PC, while enabling new forms of work and productivity that PCs are less adapted to accommodate.
I still can admit that it may have created some confusion in non-millenials, but not as much to justify that hate speech. Because Apple maintains a consistent product strategy with clearly defined product specs and fixed architecture with well defined limits. That helps the confused to come to a correct decision about a laptop or iPad.
So, what work is there are that an iPad Pro is so well-suited for that us old fogies are not able to grasp? it’s not productivity software. It’s not movie editing. Maybe it’s drawing or something? How many cartoonists and graphic artists and part-time DJs can Apple sell these to?
The kids today that are content to play in other peoples sandboxes do as you say.
The kids who make the sandboxes definitely need to access and organize their files the way THEY need to. Not according to someone else’s script.
I manage a creative team of 20- 25 year olds.
You know what they prefer to use? MacBook Pros.
One of them was offered an iPad Pro for social media and she refused it.
She has much more freedom and control with the Mac. Just uses her phone to publish.
People love to look at smartphone usage as a way to predict computing habits. But its wrong.
Heres why:
smartphones are so used because they are personal communication devices. Always on your person and seem to be private.
But they aren’t an indication of how people prefer to do everything. They are good for some things. Not for others.
A giant smartphone - otherwise known as a tablet - is even better at these capabilities, but loses the portable and personal factor.
Therefore, it’s an in-between and always Will be until it is made to function very similar to a Mac with similar extensibility, i/o, sand file access/organization.
Until then, it will never be a computer replacement. The only way it would be is if the actual computers disappeared and we were forced to use dumbed down “smart” devices.
Many factors of the current Mac OS are like the wheel - it’s already the best there is at what it does. It can come in many colors, materials, etc. But its still round and will always be. Because that’s the best shape for the job.
The same is true of longstanding file stystems.
You can refine it. But when you try to reinvent it, you Jesuit break what was already perfect.
That said, it can replace a computer for many of the other tasks for which I use my computer, such as YouTube, email, general browsing, etc. Probably photo processing as well, given some of the demos I've seen. Certainly loads of other things I personally don't do, but others need, fall into the same category.
However, I believe the lack of a local, expandable file system (whether or not it's organized or accessed in any so-called "traditional" way) is a real bar for me. I have no desire whatsoever to store my precious documents, photos, etc in the cloud, no matter how safe and secure the provider claims it to be. Completely aside from security, should I be without internet (a not uncommon occurrence for me), I am without my stuff. Unacceptable. Until I can add a USB/ThunderBolt/whatever hard drive or SSD, or connect to a local network NAS device, and have it treated as an extension of the iOS file system already on the device, "computer replacement" is a buzzword, not an actuality.
Supplement? Abso-bloody-lutely. But not replace.
Also part of the equation is the fact that my computer (which, to be fair, I built myself), which can do the gaming along with everything else, was less expensive than an iPad Pro kitted out they way I think I'd want in order to do all the same non-gaming things in the same manner. I suspect that there are some things I haven't thought of that would bring the price down, but at a minimum, a keyboard and trackpad (though Pencil seems like it could replace the trackpad) would be required. Those raise the price to about 25% higher than what it would cost me to build my PC today, and about twice as much as I actually paid.
I realize that I'm somewhat atypical, but I don't think I'm especially unusual either.