melgross said: i remember when Jobs was adamantly against video on the iPod Touch, because who would Win 10 to watch video on such a small screen? But 6 months later, and bingo!
Not sure what you're referencing here. The click wheel iPod's supported video and rudimentary video games before the iPod Touch was ever announced. I remember watching Battlestar Galactica reboot episodes purchased on iTunes with a 5th gen click wheel iPod.
melgross said: Whatever it may be under the hood, the name is AutoCad360. It’s a full CAD app. What they announced was the Desktop AutoCad engine would be coming. Exactly what that means is hard to say in terms of a difference in the feature set. They’ve been adding more features every few weeks, or so. When the first iPad Pro 12.9” came out they upped the features and performance.
Oh, you mean A360. That's the official name of the app. That's just a companion app like Fusion360 for iOS. You can view desktop AutoCAD files and models and do markup, but you can't create the models or plans/elevations in iOS. What they announced at the iPad Pro event was full AutoCAD for iOS, meaning that you can actually create 2D plans and elevations and 3D models within iOS.
I can, and do new CAD drawings with that app. Only if you don’t pay the subscription fee is it just a viewer.
If pro apps are cheaper on the iPad there will be less income coming in and less resources to create better versions of the software.
The only time that isn’t true is when competition forces a company to either fold or fight for their life. Or at least the lesser vs no profits if they don’t secure their foothold in the market place.
Most if the time, most of the time, if you want better apps you have to pay enough for it to be worthwhile for the company to make better apps. That usually means money. They may be short sighted and that could be the death of them.
Small/new companies are creating very good apps on iPads because they don’t feel they have the money or audience to build a good enough or great app for desktop/laptop computers because the status quo has saturated the market at a low enough price to make the barrier of entry to that market place to high. But the iPhone/iPad changed that. At least for now.
It is rare for new market places to open up where anyone can jump in and try hard to be the next 800 pound gorilla in the market place.
melgross said: I can, and do new CAD drawings with that app. Only if you don’t pay the subscription fee is it just a viewer.
From the App Store description: "Autodesk A360 was designed specifically for architects, engineers, and designers to view, comment and markup 2D & 3D designs. With over 100 CAD and additional file formats supported, A360 allows you to upload and view any file you have, no matter what software you used to create it."
It doesn't support creation of anything other than comments or markup. You may be thinking of the AutoCAD mobile app. That does allow some forms of creation, although in a much more limited fashion than the desktop version.
melgross said: i remember when Jobs was adamantly against video on the iPod Touch, because who would Win 10 to watch video on such a small screen? But 6 months later, and bingo!
Not sure what you're referencing here. The click wheel iPod's supported video and rudimentary video games before the iPod Touch was ever announced. I remember watching Battlestar Galactica reboot episodes purchased on iTunes with a 5th gen click wheel iPod.
I’m surprised you don’t remember this. Jobs was very adamant that the video that other companies were allowing would never happen.
melgross said: I can, and do new CAD drawings with that app. Only if you don’t pay the subscription fee is it just a viewer.
From the App Store description: "Autodesk A360 was designed specifically for architects, engineers, and designers to view, comment and markup 2D & 3D designs. With over 100 CAD and additional file formats supported, A360 allows you to upload and view any file you have, no matter what software you used to create it."
It doesn't support creation of anything other than comments or markup.
The biggest difference between the iPad and a real computer: If you want to do something that Apple does not want you to do, such as scan for devices on your own local network, you can't do it on the iPad but you can on the computer where Apple cannot exert its micromanagement over everything. The same holds true for WiFi, Bluetooth, the file system, running in the background or with the screen locked and so much more. The iPad is the barest shadow of what it could have been due to Apple's walled garden. Want to run MAME? You can't. Want to run a DOS emulator? You can't. Want to develop and test code on the iPad? You can't. Mine Bitcoin? Can't. Bit torrent? Can't. Install Linux? Can't. Everything Apple produces these days is a big bag of can't.
I just want a real word processor on iOS. I bought the iPP thinking I'd have a nifty portable document creation tool, and the first thing I worked on was a business document that I couldn't finish. On day one I had to go right back to my desktop computer.
None of the word processors on iOS offer "insert table of content". I tried Pages, Word, Google Docs, Polaris whatever, etc.
From a bit different perspective I can say the same. It’s about two weeks I bought mi first iPad (mini 2).
Yesterday I needed post file to web form. At that moment I can say get quite mad. Until then I considered Files app handicaped. After this experience I can call it only crippled. And this gave me clear picture about posibility of iPad as computer replacement.
Finding decent free image editor (not applaying filters on pictures) is not easy as well.
My findings until now.
The Files app is severely lacking, agreed. It has a very low max limit on how many Kb an image must be before it will allow the rendering of a thumbnail. So annoying. If it's targeting speed in this aversion to thumbnails, at least give me the option to tell it to do it so I can decide if I want to endure the time/bandwidth cost.
I haven't looked for ways to make an iPad replace my MacBook Pro because even just casual use keeps exposing obstacles that suggest I shouldn't bother (at least not yet).
I recently tried to AirDrop a couple large documents from my Mac into the "Files" section of my iPhone. Apparently that's not what Files is for. I didn't bother looking into what it actually does because whatever that is, it doesn't seem to be what I want. Maybe it's a useful feature, but my first (and so far only) experience with it was not positive.
In my work I regularly have to create more than one version of a project. When I finish the first version I copy it and make changes to the copy that I then save as another version. I don't see an easy way to do that in iOS.
I get that a new UI will mean learning new methods and I have no problem with that, but so far there seem to be some common uses that just plain don't have an iOS equivalent, and others, like text editing, involve such absurd gymnastics as to be more of a deterrent to the platform than a "solution."
None of that is a problem, as I just happily continue to use my Mac. It just makes me think people like Andrew who really want to move off the laptop onto an iPad have a while to wait yet.
When you Airdrop a file from your Mac to your iPhone, iOS asks you what to do with the received file. At this step you can place it into the Files app. Apparently you couldn’t come even to this step because otherwise you wouldn’t recite that story.
I haven't looked for ways to make an iPad replace my MacBook Pro because even just casual use keeps exposing obstacles that suggest I shouldn't bother (at least not yet).
I recently tried to AirDrop a couple large documents from my Mac into the "Files" section of my iPhone. Apparently that's not what Files is for. I didn't bother looking into what it actually does because whatever that is, it doesn't seem to be what I want. Maybe it's a useful feature, but my first (and so far only) experience with it was not positive.
In my work I regularly have to create more than one version of a project. When I finish the first version I copy it and make changes to the copy that I then save as another version. I don't see an easy way to do that in iOS.
I get that a new UI will mean learning new methods and I have no problem with that, but so far there seem to be some common uses that just plain don't have an iOS equivalent, and others, like text editing, involve such absurd gymnastics as to be more of a deterrent to the platform than a "solution."
None of that is a problem, as I just happily continue to use my Mac. It just makes me think people like Andrew who really want to move off the laptop onto an iPad have a while to wait yet.
When you Airdrop a file from your Mac to your iPhone, iOS asks you what to do with the received file. At this step you can place it into the Files app. Apparently you couldn’t come even to this step because otherwise you wouldn’t recite that story.
I didn't think anyone cared about the details, but since you bring it up...
iOS did ask what i wanted to do with the files. It offered to add them to my iBooks library or upload them to iCloud. There was no option to place them in Files.
I'm sure I can find a use for Files if and when I bother to look into it, (which I haven't yet done because I have this gut feeling it's going to be another example of either surrendering to Apple's approach to file management or living without it, much like how iTunes Match forced me to abandon the file structure of my sizeable music library and accept Apple's oddball file-naming and sorting scheme, and I don't want to go into a task knowing I'll come away frustrated).
The point of my mentioning it was not so much to malign the Files app itself, but rather as an example of why I'm not anticipating replacing my laptop with an iPad anytime soon. The iPad continues to be a great product in its own category, I just don't think it's a suitable substitute for a Mac yet, at least for me. I'm grateful to those who are willing to try, though. Hopefully the early adopters will forge trails that make it easier for the rest of us in the future!
I haven't looked for ways to make an iPad replace my MacBook Pro because even just casual use keeps exposing obstacles that suggest I shouldn't bother (at least not yet).
I recently tried to AirDrop a couple large documents from my Mac into the "Files" section of my iPhone. Apparently that's not what Files is for. I didn't bother looking into what it actually does because whatever that is, it doesn't seem to be what I want. Maybe it's a useful feature, but my first (and so far only) experience with it was not positive.
In my work I regularly have to create more than one version of a project. When I finish the first version I copy it and make changes to the copy that I then save as another version. I don't see an easy way to do that in iOS.
I get that a new UI will mean learning new methods and I have no problem with that, but so far there seem to be some common uses that just plain don't have an iOS equivalent, and others, like text editing, involve such absurd gymnastics as to be more of a deterrent to the platform than a "solution."
None of that is a problem, as I just happily continue to use my Mac. It just makes me think people like Andrew who really want to move off the laptop onto an iPad have a while to wait yet.
When you Airdrop a file from your Mac to your iPhone, iOS asks you what to do with the received file. At this step you can place it into the Files app. Apparently you couldn’t come even to this step because otherwise you wouldn’t recite that story.
I didn't think anyone cared about the details, but since you bring it up...
iOS did ask what i wanted to do with the files. It offered to add them to my iBooks library or upload them to iCloud. There was no option to place them in Files.
I'm sure I can find a use for Files if and when I bother to look into it, (which I haven't yet done because I have this gut feeling it's going to be another example of either surrendering to Apple's approach to file management or living without it, much like how iTunes Match forced me to abandon the file structure of my sizeable music library and accept Apple's oddball file-naming and sorting scheme, and I don't want to go into a task knowing I'll come away frustrated).
The point of my mentioning it was not so much to malign the Files app itself, but rather as an example of why I'm not anticipating replacing my laptop with an iPad anytime soon. The iPad continues to be a great product in its own category, I just don't think it's a suitable substitute for a Mac yet, at least for me. I'm grateful to those who are willing to try, though. Hopefully the early adopters will forge trails that make it easier for the rest of us in the future!
Give it a try. Files is more similar with Finder in Mac or Explorer in Windows than DropBox for example. No Apple restriction. You can create and organise your folders as much as you like. It’s one tool that I have been using extensively. You create folders and sub folders. You copy, move, rename, delete files from one place to another, even drag and drop to another apps, like PDF to Email, image to Notes. I love Files.
Thanks for this detailed analysis. For me an even bigger impedement to making my iPad Pro my main machine is the continued clunkiness of iOS for ordinary workflow, especially when it comes to filing and locating documents. I rely on years’ worth of documents and graphics carefully stored in topical and chronological folders and sub-folders. Yes it’s possible to do some of that with the iPad but the process is extremely clumsy compared to the keyboard-driven commands available on a Mac. Third party efforts to solve these problems seem only to complicate matters. We’re now forced to SUBSCRIBE to Microsoft’s Office suite for iOS for an interface brimming with features I don’t and a proprietary document-sharing scheme that I just can’t seem to master. I get that Apple would prefer everyone to own both devices, but at this point the decision to withhold actual Mac OS features from iPad seems merely petty
I don't think the lack of a true file system on iOS is because Apple is petty - I think it's because they sincerely believe that the vast majority of users don't want to deal with a file system and when they did, they didn't keep it remotely organized like you (or I) do, so Apple has essentially made the file system invisible. I couldn't live with that, so I can never see a time when I'd switch all my work over to a Pad. And as phone screens get larger, I see less reason to carry an iPad at all as I don't want to deal with three devices, but if I did, I would reserve the iPad for the things it does best, which is mainly consumption.
People have managed with filesystems on Macs and PCs for years, not sure why it'd be so difficult on an iPad? It has the iCloud Drive pseudo filesystem, but it's clunky to use and is hard to share things from it (why are there still no file sharing links as Dropbox has had for the last 10 years?)
Seems to be an assumption festering around here that because it's as fast as a laptop then Apple has to start sticking all sorts of crap into it so that it becomes a laptop.
Not entirely sure that's the endgame here.
I suspect the reason behind this is the same reason that every problem with Apple boils down to: folk wanting to tell Apple what they want to pay for whatever tech they want.
In this case, folk want a machine that is a laptop and a tablet, so they don't have to buy both.
Fair enough, but if that form factor is such a big wow, then how come none of these hybrids seem to be outselling the iPad?
Just a thought …
I agree.
Awhile back, Phil Schiller gave an interview to Steven Levy when Apple introduced new iMacs. In that interview, he went into his grand philosophy regarding Apple’s product line and that philosophy is as true today as it was back. It’s amazing many tech bloggers, especially ones focused on Apple, have seemed to forgotten it. To me, this was his most important interview specifically because of this:
“Schiller, in fact, has a grand philosophical theory of the Apple product line that puts all products on a continuum. Ideally, you should be using the smallest possible gadget to do as much as possible before going to the next largest gizmo in line.
“They are all computers,” he says. “Each one is offering computers something unique and each is made with a simple form that is pretty eternal. The job of the watch is to do more and more things on your wrist so that you don’t need to pick up your phone as often. The job of the phone is to do more and more things such that maybe you don’t need your iPad, and it should be always trying and striving to do that. The job of the iPad should be to be so powerful and capable that you never need a notebook. Like, Why do I need a notebook? I can add a keyboard! I can do all these things! The job of the notebook is to make it so you never need a desktop, right? It’s been doing this for a decade. So that leaves the poor desktop at the end of the line, What’s its job?”
Good question. And the answer?
“Its job is to challenge what we think a computer can do and do things that no computer has ever done before, be more and more powerful and capable so that we need a desktop because of its capabilities,” says Schiller. “Because if all it’s doing is competing with the notebook and being thinner and lighter, then it doesn’t need to be.”
Running FCPX on an iPad isn't going to happen any time soon, and as others have said, why would you want it to? Video editing requires vast amounts of RAM, processor/gpu power, and storage. Not happening. I have last year's MacBook Pro and hate it when I have to use that for video editing instead of my desktop. Use a tool suited to the task at hand.
"Video editing requires vast amounts of RAM, processor/gpu power, and storage"
So does Adobe Photoshop and yet it's coming next year for the iPad Pro.
Comments
I can, and do new CAD drawings with that app. Only if you don’t pay the subscription fee is it just a viewer.
The only time that isn’t true is when competition forces a company to either fold or fight for their life. Or at least the lesser vs no profits if they don’t secure their foothold in the market place.
Most if the time, most of the time, if you want better apps you have to pay enough for it to be worthwhile for the company to make better apps. That usually means money. They may be short sighted and that could be the death of them.
Small/new companies are creating very good apps on iPads because they don’t feel they have the money or audience to build a good enough or great app for desktop/laptop computers because the status quo has saturated the market at a low enough price to make the barrier of entry to that market place to high. But the iPhone/iPad changed that. At least for now.
It is rare for new market places to open up where anyone can jump in and try hard to be the next 800 pound gorilla in the market place.
It doesn't support creation of anything other than comments or markup. You may be thinking of the AutoCAD mobile app. That does allow some forms of creation, although in a much more limited fashion than the desktop version.
https://www.engadget.com/2004/04/29/steve-jobs-says-it-again-no-video-ipod/
It does.
iOS did ask what i wanted to do with the files. It offered to add them to my iBooks library or upload them to iCloud. There was no option to place them in Files.
I'm sure I can find a use for Files if and when I bother to look into it, (which I haven't yet done because I have this gut feeling it's going to be another example of either surrendering to Apple's approach to file management or living without it, much like how iTunes Match forced me to abandon the file structure of my sizeable music library and accept Apple's oddball file-naming and sorting scheme, and I don't want to go into a task knowing I'll come away frustrated).
The point of my mentioning it was not so much to malign the Files app itself, but rather as an example of why I'm not anticipating replacing my laptop with an iPad anytime soon. The iPad continues to be a great product in its own category, I just don't think it's a suitable substitute for a Mac yet, at least for me. I'm grateful to those who are willing to try, though. Hopefully the early adopters will forge trails that make it easier for the rest of us in the future!
I agree.
Awhile back, Phil Schiller gave an interview to Steven Levy when Apple introduced new iMacs. In that interview, he went into his grand philosophy regarding Apple’s product line and that philosophy is as true today as it was back. It’s amazing many tech bloggers, especially ones focused on Apple, have seemed to forgotten it. To me, this was his most important interview specifically because of this:
“Schiller, in fact, has a grand philosophical theory of the Apple product line that puts all products on a continuum. Ideally, you should be using the smallest possible gadget to do as much as possible before going to the next largest gizmo in line.
“They are all computers,” he says. “Each one is offering computers something unique and each is made with a simple form that is pretty eternal. The job of the watch is to do more and more things on your wrist so that you don’t need to pick up your phone as often. The job of the phone is to do more and more things such that maybe you don’t need your iPad, and it should be always trying and striving to do that. The job of the iPad should be to be so powerful and capable that you never need a notebook. Like, Why do I need a notebook? I can add a keyboard! I can do all these things! The job of the notebook is to make it so you never need a desktop, right? It’s been doing this for a decade. So that leaves the poor desktop at the end of the line, What’s its job?”
Good question. And the answer?
“Its job is to challenge what we think a computer can do and do things that no computer has ever done before, be more and more powerful and capable so that we need a desktop because of its capabilities,” says Schiller. “Because if all it’s doing is competing with the notebook and being thinner and lighter, then it doesn’t need to be.”
https://medium.com/backchannel/exclusive-why-apple-is-still-sweating-the-details-on-imac-531a95e50c91
When looking at whether an iPad replaces a Mac (or not), one should always reference this theory.
So does Adobe Photoshop and yet it's coming next year for the iPad Pro.