I have the 2nd gen iPad Pro and consider it to be a mistake to have invested in it. I already find the power of this tabled to be impressive, but I feel I’m being severely restricted by the operation system.
I probably buy a cheap iPad in the future in addition to a MacBook Pro.
In particular, a 12” iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard is, in every sense, the superior hardware when compared to a MacBook Air, yet it’s forced to run the crippled iPadOS!
The kernel is the same between macOS and iPadOS, Catalyst is present to run i(Pad)OS apps under macOS, and the OS could restrict apps to Catalyst when used without MagicKeyboard to optimize for touch Ui.
But why can we not (at least optionally) run macOS on an iPad Pro wit MagicKeyboard?
THAT is what I’m waiting for! A Mac with the ability to use pen/finger to interact where needed. For the most part, I use my current iPad Pro with keyboard and touchpad, with the occasional screen/pen interaction
I’m looking forward to seeing the Geekbench scores for the new models.
Me too. We don’t know whether Apple had to downclock or throttle the M1 on iPad Pro to keep thermals under control. I’m not expecting that they had any major issues because the current MBA does quite well with a fanless design so the iPad Pro should be in the same ballpark as the MBA under load.
As impressive as the new iPad Pro is, it is still for all intents and purposes a 1.0 product and not the full expression of what it really could be. The combination of iPadOS and M1 is kind of like stuffing a HellCat crate engine into a 1966 Dodge Dart, which would be an amazing thing to drive in a world without corners. Perhaps WWDC will bring some relief and iPadOS will catch up with the hardware it’s running on.
All of the teeth gnashing about the old Magic Keyboard not being a perfect fit on the new iPad Pro is obscuring the shortcomings of the product itself. It’s like complaining that the floor mats from your old Ferrari don’t fit perfectly in your new Ferrari. But why is nobody talking about the lack of additional ports on the iPad Pro? A single additional TB port would have been awesome. It might have been nice to add another FaceTime camera for landscape orientation, especially on the 12.9” unit which is a struggle (for some folks) to use in portrait mode. An SD/micro SD slot wouldn’t have disappointed anyone using iPad Pro for photography and video work.
As far as macOS vs iPadOS, my hope is that iPadOS expands to incorporate at least all of the features/functions that 90% of current Mac users are using, i.e., how macOS is being used in 2021 by the majority of users. Yes this means that some obscure OS X/macOS features and capabilities used by a tiny percentage of users (< 10%) won’t come along for the ride. My gut feeling is that simply plopping macOS in its entirety on to iPad Pro would drag along a ton of cruft that would bloat up the resource requirements on the iPad unnecessarily. Given the choice between cutting down macOS to fit iPad versus starting with iPadOS and only adding to it what is absolutely needed by the majority of iPad users, I will always choose the latter option.
As a developer I always prefer to start with a clean slate and only add what’s necessary rather than slashing & burning my way through somebody else’s mess and trying to figure out what’s needed and what can be cut out. In my experience, the slash & burn approach always results in something that should have been excised hanging around and burning you later on. So it is my glass-half-full hope that when Apple talks about never “merging” Mac and iPad they are saying they will not do the slash & burn and try to stuff macOS on to iPad, but there is nothing at all preventing iPadOS from growing to fulfill the promise of its magnificent hardware foundation.
I don't think many 2018 and 2020 iPad Pro owners will or should upgrade to the 2021 model. The 2018 model shipped in Nov/Dec of 2018. It will be 2.5 years old for those who bought right away. That's still pretty new. It's like asking if a late 2018 Mac mini or MBA owners should upgrade to the M1 versions. The answer should be no for the vast majority of them, and they should wait another year. For those who do upgrade, they typically don't need the advice of a website, have good reasons for doing so, and why they do so will not be discussed by a web article.
I've been using my 2017 iPP 10.5 as my sole home computer. I really love it. Cellular model so I can use it anywhere. It does everything I want it to do, including managing my files, basic spreadsheet stuff, drawing, basic image editing, basic Python stuff, video, audio, and of course web browsing. I do the Split View, Slide Over stuff all the time. I don't think a PC laptop would have served me better.
I probably don't need to get a new machine just yet, but yes, that iPad Pro 12.9 with 2 TB storage and 16 GB of RAM is calling. I want to try the larger model to see what it is like. The all-optioned up SKU basically means it is a 5 to 6 year machine. That is perhaps the biggest source of friction for purchase. It's good enough to use for basically a decade.
As a work machine, an iPad Pro can't replace my MBP15 until it has many of the wished for features. I need extended external display support, shell/terminal access, multi-user, and a more extensive overlapping window UI. And I'll want a ~15" display too. A folding iPad is going to be exciting when it comes. Large enough for work, folded in half for play, can be used as desktop display unfolded, used a clamshell while mobile, and will present as large drawing canvas on a table, assuming they can make it work.
Comments
I already find the power of this tabled to be impressive, but I feel I’m being severely restricted by the operation system.
As impressive as the new iPad Pro is, it is still for all intents and purposes a 1.0 product and not the full expression of what it really could be. The combination of iPadOS and M1 is kind of like stuffing a HellCat crate engine into a 1966 Dodge Dart, which would be an amazing thing to drive in a world without corners. Perhaps WWDC will bring some relief and iPadOS will catch up with the hardware it’s running on.
All of the teeth gnashing about the old Magic Keyboard not being a perfect fit on the new iPad Pro is obscuring the shortcomings of the product itself. It’s like complaining that the floor mats from your old Ferrari don’t fit perfectly in your new Ferrari. But why is nobody talking about the lack of additional ports on the iPad Pro? A single additional TB port would have been awesome. It might have been nice to add another FaceTime camera for landscape orientation, especially on the 12.9” unit which is a struggle (for some folks) to use in portrait mode. An SD/micro SD slot wouldn’t have disappointed anyone using iPad Pro for photography and video work.
As far as macOS vs iPadOS, my hope is that iPadOS expands to incorporate at least all of the features/functions that 90% of current Mac users are using, i.e., how macOS is being used in 2021 by the majority of users. Yes this means that some obscure OS X/macOS features and capabilities used by a tiny percentage of users (< 10%) won’t come along for the ride. My gut feeling is that simply plopping macOS in its entirety on to iPad Pro would drag along a ton of cruft that would bloat up the resource requirements on the iPad unnecessarily. Given the choice between cutting down macOS to fit iPad versus starting with iPadOS and only adding to it what is absolutely needed by the majority of iPad users, I will always choose the latter option.
As a developer I always prefer to start with a clean slate and only add what’s necessary rather than slashing & burning my way through somebody else’s mess and trying to figure out what’s needed and what can be cut out. In my experience, the slash & burn approach always results in something that should have been excised hanging around and burning you later on. So it is my glass-half-full hope that when Apple talks about never “merging” Mac and iPad they are saying they will not do the slash & burn and try to stuff macOS on to iPad, but there is nothing at all preventing iPadOS from growing to fulfill the promise of its magnificent hardware foundation.
I've been using my 2017 iPP 10.5 as my sole home computer. I really love it. Cellular model so I can use it anywhere. It does everything I want it to do, including managing my files, basic spreadsheet stuff, drawing, basic image editing, basic Python stuff, video, audio, and of course web browsing. I do the Split View, Slide Over stuff all the time. I don't think a PC laptop would have served me better.
I probably don't need to get a new machine just yet, but yes, that iPad Pro 12.9 with 2 TB storage and 16 GB of RAM is calling. I want to try the larger model to see what it is like. The all-optioned up SKU basically means it is a 5 to 6 year machine. That is perhaps the biggest source of friction for purchase. It's good enough to use for basically a decade.
As a work machine, an iPad Pro can't replace my MBP15 until it has many of the wished for features. I need extended external display support, shell/terminal access, multi-user, and a more extensive overlapping window UI. And I'll want a ~15" display too. A folding iPad is going to be exciting when it comes. Large enough for work, folded in half for play, can be used as desktop display unfolded, used a clamshell while mobile, and will present as large drawing canvas on a table, assuming they can make it work.