sagan_student

tht said:

Do you use an external keyboard?

If these reviewers are using an iPad like a laptop, I submit that it won’t be a good experience at all. People have to be able to use the software keyboard to maximize an iPad’s strengths.

iOS has drag and drop in a lot of places, gestures all over the place, moving the text cursor in multiple touchscreen ways, using the Pencil in many different ways. This needs to be done with the iPad flat on a table, horizontal. Using all these touch gestures and Pencil while an iPad is vertical or in a clamshell style configuration with external keyboard is nuts. All that touchscreen stuff just won’t work that well because the iPad is not stable while vertical, and users have to lift their whole arms to perform precise gestures. If a lot of manipulation is being done, users will tire pretty quickly doing gestures onscreen. These tablets must be used flat on the table to maximize multi-touch usage and enable fine grained control of objects with your fingers.

The CNBC’s reviewer’s list of things he or she does is: use corporate Slack, draft up a story in a web browser, use email, and edit photos, typically with all the programs running and switching between these apps. This is eminently doable on an iPad with the software keyboard. Slack, any timeline app, can be in Slide Over, web browsers, email, files and photo editors in various Split Views or full screen views. Switching, drag and drop, and text insertion control are all gesture based, and should be just as fast as a macOS trackpad.

With vector graphics apps, like OmniGraffle or even Keynote, where a user is creating diagrams, positioning elements, etc, are better with the iPad flat on a table. Drawing and writing with the Pencil is orders of magnitude better with the iPad flat versus vertical.

I use the apple cover w/ keyboard. So by your measure, I would be using the iPad as a laptop. When using the pencil I actually prefer it in the clamshell, I just slip the bottom of the iPad over the keyboard and now I have a nice ‘drafting’ table. When I’m walking around the class making notes and evaluating students after our conversations I use the pencil while holding the iPad sans keyboard. It’s nice, light, and portable. 

I definitely agree that using the pencil when the iPad in vertical is not ideal, but it does have it’s moments. If i need to make a few marks here or there on a students page I avoid moving the iPad and make the few marks with the pencil. 

The bottom line for me, and what I tell most people when they ask me about my situation, is that the best part of my iPad as my computer is that it is still an iPad. Sure I may use the keyboard to type lesson plans, papers, keynotes, etc. But when it all comes down to it, it’s an iPad. And with the introduction of swipe up from the bottom, flipping from a split view to my browser and back and then using slide over view to add marks in numbers is seamless. It’s nearly as fast as command - arrow. 

My biggest beef is the fact that they got rid of the split keyboard!!! That is much needed for those times when you need to write a paragraph or two but don’t want to clip it to the keyboard. However, I have also been trying to change my workflow in regards to that to by using voice to text. Which has improved immensely over the years, but my biggest learning curve with that has been more about the speed in which I can speak does not always match up with the processing of how I want to word something. At least with typing there is a delay so that I have time to formulate my thoughts as they come. But as with most things, I am getting better with that too the more I practice. 🤓 

GeorgeBMac said:

EXCELLENT analysis!   Thank You!

Essentially:  iPad could be a laptop replacement, but Apple has reversed their course (or stalled it?) and so far, chooses not to go there.   It's not a technical limitation but an administrative one.   I find that sad.

My personal experience last night with my 6th grade grandson doing his homework on his 3 year old HP:
Grandson:   "This laptop sucks!   It's not working!"   (It was running slowly)

Me:  "Use your new iPad that I just bought you."

Grandson:  "No way, i love it, but it sucks for homework"

Do I buy him an MBA or MBP?   Huh?  I just spent $700 on an iPad.  Now I'm supposed to spend $1,500-$2,000 on a tiny 13" MacBook to replace his 15" laptop?   I don't think so.

Likewise:  CNBC summarized it this way:
"I tested the new iPad Pro and it still can't replace my laptop like Apple says it can.
Despite what Apple has said time and time again, I can't actually do work on the iPad Pro, which means it didn't replace my work laptop at all.
I need to be able to write and chat in my corporate Slack chat app, draft up a story in the web browser, pop open the email app and edit photos, often all at once, or quickly switch between them without thinking. I can do all of this and switch between each app in seconds on a Mac or a Windows 10 computer mostly thanks to a mouse. But the lack of a mouse and a true multitasking environment makes all of this much more cumbersome on an iPad."

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/15/apple-ipad-pro-review.html

I think Apple is painting themselves into a corner -- restricting MacBooks to THIS narrow niche (light, thin and expensive) and iPads to THAT narrow niche (content only).

I find that frustrating:  I want to give Apple my money.  But I need them to produce a product that meets my needs or the needs of my grandson.   If the absence of that product were due to a technical limitation I would understand.   But, because it is either an administrative limitation or an inept design team (maybe both?), I find that disturbing and worrisome.

While I appreciate your grandsons concerns, my experience has shown me different t. I am a high school science teacher and 3 years ago I decided to get the 12.9 pro with keyboard and pencil to be my primary (and only) computing device. (I do have a 2008 iMac that is really just an oversized backup sitting in a room rarely visited.) I chose to go that route as my iPad 2 was getting long in the tooth and so was my iMac. I opted for the iPad Pro instead of getting an iPad Air and a MacBook. The first year was a painful transition, I was constantly running into issues where doing something pretty simple, like copy and paste between programs (which I do a TON of), was ridiculously tedious. At times I would revert back and use a windows computer at work when I had a lot of things to move around. But as I problem solved these issues, I began to change my workflow. Then when iOS 11 came out, that changed everything for me, multitasking, drag and drop, folders app, multiple selections, etc. I can now count on one hand the instances in which I’ve HAD to use a PC at work to get something done in the past 8+ months. I honestly can’t provide an example what those instances were, I just know that I decided I would just jump over and do whatever it was on the PC.

I also started my masters in education 3 years ago and have done all my work and research using my iPad Pro. I am currently writing my thesis and doing all the “teacher” things I need using this device. I will never look back. I for one appreciate Apple’s stance at not merging the two. It’s a different interaction with producing and consuming information than on a desktop/laptop. Is everyone able to use an iPad as their primary device? Absolutely not; but most people could. It does however, require effort in rethinking how you handle your workflow.

On a separate note regarding your grandson saying that it sucks for homework, I’m thinking it’s more of the aggravation of having to make a change and the problem solving of how to do it differently, then it not being a device that is capable of meeting his needs as a middle school student. As for the CNBC comment, I’d argue that the reviewer was trying to fit the iPad into their workflow rather than figuring out the workflow that fits with the device (that’s if they truly wanted to make the switch). The best part of all of this for me is that now that I have made the transition, I know that iOS and iPad are only going to continue to improve and that will make me even more efficient. 

Hope you find a solution that works for you,

coolfactor said:

Yah, the explosion of emoji boggles one's mind. I suspect it's Apple's effort to keep favourable to Asian cultures where emoji has been popular far longer than Western cultures. But since they are merely following along with the industry as a whole, I still ponder the question — how many of these emoji will never get used?

They made a movie about this very thing.