8 ms·

I hate to admit it, but I have both Transmit and Coda for iOS and I never use them. I've never really used them. I know a lot of care went into making these app

I hate to admit it, but I have both Transmit and Coda for iOS and I never use them. I've never really used them. I know a lot of care went into making these applications, so I don't want to say it was a waste of money, but I just can't make iOS any more of a productive platform... even with great software. Honestly, this story/link should be considered maybe a both a blow to the "post-pc" narrative (we're going on 8 years of "post-pc") AND to Apple itself. MS didn't go about Win8 very gracefully, but honestly, I think A LOT of the thinking behind Win8 was right-on and future-minded. These concepts just needed a gentler, multi-staged introduction. I think Win10 is turning things around. Also: I wonder if this reality has anything to do with that "cross-platform" UIKit/AppKit replacement PR drop we got a few weeks ago?

freetime2 9y ago
Which iOS platform, iPhone or iPad? The newer iPad Pro model with the keyboard cover seems like it would be much better for productivity tasks than an iPhone, for example. Still nowhere near as functional as a laptop for day-to-day productivity - but maybe good enough that you could bring an iPad along on a trip and make a quick edit or restart a server if needed, and leave the laptop at home?
- smashingfiasco 9y ago
  Both. I had a first gen iPad Pro for about a year before I gave it to my parents to use for their travels. The keyboard cover was super handy (I highly recommend it), and I admit that there are some cases where I could have gotten away with just an iPad. But for anything important, I'd need to open a VPN and RDP session anyway. A Surface may have been a better purchase, TBH.
  - gtufano 9y ago
    VPN and RDP is a task you can do easily on iOS (VPN is embedded in system and Microsoft RDP client is very good, and free). There are serious real limits in using iPad+keyboard for work, but not VPN and RDP.
    - smashingfiasco 9y ago
      Agreed on that! The iOS RDP app is pretty darn good, and VPN connectivity options are really good too. BUT... I discovered that if I RDP into my work machine/network, it totally negates the need for both Coda and Transmit on my local iPad. Thats the trick... :(
- cyberferret 9y ago
  My son decided to hand his laptop to his brother a few months back and try and run his entire music business using just an iPad Pro. It works, up to a point, but there are just so many niggly issues compared to just using a laptop. Simply things like a booking agency sending him a PDF contract to sign becomes a saga of jumping between multiple apps, importing and exporting etc. in order to get it done and sent back. Sending sound clips to his customers is also surprisingly difficult, as there is no easy integration between services like SoundCloud and DropBox, and even with the new 'Files' app, it is difficult to manage more than a few files in a complicated folder structure and send them on to others easily. He also found it a challenge to make simple posters etc. for his upcoming shows and send them to printers or even to Facebook. Supposedly simple acts like adding readable text to a photo background was a challenge, and he ended up going through about 6 different apps before he found one that worked the way he wanted to. Add to that the fact that his iPad Pro pen started to fail after a couple of months, and I think he has regrets going down this path.
tptacek 9y ago
Careful. People on HN aren't really a part of the "post-PC narrative". People plugging keyboards into iPads and using them full-time to write papers at school are. I'm not really clear why I'd use Transmit on the Mac either, except that it's a very pretty interface.
- ghostcluster 9y ago
  > People plugging keyboards into iPads and using them full-time to write papers at school are. How many people are doing that? A chromebook I can buy as a school computer. An iPad... The idea of trying to select chunks of text and move them around in a paper, or simply re-positioning the cursor sounds like a nightmare. If I were a kid I'd beg my parents for a real laptop.
  - ggg9990 9y ago
    That’s because your idea of a “computer” has a command line, Python interpreter, filesystem, etc. Kids these days don’t get exposed to that so they don’t really desire it. Their idea of computing comes from apps that are take-it-or-leave-it, interact with other apps only in predefined and constrained ways, and use touch UI. They may want a better text selection interface but I’m not sure they concretely know that a “real laptop” has one.
    - addicted 9y ago
      But isn’t that a failure of their education system? Compare the kids who grew up on their iPads against a kid in Eastern Europe who grew up hacking on a Linux or even Windows machine using a real keyboard. Wouldn’t the latter have all sorts of advantages in all sorts of jobs? If nothing else, growing up using a real keyboard would mean they could type a lot faster than the one who is used to a touch screen.
      - veidr 9y ago
        No, because it takes precisely 18 minutes to use a keyboard if you already know how a touch tablet works, and 3 days to learn to touch type. So, they'd have a 3-day-18-minute advantage in all sorts of jobs
rsynnott 9y ago
I’ve found coda to be vaguely useful (and prompt to be very useful) but can’t imagine what I’d even use transmit for.
coldtea 9y ago
>Honestly, this story/link should be considered maybe a both a blow to the "post-pc" narrative (we're going on 8 years of "post-pc") AND to Apple itself. Post PC can mean two things, neither of which is invalidated by the story: 1) Tablets, smartphones and so on, being increasingly used by regular people (in lieu of PCs) to do work (writing documents, using work apps on the move -- e.g. airport personnel, factory staff, graphic designers doing digital painting on tablets, etc). This hasn't particularly caught on, but it doesn't really concern the developer crowd and its more specialist needs. Everyone could very well use a mobile phone to write a work paper today, but nobody expected or predicted phones to have a full terminal/file transfer/scripting/programming etc workflow to satisfy the average developer/admin. That's not a real part people though as the "post-PC world". This is usually conveyed in the "Car vs Truck" dichotomy (I think invented by Jobs), where in the Post-PC world mobile phones are like cars (for regular use) and PCs like trucks (specialized use cases). 2) The other sense of which people speak of a post-pc world is tablets, smartphones and so on, being increasingly used over PC (in total hours/day) in general. Which is true and getting truer everyday -- be it for web, mail, social media access, video, etc.

freetime2 9y ago

Which iOS platform, iPhone or iPad? The newer iPad Pro model with the keyboard cover seems like it would be much better for productivity tasks than an iPhone, for example. Still nowhere near as functional as a laptop for day-to-day productivity - but maybe good enough that you could bring an iPad along on a trip and make a quick edit or restart a server if needed, and leave the laptop at home?

smashingfiasco 9y ago
Both. I had a first gen iPad Pro for about a year before I gave it to my parents to use for their travels. The keyboard cover was super handy (I highly recommend it), and I admit that there are some cases where I could have gotten away with just an iPad. But for anything important, I'd need to open a VPN and RDP session anyway. A Surface may have been a better purchase, TBH.
- gtufano 9y ago
  VPN and RDP is a task you can do easily on iOS (VPN is embedded in system and Microsoft RDP client is very good, and free). There are serious real limits in using iPad+keyboard for work, but not VPN and RDP.
  - smashingfiasco 9y ago
    Agreed on that! The iOS RDP app is pretty darn good, and VPN connectivity options are really good too. BUT... I discovered that if I RDP into my work machine/network, it totally negates the need for both Coda and Transmit on my local iPad. Thats the trick... :(
cyberferret 9y ago
My son decided to hand his laptop to his brother a few months back and try and run his entire music business using just an iPad Pro. It works, up to a point, but there are just so many niggly issues compared to just using a laptop. Simply things like a booking agency sending him a PDF contract to sign becomes a saga of jumping between multiple apps, importing and exporting etc. in order to get it done and sent back. Sending sound clips to his customers is also surprisingly difficult, as there is no easy integration between services like SoundCloud and DropBox, and even with the new 'Files' app, it is difficult to manage more than a few files in a complicated folder structure and send them on to others easily. He also found it a challenge to make simple posters etc. for his upcoming shows and send them to printers or even to Facebook. Supposedly simple acts like adding readable text to a photo background was a challenge, and he ended up going through about 6 different apps before he found one that worked the way he wanted to. Add to that the fact that his iPad Pro pen started to fail after a couple of months, and I think he has regrets going down this path.

tptacek 9y ago

Careful. People on HN aren't really a part of the "post-PC narrative". People plugging keyboards into iPads and using them full-time to write papers at school are. I'm not really clear why I'd use Transmit on the Mac either, except that it's a very pretty interface.

ghostcluster 9y ago
> People plugging keyboards into iPads and using them full-time to write papers at school are. How many people are doing that? A chromebook I can buy as a school computer. An iPad... The idea of trying to select chunks of text and move them around in a paper, or simply re-positioning the cursor sounds like a nightmare. If I were a kid I'd beg my parents for a real laptop.
- ggg9990 9y ago
  That’s because your idea of a “computer” has a command line, Python interpreter, filesystem, etc. Kids these days don’t get exposed to that so they don’t really desire it. Their idea of computing comes from apps that are take-it-or-leave-it, interact with other apps only in predefined and constrained ways, and use touch UI. They may want a better text selection interface but I’m not sure they concretely know that a “real laptop” has one.
  - addicted 9y ago
    But isn’t that a failure of their education system? Compare the kids who grew up on their iPads against a kid in Eastern Europe who grew up hacking on a Linux or even Windows machine using a real keyboard. Wouldn’t the latter have all sorts of advantages in all sorts of jobs? If nothing else, growing up using a real keyboard would mean they could type a lot faster than the one who is used to a touch screen.
    - veidr 9y ago
      No, because it takes precisely 18 minutes to use a keyboard if you already know how a touch tablet works, and 3 days to learn to touch type. So, they'd have a 3-day-18-minute advantage in all sorts of jobs

rsynnott 9y ago

I’ve found coda to be vaguely useful (and prompt to be very useful) but can’t imagine what I’d even use transmit for.

coldtea 9y ago

>Honestly, this story/link should be considered maybe a both a blow to the "post-pc" narrative (we're going on 8 years of "post-pc") AND to Apple itself. Post PC can mean two things, neither of which is invalidated by the story: 1) Tablets, smartphones and so on, being increasingly used by regular people (in lieu of PCs) to do work (writing documents, using work apps on the move -- e.g. airport personnel, factory staff, graphic designers doing digital painting on tablets, etc). This hasn't particularly caught on, but it doesn't really concern the developer crowd and its more specialist needs. Everyone could very well use a mobile phone to write a work paper today, but nobody expected or predicted phones to have a full terminal/file transfer/scripting/programming etc workflow to satisfy the average developer/admin. That's not a real part people though as the "post-PC world". This is usually conveyed in the "Car vs Truck" dichotomy (I think invented by Jobs), where in the Post-PC world mobile phones are like cars (for regular use) and PCs like trucks (specialized use cases). 2) The other sense of which people speak of a post-pc world is tablets, smartphones and so on, being increasingly used over PC (in total hours/day) in general. Which is true and getting truer everyday -- be it for web, mail, social media access, video, etc.