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The 12.9-inch iPad Pro took me by surprise and replaced my laptop

55 points by aparashk 8y ago

wei_jok 8y ago
I’m sorry, but what exactly did Paul make on his iPad Pro? This article is more like an advertisement.
- Arzh 8y ago
  Yeah I did a search for "Surface" to see if he even compares the two devices and nothing, something tells me this might be a narrow view of the work-tablet world.
- pocketstar 8y ago
  perhaps the website and post was made on the iPad? /shrug
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    The post was, certainly, as the author alludes to it three fourths of the way through.
- abcanthur 8y ago
  This is a great opener which makes me not want to trust anything this person says, "I have never been into tablets. I’ve had numerous ones over the years from iPads and iPad Minis to Androi..."
- gojomo 8y ago
  He's clear that's it's mostly writing, in this section: https://paulstamatiou.com/made-on-an-ipad-pro/#how-i-use-it https://paulstamatiou.com/made-on-an-ipad-pro/#how-i-use-it
- 333c 8y ago
  It does wander quite a bit (such as the section on maintaining a static-site blog), but I was fascinated because the topics were generally things I have experience with. To answer your question, Paul made much of his work for the past several months on his iPad Pro, including the blog post that we are reading.
- PStamatiou 8y ago
  It’s a reference to the old apple campaigns around “made on a Mac” and “made by Macintosh” decades ago. I touch on it the last section of the post.
pocketstar 8y ago
is this an ad?
ageitgey 8y ago
You still can't use a real third party browser (i.e. not just reskinned Safari) on the iPad Pro, right? I'd be a lot more tempted if iOS was a little less locked down.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  If by "real" you mean using something other than WebKit and having access to JIT compilation of JavaScript, then no, at least not on the App Store.
  - robin_reala 8y ago
    3rd party browsers get JIT JS compilation (and have done since iOS8[1]). You’re stuck with WebKit unless you’re a proxy browser though. [1] https://bgr.com/2014/06/04/ios-8-safari-and-webkit-performance/ https://bgr.com/2014/06/04/ios-8-safari-and-webkit-performan...
    - saagarjha 8y ago
      Yeah, that's what I said: if you want JIT and want to be on the App Store, you need to use WebKit/JavaScriptCore.
itomato 8y ago
I keep thinking I want to try this way of working, but I just can't into the walled garden of an App Store ecosystem. Until I can run Homebrew and a proper shell and 'git clone', the iPad is still just a gargantuan iPhone in my book.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  > git clone See: > For example, I can use an app like Working Copy to download and manage a git repository.
  - itomato 8y ago
    > App Store ecosystem For example, requiring gimmicks like paid 'pro' features for 'free' apps.
sheetjs 8y ago
This article is incredibly light on actual details. JS development, as long as you aren't using webpack or some other nodejs-based toolchain, is awesome on an iPad Pro. Many developer-oriented apps ship with WebDAV servers which can serve JS scripts. And thanks to the iOS 11 Files app, you can even test sites that involve the HTML5 File API. For example, doing some work on a VBA-related tool on a plane was surprisingly productive: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dc9JZBMUwAAg2BY.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dc9JZBMUwAAg2BY.jpg More than anything else, I felt more productive on the iPad than on my MBP because the constraints ensured there was no visible chat application or time wasting website screen. P.S.: the VSCode sidebar never really made sense until I saw it executed in the Kodex app: https://kodex.space/ https://kodex.space/ -- the ability to jump down to a particular place in the file with a single touch is mindblowing and immediately boosted productivity when dealing with huge scripts.
- tambourine_man 8y ago
  Can you elaborate on this workflow? Got me interested. What editor is that? Can iOS Host a server (localhost)?
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - filleduchaos 8y ago
    It would be a rather poor OS indeed if it couldn't host a server.
    - tambourine_man 8y ago
      AFAIK, iOS can't fork(), so… Edit: it obviously can, I mean AppStore Apps aren't allowed to.
      - princekolt 8y ago
        You don't need to fork to a separate process to run a web server.
saagarjha 8y ago
> If you want to drag something from one full-screen app to another that is not open, you have to use one finger to drag and hold the object, then with another finger you need to summon the Dock to find the app you want and release. Oh and you better hope you had already opened that app earlier to the exact document/file/place where you want to release, otherwise the app won't know what to do and you'll have to release the object then try it again. You can navigate around while holding those files to exactly where you need to be, then drop them there. No need to release the drag.
Watabou 8y ago
I know a lot of people have mentioned that they have transitioned to using the iPad and even making it their main computer but having owned and daily use an iPad Pro (the 10.5 inch), I don't see it anything other than a media consumption device (which I love using it for). I occasionally used it to carry with me at work, when I got it new last year, to try and make it my "laptop" replacement. I used everything, SSH to log into my Mac back home, I was on irc, browsing the web, writing emails on it, even used Pixelmator and iMovie to edit images and movies for real work things, which my colleagues were impressed by. It was difficult, however, and I felt like I was constantly fighting with the iPad. For example, Spotlight just isn't as fast on the iPad like it is on the mac. Try it out. Type command + Space, then type "me" and hit Enter. If you thought you'd get Messages, you will only be right half the time. Enough to make it frustrating. On the Mac, I can fluidly bring up Spotlight, hit a few characters and launch that app. On the iPad, sometimes, it'll miss typing the first character as spotlight animates, and even if it caught the first typed character, it takes painfully long to update results. So by the time you type "me" and hit return, the results haven't updated to show Messages.app yet, and Messages won't be launched. There's no Xcode on it yet, so I can't code on it properly. There's no terminal, Files.app feels like a poor man's Finder, there's no indication of focus and when you have two apps side by side, there's no way (that I know of) to switch between them using the keyboard. So you have to tap. So I gave up. I'm sure my experience, needs and workflows are different and maybe the iPad-as-a-laptop is not for me, but I am a bit skeptical now whenever someone tells me they use their iPad as their only computer. At least, not this version. iOS on the iPad at its current form just isn't convenient to use as the only computer.
- kalleboo 8y ago
  > I am a bit skeptical now whenever someone tells me they use their iPad as their only computer The people I've read who have successfully gone iPad-only seems to fall into two categories: Authors/bloggers who could just as well be served by a 1980's word processor, and those who use it as a very expensive dumb terminal in either SSH or the web browser.
  - LyndsySimon 8y ago
ultimoo 8y ago
I purchased a Surface Pro last week, which is my first Windows device in more than a decade. Couldn't have been happier. Though I enjoy using macOS for software development and other tasks much more than Windows, I don't think I can say the same for iOS. For the same price and form factor you get a full operating system as opposed to the iOS walled garden (which I fully appreciate on my iPhone X). Since the Surface Pro is actually a full computer with a Core i5 processor, it can run any application -- including Ubuntu over Microsoft Hyper V, Docker, Photoshop, and even Steam. Plus the keyboard cover has a trackpad.
- cmsimike 8y ago
  I recently bought a Surface Pro as well. While it still isn't my day to day computer (Mac or Linux for development) I do take my Surface on vacations for Steam games and access to my music library. Recently I bought a display port to hdmi adapter for my Surface, and an HDMI cable and now I have a portable gaming/media center pc I can set up in hotel rooms.
dschuetz 8y ago
Well, I hoped for an actual review. What I got was "The iPad Pro is always ready to go ... which is, like, totally amazing! Yeaas!" The most pro points he makes are based on features which are actually a normality. The whole thing is emotionally laden and he sounds like a typical fanboy. After reading this dripping wet review, I am now absolutely convinced that an iPad will never ever replace a computer. Because it is not a computer, but rather a consumer device, like a television set. People who think that an iPad replaced their actual computer laptop didn't know and still don't know at all what their laptop actually can do: being programmable.
- skellera 8y ago
  Or most people don’t require more than what an iPad can provide. It’s a mass market device and that’s fine. As you say, one would already know if they need a laptop over an iPad.
  - dschuetz 8y ago
    Exactly the point why I've been asking myself: why oh why does Apple say "That huge thing, like, totally replaces the laptop!" Apple clearly has some outlandish understanding of what a computer is, no surprise. But let's stay honest, and don't put up sales pitches based on flat out lies.
    - abritinthebay 8y ago
      The reason they say that is, for the target market that they are aiming that message to, it can replace a laptop. It’s well aimed marketing.
    - pjmlp 8y ago
      Because a large set of the population only needs access to the Web, email and a few apps, nothing more.
    - dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
      It's a mixture of clever marketing and wishful thinking (the "tablet era" hasn't arrived after all, everybody is using notebooks for work). However, as others said, some people actually use iPads only. A good example is my mother. She was using it for a few months, but then the memory got filled up with photos and she asked for advice. I told her to back up the device using a computer. "I don't have one", she said. Then the battery started to degenerate and so on. It's clear to me you can use these tablets as simplified notebooks/PCs, but sooner rather than later you reach their limits, and at that point thing can get costly. I can get a 2TB HDD for my Mac Pro for 50€, good luck with that kind of storage on any kind of iPad.
Rjevski 8y ago
Counterpoint: I tried using an iPad and an external keyboard for web (Django) development. It sucked. The lack of mouse for text selection is a huge problem, and constantly switching between Safari and your code editor (I used Vim in a remote terminal) is a pain as well.
- jrowley 8y ago
  Can't you split screen on iPads? Also, couldn't you use vim shortcuts for text selection? I guess that wouldn't work in safari...
  - Rjevski 8y ago
    Back when I tried it we were on iOS 9 or 10, so no split-screen. This still doesn't change the fact there's no mouse, so switching between apps would still require lifting my hands off the keyboard to touch the screen.
    - aparashk 8y ago
      There is Command-Tab for that, I think.
      - LyndsySimon 8y ago
        Yes - but text selection is probably my biggest complaint.
- pvg 8y ago
  It's probably slightly better (if you can live without vim) with one of the several iOS-native programmer-oriented editors. It will still suck, just a little bit less.
  - goerz 8y ago
    There’s iVim!
mozumder 8y ago
Love my iPad Pro. Only wish it had an actual usable IDE for Django web development, including a local Postgres database & H2O web server with uWSGI. If it had that then I could get rid of my MacBook Pro. BTW get the Logitech keyboard. It's backlit and you can adjust the angle of view. It's great but the only problem is that's its really thick. Seriously, it's just missing the pro apps. Where are they?
Yhippa 8y ago
I went on vacation recently and decided to just take an iPad and my camera. I got one of the new regular iPads and I had a Lightning -to-SD dongle. When I finished a day of shooting I plugged everything in and had the same issues Paul did. I couldn't even view the photos because they had to be imported to Photos on the iPad and I definitely didn't have space to do that. I'm frustrated at how hard it is to do something simple like take pictures off my Canon 6D and make them go straight to the cloud. We live in adapter and dongle hell.
- murukesh_s 8y ago
  How about android tablets? I haven't used one lately but I believe you can do all fancy stuff there.
  - firmgently 8y ago
    On my Android tablet I run Debian in chroot. Full LAMP, i3wm, choice of terminal emulators, Vim, git, real Firefox, real Chromium. I use a Bluetooth keyboard with a trackpoint built in (alternatives with trackpads are available for people who prefer those). Or a Bluetooth mouse of course. I recently bought a Thinkpad Bluetooth keyboard so interface-wise, once I start X I'm basically on a Thinkpad. In the winter when I have to get by on small amounts of electricity (all solar powered here) I use my tablet almost exclusively and earn money with it. I use a bendy arm with a clamp to hold the tablet at a good ergonomic height and closer to my face. In a pinch when power is really low I actually do the same with my Android phone with all the same software, which works surprisingly well at 1920x1080. It ends up filling a similar proportion of my view to a 15" laptop (at the laptop's normal working distance) - although then it's only a few inches away from my eyes when using the phone (shortest focusing distance I can do) so wouldn't be healthy long term. I can plug in my DSLR via a USBOTG dongle and grab photos from it. Or use a MicroSD in the camera via a full-size adaptor, then slot the MicroSD directly into the tablet. Then I can edit directly from RAW in Snapseed. The biggest shortcoming is that I can't use Photoshop as I have an ARM processor. The armhf Debian distribution and packages are amazing and almost everything is there. WINE works but it would need some x86 binaries to run Photoshop, that just don't exist because it's ARM. Artflow in Android is great, as is Snapseed and PhotoEditor (for resizing and basic image adjustments, including batch mode etc). I can run GIMP and Inkflow in Debian but after 20 years using Photoshop they don't come close for me. So when I really have to use Photoshop I have to save up some juice and fire up the laptop. This is all on a 5-year old Sony Xperia Tablet Z. It was good for its time but nowadays there are faster machines with more RAM available. I'm looking forward to when I can justify an upgrade (this is a great tablet in many ways, I have lots of things I need to spend money on and I have been adjusting my work/life balance a lot in recent years so don't earn much). I'm no Google fanboy, for me Apple/Google are just different flavours of very horrible. The difference with Android gear is that the potential is there to use it the way I want - it's possible (and not even that hard). I can root, I can use a pointing device, as opposed to Apple's approach.
kalleboo 8y ago
The title makes you think he replaced his computer usage with the iPad, but further down in the article he reveals that he uses a desktop PC to get real work done due to inflexibility in iOS. Seems like the iPad is still not a productivity machine.
walterbell 8y ago
The biggest problem with the iPad is iOS developer attrition - so many promising apps stagnate due to invisibility and developers running out of funding. Steve Jobs wanted to avoid another Adobe ISV competitor to Apple and he succeeded. But he also starved the iPad of software that could take advantage of the fantastic hardware. Things may improve when iOS developers can sell apps that also run on macOS. If Apple wants to keep iOS app development limited to small development shops and cheap apps, then they need to improve inter-app workfllow/composition, which is currently gated on a very small whitelist of functions. Only the audio community has successfully pulled off inter-app interop on iOS, thanks to Audiobus & friends. Would be nice to have similar multi-app pipelines for text, images & video. iPad Pro 12" can replace several devices, but not a laptop. HARDWARE - 4:3 (!) HiDPI screen - loud/clear speakers - Logitech Create backlit keyboard & case - iXPand drive (USB+Lightning) - "Camera adapter" for USB nic/kb/mic - headphone jack - good battery life - TouchID for banking apps SOFTWARE - very fast Safari w/ Firefox Focus adblock - Transmit: web upload / email attachments - vSSH - Wire: usable E2E chat/audio app - Bria: VOIP softphone - GoToMeeting/WebEx conferencing - Video streaming + GoGo airline videos - CornerTube: PIP video overlay - Microsoft RDP to desktop/laptop/VM - Native VPN client - Codebook for passwords OFFLINE APPS (iCloud not needed) - GoodReader: in-app "filesystem" - Omnifocus (WebDav) - 2Do (CalDav) - Notebooks (markdown, WebDav) - Notability (audio synced to text/ink) - DevonThink (web clips, offline search, WebDav) - LumaFusion: multitrack video editor - TwistedWave: mulitrack audio editor - VoiceDream: offline web/pdf/epub to audio - Marvin: epub reader
woolvalley 8y ago
Unless you want to draw with the pencil or use it in a cramped airplane environment, I don't know why someone would get the ipad pro 12.9" over the macbook 12"? The keyboard + tablet combo is heavier than the macbook 12", the ipad keyboard is gummier and worse, you get hover hand issues when using it in keyboard mode and multitasking / web browsing is slower due to design issues and animation wait times. If the cpu is slower than the iPad pro, you know that is going to get fixed with the future arm macbook. Same with the current butterfly keyboard issue. I'm pretty sure we are going to get the 'full screen ipad' soon since the ipad UI is leaving a big blank space in the middle of the status bar currently.
- walterbell 8y ago
  iOS security is better than macOS.
  - pjmlp 8y ago
    macOS is getting a new security runtime, which will extend iOS security to all macOS userspace.
    - walterbell 8y ago
      Thanks for the pointer, is there a better link than https://www.macrumors.com/2018/06/05/macos-mojave-security-privacy/ https://www.macrumors.com/2018/06/05/macos-mojave-security-p... ?
      - pjmlp 8y ago
        Yes, the WWDC 2018 session. "Your Apps and the Future of macOS Security" https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2018/702/ https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2018/702/
Sanketk 8y ago
No doubt iPad is worth replacing the conventional laptops. I had the bulky old HP Envy laptop and then saw iPad 12.9" in my friend's hands. Casually handled it and loved it so much when there was only reason worth considering is Battery backup but then again my Friend suggested to buy Laptop power banks from this research bloggers website: https://www.powerbanktalk.com/best-portable-laptop-charger-aka-external-battery-power-bank-for-laptop-in-2016/ https://www.powerbanktalk.com/best-portable-laptop-charger-a... Bought Anker power bank and This combination are best I have ever used. I can work on the go without worrying about charging and iPad is so flawless.
- walterbell 8y ago
  Which power bank and batteries did you choose?
aparashk 8y ago
OP here (not Paul, the blog author): I am surprised by the amount of attention this has had! I understand the iPad can be a useful dev environment if one is using one of the Web IDEs, e.g. https://aws.amazon.com/cloud9/?origin=c9io https://aws.amazon.com/cloud9/?origin=c9io What about an IDE that runs natively on the iPad using asm.js or Web assembly, with remote storage for files, and ssh for running on a remote dev machine? Even better, what about a complete local Linux environment, including gcc, using something like: https://bellard.org/jslinux/vm.html?cpu=riscv32&url=https://bellard.org/jslinux/buildroot-riscv32.cfg https://bellard.org/jslinux/vm.html?cpu=riscv32&url=https://... Does this exist, or still a pipe dream?
kapauldo 8y ago
Great write up (why is hn getting so sardonic?). Anyone using one of these for web dev?

55 points by aparashk 8y ago

wei_jok 8y ago

I’m sorry, but what exactly did Paul make on his iPad Pro? This article is more like an advertisement.

Arzh 8y ago
Yeah I did a search for "Surface" to see if he even compares the two devices and nothing, something tells me this might be a narrow view of the work-tablet world.
pocketstar 8y ago
perhaps the website and post was made on the iPad? /shrug
- saagarjha 8y ago
  The post was, certainly, as the author alludes to it three fourths of the way through.
abcanthur 8y ago
This is a great opener which makes me not want to trust anything this person says, "I have never been into tablets. I’ve had numerous ones over the years from iPads and iPad Minis to Androi..."
gojomo 8y ago
He's clear that's it's mostly writing, in this section: https://paulstamatiou.com/made-on-an-ipad-pro/#how-i-use-it https://paulstamatiou.com/made-on-an-ipad-pro/#how-i-use-it
333c 8y ago
It does wander quite a bit (such as the section on maintaining a static-site blog), but I was fascinated because the topics were generally things I have experience with. To answer your question, Paul made much of his work for the past several months on his iPad Pro, including the blog post that we are reading.
PStamatiou 8y ago
It’s a reference to the old apple campaigns around “made on a Mac” and “made by Macintosh” decades ago. I touch on it the last section of the post.

pocketstar 8y ago

is this an ad?

ageitgey 8y ago

You still can't use a real third party browser (i.e. not just reskinned Safari) on the iPad Pro, right? I'd be a lot more tempted if iOS was a little less locked down.

saagarjha 8y ago
If by "real" you mean using something other than WebKit and having access to JIT compilation of JavaScript, then no, at least not on the App Store.
- robin_reala 8y ago
  3rd party browsers get JIT JS compilation (and have done since iOS8[1]). You’re stuck with WebKit unless you’re a proxy browser though. [1] https://bgr.com/2014/06/04/ios-8-safari-and-webkit-performance/ https://bgr.com/2014/06/04/ios-8-safari-and-webkit-performan...
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    Yeah, that's what I said: if you want JIT and want to be on the App Store, you need to use WebKit/JavaScriptCore.

itomato 8y ago

I keep thinking I want to try this way of working, but I just can't into the walled garden of an App Store ecosystem. Until I can run Homebrew and a proper shell and 'git clone', the iPad is still just a gargantuan iPhone in my book.

saagarjha 8y ago
> git clone See: > For example, I can use an app like Working Copy to download and manage a git repository.
- itomato 8y ago
  > App Store ecosystem For example, requiring gimmicks like paid 'pro' features for 'free' apps.

sheetjs 8y ago

This article is incredibly light on actual details. JS development, as long as you aren't using webpack or some other nodejs-based toolchain, is awesome on an iPad Pro. Many developer-oriented apps ship with WebDAV servers which can serve JS scripts. And thanks to the iOS 11 Files app, you can even test sites that involve the HTML5 File API. For example, doing some work on a VBA-related tool on a plane was surprisingly productive: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dc9JZBMUwAAg2BY.jpg https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dc9JZBMUwAAg2BY.jpg More than anything else, I felt more productive on the iPad than on my MBP because the constraints ensured there was no visible chat application or time wasting website screen. P.S.: the VSCode sidebar never really made sense until I saw it executed in the Kodex app: https://kodex.space/ https://kodex.space/ -- the ability to jump down to a particular place in the file with a single touch is mindblowing and immediately boosted productivity when dealing with huge scripts.

tambourine_man 8y ago
Can you elaborate on this workflow? Got me interested. What editor is that? Can iOS Host a server (localhost)?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- filleduchaos 8y ago
  It would be a rather poor OS indeed if it couldn't host a server.
  - tambourine_man 8y ago
    AFAIK, iOS can't fork(), so… Edit: it obviously can, I mean AppStore Apps aren't allowed to.
    - princekolt 8y ago
      You don't need to fork to a separate process to run a web server.

saagarjha 8y ago

> If you want to drag something from one full-screen app to another that is not open, you have to use one finger to drag and hold the object, then with another finger you need to summon the Dock to find the app you want and release. Oh and you better hope you had already opened that app earlier to the exact document/file/place where you want to release, otherwise the app won't know what to do and you'll have to release the object then try it again. You can navigate around while holding those files to exactly where you need to be, then drop them there. No need to release the drag.

Watabou 8y ago

I know a lot of people have mentioned that they have transitioned to using the iPad and even making it their main computer but having owned and daily use an iPad Pro (the 10.5 inch), I don't see it anything other than a media consumption device (which I love using it for). I occasionally used it to carry with me at work, when I got it new last year, to try and make it my "laptop" replacement. I used everything, SSH to log into my Mac back home, I was on irc, browsing the web, writing emails on it, even used Pixelmator and iMovie to edit images and movies for real work things, which my colleagues were impressed by. It was difficult, however, and I felt like I was constantly fighting with the iPad. For example, Spotlight just isn't as fast on the iPad like it is on the mac. Try it out. Type command + Space, then type "me" and hit Enter. If you thought you'd get Messages, you will only be right half the time. Enough to make it frustrating. On the Mac, I can fluidly bring up Spotlight, hit a few characters and launch that app. On the iPad, sometimes, it'll miss typing the first character as spotlight animates, and even if it caught the first typed character, it takes painfully long to update results. So by the time you type "me" and hit return, the results haven't updated to show Messages.app yet, and Messages won't be launched. There's no Xcode on it yet, so I can't code on it properly. There's no terminal, Files.app feels like a poor man's Finder, there's no indication of focus and when you have two apps side by side, there's no way (that I know of) to switch between them using the keyboard. So you have to tap. So I gave up. I'm sure my experience, needs and workflows are different and maybe the iPad-as-a-laptop is not for me, but I am a bit skeptical now whenever someone tells me they use their iPad as their only computer. At least, not this version. iOS on the iPad at its current form just isn't convenient to use as the only computer.

kalleboo 8y ago
> I am a bit skeptical now whenever someone tells me they use their iPad as their only computer The people I've read who have successfully gone iPad-only seems to fall into two categories: Authors/bloggers who could just as well be served by a 1980's word processor, and those who use it as a very expensive dumb terminal in either SSH or the web browser.
- LyndsySimon 8y ago

ultimoo 8y ago

I purchased a Surface Pro last week, which is my first Windows device in more than a decade. Couldn't have been happier. Though I enjoy using macOS for software development and other tasks much more than Windows, I don't think I can say the same for iOS. For the same price and form factor you get a full operating system as opposed to the iOS walled garden (which I fully appreciate on my iPhone X). Since the Surface Pro is actually a full computer with a Core i5 processor, it can run any application -- including Ubuntu over Microsoft Hyper V, Docker, Photoshop, and even Steam. Plus the keyboard cover has a trackpad.

cmsimike 8y ago
I recently bought a Surface Pro as well. While it still isn't my day to day computer (Mac or Linux for development) I do take my Surface on vacations for Steam games and access to my music library. Recently I bought a display port to hdmi adapter for my Surface, and an HDMI cable and now I have a portable gaming/media center pc I can set up in hotel rooms.

dschuetz 8y ago

Well, I hoped for an actual review. What I got was "The iPad Pro is always ready to go ... which is, like, totally amazing! Yeaas!" The most pro points he makes are based on features which are actually a normality. The whole thing is emotionally laden and he sounds like a typical fanboy. After reading this dripping wet review, I am now absolutely convinced that an iPad will never ever replace a computer. Because it is not a computer, but rather a consumer device, like a television set. People who think that an iPad replaced their actual computer laptop didn't know and still don't know at all what their laptop actually can do: being programmable.

skellera 8y ago
Or most people don’t require more than what an iPad can provide. It’s a mass market device and that’s fine. As you say, one would already know if they need a laptop over an iPad.
- dschuetz 8y ago
  Exactly the point why I've been asking myself: why oh why does Apple say "That huge thing, like, totally replaces the laptop!" Apple clearly has some outlandish understanding of what a computer is, no surprise. But let's stay honest, and don't put up sales pitches based on flat out lies.
  - abritinthebay 8y ago
    The reason they say that is, for the target market that they are aiming that message to, it can replace a laptop. It’s well aimed marketing.
  - pjmlp 8y ago
    Because a large set of the population only needs access to the Web, email and a few apps, nothing more.
  - dvfjsdhgfv 8y ago
    It's a mixture of clever marketing and wishful thinking (the "tablet era" hasn't arrived after all, everybody is using notebooks for work). However, as others said, some people actually use iPads only. A good example is my mother. She was using it for a few months, but then the memory got filled up with photos and she asked for advice. I told her to back up the device using a computer. "I don't have one", she said. Then the battery started to degenerate and so on. It's clear to me you can use these tablets as simplified notebooks/PCs, but sooner rather than later you reach their limits, and at that point thing can get costly. I can get a 2TB HDD for my Mac Pro for 50€, good luck with that kind of storage on any kind of iPad.

Rjevski 8y ago

Counterpoint: I tried using an iPad and an external keyboard for web (Django) development. It sucked. The lack of mouse for text selection is a huge problem, and constantly switching between Safari and your code editor (I used Vim in a remote terminal) is a pain as well.

jrowley 8y ago
Can't you split screen on iPads? Also, couldn't you use vim shortcuts for text selection? I guess that wouldn't work in safari...
- Rjevski 8y ago
  Back when I tried it we were on iOS 9 or 10, so no split-screen. This still doesn't change the fact there's no mouse, so switching between apps would still require lifting my hands off the keyboard to touch the screen.
  - aparashk 8y ago
    There is Command-Tab for that, I think.
    - LyndsySimon 8y ago
      Yes - but text selection is probably my biggest complaint.
pvg 8y ago
It's probably slightly better (if you can live without vim) with one of the several iOS-native programmer-oriented editors. It will still suck, just a little bit less.
- goerz 8y ago
  There’s iVim!

mozumder 8y ago

Love my iPad Pro. Only wish it had an actual usable IDE for Django web development, including a local Postgres database & H2O web server with uWSGI. If it had that then I could get rid of my MacBook Pro. BTW get the Logitech keyboard. It's backlit and you can adjust the angle of view. It's great but the only problem is that's its really thick. Seriously, it's just missing the pro apps. Where are they?

Yhippa 8y ago

I went on vacation recently and decided to just take an iPad and my camera. I got one of the new regular iPads and I had a Lightning -to-SD dongle. When I finished a day of shooting I plugged everything in and had the same issues Paul did. I couldn't even view the photos because they had to be imported to Photos on the iPad and I definitely didn't have space to do that. I'm frustrated at how hard it is to do something simple like take pictures off my Canon 6D and make them go straight to the cloud. We live in adapter and dongle hell.

murukesh_s 8y ago
How about android tablets? I haven't used one lately but I believe you can do all fancy stuff there.
- firmgently 8y ago
  On my Android tablet I run Debian in chroot. Full LAMP, i3wm, choice of terminal emulators, Vim, git, real Firefox, real Chromium. I use a Bluetooth keyboard with a trackpoint built in (alternatives with trackpads are available for people who prefer those). Or a Bluetooth mouse of course. I recently bought a Thinkpad Bluetooth keyboard so interface-wise, once I start X I'm basically on a Thinkpad. In the winter when I have to get by on small amounts of electricity (all solar powered here) I use my tablet almost exclusively and earn money with it. I use a bendy arm with a clamp to hold the tablet at a good ergonomic height and closer to my face. In a pinch when power is really low I actually do the same with my Android phone with all the same software, which works surprisingly well at 1920x1080. It ends up filling a similar proportion of my view to a 15" laptop (at the laptop's normal working distance) - although then it's only a few inches away from my eyes when using the phone (shortest focusing distance I can do) so wouldn't be healthy long term. I can plug in my DSLR via a USBOTG dongle and grab photos from it. Or use a MicroSD in the camera via a full-size adaptor, then slot the MicroSD directly into the tablet. Then I can edit directly from RAW in Snapseed. The biggest shortcoming is that I can't use Photoshop as I have an ARM processor. The armhf Debian distribution and packages are amazing and almost everything is there. WINE works but it would need some x86 binaries to run Photoshop, that just don't exist because it's ARM. Artflow in Android is great, as is Snapseed and PhotoEditor (for resizing and basic image adjustments, including batch mode etc). I can run GIMP and Inkflow in Debian but after 20 years using Photoshop they don't come close for me. So when I really have to use Photoshop I have to save up some juice and fire up the laptop. This is all on a 5-year old Sony Xperia Tablet Z. It was good for its time but nowadays there are faster machines with more RAM available. I'm looking forward to when I can justify an upgrade (this is a great tablet in many ways, I have lots of things I need to spend money on and I have been adjusting my work/life balance a lot in recent years so don't earn much). I'm no Google fanboy, for me Apple/Google are just different flavours of very horrible. The difference with Android gear is that the potential is there to use it the way I want - it's possible (and not even that hard). I can root, I can use a pointing device, as opposed to Apple's approach.

kalleboo 8y ago

The title makes you think he replaced his computer usage with the iPad, but further down in the article he reveals that he uses a desktop PC to get real work done due to inflexibility in iOS. Seems like the iPad is still not a productivity machine.

walterbell 8y ago

The biggest problem with the iPad is iOS developer attrition - so many promising apps stagnate due to invisibility and developers running out of funding. Steve Jobs wanted to avoid another Adobe ISV competitor to Apple and he succeeded. But he also starved the iPad of software that could take advantage of the fantastic hardware. Things may improve when iOS developers can sell apps that also run on macOS. If Apple wants to keep iOS app development limited to small development shops and cheap apps, then they need to improve inter-app workfllow/composition, which is currently gated on a very small whitelist of functions. Only the audio community has successfully pulled off inter-app interop on iOS, thanks to Audiobus & friends. Would be nice to have similar multi-app pipelines for text, images & video. iPad Pro 12" can replace several devices, but not a laptop. HARDWARE - 4:3 (!) HiDPI screen - loud/clear speakers - Logitech Create backlit keyboard & case - iXPand drive (USB+Lightning) - "Camera adapter" for USB nic/kb/mic - headphone jack - good battery life - TouchID for banking apps SOFTWARE - very fast Safari w/ Firefox Focus adblock - Transmit: web upload / email attachments - vSSH - Wire: usable E2E chat/audio app - Bria: VOIP softphone - GoToMeeting/WebEx conferencing - Video streaming + GoGo airline videos - CornerTube: PIP video overlay - Microsoft RDP to desktop/laptop/VM - Native VPN client - Codebook for passwords OFFLINE APPS (iCloud not needed) - GoodReader: in-app "filesystem" - Omnifocus (WebDav) - 2Do (CalDav) - Notebooks (markdown, WebDav) - Notability (audio synced to text/ink) - DevonThink (web clips, offline search, WebDav) - LumaFusion: multitrack video editor - TwistedWave: mulitrack audio editor - VoiceDream: offline web/pdf/epub to audio - Marvin: epub reader

woolvalley 8y ago

Unless you want to draw with the pencil or use it in a cramped airplane environment, I don't know why someone would get the ipad pro 12.9" over the macbook 12"? The keyboard + tablet combo is heavier than the macbook 12", the ipad keyboard is gummier and worse, you get hover hand issues when using it in keyboard mode and multitasking / web browsing is slower due to design issues and animation wait times. If the cpu is slower than the iPad pro, you know that is going to get fixed with the future arm macbook. Same with the current butterfly keyboard issue. I'm pretty sure we are going to get the 'full screen ipad' soon since the ipad UI is leaving a big blank space in the middle of the status bar currently.

walterbell 8y ago
iOS security is better than macOS.
- pjmlp 8y ago
  macOS is getting a new security runtime, which will extend iOS security to all macOS userspace.
  - walterbell 8y ago
    Thanks for the pointer, is there a better link than https://www.macrumors.com/2018/06/05/macos-mojave-security-privacy/ https://www.macrumors.com/2018/06/05/macos-mojave-security-p... ?
    - pjmlp 8y ago
      Yes, the WWDC 2018 session. "Your Apps and the Future of macOS Security" https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2018/702/ https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2018/702/

Sanketk 8y ago

No doubt iPad is worth replacing the conventional laptops. I had the bulky old HP Envy laptop and then saw iPad 12.9" in my friend's hands. Casually handled it and loved it so much when there was only reason worth considering is Battery backup but then again my Friend suggested to buy Laptop power banks from this research bloggers website: https://www.powerbanktalk.com/best-portable-laptop-charger-aka-external-battery-power-bank-for-laptop-in-2016/ https://www.powerbanktalk.com/best-portable-laptop-charger-a... Bought Anker power bank and This combination are best I have ever used. I can work on the go without worrying about charging and iPad is so flawless.

walterbell 8y ago
Which power bank and batteries did you choose?

aparashk 8y ago

OP here (not Paul, the blog author): I am surprised by the amount of attention this has had! I understand the iPad can be a useful dev environment if one is using one of the Web IDEs, e.g. https://aws.amazon.com/cloud9/?origin=c9io https://aws.amazon.com/cloud9/?origin=c9io What about an IDE that runs natively on the iPad using asm.js or Web assembly, with remote storage for files, and ssh for running on a remote dev machine? Even better, what about a complete local Linux environment, including gcc, using something like: https://bellard.org/jslinux/vm.html?cpu=riscv32&url=https://bellard.org/jslinux/buildroot-riscv32.cfg https://bellard.org/jslinux/vm.html?cpu=riscv32&url=https://... Does this exist, or still a pipe dream?

kapauldo 8y ago

Great write up (why is hn getting so sardonic?). Anyone using one of these for web dev?