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In 2018 I took a year off fro work to be a stay-at-home dad, and one thing that really surprised me was how little I used my MacBook; the only time I would drag

In 2018 I took a year off fro work to be a stay-at-home dad, and one thing that really surprised me was how little I used my MacBook; the only time I would drag it out was to connect my pre-bluetooth Garmin to sync my cycling workouts to Strava. Had my iPad supported USB devices, there's a good chance I wouldn't have used it at all.

luckydata 7y ago
You probably weren't doing any work and just using the iPad to watch and read stuff. It's made for that.
- simonh 7y ago
  Maybe they’re mostly used for that, but ‘made for that’ is just not true. Apple has consistently, right from the start marketed it as a productivity and creative device, even emphasising iWork apps in the launch presentation and releasing Garage Band for it a few months after launch. They’ve consistently highlighted creative apps for the iPad year after year. For me, my iPad is m primary creative device, by far. I write on it, sketch on it, code on it, spruice up photos on it. I don’t know what I’d do without Google Docs/Drive. I’m writing this on it. A few minutes ago I was posting, while doing some fact checking in Safari in a split view. It’s awesome!
  - luckydata 7y ago
    Apple can say a lot of stuff, doesn't make it true.
    - chipotle_coyote 7y ago
      The OP literally just told you stuff they're creating on the iPad. I get we should be cynical of marketing-speak and all, but "it is possible to create real things on the iPad" is not just marketing speak, it's stuff people who are actually creating real things on the iPad have been saying for years. I'm currently kind of down on my iPad due to travails using it for writing screenplays (long story, not that interesting), but I have used it for creating -- and presenting -- slideshows to large audiences, writing multiple articles and publishing them directly to WordPress and Medium sites, creating technical diagrams for my office, writing a 110,000-word novel, doing revisions (change tracking and comments) on other people's novels, touching up photographs, doing GitHub reviews, on and on. There are people who edit successful podcasts with Ferrite, edit multitrack 4K video with Luma Fusion, on and on and on. iPads are tricky-to-useless for most development work currently and that tends, for obvious reasons, to be a major limitation for HN's main demographic. But that doesn't make the iPad "just for watching videos". To claim that it's not capable of being used for a wide range of real work is either ignorant or trolling.
    - simonh 7y ago
      When you wonder what something was 'made for', and the people who made it tell you why they made it, and then invest a lot of money and resources consistent with that reason, it seems bizzare to deny it.
  - xpe 7y ago
    What do you use for (a) coding and (b) keyboard?
    - throwaway413 7y ago
      Here's my setup: 1) iPad Pro 256gb 11" 2) Apple keyboard case 3) Apple magic keyboard 2 w/ number pad (when I need to really get into it) 4) DigitalOcean VM instance 5) Termius ssh iOS app 6) Neovim on the VM, or sometimes I pull out VS Code via code-server [1] and exposed via #7 7) Custom domain name w/ nginx serving up my projects and services from the VM 8) AirPlay via my Apple TV to any connected displays [1] https://github.com/cdr/code-server https://github.com/cdr/code-server
      - read_if_gay_ 7y ago
        Blink is by far the best ssh/mosh app I have found. mosh is a gamechanger if you use mobile data and the interface of the app is the best implementation of a shell I came across so far. If you haven't tried it yet it's worth looking at. Steep price tag but justified by how much you use it.
        throwaway413 7y ago
        I have read about it but have yet to give it a try. Thanks for the recommendation! Update: just tried it, and holy smokes, what a difference. Mosh feels local. And Blink is super cool too, I like the CLI-style menus.
      - son_ngu 7y ago
        For your use, what instance size did you get for your DO instance?
        throwaway413 7y ago
        I pay for the $40/mo droplet, just because I am able to afford it and I host several active, multi-user prototype projects out of that box and sometimes end up using the power. But I could probably get away with a much more lightweight instance.

luckydata 7y ago

You probably weren't doing any work and just using the iPad to watch and read stuff. It's made for that.

simonh 7y ago
Maybe they’re mostly used for that, but ‘made for that’ is just not true. Apple has consistently, right from the start marketed it as a productivity and creative device, even emphasising iWork apps in the launch presentation and releasing Garage Band for it a few months after launch. They’ve consistently highlighted creative apps for the iPad year after year. For me, my iPad is m primary creative device, by far. I write on it, sketch on it, code on it, spruice up photos on it. I don’t know what I’d do without Google Docs/Drive. I’m writing this on it. A few minutes ago I was posting, while doing some fact checking in Safari in a split view. It’s awesome!
- luckydata 7y ago
  Apple can say a lot of stuff, doesn't make it true.
  - chipotle_coyote 7y ago
    The OP literally just told you stuff they're creating on the iPad. I get we should be cynical of marketing-speak and all, but "it is possible to create real things on the iPad" is not just marketing speak, it's stuff people who are actually creating real things on the iPad have been saying for years. I'm currently kind of down on my iPad due to travails using it for writing screenplays (long story, not that interesting), but I have used it for creating -- and presenting -- slideshows to large audiences, writing multiple articles and publishing them directly to WordPress and Medium sites, creating technical diagrams for my office, writing a 110,000-word novel, doing revisions (change tracking and comments) on other people's novels, touching up photographs, doing GitHub reviews, on and on. There are people who edit successful podcasts with Ferrite, edit multitrack 4K video with Luma Fusion, on and on and on. iPads are tricky-to-useless for most development work currently and that tends, for obvious reasons, to be a major limitation for HN's main demographic. But that doesn't make the iPad "just for watching videos". To claim that it's not capable of being used for a wide range of real work is either ignorant or trolling.
  - simonh 7y ago
    When you wonder what something was 'made for', and the people who made it tell you why they made it, and then invest a lot of money and resources consistent with that reason, it seems bizzare to deny it.
- xpe 7y ago
  What do you use for (a) coding and (b) keyboard?
  - throwaway413 7y ago
    Here's my setup: 1) iPad Pro 256gb 11" 2) Apple keyboard case 3) Apple magic keyboard 2 w/ number pad (when I need to really get into it) 4) DigitalOcean VM instance 5) Termius ssh iOS app 6) Neovim on the VM, or sometimes I pull out VS Code via code-server [1] and exposed via #7 7) Custom domain name w/ nginx serving up my projects and services from the VM 8) AirPlay via my Apple TV to any connected displays [1] https://github.com/cdr/code-server https://github.com/cdr/code-server
    - read_if_gay_ 7y ago
      Blink is by far the best ssh/mosh app I have found. mosh is a gamechanger if you use mobile data and the interface of the app is the best implementation of a shell I came across so far. If you haven't tried it yet it's worth looking at. Steep price tag but justified by how much you use it.
      - throwaway413 7y ago
        I have read about it but have yet to give it a try. Thanks for the recommendation! Update: just tried it, and holy smokes, what a difference. Mosh feels local. And Blink is super cool too, I like the CLI-style menus.
    - son_ngu 7y ago
      For your use, what instance size did you get for your DO instance?
      - throwaway413 7y ago
        I pay for the $40/mo droplet, just because I am able to afford it and I host several active, multi-user prototype projects out of that box and sometimes end up using the power. But I could probably get away with a much more lightweight instance.