6 ms·

What hurts is that an iPad is powerful enough to do a huge chunk of these tasks locally but Apple wouldn't allow it.

throwaway894345 5y ago
I have mixed feelings about this. On the plus side, it's more secure (which is especially nice since my less-than-tech-savvy family use iPads quite a lot). Moreover, even if you had an unlocked iPad, it would be inferior to a laptop in most respects anyway (most standing cases don't allow you to actually work from your lap, keyboards are awful, etc). So while it would be neat to be able to do development work from an iPad, it's really only useful in those rare occasions where you really can't afford an extra cubic inch (or whatever the difference between a MacBook Air and an iPad is) in your luggage.
- mjmahone17 5y ago
  It would be amazing for students. In college a lot of students get a device that needs to last for 4 years, not knowing what classes they’ll end up taking (often they switch majors). Lots of students will get iPad Pros as their only device. When they decide to take a class that requires coding, they’ll run into all the support problems, and either need to do all their work in a library or pony up more money they don’t have to get a worse-spec computer that they can actually do their assignments on. These classes typically have support guides for MacOS and Windows. Even making it possible to install MacOS on an iPad Pro would make the device good enough to be a student’s only computer.
  - throwaway894345 5y ago
    I would contend based on my earlier post that they would still be better served by a MacBook Air at a similar price point (even if they could unlock their iPad). In other words, I don’t see an advantage for the overwhelming majority of students.
    - dividedbyzero 5y ago
      Being able to take notes with a pen is huge. iPads are a bit cheaper than Macbooks, and they're easy to use if you're familiar with a smartphone. If you won't need any specialized software not available for iOS, I'd say iPads should be plenty great for studying. I've used mine a lot back then, and that was way before the Pencil (using a third-party stylus) and it worked really well.
      - throwaway894345 5y ago
        I own an iPad with the Apple Pencil precisely because I was excited to take notes with it, but the handwriting recognition is awful, and without handwriting recognition there isn’t much point in using the iPad versus paper notebooks for notes. Anyway, if as much as I enjoy handwriting, taking notes via keyboard is much better: you can type a lot faster than you can write and you get all of the benefits of handwriting recognition (searchability, editability, etc). And if you’re using an iPad, your keyboard experience is significantly poorer than with a laptop. The only compelling advantage for a stylus is diagrams IMO. As for “learning curve”, I have a hard time believing that children will have a significantly harder time with macOS versus iOS. Kids seem pretty smart when it comes to technology.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the plus side, it's more secure (which is especially nice since my less-than-tech-savvy family use iPads quite a lot). Moreover, even if you had an unlocked iPad, it would be inferior to a laptop in most respects anyway (most standing cases don't allow you to actually work from your lap, keyboards are awful, etc). So while it would be neat to be able to do development work from an iPad, it's really only useful in those rare occasions where you really can't afford an extra cubic inch (or whatever the difference between a MacBook Air and an iPad is) in your luggage.

mjmahone17 5y ago
It would be amazing for students. In college a lot of students get a device that needs to last for 4 years, not knowing what classes they’ll end up taking (often they switch majors). Lots of students will get iPad Pros as their only device. When they decide to take a class that requires coding, they’ll run into all the support problems, and either need to do all their work in a library or pony up more money they don’t have to get a worse-spec computer that they can actually do their assignments on. These classes typically have support guides for MacOS and Windows. Even making it possible to install MacOS on an iPad Pro would make the device good enough to be a student’s only computer.
- throwaway894345 5y ago
  I would contend based on my earlier post that they would still be better served by a MacBook Air at a similar price point (even if they could unlock their iPad). In other words, I don’t see an advantage for the overwhelming majority of students.
  - dividedbyzero 5y ago
    Being able to take notes with a pen is huge. iPads are a bit cheaper than Macbooks, and they're easy to use if you're familiar with a smartphone. If you won't need any specialized software not available for iOS, I'd say iPads should be plenty great for studying. I've used mine a lot back then, and that was way before the Pencil (using a third-party stylus) and it worked really well.
    - throwaway894345 5y ago
      I own an iPad with the Apple Pencil precisely because I was excited to take notes with it, but the handwriting recognition is awful, and without handwriting recognition there isn’t much point in using the iPad versus paper notebooks for notes. Anyway, if as much as I enjoy handwriting, taking notes via keyboard is much better: you can type a lot faster than you can write and you get all of the benefits of handwriting recognition (searchability, editability, etc). And if you’re using an iPad, your keyboard experience is significantly poorer than with a laptop. The only compelling advantage for a stylus is diagrams IMO. As for “learning curve”, I have a hard time believing that children will have a significantly harder time with macOS versus iOS. Kids seem pretty smart when it comes to technology.