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Still can't believe the M2 chip is hobbled with Stage Manager. Dear Apple, I want my iPad to become a Finder based full-fat macOS when it's on the Magic Keybo

Still can't believe the M2 chip is hobbled with Stage Manager. Dear Apple, I want my iPad to become a Finder based full-fat macOS when it's on the Magic Keyboard and I want it to be Springboard when I take it off the Magic Keyboard. Make it happen already.

smoldesu 4y ago
Yeah, I don't really know who Apple is hoping to sell these to. My ex-boyfriend bought one of the earlier iPad Pros with some grand ambitions, but he mostly ended up using it for Netflix, Twitter and emails. I think that totally legitimizes the existence of the smaller/cheaper models, but who is Apple selling these to in the long-term? Even the mediocre Surface Pro has a decent software experience that explains why someone might continue spending extra on it. But I don't know who the iPad Pro is for, especially these souped-up models. 120hz is nice, but... who the hell is going to need or even appreciate a high-refresh rate on an iPad? I reckon most "pros" would be happier if they sacked the high refresh and upgraded the panel to a 60hz OLED one. I'm just spitballing though. The iPad probably won't make sense for most of us until it's discontinued or they add macOS to it, whichever comes first.
- jessriedel 4y ago
  The extra 2 inches of screen can be a reason to get a Pro, but I agree it's unclear why they both to put in so much horsepower.
  - selykg 4y ago
    as an avid comic book reader, the 12.9" iPad Pro is _perfect_ for reading comics, you don't have to zoom in or out at all and you can simply read. The 11" model might be fine too but I've only ever used the 12.9" model. It's slightly oversized, like the treatment some of the deluxe hardcover graphic novels get, and it's absolutely glorious to be able to read without zooming in. I'd love to get a newer iPad, but the price is bananas for me given the use case. I bought the pre-2018 model and it's still holding on but I'm going to be bummed when this one reaches the end of it's usable life due to software updates and such because I can't afford (or, justify maybe) one of the newer models.
    - yamtaddle 4y ago
      > as an avid comic book reader, the 12.9" iPad Pro is _perfect_ for reading comics, you don't have to zoom in or out at all and you can simply read. The really cool thing about this, for those who haven't tried, is that in landscape mode the 12.9" is really really close to the same size as a two-page comic spread, so you can read them like they were intended, not one page at a time. It's a little smaller, but not much. Makes a huge difference vs. page-at-a-time reading. (I use Chunky, which is amazing and I wish the author charged money for it or had more options to pay them than one mostly-unnecessary and really-cheap IAP, because it's really good and I never want it to go away)
    - Larrikin 4y ago
      What do you use to read comics? When I was looking into it some months back the best readers of the past were all unmaintained and didn't work properly and the newer apps wanted to charge me a monthly fee to read comics from local storage with no option to buy.
      - selykg 4y ago
        I use Chunky. It still works great. I've heard Panels is decent as well.
    - taude 4y ago
      I think the 11" is too small for comics. I typically have to zoom in, or use the mode that managaes the zooming in and scrolling for you.
- seanmcdirmid 4y ago
  I bought a 2G ipad pro and it was very useful as just a writing tablet. Unlimited paper, though I had to get a paper-like screen protector since otherwise their wasn't enough friction between the screen and the pen to make me happy. I'm disappointed there aren't more pen-based programming experiences out there, but I can't really think of any useful ones myself either.
  - shagie 4y ago
    For writing, have you checked out the remarkable? ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24295443 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24295443 ) It's an e-ink display with paper like friction and if you really want to, you can shell into the linux system it runs on.
    - schaefer 4y ago
      I’m not the op, but I am a “pen based note taking enthusiast“. I have owned both a gen 1 remarkable, and an older iPad Pro. In my opinion, the remarkable is garbage in comparison. The note taking app is just so far behind. And cross platform seems it’s never going to happen. My note taking app of choice is always: write, by stylus labs. It’s wonderful, and really expresses what I hoped pen based writing would always be. Especially the undo-wheel. For quickly scrolling back a whole word or sentence. But the real killer here is that it’s cross platform. I can move the notes to the native Linux app or the native windows app. That having been said, I am forever annoyed that I can’t run Xcode on either Linux or my $1000+ iPad. Also, on the iPad, there are ridiculous restrictions in how you are allowed to run apps side by side in split screen. /sigh So the race for the good pen note taking device is still on for me. I have hope that soon the Pine Note will take off and allow me to finally run write by stylus labs on a platform with development tools. In this case Linux. Again, Apple could win me back by opening access to dev tools. Either in the iPad itself or cross platform on Linux/windows—or by allowing me to install macOS on the iPad. Remarkable could win me back by opening the platform and allowing my to install write by stylus labs. Dell or Lenovo could win the race by shipping a 2-in-1 with a current generation processor and Linux officially supported, and preferably pre installed. But it honestly looks like pine 64 is out in front in this race.
- wlesieutre 4y ago
  I have a 2018 model and love the 12.9" screen size for media, note taking, reading, sketching, etc. That said if they made a cheaper version with a 12.9" screen I would have bought that instead. I don't do anything that needs a desktop class processor. Artists do love the performance though, people use them for video editing or large image editing with lots of layers. Edit to add - 12.9" is also helpful for using two apps in splitscreen. Might become less important with Stage Manager, we'll see how I like that.
  - smoldesu 4y ago
    That's what I don't really understand, though. Even the artists and video editors who use these devices aren't actually leveraging all of the power in the machine. Photo editors and artists are mostly still constrained by single-core performance, and video editors are mostly just leveraging the GPU's video accelerators. The "full power" of the M1 or M2 doesn't even make sense for these pro customers. That's why I still think an "iPad Max" makes much more sense. Even to professionals, the iPad is ultimately a content consumption device. So, Apple ought to lean into that. Make an iPad you can love with a big screen and punchy OLED panel, while cutting back on the CPU cores to optimize for battery life and thermals. Even if they never put Stage Manager on it and ditched the LIDAR camera, I think these things would sell like hotcakes at the right price.
    - garyfirestorm 4y ago
      I think you are underestimating the power of pencil combined with Letter sized screen for people who read research papers, take notes and need entertainment when traveling - potentially entire higher ed students. I just bought an M1 iPad Pro last week and I am impressed with how easy it is to navigate and annotate pdf documents
      - smoldesu 4y ago
        I don't think I do. I used to own a Surface Pro with their Surface Pen, basically the same experience and I used it for everything from reading manuals to flipping comic book pages. It was great, but none of it's greatness was predicated by "the power" of it's chip. The iPad Pro would be equally as attractive if it used the base-model chip and ditched the LIDAR nonsense, and it would be cheaper.
- npc54321 4y ago
- caycep 4y ago
  There's a good local wedding photographer here who edits 90% of her commercial work on her iPad Pro now
  - dirheist 4y ago
    Surely the full version of Adobe Lightroom on a mac would offer more features than the ipad?
    - blairbeckwith 4y ago
      Probably why she only edits 90% of her work on iPad. I think there's a huge percentage of non-developers who are exactly in this boat – can do 90% of their work on an iPad, and enjoy that experience, but keep a traditional computer around for the 10%.
    - imwillofficial 4y ago
      Not every feature is used. Most use a tiny subset of available features. That makes the iPad fill many many use cases. I can do about 80% of my work on my iPad
    - wil421 4y ago
      They have Photoshop on the iPad and Adobe says it’s “built with a no compromise in quality and performance”. Which means buggy as any Adobe product but useable. It really can’t get worse than Lightroom on an older intel Mac. An iPad Pro M1 also beat a MBP 16” with an i9 in Geekbench for multi core. Video editing is also crazy good on an iPad Pro and iPhones.
      - smoldesu 4y ago
        Well, video editing is crazy fast on iPad and iPhone, that doesn't make it good. Apple goes above-and-beyond building hardware accelerators into their GPU for video content, but the form factor of the iPhone/iPad is considerably worse than editing with a Macbook. I feel the same way about music production on iOS - the hardware is willing, but the software is weak.
    - 4y ago
- diebeforei485 4y ago
  The miniLED display on the 12.9" is great. I know that iPads are used in the architecture/construction industry for example. AutoCAD has some products that came out of the PlanGrid acquisition.
- CharlesW 4y ago
  > 120hz is nice, but... who the hell is going to need or even appreciate a high-refresh rate on an iPad? This is a notable differentiator that's easy to see and feel for iPad users. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otlDSjAq2hI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otlDSjAq2hI > Yeah, I don't really know who Apple is hoping to sell these to. […] The iPad probably won't make sense for most of us until it's discontinued or they add macOS to it, whichever comes first. Apple knows who they're selling to. Apple's iPad dominates the global tablet market (along with Samsung and Amazon), so there's evidence that it's made sense for its target market for some time now.
  - smoldesu 4y ago
    > This is a notable differentiator that's easy to see and feel for iPad users. I agree. We're talking about a device that most people use to watch video though, so they're not going to really be revving it beyond 24hz. 120hz screens are great, but if I didn't play first-person shooters with my friends then I'd have no reason to use mine. Like I said, an OLED panel makes much more sense for the iPad, and arguably the Macbook Pro.
    - CharlesW 4y ago
      > We're talking about a device that most people use to watch video though, so they're not going to really be revving it beyond 24hz. Interesting. I don't use my iPad for video much, but I'm going to assume you're right and I'm in the minority. In that case, a nice benefit for cinephiles is that 120 Hz is an integer multiple of 24 Hz, while 60 Hz is not.
      - smoldesu 4y ago
        60hz is an integer multiple of 24hz when you use LTPO displays, like the ones offered with OLED panels.
- Spivak 4y ago
  iPad Pro has a strong foothold in digital art. Not having to learn how to split brain with a Wacom is a game changer and there aren't many competitors in the space that aren't wayyyyy more expensive.
- 314 4y ago
  I have the original (from 2014?) and it is still in use every day. I bought it for sketching but never really used it for that too much. For note taking (with a pen) it has been in use every day. I used to go through stacks of notepads and it was nice to replace them with a digital tool as it makes storage and retrieval much easier. It was an extravagant purchase at the time, but $1100 has started to look relatively after 8(?) years of use.
- musictubes 4y ago
  iPad Pro is amazing for audio, photography, and of course art creation. I am just starting to dip my toes into the audio world and the number and quality of soft synths, sequencers, effects, mixers, etc. is actually breathtaking. The ipad is especially useful when used in conjunction with physical instruments and live performance. A regular laptop isn’t nearly as nice to use in the moment. Suzanne Ciani uses the Animoog Z app on her ipad along with her $20k+ Buchla Modular synthesizer rig during live performances. I have also been enjoying live streams from Pittsburgh Modular. He uses an ipad for sequencing and effects along with the hardware synths. Having a more powerful ipad allows more and more sophisticated tools to be made for it. Apple brings the capability and developers take advantage.
- hoistbypetard 4y ago
  I have a 2018 iPad pro with a pencil and keyboard, and I love it. It's good for: * Working on game assets using the Affinity tools (Designer and Photo) * Second monitor for my Mac when I'm not at my desk * Chat/videoconference tool, leaving me able to use my computer during virtual meetings * Travel machine. I can do most of my office-y stuff on it, and use it to ssh into production things. Gitpod lets me do some light coding from there in a pinch, but if I'm planning on a lot of that I usually just carry the Macbook. Because a portable rig with two monitors is damn nice for writing code. * Reading and annotating PDFs * Documentation viewing while writing code * General reading * Using a square reader to process payments I suspect that this will likely easily be replaced by a current Air when the time comes, but it's easily useful enough for me to want it. And when you consider that the ASUS portable monitors run in the $300-400 range, and the Wacoms are around $600, I don't feel like I'm severely overpaying.
- vlunkr 4y ago
  > but who is Apple selling these to in the long-term? I've thought this about every iPad model they've made, but obviously I'm wrong every time. I'm sure there are specific professionals who will find this useful, but in my guess is that most iPads are sold for casual use. As to why you would buy the higher-end model, because if you're in the market for an iPad, you probably have disposable income, you might as well get the shiniest one you can.
williamcotton 4y ago
It feels so close, doesn’t it? My biggest gripe is that iOS doesn’t have proper support for external displays.
- etchalon 4y ago
  iOS 16 fixes that.
  - madeofpalk 4y ago
    Not any more lol
  - shadowfacts 4y ago
    Proper external display support was pulled from the initial release of iPadOS 16 because it was super buggy. From the press release: > Full external display support for Stage Manager on M1 and M2 iPad models will be available in a software update later this year.
  - wlesieutre 4y ago
    Not in the initial release. They pulled external display support from Stage Manager in later betas to get it working on older models with the A12X and A12Z instead of only the M1 and newer. External display support is supposed to come back in an update later this year. Presumably that part will still require an M1 or newer processor.
    - twobitshifter 4y ago
      as an ipad mini owner, i selfishly hope they make it work on the a15 as well. I don’t know how unfavorably that chip compares to the a12z, but it seems very fast on the ipad mini.
fooblaster 4y ago
I don't think apple will implement something like this if it cannibalizes sales of a higher end product with more profit margin. I wouldn't expect a feature like this until there is a ipad sold for the price of a MacBook pro plus an ipad(e.g ipad super pro for 2000$).
lupire 4y ago
Apple doesn't want non-artists to buy iPad Pro instead of MacBook. They want people to buy both.
- traceroute66 4y ago
  > Apple doesn't want non-artists to buy iPad Pro instead of MacBook. They want people to buy both. I see the resident Apple bashers are already warming up their cannons firing a few rounds. But perhaps we need to take a step back here for a moment.... First you need to consider the security and general platform profile of iOS which is fundamentally different from MacOS. Running MacOS would greatly weaken the iOS security profile of Apple mobile devices, and you have to remember that the devices are not just used by consumers but they are used widely in the corporate world too. iOS loaded with corporate apps is a much more attractive security footprint for corporate IT departments. Personally speaking, I very much like the tightened security footprint of iOS. I wouldn't want to run full-blown MacOS on my phone or tablet, even if I could ! Second, prior to Apple silicon, non-mobile hardware ran on Intel. So Apple were justifiably technically constrained by that fact. However, if you observe Apple today though, you can see MacOS on Apple Silicon allows you to install iPhone/iPad apps simply by downloading them from the App store as you would on an Apple mobile device. I would argue therefore that with time, we may see further blurring of boundaries in both directions.
  - animsriv 4y ago
    This gives me an idea for an iPad like device with dual booted MacOS and iOS, and isolated storages for the security concerns. Best of both worlds!
    - jzig 4y ago
      It could even run on the same M2 and other hardware. Just make two partitions on the SSD.
- MuffinFlavored 4y ago
  I'm trying to calculate in my head why I (a non-artist) want a tablet with the foldable keyboard thingie instead of a laptop...
Someone 4y ago
That could end up being a two-headed monster, with some apps working fine in ‘iPad mode’ and looking awfully out of place in ‘Finder mode’ and other ones looking good in ‘Finder mode’ and bad in ‘iPad mode’. Unless (almost) all their apps (including third-party ones) would seamlessly switch from a mouse-driven MacOS UI to a pen/finger drive iPad UI, I think most users would be disappointed with that.
deleted 4y ago
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evilduck 4y ago
Hell, just give access to the Hypervisor framework now that M1/M2 chips natively support virtualization. I would gladly use a macOS or Linux VM on an iPad if it didn't require constant workarounds. UTM is ready it just needs the App Store barrier removed. As a user experience it's no less jarring than GeForce Now, XBox remote play, Steam Link, Plex, VNC apps, iSH, Blink, etc.
criddell 4y ago
Dear Apple, Please don't listen to Veliladon. Keep the iPad as it's own thing. In fact, make it more iPad-y and less Mac-y. If I want a Mac, I'll buy a Mac.
NegativeLatency 4y ago
Bought an iPad earlier this year hoping to take some of the responsibilities off of my 2015 MPB, and it's really just a media consumption device. Hard to admin my home server, program, etc on an iPad, even though it has a much faster processor and way better battery life. I realize this is a bit of a niche usecase but apple shipping a Terminal.app for iOS/iPadOS would be a game changer.
orangecat 4y ago
I want my iPad to become a Finder based full-fat macOS when it's on the Magic Keyboard And Apple doesn't want you running unapproved software so that's never going to happen unless macOS gets a lockdown mode (only app store apps, no terminal or Unix access, etc).

smoldesu 4y ago

Yeah, I don't really know who Apple is hoping to sell these to. My ex-boyfriend bought one of the earlier iPad Pros with some grand ambitions, but he mostly ended up using it for Netflix, Twitter and emails. I think that totally legitimizes the existence of the smaller/cheaper models, but who is Apple selling these to in the long-term? Even the mediocre Surface Pro has a decent software experience that explains why someone might continue spending extra on it. But I don't know who the iPad Pro is for, especially these souped-up models. 120hz is nice, but... who the hell is going to need or even appreciate a high-refresh rate on an iPad? I reckon most "pros" would be happier if they sacked the high refresh and upgraded the panel to a 60hz OLED one. I'm just spitballing though. The iPad probably won't make sense for most of us until it's discontinued or they add macOS to it, whichever comes first.

jessriedel 4y ago
The extra 2 inches of screen can be a reason to get a Pro, but I agree it's unclear why they both to put in so much horsepower.
- selykg 4y ago
  as an avid comic book reader, the 12.9" iPad Pro is _perfect_ for reading comics, you don't have to zoom in or out at all and you can simply read. The 11" model might be fine too but I've only ever used the 12.9" model. It's slightly oversized, like the treatment some of the deluxe hardcover graphic novels get, and it's absolutely glorious to be able to read without zooming in. I'd love to get a newer iPad, but the price is bananas for me given the use case. I bought the pre-2018 model and it's still holding on but I'm going to be bummed when this one reaches the end of it's usable life due to software updates and such because I can't afford (or, justify maybe) one of the newer models.
  - yamtaddle 4y ago
    > as an avid comic book reader, the 12.9" iPad Pro is _perfect_ for reading comics, you don't have to zoom in or out at all and you can simply read. The really cool thing about this, for those who haven't tried, is that in landscape mode the 12.9" is really really close to the same size as a two-page comic spread, so you can read them like they were intended, not one page at a time. It's a little smaller, but not much. Makes a huge difference vs. page-at-a-time reading. (I use Chunky, which is amazing and I wish the author charged money for it or had more options to pay them than one mostly-unnecessary and really-cheap IAP, because it's really good and I never want it to go away)
  - Larrikin 4y ago
    What do you use to read comics? When I was looking into it some months back the best readers of the past were all unmaintained and didn't work properly and the newer apps wanted to charge me a monthly fee to read comics from local storage with no option to buy.
    - selykg 4y ago
      I use Chunky. It still works great. I've heard Panels is decent as well.
  - taude 4y ago
    I think the 11" is too small for comics. I typically have to zoom in, or use the mode that managaes the zooming in and scrolling for you.
seanmcdirmid 4y ago
I bought a 2G ipad pro and it was very useful as just a writing tablet. Unlimited paper, though I had to get a paper-like screen protector since otherwise their wasn't enough friction between the screen and the pen to make me happy. I'm disappointed there aren't more pen-based programming experiences out there, but I can't really think of any useful ones myself either.
- shagie 4y ago
  For writing, have you checked out the remarkable? ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24295443 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24295443 ) It's an e-ink display with paper like friction and if you really want to, you can shell into the linux system it runs on.
  - schaefer 4y ago
    I’m not the op, but I am a “pen based note taking enthusiast“. I have owned both a gen 1 remarkable, and an older iPad Pro. In my opinion, the remarkable is garbage in comparison. The note taking app is just so far behind. And cross platform seems it’s never going to happen. My note taking app of choice is always: write, by stylus labs. It’s wonderful, and really expresses what I hoped pen based writing would always be. Especially the undo-wheel. For quickly scrolling back a whole word or sentence. But the real killer here is that it’s cross platform. I can move the notes to the native Linux app or the native windows app. That having been said, I am forever annoyed that I can’t run Xcode on either Linux or my $1000+ iPad. Also, on the iPad, there are ridiculous restrictions in how you are allowed to run apps side by side in split screen. /sigh So the race for the good pen note taking device is still on for me. I have hope that soon the Pine Note will take off and allow me to finally run write by stylus labs on a platform with development tools. In this case Linux. Again, Apple could win me back by opening access to dev tools. Either in the iPad itself or cross platform on Linux/windows—or by allowing me to install macOS on the iPad. Remarkable could win me back by opening the platform and allowing my to install write by stylus labs. Dell or Lenovo could win the race by shipping a 2-in-1 with a current generation processor and Linux officially supported, and preferably pre installed. But it honestly looks like pine 64 is out in front in this race.
wlesieutre 4y ago
I have a 2018 model and love the 12.9" screen size for media, note taking, reading, sketching, etc. That said if they made a cheaper version with a 12.9" screen I would have bought that instead. I don't do anything that needs a desktop class processor. Artists do love the performance though, people use them for video editing or large image editing with lots of layers. Edit to add - 12.9" is also helpful for using two apps in splitscreen. Might become less important with Stage Manager, we'll see how I like that.
- smoldesu 4y ago
  That's what I don't really understand, though. Even the artists and video editors who use these devices aren't actually leveraging all of the power in the machine. Photo editors and artists are mostly still constrained by single-core performance, and video editors are mostly just leveraging the GPU's video accelerators. The "full power" of the M1 or M2 doesn't even make sense for these pro customers. That's why I still think an "iPad Max" makes much more sense. Even to professionals, the iPad is ultimately a content consumption device. So, Apple ought to lean into that. Make an iPad you can love with a big screen and punchy OLED panel, while cutting back on the CPU cores to optimize for battery life and thermals. Even if they never put Stage Manager on it and ditched the LIDAR camera, I think these things would sell like hotcakes at the right price.
  - garyfirestorm 4y ago
    I think you are underestimating the power of pencil combined with Letter sized screen for people who read research papers, take notes and need entertainment when traveling - potentially entire higher ed students. I just bought an M1 iPad Pro last week and I am impressed with how easy it is to navigate and annotate pdf documents
    - smoldesu 4y ago
      I don't think I do. I used to own a Surface Pro with their Surface Pen, basically the same experience and I used it for everything from reading manuals to flipping comic book pages. It was great, but none of it's greatness was predicated by "the power" of it's chip. The iPad Pro would be equally as attractive if it used the base-model chip and ditched the LIDAR nonsense, and it would be cheaper.
npc54321 4y ago
caycep 4y ago
There's a good local wedding photographer here who edits 90% of her commercial work on her iPad Pro now
- dirheist 4y ago
  Surely the full version of Adobe Lightroom on a mac would offer more features than the ipad?
  - blairbeckwith 4y ago
    Probably why she only edits 90% of her work on iPad. I think there's a huge percentage of non-developers who are exactly in this boat – can do 90% of their work on an iPad, and enjoy that experience, but keep a traditional computer around for the 10%.
  - imwillofficial 4y ago
    Not every feature is used. Most use a tiny subset of available features. That makes the iPad fill many many use cases. I can do about 80% of my work on my iPad
  - wil421 4y ago
    They have Photoshop on the iPad and Adobe says it’s “built with a no compromise in quality and performance”. Which means buggy as any Adobe product but useable. It really can’t get worse than Lightroom on an older intel Mac. An iPad Pro M1 also beat a MBP 16” with an i9 in Geekbench for multi core. Video editing is also crazy good on an iPad Pro and iPhones.
    - smoldesu 4y ago
      Well, video editing is crazy fast on iPad and iPhone, that doesn't make it good. Apple goes above-and-beyond building hardware accelerators into their GPU for video content, but the form factor of the iPhone/iPad is considerably worse than editing with a Macbook. I feel the same way about music production on iOS - the hardware is willing, but the software is weak.
  - 4y ago
diebeforei485 4y ago
The miniLED display on the 12.9" is great. I know that iPads are used in the architecture/construction industry for example. AutoCAD has some products that came out of the PlanGrid acquisition.
CharlesW 4y ago
> 120hz is nice, but... who the hell is going to need or even appreciate a high-refresh rate on an iPad? This is a notable differentiator that's easy to see and feel for iPad users. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otlDSjAq2hI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otlDSjAq2hI > Yeah, I don't really know who Apple is hoping to sell these to. […] The iPad probably won't make sense for most of us until it's discontinued or they add macOS to it, whichever comes first. Apple knows who they're selling to. Apple's iPad dominates the global tablet market (along with Samsung and Amazon), so there's evidence that it's made sense for its target market for some time now.
- smoldesu 4y ago
  > This is a notable differentiator that's easy to see and feel for iPad users. I agree. We're talking about a device that most people use to watch video though, so they're not going to really be revving it beyond 24hz. 120hz screens are great, but if I didn't play first-person shooters with my friends then I'd have no reason to use mine. Like I said, an OLED panel makes much more sense for the iPad, and arguably the Macbook Pro.
  - CharlesW 4y ago
    > We're talking about a device that most people use to watch video though, so they're not going to really be revving it beyond 24hz. Interesting. I don't use my iPad for video much, but I'm going to assume you're right and I'm in the minority. In that case, a nice benefit for cinephiles is that 120 Hz is an integer multiple of 24 Hz, while 60 Hz is not.
    - smoldesu 4y ago
      60hz is an integer multiple of 24hz when you use LTPO displays, like the ones offered with OLED panels.
Spivak 4y ago
iPad Pro has a strong foothold in digital art. Not having to learn how to split brain with a Wacom is a game changer and there aren't many competitors in the space that aren't wayyyyy more expensive.
314 4y ago
I have the original (from 2014?) and it is still in use every day. I bought it for sketching but never really used it for that too much. For note taking (with a pen) it has been in use every day. I used to go through stacks of notepads and it was nice to replace them with a digital tool as it makes storage and retrieval much easier. It was an extravagant purchase at the time, but $1100 has started to look relatively after 8(?) years of use.
musictubes 4y ago
iPad Pro is amazing for audio, photography, and of course art creation. I am just starting to dip my toes into the audio world and the number and quality of soft synths, sequencers, effects, mixers, etc. is actually breathtaking. The ipad is especially useful when used in conjunction with physical instruments and live performance. A regular laptop isn’t nearly as nice to use in the moment. Suzanne Ciani uses the Animoog Z app on her ipad along with her $20k+ Buchla Modular synthesizer rig during live performances. I have also been enjoying live streams from Pittsburgh Modular. He uses an ipad for sequencing and effects along with the hardware synths. Having a more powerful ipad allows more and more sophisticated tools to be made for it. Apple brings the capability and developers take advantage.
hoistbypetard 4y ago
I have a 2018 iPad pro with a pencil and keyboard, and I love it. It's good for: * Working on game assets using the Affinity tools (Designer and Photo) * Second monitor for my Mac when I'm not at my desk * Chat/videoconference tool, leaving me able to use my computer during virtual meetings * Travel machine. I can do most of my office-y stuff on it, and use it to ssh into production things. Gitpod lets me do some light coding from there in a pinch, but if I'm planning on a lot of that I usually just carry the Macbook. Because a portable rig with two monitors is damn nice for writing code. * Reading and annotating PDFs * Documentation viewing while writing code * General reading * Using a square reader to process payments I suspect that this will likely easily be replaced by a current Air when the time comes, but it's easily useful enough for me to want it. And when you consider that the ASUS portable monitors run in the $300-400 range, and the Wacoms are around $600, I don't feel like I'm severely overpaying.
vlunkr 4y ago
> but who is Apple selling these to in the long-term? I've thought this about every iPad model they've made, but obviously I'm wrong every time. I'm sure there are specific professionals who will find this useful, but in my guess is that most iPads are sold for casual use. As to why you would buy the higher-end model, because if you're in the market for an iPad, you probably have disposable income, you might as well get the shiniest one you can.

williamcotton 4y ago

It feels so close, doesn’t it? My biggest gripe is that iOS doesn’t have proper support for external displays.

etchalon 4y ago
iOS 16 fixes that.
- madeofpalk 4y ago
  Not any more lol
- shadowfacts 4y ago
  Proper external display support was pulled from the initial release of iPadOS 16 because it was super buggy. From the press release: > Full external display support for Stage Manager on M1 and M2 iPad models will be available in a software update later this year.
- wlesieutre 4y ago
  Not in the initial release. They pulled external display support from Stage Manager in later betas to get it working on older models with the A12X and A12Z instead of only the M1 and newer. External display support is supposed to come back in an update later this year. Presumably that part will still require an M1 or newer processor.
  - twobitshifter 4y ago
    as an ipad mini owner, i selfishly hope they make it work on the a15 as well. I don’t know how unfavorably that chip compares to the a12z, but it seems very fast on the ipad mini.

fooblaster 4y ago

I don't think apple will implement something like this if it cannibalizes sales of a higher end product with more profit margin. I wouldn't expect a feature like this until there is a ipad sold for the price of a MacBook pro plus an ipad(e.g ipad super pro for 2000$).

lupire 4y ago

Apple doesn't want non-artists to buy iPad Pro instead of MacBook. They want people to buy both.

traceroute66 4y ago
> Apple doesn't want non-artists to buy iPad Pro instead of MacBook. They want people to buy both. I see the resident Apple bashers are already warming up their cannons firing a few rounds. But perhaps we need to take a step back here for a moment.... First you need to consider the security and general platform profile of iOS which is fundamentally different from MacOS. Running MacOS would greatly weaken the iOS security profile of Apple mobile devices, and you have to remember that the devices are not just used by consumers but they are used widely in the corporate world too. iOS loaded with corporate apps is a much more attractive security footprint for corporate IT departments. Personally speaking, I very much like the tightened security footprint of iOS. I wouldn't want to run full-blown MacOS on my phone or tablet, even if I could ! Second, prior to Apple silicon, non-mobile hardware ran on Intel. So Apple were justifiably technically constrained by that fact. However, if you observe Apple today though, you can see MacOS on Apple Silicon allows you to install iPhone/iPad apps simply by downloading them from the App store as you would on an Apple mobile device. I would argue therefore that with time, we may see further blurring of boundaries in both directions.
- animsriv 4y ago
  This gives me an idea for an iPad like device with dual booted MacOS and iOS, and isolated storages for the security concerns. Best of both worlds!
  - jzig 4y ago
    It could even run on the same M2 and other hardware. Just make two partitions on the SSD.
MuffinFlavored 4y ago
I'm trying to calculate in my head why I (a non-artist) want a tablet with the foldable keyboard thingie instead of a laptop...

Someone 4y ago

That could end up being a two-headed monster, with some apps working fine in ‘iPad mode’ and looking awfully out of place in ‘Finder mode’ and other ones looking good in ‘Finder mode’ and bad in ‘iPad mode’. Unless (almost) all their apps (including third-party ones) would seamlessly switch from a mouse-driven MacOS UI to a pen/finger drive iPad UI, I think most users would be disappointed with that.

deleted 4y ago

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evilduck 4y ago

Hell, just give access to the Hypervisor framework now that M1/M2 chips natively support virtualization. I would gladly use a macOS or Linux VM on an iPad if it didn't require constant workarounds. UTM is ready it just needs the App Store barrier removed. As a user experience it's no less jarring than GeForce Now, XBox remote play, Steam Link, Plex, VNC apps, iSH, Blink, etc.

criddell 4y ago

Dear Apple, Please don't listen to Veliladon. Keep the iPad as it's own thing. In fact, make it more iPad-y and less Mac-y. If I want a Mac, I'll buy a Mac.

NegativeLatency 4y ago

Bought an iPad earlier this year hoping to take some of the responsibilities off of my 2015 MPB, and it's really just a media consumption device. Hard to admin my home server, program, etc on an iPad, even though it has a much faster processor and way better battery life. I realize this is a bit of a niche usecase but apple shipping a Terminal.app for iOS/iPadOS would be a game changer.

orangecat 4y ago

I want my iPad to become a Finder based full-fat macOS when it's on the Magic Keyboard And Apple doesn't want you running unapproved software so that's never going to happen unless macOS gets a lockdown mode (only app store apps, no terminal or Unix access, etc).