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> I find that the best use of a tablet is reading and watching videos. I think HN forgets the 'pros' using the iPad Pros are video, photography, visual-arts an

> I find that the best use of a tablet is reading and watching videos. I think HN forgets the 'pros' using the iPad Pros are video, photography, visual-arts and music professionals. I'm as disappointed as the next dev on HN that iPadOS still doesn't allow me to run a full version of Xcode. But then I remember there are perfectly good laptops for that, and I'm not the target audience for these devices

deleted 4y ago
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Auracle 4y ago
I mean, I don’t understand how I could really use an iPad in my workflow as a photographer. Everything is slower without a keyboard, and for raw editing I use a whole bunch of knobs. I could see maybe using it at the right type of session to quickly review images on a larger screen, but the last time I looked into it there wasn’t a super great way of doing that. Maybe I could cull photos on my iPad but unless I transfer for the photos to it and then back off I’d need to work over my network and that’d probably be slow… Everything relating to moving files, SD cards, etc. is just a hassle in Apple tablet/phone world. Ironically, a PC just works.
- smoldesu 4y ago
  Same goes for music production. I've tried using a few iPad DAWs over the years, but it's so much slower than using a keyboard and mouse, or just popping open your Macbook with Live. Apple already has a product segment that does fairly well with this market, trying to force the iPad into being something it's not just looks silly.
  - psychomugs 4y ago
    Producing may be faster on desktop for now because they've had a large head start on optimizing the interfaces for mouse and keyboard, but those affordances are still a subset of what you can do with a touch screen. Touch screens won't replace dedicated controllers with physical knobs, but digital knobs are surprisingly usable.
    - smoldesu 4y ago
      > but those affordances are still a subset of what you can do with a touch screen. I disagree. A gesture-based workflow won't replace Pro Tools' keyboard shortcuts, unfortunately.
      - musictubes 4y ago
        Touch is far better for performance though. Watching Suzanne Ciani seamlessly integrate her Buchla modular rig with the ipad makes me appreciate just how good the ipad is. A regular computer would be far more cumbersome to use with hardware synths in the moment.
        smoldesu 4y ago
        Not really? The iPad isn't velocity-sensitive, and it doesn't have aftertouch or any tactile feedback. A "regular computer" at least has straightforward MIDI routing that you can perform with - the iPad gets outclassed by decade-old Octatracks in terms of performance flexibility.
        psychomugs 4y ago
        Ciani is the perfect example that I was about to bring up myself. I got to see her perform live at a conference, and out of her whole setup, she waxed poetic most about her iPad.
      - psychomugs 4y ago
        Similar things were probably said about smartphones with touch screens being inferior to physical buttons. After using my tablet as a second screen for production, photo editing, CADing, and coding, it's become woefully apparent that the mouse - a tiny singular cursor - is an inferior grandfather to an interface that _also_ supports multitouch, and the only thing holding tablets back is software. Obsidian is a good example of a mobile app that has parity with its desktop version in both maintaining its keyboard shortcuts but also enabling touch interactions closer to the affordances of physical notes. Let's check in again in a few device generations.
  - KuiN 4y ago
    I see a lot of people using an iPad for music alongside a proper computer with a full featured DAW. You don't need a mouse or keyboard shortcuts for idea generation, sketching out rough concepts from inspiration on the go or playing with some of the pretty unique synths & other tools available on iPad. For modular synth simulation I've found iPad with Pencil to be a much much better UI for me than using a mouse.
  - musictubes 4y ago
    Think live performance instead of DAW work. Using a sequencer, effects, or additional soft synths on the ipad along with hardware synths is much nicer than fiddling with a mouse or trackpad.
    - smoldesu 4y ago
      "Much nicer" is a bit of a stretch (I use a touchscreen laptop with my DAW). The difference between clicking-and-dragging a knob is not that different from tapping-and-dragging one. Same goes for performance; the iPad is not velocity sensitive, and it does not have aftertouch. At that point, you're probably adding in a MIDI keyboard or other hardware, at which point you may as well just perform with a real DAW and leave the iPad at home.
- psychomugs 4y ago
  Dodging and burning and masking and using other photo-related tools with a mouse and keyboard feels like I'm producing a very calculated photograph. Using a stylus and multi-touch screen feels closer to the original affordances of crafting and manipulating a physical photograph. For the best of both worlds, I use the iPad in Sidecar / second-screen mode so I can use keyboard shortcuts with 1:1 stylus input.
  - Auracle 4y ago
    Oh, I agree about the mouse bit - but Wacom (etc.) tablets have been around forever. I’d also much rather keep my head straight and my arm at rest on my desk all day.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

Auracle 4y ago

I mean, I don’t understand how I could really use an iPad in my workflow as a photographer. Everything is slower without a keyboard, and for raw editing I use a whole bunch of knobs. I could see maybe using it at the right type of session to quickly review images on a larger screen, but the last time I looked into it there wasn’t a super great way of doing that. Maybe I could cull photos on my iPad but unless I transfer for the photos to it and then back off I’d need to work over my network and that’d probably be slow… Everything relating to moving files, SD cards, etc. is just a hassle in Apple tablet/phone world. Ironically, a PC just works.

smoldesu 4y ago
Same goes for music production. I've tried using a few iPad DAWs over the years, but it's so much slower than using a keyboard and mouse, or just popping open your Macbook with Live. Apple already has a product segment that does fairly well with this market, trying to force the iPad into being something it's not just looks silly.
- psychomugs 4y ago
  Producing may be faster on desktop for now because they've had a large head start on optimizing the interfaces for mouse and keyboard, but those affordances are still a subset of what you can do with a touch screen. Touch screens won't replace dedicated controllers with physical knobs, but digital knobs are surprisingly usable.
  - smoldesu 4y ago
    > but those affordances are still a subset of what you can do with a touch screen. I disagree. A gesture-based workflow won't replace Pro Tools' keyboard shortcuts, unfortunately.
    - musictubes 4y ago
      Touch is far better for performance though. Watching Suzanne Ciani seamlessly integrate her Buchla modular rig with the ipad makes me appreciate just how good the ipad is. A regular computer would be far more cumbersome to use with hardware synths in the moment.
      - smoldesu 4y ago
        Not really? The iPad isn't velocity-sensitive, and it doesn't have aftertouch or any tactile feedback. A "regular computer" at least has straightforward MIDI routing that you can perform with - the iPad gets outclassed by decade-old Octatracks in terms of performance flexibility.
      - psychomugs 4y ago
        Ciani is the perfect example that I was about to bring up myself. I got to see her perform live at a conference, and out of her whole setup, she waxed poetic most about her iPad.
    - psychomugs 4y ago
      Similar things were probably said about smartphones with touch screens being inferior to physical buttons. After using my tablet as a second screen for production, photo editing, CADing, and coding, it's become woefully apparent that the mouse - a tiny singular cursor - is an inferior grandfather to an interface that _also_ supports multitouch, and the only thing holding tablets back is software. Obsidian is a good example of a mobile app that has parity with its desktop version in both maintaining its keyboard shortcuts but also enabling touch interactions closer to the affordances of physical notes. Let's check in again in a few device generations.
- KuiN 4y ago
  I see a lot of people using an iPad for music alongside a proper computer with a full featured DAW. You don't need a mouse or keyboard shortcuts for idea generation, sketching out rough concepts from inspiration on the go or playing with some of the pretty unique synths & other tools available on iPad. For modular synth simulation I've found iPad with Pencil to be a much much better UI for me than using a mouse.
- musictubes 4y ago
  Think live performance instead of DAW work. Using a sequencer, effects, or additional soft synths on the ipad along with hardware synths is much nicer than fiddling with a mouse or trackpad.
  - smoldesu 4y ago
    "Much nicer" is a bit of a stretch (I use a touchscreen laptop with my DAW). The difference between clicking-and-dragging a knob is not that different from tapping-and-dragging one. Same goes for performance; the iPad is not velocity sensitive, and it does not have aftertouch. At that point, you're probably adding in a MIDI keyboard or other hardware, at which point you may as well just perform with a real DAW and leave the iPad at home.
psychomugs 4y ago
Dodging and burning and masking and using other photo-related tools with a mouse and keyboard feels like I'm producing a very calculated photograph. Using a stylus and multi-touch screen feels closer to the original affordances of crafting and manipulating a physical photograph. For the best of both worlds, I use the iPad in Sidecar / second-screen mode so I can use keyboard shortcuts with 1:1 stylus input.
- Auracle 4y ago
  Oh, I agree about the mouse bit - but Wacom (etc.) tablets have been around forever. I’d also much rather keep my head straight and my arm at rest on my desk all day.