4 ms·

When the iPad first came out, people knocked it as "a big iPod touch". But…maybe that wasn't a bad thing? I feel like the iPad, despite alllll the efforts to

When the iPad first came out, people knocked it as "a big iPod touch". But…maybe that wasn't a bad thing? I feel like the iPad, despite alllll the efforts to seemingly make it a pro device, is an iPhone, but bigger. It's great for messages, browsing Facebook, and watching video, and that's just fine. Because that serves a lot of people's needs, and trying to add in a bunch more stuff just overloads the touch interface paradigm. (Ugh, the number of times I activated the split screen thing when they first introduced multitasking…)

fassssst 3y ago
I agree, I like the simplicity of it essentially being a big iPhone. I don’t want it to be like a Mac or do Mac stuff on it.
jeroenhd 3y ago
I think "iPad is a big iPod" worked great, but then they brought out the iPad Pro. That thing was supposed to be for Professionals doing Professional Work Things. After that came the iPad Mini, which is an iPad but smaller (so it's an iPod but bigger but smaller?). Weirdly enough, I don't think the iPad Pro is more than just the iPad but faster and bigger. There are tons of model-based software restrictions between the different models for what I assume are market segmentation reasons. Meanwhile, Samsung has had Dex for a few years now, and it works great. It's included on any midrange product and up and it feels like what you would expect from "what happens when I plug my phone/tablet into a USB C dock". Apple's reveal of their weird multitasking iPad interface was quite humorous to me. It just screams "don't try to do anything professional on here" compared to the existing solutions Samsung have provided for years. Too bad Qualcom/Samsung/Mediatek can't figure out how to compete with Apple. Dex on an iPad could replace many people's laptops and desktops and compete with Microsoft's Surface series.
- makeitdouble 3y ago
  The biggest issue with the iPad Pro is macos. It should either run macos, or get a compatibility layer that runs macos programs, but Apple's sitting on this fence for a decade neither pushing the mac to get touch, nor letting the iPad become desktop class. > Too bad Qualcom/Samsung/Mediatek can't figure out how to compete with Apple I'd argue Microsoft did, and they're at their 9th iteration of a decently good product. As do Dell, Huawei, ASUS and the other makers shipping windows tablets. They're definitely there on the "Pro" side. Samsung also pushed some pretty good devices on the Chromebook side, which I'd argue is a more direct competitor to iPad if it comes to elderly or kids in school where you need a more constrained and touch first experience.
  - rtpg 3y ago
    I've said this in other places, but the biggest issue with the Surface lineup is that the Go line is ... just garbage performance wise, absolutely unusable in my experience (despite really really wanting to use it, and basically just using it for PDF annotations!). And the Pro line is good! But it has no 11-inch line and (importantly) it costs so much compared to iPads. If you are looking for a high-end tablet with some pen/pencil input, an iPad Pro 11 inch is the cheap option! It's kind of frustrating, because I think what's happening here is that the Surface Go line makes a lot of money, and a 11-inch-but-fast thing would probably be popular but have less juicy margins.
    - makeitdouble 3y ago
      I see the Surface Go line in the same position as the iPad mini. Some people love it but I think it's heavily polirazing. On the price, tbh I was only looking at the 13 inch line as that's the standard A4 size, but I get it's not ideal if portability is a priority. At 13 inch a 1000+ price is competitive with the iPad Pro, but for smaller size/prices the Huawei or Dell tablets could be a better value.
- TheHappyOddish 3y ago
  > Meanwhile, Samsung has had Dex for a few years now, and it works great. It's included on any midrange product and up and it feels like what you would expect from "what happens when I plug my phone/tablet into a USB C dock". It is a lot more convenent to carry an iPad with a magic keyboard than to carry a USB-C dock, keyboard and mouse though.
  - diffeomorphism 3y ago
    So? Dex works without any of that.
  - jeroenhd 3y ago
    Dex also works on tablets without a dock, of course. You can just attach a keyboard sleeve to the tablet to turn it into a laptop.
Gigachad 3y ago
The ipad is the perfect device for old people. You can't mess it up, it's extremely simple to use, has a long life span, etc. The users do not care that they can not host a webserver on it because it prevents their bank account being drained after they click the wrong advert.
- raincole 3y ago
  My father doesn't own a PC. He never used one in his whole life. To him, using his iPad is "using a computer". iPad solves exactly ONE single problem for him: no enough screen space on his phone.
  - iraqmtpizza 3y ago
    there is something inspiring about someone living boomerness to the theoretical maximum. people say young people can't get off their phones but man, boomers can't use anything else but their phones
- ytdytvhxgydvhh 3y ago
  That hit close to home because my father’s bank account was indeed drained after clicking the wrong ad on an iPad. But it did require the intermediate step of my father having to call the number in the ad to talk to “bank security”. Having fewer malware vectors is a big plus but one still needs to exercise caution.
  - Gigachad 3y ago
    At least that vector brings the scam in to the human understandable space. While silently installed malware stealing your session tokens in the background is completely transparent and beyond the comprehension of most people. "Call bank security and transfer your money to us" is at least detectable by the common person.
- PaulHoule 3y ago
  I know someone who lives in a trailer in the boonies whose only window on the internet is an Amazon Fire Tablet.
tmpX7dMeXU 3y ago
I remember when iPad came out, and I was younger and cared more for arguing online. This is one of the hills I time and time again chose to die on. The anti-Apple brigade was about at its most insufferable at that point in time. The ‘full Windows running on a tablet’ utopia has to this day neger eventuated to any mainstream degree. iPad as a larger iOS device was and is the right way forward. IPadOS’s inscrutable ‘power user’ features of late are purely a consequence of Apple setting the expectations for a continuous iteration schedule, and Apple as a company being a huge self-serving bureaucracy looking to make work for itself year after year.
- Robotbeat 3y ago
  Surface Pro has definitely materialized.
  - WWLink 3y ago
    Before I begin: I own a first gen Surface Pro and have never purchased an iPad lol. Now then, I think the problem with the Surface Pro was that it was perfect for that transitional period of time where the iPad made for a very awkward computer. Microsoft gave the Surface Pro USB ports, a slick magnetically attached keyboard, and the OS that let you run practically anything whether or not it made sense to do it on a tablet. Oh and you could draw on it! The original iPad did NONE OF THAT. However, the current iPad does have a slick magnetic keyboard, a usb-c port, and you can draw on it with the apple pencil. Plus I think there are many more apps developed for iOS than there are for Windows - especially involving tablet use cases. So I don't think the Surface Pro is really needed anymore. I'm not sure Microsoft is even interested in continuing to make them in the long run (but I may be wrong!) The other thing - I keep saying this: MS isn't interested in consumers. They just aren't. Their primary interest is selling Office 365, Azure 365, AD hosting, etc to businesses. Windows and almost every other product they make seems to get more love and attention in controlling the users/administering the users/giving sysadmins the keys to control their loyal servants... than anything else... It really shows in the way they produce their products.

fassssst 3y ago

I agree, I like the simplicity of it essentially being a big iPhone. I don’t want it to be like a Mac or do Mac stuff on it.

jeroenhd 3y ago

I think "iPad is a big iPod" worked great, but then they brought out the iPad Pro. That thing was supposed to be for Professionals doing Professional Work Things. After that came the iPad Mini, which is an iPad but smaller (so it's an iPod but bigger but smaller?). Weirdly enough, I don't think the iPad Pro is more than just the iPad but faster and bigger. There are tons of model-based software restrictions between the different models for what I assume are market segmentation reasons. Meanwhile, Samsung has had Dex for a few years now, and it works great. It's included on any midrange product and up and it feels like what you would expect from "what happens when I plug my phone/tablet into a USB C dock". Apple's reveal of their weird multitasking iPad interface was quite humorous to me. It just screams "don't try to do anything professional on here" compared to the existing solutions Samsung have provided for years. Too bad Qualcom/Samsung/Mediatek can't figure out how to compete with Apple. Dex on an iPad could replace many people's laptops and desktops and compete with Microsoft's Surface series.

makeitdouble 3y ago
The biggest issue with the iPad Pro is macos. It should either run macos, or get a compatibility layer that runs macos programs, but Apple's sitting on this fence for a decade neither pushing the mac to get touch, nor letting the iPad become desktop class. > Too bad Qualcom/Samsung/Mediatek can't figure out how to compete with Apple I'd argue Microsoft did, and they're at their 9th iteration of a decently good product. As do Dell, Huawei, ASUS and the other makers shipping windows tablets. They're definitely there on the "Pro" side. Samsung also pushed some pretty good devices on the Chromebook side, which I'd argue is a more direct competitor to iPad if it comes to elderly or kids in school where you need a more constrained and touch first experience.
- rtpg 3y ago
  I've said this in other places, but the biggest issue with the Surface lineup is that the Go line is ... just garbage performance wise, absolutely unusable in my experience (despite really really wanting to use it, and basically just using it for PDF annotations!). And the Pro line is good! But it has no 11-inch line and (importantly) it costs so much compared to iPads. If you are looking for a high-end tablet with some pen/pencil input, an iPad Pro 11 inch is the cheap option! It's kind of frustrating, because I think what's happening here is that the Surface Go line makes a lot of money, and a 11-inch-but-fast thing would probably be popular but have less juicy margins.
  - makeitdouble 3y ago
    I see the Surface Go line in the same position as the iPad mini. Some people love it but I think it's heavily polirazing. On the price, tbh I was only looking at the 13 inch line as that's the standard A4 size, but I get it's not ideal if portability is a priority. At 13 inch a 1000+ price is competitive with the iPad Pro, but for smaller size/prices the Huawei or Dell tablets could be a better value.
TheHappyOddish 3y ago
> Meanwhile, Samsung has had Dex for a few years now, and it works great. It's included on any midrange product and up and it feels like what you would expect from "what happens when I plug my phone/tablet into a USB C dock". It is a lot more convenent to carry an iPad with a magic keyboard than to carry a USB-C dock, keyboard and mouse though.
- diffeomorphism 3y ago
  So? Dex works without any of that.
- jeroenhd 3y ago
  Dex also works on tablets without a dock, of course. You can just attach a keyboard sleeve to the tablet to turn it into a laptop.

Gigachad 3y ago

The ipad is the perfect device for old people. You can't mess it up, it's extremely simple to use, has a long life span, etc. The users do not care that they can not host a webserver on it because it prevents their bank account being drained after they click the wrong advert.

raincole 3y ago
My father doesn't own a PC. He never used one in his whole life. To him, using his iPad is "using a computer". iPad solves exactly ONE single problem for him: no enough screen space on his phone.
- iraqmtpizza 3y ago
  there is something inspiring about someone living boomerness to the theoretical maximum. people say young people can't get off their phones but man, boomers can't use anything else but their phones
ytdytvhxgydvhh 3y ago
That hit close to home because my father’s bank account was indeed drained after clicking the wrong ad on an iPad. But it did require the intermediate step of my father having to call the number in the ad to talk to “bank security”. Having fewer malware vectors is a big plus but one still needs to exercise caution.
- Gigachad 3y ago
  At least that vector brings the scam in to the human understandable space. While silently installed malware stealing your session tokens in the background is completely transparent and beyond the comprehension of most people. "Call bank security and transfer your money to us" is at least detectable by the common person.
PaulHoule 3y ago
I know someone who lives in a trailer in the boonies whose only window on the internet is an Amazon Fire Tablet.

tmpX7dMeXU 3y ago

I remember when iPad came out, and I was younger and cared more for arguing online. This is one of the hills I time and time again chose to die on. The anti-Apple brigade was about at its most insufferable at that point in time. The ‘full Windows running on a tablet’ utopia has to this day neger eventuated to any mainstream degree. iPad as a larger iOS device was and is the right way forward. IPadOS’s inscrutable ‘power user’ features of late are purely a consequence of Apple setting the expectations for a continuous iteration schedule, and Apple as a company being a huge self-serving bureaucracy looking to make work for itself year after year.

Robotbeat 3y ago
Surface Pro has definitely materialized.
- WWLink 3y ago
  Before I begin: I own a first gen Surface Pro and have never purchased an iPad lol. Now then, I think the problem with the Surface Pro was that it was perfect for that transitional period of time where the iPad made for a very awkward computer. Microsoft gave the Surface Pro USB ports, a slick magnetically attached keyboard, and the OS that let you run practically anything whether or not it made sense to do it on a tablet. Oh and you could draw on it! The original iPad did NONE OF THAT. However, the current iPad does have a slick magnetic keyboard, a usb-c port, and you can draw on it with the apple pencil. Plus I think there are many more apps developed for iOS than there are for Windows - especially involving tablet use cases. So I don't think the Surface Pro is really needed anymore. I'm not sure Microsoft is even interested in continuing to make them in the long run (but I may be wrong!) The other thing - I keep saying this: MS isn't interested in consumers. They just aren't. Their primary interest is selling Office 365, Azure 365, AD hosting, etc to businesses. Windows and almost every other product they make seems to get more love and attention in controlling the users/administering the users/giving sysadmins the keys to control their loyal servants... than anything else... It really shows in the way they produce their products.