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MacPad: I created the hybrid Mac-iPad laptop and tablet that Apple won't make
- tuananh 3y agoThis just show that the iPad OS is severely under developed. They got the M* chip but all we can do is just checking emails & watching youtube
- criddell 3y agoYou should check out Procreate. For me, it alone is enough reason to get an iPad.
- falcolas 3y agoProcreate is pretty cool. But my own dream is being able to run Procreate and Photoshop (gimp too, since why not) on the same device.
- megraf 3y agoCan't you run UTM (QEMU) on these devices? You should be able to run anything you want
- citrusybread 3y agocan't on latest ipad os, at least not without a jailbreak first? at least as far as I can tell, from UTM's own documentation. wish it was a developer option at least.
- _mlbt 3y agohttps://getutm.app/faq/#does-this-require-a-jailbreak https://getutm.app/faq/#does-this-require-a-jailbreak You can side load it using a developer account without jailbreaking.
- citrusybread 3y ago>If you are running iOS 14.0, 14.1, 14.4, or higher: UTM works if you are jailbroken or semi-tethered with Jitterbug, AltJIT, or Jitstreamer. “Semi-tethered” means either tethered to a Mac/PC, to another iOS device with Wifi sharing, or to itself (one iOS device running both Jitterbug/AltJIT and UTM) through a on-device VPN profile. Seems like with iOS 14+, and as of writing it seems like we're on iOS 17, it needs to be jailbroken? Do Jitterbug, Jitstreamer, AltJIT, work for developer accounts?
- _mlbt 3y agoLooks like you're right. I'm not sure aboutJitterbug, Jitstreamer, or AltJIT.
- CharlesW 3y ago> Procreate is pretty cool. But my own dream is being able to run Procreate and Photoshop (gimp too, since why not) on the same device. Adobe shipped Photoshop for iPad in 2019: https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/ipad.html https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop/ipad.html GIMP for iPad: https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/xgimp-image-editor-paint-tool/id1071231711 https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/xgimp-image-editor-paint-tool/...
- bugglebeetle 3y agoPhotoshop for iPad shipped in 2019 and still to this day is half-baked garbage that you can’t do anything productive with. Photopea is more useful on the iPad and it’s a web app.
- CharlesW 3y agoSure, there's a lot of great choices for professional photo editing — Affinity Photo, Adobe Lightroom, Darkroom, Pixelmator Photo, etc. I just wanted to make @falcolas's specific dream come true.
- rchaud 3y agoAny device you cannot program yourself is a toy. Apple understands this, hence the pivot to entertainment rental services like Apple TV, Apple News, Apple Music etc.
- _mlbt 3y agoDespite the name, Swift Playgrounds is surprisingly capable. It is much more than just a child's play thing and learning tool. I use it all the time to prototype ideas or whip up quick programs to solve an immediate problem when I'm away from my Mac. It even supports submitting SwiftUI apps to the App Store (with some limitations of course).
- Razengan 3y ago> Any device you cannot program yourself is a toy. That has to be one of the dumbest of dumb takes. A car is a toy. A fridge is a toy. A spaceship is a toy. (Hint: Those are all controlled by predefined knobs and bits and not ""programmable"" by the user. If your argument is that you can rip open a car and do whatever you want with it, well, nothing's really stopping you from doing the same to an iPad or iPadOS, if you can figure out how to do it.)
- Zetobal 3y agoEven some toys are toys.
- vundercind 3y agoIt's a common POV on this site and I don't get it at all. All I can figure is there are a bunch of folks who think the only useful thing you can do with computers is make software for computers, so if a computer's anything less than excellent for that specific purpose, it's just a toy. Meanwhile everything important in my actual life that involves a computer takes place on my phone (an iPhone, the greatest bogey-man for that crowd, as far as I can tell) or on some purpose-specific device of one sort or another. Zero percent of it happens on a "real" computer—their role in my personal life is entirely toy-like.
- vundercind 3y agoTL;DR: Removed monitor from a MacBook, made a mount for a removable iPad in sidecar mode to act as its monitor instead. It's not really what I was expecting. The appeal seems to be if you hate having an attached monitor for some reason. You can do the same thing without removing the monitor, and then you have two monitors.
- PodgieTar 3y agoI think he decapitated it for his Vision Pro, so that he could lap the Mouse/Keyboard better. I think it is crazy to decapitate a 2-3k+ laptop to make it an accessory for a 3.5k VR headset.
- EricE 3y agoHad instant flashbacks to the Outbound (number 4 on their list) https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/mac-conversions/ https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/mac-conversions/
- jacknews 3y ago"I’d accidentally create the hybrid Apple computer of my dreams." And of other people's nightmares. A macbook and an ipad frankensteined together into an actual laptop? Sorry, it's a good hack and all, but definitely not for me. An ipad that's actually internally a macbook, running the full unix-like system, to which you can attach a keyboard of your choice, is more likely what people have in mind as the solution here. use it like an ipad when you just want to read, then stick it on the keyboard dock to do work. Actually let's make it an ipad that's actually a thinkpad or framework; something less coercive than apple or microsoft.
- jclardy 3y agoHonestly I'd just want an iPad as it is today + a built in, sandboxed VM running macOS. So I can run macOS apps when needed (Basically Xcode/terminal/slack for me) and for everything else, I'd use iPadOS. Plug it into a monitor/keyboard and it just runs the macOS VM.
- walterbell 3y agoHopefully we get that later this month with: • iPad Pro M3 + OLED display • Aluminum Magic Keyboard • vMacOS
- j45 3y agoThis reminds me that a Microsoft surface like device running macOS is a dream state. It was a different time back when the 12” MacBook was tested against the iPad+keyboard. Apple like other manufacturers wants you to own more devices, not less of theirs, which is why they probably won’t do this.
- satvikpendem 3y agoI just want a Windows Surface-like device that runs iPadOS when detached from its keyboard (as the current iPad is now with its keyboard case) and when attached, it runs macOS. Is that so difficult? But of course, why sell you only one device when Apple can sell two?
- s3r3nity 3y agoYou could get an iPad Pro (or even a regular iPad) and remote into a cloud Mac. If people wanted what you described, then Surfaces would be skyrocketing. However it looks like according to MSFT that Surface sales are sinking, which might explain why the previous head has left Microsoft: https://www.zdnet.com/article/can-microsoft-recover-from-the-collapse-of-its-surface-business/ https://www.zdnet.com/article/can-microsoft-recover-from-the...
- idontpost 3y agoI switched from a Surface Book to a Macbook Pro + Ipad Pro combo. I preferred the Surface Book from a device ergonomics perspective -- but I finally got sick of trying to do dev work on Windows. So I paid 2x as much for the same functionality instead. And that's why Apple won't make that form factor.
- satvikpendem 3y agoExactly. I also used to have a Surface (both the regular one and a Book 3) but the smaller screen of the former and the higher cost and weight, and lower performance, of the latter made me buy a MacBook. The form factor appeal is there for the Surface, it's just death by a thousand cuts in terms of their other problems. I never had an issue with Windows development however, as I generally used WSL 2.
- seec 3y agoYes, that's basically it. Microsoft had the right idea they were just too early on it and cannot put as much money into it as Apple does. And they don't have a competitive enough chip to choose from their partners. If either Intel or AMD gets there, Apple will get some much-needed competition.
- iddan 3y agoI remember sketching such a device 10 years ago as a young Apple fan-boy. Love this!
- ChrisLTD 3y agoFor most folks I imagine there's little value in having the iPad around with its' own OS and apps to manage if you've got the Mac right there.
- drivingmenuts 3y agoThey don't need to create it - they have the iPad with a detachable keyboard. What you've created is an unnecessary duplication of effort and an incredible expense for any user who would try to buy it, if it existed.
- yreg 3y agoiPad doesnt run macOS
- cloudengineer94 3y agoI use the iPad Pro with a keyboard and Remote Desktop to my Mac or my server at home. Works good enough...
- pjot 3y agoSame. Connecting a Bluetooth mouse works great too.
- baerrie 3y agoThe real take away is that apple should sell a keyboard and trackpad combo that is laid out like a macbook body, not that they should make a hybrid device
- nerdjon 3y agoThe Magic Keyboard is similar to a MacBook setup. Not 100% but it's very close. https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MJQJ3LL/A/magic-keyboard-for-ipad-pro-11-inch-4th-generation-and-ipad-air-5th-generation-us-english-white https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MJQJ3LL/A/magic-keyboard-...
- dpcx 3y agoMany of those buttons look like they'd be horrible to actually use. They give you same sized arrow keys, but tiny tilde/right brace/slash? I can see I wouldn't be doing much development on it.
- nerdjon 3y agoIt is interesting the choices they made, I just grabbed my partners Magic Keyboard to compare to my 16" MacBook Pro. Most of the space difference seems to come to the smaller space bar. Tab, caps, and shift on left and delete, return, and shift on right. And the brackets, plus, and minus. Other than that, the actual letters seem identical.
- baerrie 3y agoOne thing i imagine is missing is the weight aspect. The weightiness of a macbook pro makes a solid typing experience that is missing from a lot of laptops and keyboards
- LorenDB 3y agoOf course, if Apple made a 2-in-1 laptop (like e.g. my Lenovo X1 Yoga), you could theoretically just flip the screen out of the way.
- prmoustache 3y agoFor the keyboard + trackpad maybe, although you would be likely damaging the screen in the long run. I also have a lenovo yoga and it spends very little time flipped. It is just too heavy to be used as a tablet regardless of the UI (gnome3 works quite well for that.
- jaxn 3y agoSo, a modern Apple IIe? I used a Comodore 64 plugged into a black and white TV as a kid. This would be the same kind of thing. Sure, an iPad could be the monitor, but so could your TV, or an actual monitor. A computer with storage and input device as a single unit, but without a monitor. That is quite different from an iPad with detachable keyboard, or even a Microsoft Surface Book (which had auxiliary computing in the keyboard / base, but the CPU and storage was with the display. I like it. Seems like a great idea to me.
- nerdjon 3y agoI have long been torn on the idea of touch screen on a Mac. I feel like by now Windows should have shown us that the different ways in controlling the OS leads to problems and just doesn't mesh well. You end up with buttons that are way to large to allow for finger taps that make no sense with a mouse, so a lot of wasted space. Forcing stupid gestures and UI animations that make zero sense with a keyboard and mouse. And of course, the fact that you have legacy applications that will never be updated to fully support it (and likely even new ones) and the experience will never be great. A single device that is meant to be fully usable with a k/m and touch screen is always going to be a compromise for one (or both) setups. At least iPad OS while you can attach a k/m (with decent results if really not how it was designed to be used) the OS is clearly touch first. I doubt we are ever going to truly see an OS that can handle both with the respect that each input method deserves. The only way I really see that possible is if the OS forces every application to use built in libraries for navigation, buttons, etc (and I mean force!, like it would not run if you don't use it) and the OS then shifts between the 2. But even then you could not naturally switch between, oh I am typing but let me just press this button on the screen because the OS would be on a specific mode. Its easy to say that Apple just wants to sell us another device, but let's not forget that Microsoft tried and failed... horribly... And we still see the problems with this idea in Windows 11.
- jwells89 3y agoI’m not sold on the idea of touch on laptops either, particularly since it often comes with compromises that make the display worse at its traditional job — large touch-sensitive screens are typically glossy and have some of the worst antiglare coating I’ve ever encountered, to which the iPad is not exempt (treating glass to be both oleophobic and antiglare must be cost prohibitive beyond smartphone sizes or something), as well as visible touch sensitive wire matrices which is commonly seen on touchscreen PC laptops. I think the idea would be better implemented by a second screen on a swiveling laptop lid. This allows the user to signal to the OS to toggle touch specializations by way of closing or swiveling the lid and lets the main display remain a great no-compromises traditional laptop display.
- forgotmypw17 3y agoI've been using a laptop/tablet with Windows 11 and touchscreen for a while now. It has many problems and is so janky and is really annoying sometimes and it's also so much better than being without it.
- Jun8 3y agoI've got the admit, this looks a bir ridiculous. However, if Apple had a MAcBook shell (keyboard+screen+battery) that, in place of the trackpad you can snap in your iPhone, it would be awesome. For the life of me I don't understand why somebody does not create such a phone-turns-into-laptop thing (it was tried by Motorola some years ago but never caught on).
- jwells89 3y agoSamsung phones have a feature like this (DeX I think it’s called?) but it’s a bit kneecapped by the selection of apps available for Android. It’d be more useful if when plugged into dock, a Linux desktop with GNOME or KDE or something is what appears.
- IggleSniggle 3y agoSteam Deck does this. It's a touch screen + joystick (btw I love the double-trackpad onscreen keyboard, better even than using the touch screen), that becomes a KDE desktop when docked. Well, sort of. Under normal operation it requires a (fast) system reset to switch between desktop and "handheld" modes. However, you can open Big Picture (the handheld mode) from desktop mode, it's just not as gaming-focused when you do it this way. Anyway, I would install SteamOS on a tablet form-factor in a heartbeat if I was looking for this experience.
- jwells89 3y agoYep, I have a Deck and think it’s a cool feature, though not one that I’ve personally gotten a lot of use out of yet. It’s mainly been nice for getting a keyboard and mouse to do more involved emulator setup with. A Linux tablet with hardware that doesn’t suck would be pretty interesting, especially if the manufacturer integrated Waydroid as well as WINE/Proton is on SteamOS.
- vundercind 3y agoThe Steam Deck is real janky in desktop mode. Way more so than I was expecting. Any time I have to switch over to it, I sigh and grit my teeth as I prepare for a bad time. Killed my highest hopes for the device dead ("hm, maybe this could double as a light-duty Linux workstation?")
- moolcool 3y agoDoes anyone else remember the Modbook from the early 2010s? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modbook https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modbook
- jwells89 3y agoOne of my college classmates toted one of the lower end versions made from a white polycarbonate Macbook around. Worked surprisingly well for what it was but its stylus was a must, it would’ve been disastrous if it had tried to take a finger-based approach.
- rzzzt 3y agoA Wacom tablet went in that one. I don't think they were sensitive to fingers back then.
- modzu 3y agois this supposed to be taken seriously? they are using a laptop with apple vision and thought the screen is wasting space so they took it out. but wait, sometimes they do want a screen, so lets pop in an ipad? what in the hell? bet this kid has an iphone for each pocket. if only we all had this kind of spare time and nothing better to waste money on
- jijijijij 3y agoThis setup has been done before with the Mac Mini, which makes more sense to me... Or you know, just ssh into some server. In any case, these "iPad as Screen hacks" still do not address the main issue at hand: Hardware-wise, you simply don't need the (Macbook Air) laptop, at all. The laptop form is technically obsolete for most users, since Apple Silicone chips are very similar in Air and iPad. The iPad offers more than enough processing power, while having additional capabilities. Breaking this stupid redundancy and better ergonomics are the things Apple won't make for the sake of completely artificial market segmentation. Probably to keep up supply to the golden iOS Appstore prison and consequent double spending on not just hardware, but software, too. Honestly, every time Apple tries to green-wash their business, you shall remember how they keep the demand for a whole device line up artificially - and its unnecessary production impact on the planet. Dear Apple, who cares about your headquarter's solar panels, or aluminium recycling rate, when you could simply give people a unix shell on the iPad, with a much, much better environmental impact? Yeah... Side note: Fool me once... the iPad-paperweight experience is the sole reason I would never, never ever even consider getting into their AR/VR ecosystem. Specs my ass, shell or GTFO. Stallman really do be right.
- grow2grow 3y agoOne could argue that the iPad is the reinvention we don't need. Here's my loadout: iPad Air 5 (big box sale), Pencil 2 (post xmas open-box sale, you bet), Zagg Rugged Book (eBay). M2 MBP (refurbished), 2020 MacBook Air Intel (big box open box with dents in it, runs Windows 10 on the metal). I also have an iPhone. The iPad is for daily driving human citizen stuff: bank stuff, buying stuff, selling stuff, talking to people, paying bills, reading the news. I'm typing on it now. It is so easy taking screen shots of bills, using the pencil to mark them up, and then showing these insights to people via email. If you hacked into it, you could take over my life! iPadOS is generally considered secure, so I generally consider this device a luxury. The MBP is for development and if you hacked into it, you could just see what I'm working on. I guess you could make a mess of my GitHub, oh no. Nothing personal on there though. You could probably guess the root password, but it's still iCloud locked. This thing is the money maker and is not a luxury. What about my third windows laptop I lug around? You are correct, they make you need to have various hardwares to run all their different softwares. Again it's a luxury: I have it for the "need" to use "real" office. I also have a fourth: a Chromebook with several paid Android apps on it, other Google Play movies I bought, and I do not own any other Android devices. This thing sits on the shelf most of the time, but I felt the need to have it so I could use the Google software. Maybe if I felt the need to install Linux on bare metal, it would go on this thing, it has an i5. Luxury. There's probably a way to compress all my software activities down into the singleton MBP, without losing much security. But, I've already been burned by having all aspects of my daily life in one place. This is how I could live without luxury. If we want to bark up the "they're screwing us over" tree, then, it's nonsense that we need to buy all these different hardwares to run all these different softwares: because that is the REAL LUXURY. If we care about minimizing the number of devices I'll buy per (5) year(s), then we need to "make them" allow us to run any software on any hardware. TL;DR: I like my iPad, but if we lived in the EU, then they'd sue Apple to let me run Windows on it. Otherwise I'm forced to live a luxurious lifestyle of many devices.
- tomrod 3y agoI wonder if you could use this to use old pads as a beowolf-like cluster. That'd be neat and perhaps prevent some ewaste.
- tiffanyh 3y ago11" MacBook Air or 12" MacBook Isn't this effectively what the 11" MBA or 12" MB was? Whereas today, there is no macOS device with a built-in screen smaller than 13".
- mouse_ 3y agoYou can run modern macOS on the thinkpad x1 tablet gen3. Might be more practical than what OP has.
- changadera 3y agoRich people problems. My keyboard for my $3500 AR headset isn't good enough so I connected some more expensive hardware to use as peripherals.