5 ms·

Sorry, iPads

36 points by HAARP 2y ago

lynx23 2y ago
[flagged]
- nottorp 2y ago
  The fucks are there because: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AvoidTheDreadedGRating https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AvoidTheDreadedG...
freetime2 2y ago
I’m on a VPN all day for work that doesn’t allow split tunneling (nothing on my local network is accessible when I’m on the VPN). Would an iPad work as a secondary display in this setup? Or does it require a local network connection? Edit: Looks like wireless requires network connectivity between the Mac and iPad. But USB presumably does not. https://support.apple.com/en-us/102597 https://support.apple.com/en-us/102597
- neilalexander 2y ago
  You can do it over USB but both devices need to be signed into the same iCloud account.
  - plussed_reader 2y ago
    And sidecar doesn't play well with federated setups and managed devices.
- dtx1 2y ago
  If you are on linux (and have sufficient admin rights) you can force the vpn into it's own network space and have other apps in a different one. Doesn't matter if the VPN tries to tunnel everything through itself.
- prmoustache 2y ago
  One option would be to run the vpn from a VM?
- dspillett 2y ago
  > I’m on a VPN all day for work that doesn’t allow split tunneling (nothing on my local network is accessible when I’m on the VPN). One workaround for that might be to run your work environment in a VM, then the VPN only controls the network routing inside that not the host machine. In my experience VPNs that “claim” all off-machine traffic don't block more local traffic, so you should still be able to remote to the VM (i.e. using RDC under Windows) from the host OS, and maybe use the remote client's clipboard and filesystem integration to transfer at least text (and maybe other data & files) over the virtual machine boundary.
makeitdouble 2y ago
I'm so envious sidecar works for him. For the time I tried it my success rate was around 3 times in 5 attempts. The macbook also wasn't strong on reconnecting to standard external displays (screen stayed black about 1 in 15~20 times), but sidecar was really hit or miss in comparison. And it requiring to be on the same Apple ID was less than ideal when the coupling is between a work machine and my personal iPad. TBF the Surface Pro is also not 100% working on the laptop -> surface pro setting, but it's more around once in 20 or 30 times, and there's no account setup to fret over. Overall this feels like an unsolved problem, and I kinda understand why lenovo would ship dual mode tablets that straight act as a display when needed, instead of trying to hack it in software.
- bajsejohannes 2y ago
  I also have mixed results with using the iPad as an external monitor. It works every time, but it's orders of magnitude more fiddly than an actual monitor. Exposing it as a monitor sounds like a much nicer interface, although I don't think Apple wants that, since it wouldn't work wirelessly.
- baby-yoda 2y ago
  > And it requiring to be on the same Apple ID was less than ideal... Similar experience, I tried to get Sidecar working a while ago via Lightning->USB cable. After realizing the Apple ID was a requirement I gave up. Bought an inexpensive 13" HiDPI portable display on Amazon, plugged it in and I've been happy ever since. Sure, its another device to bring around but its thin & light and a one cable solution. It just works...
varispeed 2y ago
Does this article have a point or am I missing something? Looks like it's incomplete.
- samuelec 2y ago
  an ad in disguise, I guess
- vijucat 2y ago
  It's perfect, actually. Its pithiness reflects the limitations of the walled garden in which the mind that conceived it lives. Normally, when you read "I fucked with the iPad. Hard", you'd think that at the least a soldering iron was involved. Maybe even wires, multimeters. Maybe hacking the boot process using gdb. Maybe an oscilloscope? That would be wow. No. When your range of expressivity is passive consumer to passive-aggressive consumer, you are reduced to a small essay that ends with the whimper, "Can't wait to see how I feel about iPads next week". The only qualification to be a repeat Apple consumer is the complete lack of self-awareness and this essay is beautiful in encapsulating the cheery vacuousness of the cult.
  - threeseed 2y ago
    > to be a repeat Apple consumer is the complete lack of self-awareness Well one day hopefully the 100s of millions of us will end up as enlightened as you.
  - varispeed 2y ago
    How did you gather that from this text? I don't see any substance in the article or is it not showing for me?
  - kcplate 2y ago
    > The only qualification to be a repeat Apple consumer is the complete lack of self-awareness and this essay is beautiful in encapsulating the cheery vacuousness of the cult. Thank you. This has opened my eyes to all of those unnecessary productivity gains I get from the apple ecosystem I use. I have become complacent and too dependent on all that extra time I have because my apple devices just work together. I now realize instead that I should be using all that free time trying to make a whole bunch of plastic crap (that will only work for a couple of years) from different manufacturers try and work together.
hengheng 2y ago
I've been using Spacedesk on Windows with two old Android tablets. They're Samsung Note 2014s, super cheap, old enough that YouTube has stopped working, but they're 10" at 2560x1600 with good color. With good wireless, the setup is reasonably performant, fast enough to move the mouse and type fluently. Certainly slower than USB monitors, but ideal to put some reading material on one screen (PDF or a browser window), and a text editor on the other while still using the main screen. I also use them in portrait orientation 10:16, which is nice. Cheapest and most portable triptych setup there is, I guess.
resource_waste 2y ago
"Apple could do something good with it, but since they aren't I turned mine into a monitor". Classic. I bought a monitor for $80, plugged it in and 'It just worked'. Here you have a hacker, watches one too many apple ads/marketing/astrotrufing doomscrooling, buys an ipad, and... makes a monitor out of it. I suppose that is the second best thing you can do after being manipulated. I would have just resold it.
- vijucat 2y ago
  It seems you were immediately downvoted (I see this comment at the bottom and in grey). The cult is strong on HN and cannot bear this kind of reality, Sir.
  - throwaway290 2y ago
    No, it's just that "I buy cheapest stuff and if you don't you must be stupid/gullible/..." is tired.
  - trust_bt_verify 2y ago
    Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.
  - matthewmacleod 2y ago
    It's just lazy, sub-Reddit, "iamverysmart" commentary that adds nothing useful to a conversations. Sometimes, it turns out that it's not the case that everybody who makes a choice other than the one you made is either an idiot or manipulated.
ciroduran 2y ago
One thing that discouraged me from tablets was how fast they went deprecated. I bought an iPad and a Samsung Galaxy Note around 2012. The Samsung Galaxy stopped having updates about 2 years after I bought it, and the iPad, although it still runs, it stopped receiving updates around iOS 9 and its only current use is as PDF viewer (not even Kindle works in it). A Lenovo Thinkpad I bought from that same year is still up and running and very useful whenever I need it.
- herrkanin 2y ago
  The software support for iPads have been excellent imo, especially compared to competition. If you bought an iPad in 2012, it should have received software updates until 2019, and all iPads since 2015 are still supported. In general I expect the first 2-3 generations of a new product line to have shorter support cycle before they have matured a bit, so it doesn't surprise me that your particular iPad model only got 7 years, but if you buy an iPad today I would be surprised if it got less than 10+ years of support. All that said, I think hardware companies should be forced to open up their hardware for booting alternative OSes once they are classified as EOL.
  - l72 2y ago
    I have an ipad air sitting in my drawer right now that I haven't been able to use in years. It stopped getting major updates and stayed on iOS 12. It continued to get bug fix updates for the next few years, but that isn't really helpful when all the apps stopped supporting iOS 12. No netflix, hulu, or HBO. I can't use it as a shopify terminal. Even if you are fine with an older version of these apps, these companies specifically disable their old apps, and make them stop working. So...my ipad, which still has great battery life, sits in a drawer, because no apps work on it anymore. And I get it, that isn't 100% apples fault, these companies and their developers are to blame too, but apple certainly encourages targeting the latest versions os iOS.
    - ghaff 2y ago
      The basic issue is that, say, 8 year old hardware is still pretty functional in a lot of cases but that’s probably near the support limit of even fairly long-term OS and app support. I’m mostly ok on a couple Macs because I really only use them as browsers anyway. But with iPads and iPhones they really become useless without updates after a while. I’ve been using an iPhone X as a spare phone for travel but it finally stopped charging and I see it’s out of support so not worth fixing.
cjk2 2y ago
I like mine because I can write on it. I do a lot of mathematics and it’s either dragging a pad of paper and pens or a whole computer that does a load of other stuff with me. So the computer wins. Also it’s the only thing that works on plane tables properly without being too big, at a stupid angle or utterly impossible.
- goosedragons 2y ago
  This is why I like my Surface, plus it will run R, full fat TeX and Emacs unlike the iPad. The iPad is a nice piece of kit but I was constantly running into walls.
  - cjk2 2y ago
    I just run R and TeX on my Mac where I have a 27" screen. I hate using portable devices for actual productivity work. iPad time is thinking time...
    - goosedragons 2y ago
      You just plug the Surface into the 27" screen. ;)
      - cjk2 2y ago
        I have a much heftier Mac than any surface :)
tyleo 2y ago
For Windows folks who want to use iPad as a second display, Luna Display is wonderful: https://astropad.com/product/lunadisplay/ https://astropad.com/product/lunadisplay/ I bought an iPad to use as a secondary portable Windows display and got a lot of mileage out of it. Though I honestly get even more mileage as a device for taking video calls. That being said I agree with claims that the M4 is overpowered for my use. I was sold on more on the ‘just works’ nature of it, lightness, and screen size/quality. I just upgraded to an M4 entirely for that beautiful OLED.
- amelius 2y ago
  > Luna Display is wonderful Why should I pay $X per year just to have a second display? I want a product, not a service.
  - tyleo 2y ago
    It is a product with a one time cost. Not sure what you mean.
    - amelius 2y ago
      You are right. I clicked on "Studio", which is a service for turning your ipad into a drawing tablet.
      - tyleo 2y ago
        I appreciate you taking a second look. Thank you!
poulpy123 2y ago
I have an old android tablet. It's good for media consumption. I'm using it for comic books and pdf (epub also but ereaders are better for that). I could use it for video too, but I don't watch video too often and either use my phone if the size screen don't matter or my computer if it matter.
BaculumMeumEst 2y ago
I would love to target iOS with all kinds of hobby software, but actually developing on that platform is such a fucking miserable experience that I avoid it at all costs. I really cannot emphasize enough how unpleasant it is to deal with limited number of installs, expiring apps, and the lack of support for OpenGL. The people calling the shots over there are truly unrepentant assholes.

Sorry, iPads

36 points by HAARP 2y ago

lynx23 2y ago

[flagged]

nottorp 2y ago
The fucks are there because: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AvoidTheDreadedGRating https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AvoidTheDreadedG...

freetime2 2y ago

I’m on a VPN all day for work that doesn’t allow split tunneling (nothing on my local network is accessible when I’m on the VPN). Would an iPad work as a secondary display in this setup? Or does it require a local network connection? Edit: Looks like wireless requires network connectivity between the Mac and iPad. But USB presumably does not. https://support.apple.com/en-us/102597 https://support.apple.com/en-us/102597

neilalexander 2y ago
You can do it over USB but both devices need to be signed into the same iCloud account.
- plussed_reader 2y ago
  And sidecar doesn't play well with federated setups and managed devices.
dtx1 2y ago
If you are on linux (and have sufficient admin rights) you can force the vpn into it's own network space and have other apps in a different one. Doesn't matter if the VPN tries to tunnel everything through itself.
prmoustache 2y ago
One option would be to run the vpn from a VM?
dspillett 2y ago
> I’m on a VPN all day for work that doesn’t allow split tunneling (nothing on my local network is accessible when I’m on the VPN). One workaround for that might be to run your work environment in a VM, then the VPN only controls the network routing inside that not the host machine. In my experience VPNs that “claim” all off-machine traffic don't block more local traffic, so you should still be able to remote to the VM (i.e. using RDC under Windows) from the host OS, and maybe use the remote client's clipboard and filesystem integration to transfer at least text (and maybe other data & files) over the virtual machine boundary.

makeitdouble 2y ago

I'm so envious sidecar works for him. For the time I tried it my success rate was around 3 times in 5 attempts. The macbook also wasn't strong on reconnecting to standard external displays (screen stayed black about 1 in 15~20 times), but sidecar was really hit or miss in comparison. And it requiring to be on the same Apple ID was less than ideal when the coupling is between a work machine and my personal iPad. TBF the Surface Pro is also not 100% working on the laptop -> surface pro setting, but it's more around once in 20 or 30 times, and there's no account setup to fret over. Overall this feels like an unsolved problem, and I kinda understand why lenovo would ship dual mode tablets that straight act as a display when needed, instead of trying to hack it in software.

bajsejohannes 2y ago
I also have mixed results with using the iPad as an external monitor. It works every time, but it's orders of magnitude more fiddly than an actual monitor. Exposing it as a monitor sounds like a much nicer interface, although I don't think Apple wants that, since it wouldn't work wirelessly.
baby-yoda 2y ago
> And it requiring to be on the same Apple ID was less than ideal... Similar experience, I tried to get Sidecar working a while ago via Lightning->USB cable. After realizing the Apple ID was a requirement I gave up. Bought an inexpensive 13" HiDPI portable display on Amazon, plugged it in and I've been happy ever since. Sure, its another device to bring around but its thin & light and a one cable solution. It just works...

varispeed 2y ago

Does this article have a point or am I missing something? Looks like it's incomplete.

samuelec 2y ago
an ad in disguise, I guess
vijucat 2y ago
It's perfect, actually. Its pithiness reflects the limitations of the walled garden in which the mind that conceived it lives. Normally, when you read "I fucked with the iPad. Hard", you'd think that at the least a soldering iron was involved. Maybe even wires, multimeters. Maybe hacking the boot process using gdb. Maybe an oscilloscope? That would be wow. No. When your range of expressivity is passive consumer to passive-aggressive consumer, you are reduced to a small essay that ends with the whimper, "Can't wait to see how I feel about iPads next week". The only qualification to be a repeat Apple consumer is the complete lack of self-awareness and this essay is beautiful in encapsulating the cheery vacuousness of the cult.
- threeseed 2y ago
  > to be a repeat Apple consumer is the complete lack of self-awareness Well one day hopefully the 100s of millions of us will end up as enlightened as you.
- varispeed 2y ago
  How did you gather that from this text? I don't see any substance in the article or is it not showing for me?
- kcplate 2y ago
  > The only qualification to be a repeat Apple consumer is the complete lack of self-awareness and this essay is beautiful in encapsulating the cheery vacuousness of the cult. Thank you. This has opened my eyes to all of those unnecessary productivity gains I get from the apple ecosystem I use. I have become complacent and too dependent on all that extra time I have because my apple devices just work together. I now realize instead that I should be using all that free time trying to make a whole bunch of plastic crap (that will only work for a couple of years) from different manufacturers try and work together.

hengheng 2y ago

I've been using Spacedesk on Windows with two old Android tablets. They're Samsung Note 2014s, super cheap, old enough that YouTube has stopped working, but they're 10" at 2560x1600 with good color. With good wireless, the setup is reasonably performant, fast enough to move the mouse and type fluently. Certainly slower than USB monitors, but ideal to put some reading material on one screen (PDF or a browser window), and a text editor on the other while still using the main screen. I also use them in portrait orientation 10:16, which is nice. Cheapest and most portable triptych setup there is, I guess.

resource_waste 2y ago

"Apple could do something good with it, but since they aren't I turned mine into a monitor". Classic. I bought a monitor for $80, plugged it in and 'It just worked'. Here you have a hacker, watches one too many apple ads/marketing/astrotrufing doomscrooling, buys an ipad, and... makes a monitor out of it. I suppose that is the second best thing you can do after being manipulated. I would have just resold it.

vijucat 2y ago
It seems you were immediately downvoted (I see this comment at the bottom and in grey). The cult is strong on HN and cannot bear this kind of reality, Sir.
- throwaway290 2y ago
  No, it's just that "I buy cheapest stuff and if you don't you must be stupid/gullible/..." is tired.
- trust_bt_verify 2y ago
  Please don't comment about the voting on comments. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.
- matthewmacleod 2y ago
  It's just lazy, sub-Reddit, "iamverysmart" commentary that adds nothing useful to a conversations. Sometimes, it turns out that it's not the case that everybody who makes a choice other than the one you made is either an idiot or manipulated.

ciroduran 2y ago

One thing that discouraged me from tablets was how fast they went deprecated. I bought an iPad and a Samsung Galaxy Note around 2012. The Samsung Galaxy stopped having updates about 2 years after I bought it, and the iPad, although it still runs, it stopped receiving updates around iOS 9 and its only current use is as PDF viewer (not even Kindle works in it). A Lenovo Thinkpad I bought from that same year is still up and running and very useful whenever I need it.

herrkanin 2y ago
The software support for iPads have been excellent imo, especially compared to competition. If you bought an iPad in 2012, it should have received software updates until 2019, and all iPads since 2015 are still supported. In general I expect the first 2-3 generations of a new product line to have shorter support cycle before they have matured a bit, so it doesn't surprise me that your particular iPad model only got 7 years, but if you buy an iPad today I would be surprised if it got less than 10+ years of support. All that said, I think hardware companies should be forced to open up their hardware for booting alternative OSes once they are classified as EOL.
- l72 2y ago
  I have an ipad air sitting in my drawer right now that I haven't been able to use in years. It stopped getting major updates and stayed on iOS 12. It continued to get bug fix updates for the next few years, but that isn't really helpful when all the apps stopped supporting iOS 12. No netflix, hulu, or HBO. I can't use it as a shopify terminal. Even if you are fine with an older version of these apps, these companies specifically disable their old apps, and make them stop working. So...my ipad, which still has great battery life, sits in a drawer, because no apps work on it anymore. And I get it, that isn't 100% apples fault, these companies and their developers are to blame too, but apple certainly encourages targeting the latest versions os iOS.
  - ghaff 2y ago
    The basic issue is that, say, 8 year old hardware is still pretty functional in a lot of cases but that’s probably near the support limit of even fairly long-term OS and app support. I’m mostly ok on a couple Macs because I really only use them as browsers anyway. But with iPads and iPhones they really become useless without updates after a while. I’ve been using an iPhone X as a spare phone for travel but it finally stopped charging and I see it’s out of support so not worth fixing.

cjk2 2y ago

I like mine because I can write on it. I do a lot of mathematics and it’s either dragging a pad of paper and pens or a whole computer that does a load of other stuff with me. So the computer wins. Also it’s the only thing that works on plane tables properly without being too big, at a stupid angle or utterly impossible.

goosedragons 2y ago
This is why I like my Surface, plus it will run R, full fat TeX and Emacs unlike the iPad. The iPad is a nice piece of kit but I was constantly running into walls.
- cjk2 2y ago
  I just run R and TeX on my Mac where I have a 27" screen. I hate using portable devices for actual productivity work. iPad time is thinking time...
  - goosedragons 2y ago
    You just plug the Surface into the 27" screen. ;)
    - cjk2 2y ago
      I have a much heftier Mac than any surface :)

tyleo 2y ago

For Windows folks who want to use iPad as a second display, Luna Display is wonderful: https://astropad.com/product/lunadisplay/ https://astropad.com/product/lunadisplay/ I bought an iPad to use as a secondary portable Windows display and got a lot of mileage out of it. Though I honestly get even more mileage as a device for taking video calls. That being said I agree with claims that the M4 is overpowered for my use. I was sold on more on the ‘just works’ nature of it, lightness, and screen size/quality. I just upgraded to an M4 entirely for that beautiful OLED.

amelius 2y ago
> Luna Display is wonderful Why should I pay $X per year just to have a second display? I want a product, not a service.
- tyleo 2y ago
  It is a product with a one time cost. Not sure what you mean.
  - amelius 2y ago
    You are right. I clicked on "Studio", which is a service for turning your ipad into a drawing tablet.
    - tyleo 2y ago
      I appreciate you taking a second look. Thank you!

poulpy123 2y ago

I have an old android tablet. It's good for media consumption. I'm using it for comic books and pdf (epub also but ereaders are better for that). I could use it for video too, but I don't watch video too often and either use my phone if the size screen don't matter or my computer if it matter.

BaculumMeumEst 2y ago

I would love to target iOS with all kinds of hobby software, but actually developing on that platform is such a fucking miserable experience that I avoid it at all costs. I really cannot emphasize enough how unpleasant it is to deal with limited number of installs, expiring apps, and the lack of support for OpenGL. The people calling the shots over there are truly unrepentant assholes.