4 ms·

I have two iPads Pros. I still can't figure out where I can use them. I realize that they are overpowered entertainment devices for me now.

by nkotov 2y ago

SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago
I see visual artists and musicians having some decent use cases for them. Everyone I know who has an iPad that isn’t one of these professions is usually using it as an expensive portable streaming device
- widforss 2y ago
  I think pastors and politicians have quite some use of them as well.
  - fragmede 2y ago
    Or anybody that stands a lot without a desk handy, that doesn't want to use https://a.co/d/aqI3SvI https://a.co/d/aqI3SvI and try type into a laptop.
- pessimizer 2y ago
  [dead]
_mlbt 2y ago
I use mine all the time for taking notes, keeping up with my calendar, and just for staying organized in general. The Apple Pencil is so smooth and natural.
anon7000 2y ago
They are solid for audio production too, with a lot of fairly powerful DAWs. (Like AUM or Loopy Pro.) you can even connect MIDI instruments from other apps into the DAW and then play them with a connected midi controller, add USB audio interfaces for multitrack recording and live performances, etc. Or it can be a glorified PDF reader for sheet music (with a nice pencil to boot)… and it’s also great for drawing. They’re very powerful devices. Sure, iOS is limited, with poor multitasking workflows. But you can still write very powerful apps for iOS.
pjmlp 2y ago
My Samsung tablet replaced my dead netbook, it is perfectly fine for the occasional computing needs I had during travel, that I originally bought the netbook for. I get to watch hardware accelerated videos, that the Linux distros on the netbook never managed to after Flash was gone never managed to get VAPI working. I get to play games, designed for Android, without needing to translate Windows/DirectX on the go, because studios can't be bothered to port Android/NDK into GNU/Linux. I get to read ebooks and take notes with the pen. The detachable keyboard is good enough for short sessions of writing documents, sheets, travel planing, playing with shader code, python and C# development snippets on the go.
- hsbauauvhabzb 2y ago
  Care to share your preferred e book reader application that supports notes?
  - pjmlp 2y ago
    My ebook reader app is Moon+ Reader. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flyersoft.moonreader&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flyersoft.... You misunderstood the notes part, it is in general, not tied to ebooks. I use mostly Google Keep.
    - hsbauauvhabzb 2y ago
      Ah thanks anyway! I’d be after a pdf note taker that allows me to scribble on pages then later review scribbles :)
kcplate 2y ago
I am an avid iPad Pro user (on #3) but it took me making a concerted effort to unlearn over three decades of my understanding of what a computer is to me, my old standby app favorites, and to be willing to force myself to use the new instead of leaning on the comfortable old. Prior to that I’ll admit that it was an entertainment device. Now it can basically serve all of my computing needs. What caused me to make the switch is the portability, battery, immediacy, and cellular option. For me it provides the utility of a smartphone and laptop, but with a better form factor I hated it at first but its use quickly became second nature. Caveat here is I no longer write code or require total configurability into the bowels of the machine…and to date, for me, I haven’t found a computing task that I need or want to do that it cannot handle.
- futuraperdita 2y ago
  I bought the iPad Pro 11 (M4) on its release day and did the same thing you did: throwing out what I knew to adjust to new paradigms. I regret its purchase. It is still fundamentally a device that cannot handle code-based workflows, although it's OK for some media creation. For software development, the canonical advice consists of excuses that rely on a "Pro" device to be a thin client. Remoting out to a workstation somewhere else defeats the purpose of having an M4 in the tablet itself. I can't even run a VM with native virtualization. A Chromebook with Crostini offers more functionality in this regard. You are also a consumer in another way: iOS revenue models are optimized for rent-seeking, whereas that is only partially true for macOS - even for Apple itself. As an example, I use Logic on the Mac and I pay for it once - Logic for iPad is subscription based. I don't hate the idea of the iPad overall - I have an iPad mini I use to read and mark up papers, and it's great for that.
  - gessha 2y ago
    Yeah, I have a 2018 12.9 model and I haven’t really felt the need to upgrade. The tablet still feels snappy and all I do is draw, and markup papers. I tried programming on it but without a shell and proper file system API, what can you even do?
  - kcplate 2y ago
gjm11 2y ago
To buy one device that one can't figure out any use for may be regarded as a misfortune. To buy two looks like carelessness. -- Lady Bracknell

I have two iPads Pros. I still can't figure out where I can use them. I realize that they are overpowered entertainment devices for me now.

by nkotov 2y ago

I have two iPads Pros. I still can't figure out where I can use them. I realize that they are overpowered entertainment devices for me now.

SOLAR_FIELDS 2y ago

I see visual artists and musicians having some decent use cases for them. Everyone I know who has an iPad that isn’t one of these professions is usually using it as an expensive portable streaming device

widforss 2y ago
I think pastors and politicians have quite some use of them as well.
- fragmede 2y ago
  Or anybody that stands a lot without a desk handy, that doesn't want to use https://a.co/d/aqI3SvI https://a.co/d/aqI3SvI and try type into a laptop.
pessimizer 2y ago
[dead]

_mlbt 2y ago

I use mine all the time for taking notes, keeping up with my calendar, and just for staying organized in general. The Apple Pencil is so smooth and natural.

anon7000 2y ago

They are solid for audio production too, with a lot of fairly powerful DAWs. (Like AUM or Loopy Pro.) you can even connect MIDI instruments from other apps into the DAW and then play them with a connected midi controller, add USB audio interfaces for multitrack recording and live performances, etc. Or it can be a glorified PDF reader for sheet music (with a nice pencil to boot)… and it’s also great for drawing. They’re very powerful devices. Sure, iOS is limited, with poor multitasking workflows. But you can still write very powerful apps for iOS.

pjmlp 2y ago

My Samsung tablet replaced my dead netbook, it is perfectly fine for the occasional computing needs I had during travel, that I originally bought the netbook for. I get to watch hardware accelerated videos, that the Linux distros on the netbook never managed to after Flash was gone never managed to get VAPI working. I get to play games, designed for Android, without needing to translate Windows/DirectX on the go, because studios can't be bothered to port Android/NDK into GNU/Linux. I get to read ebooks and take notes with the pen. The detachable keyboard is good enough for short sessions of writing documents, sheets, travel planing, playing with shader code, python and C# development snippets on the go.

hsbauauvhabzb 2y ago
Care to share your preferred e book reader application that supports notes?
- pjmlp 2y ago
  My ebook reader app is Moon+ Reader. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flyersoft.moonreader&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flyersoft.... You misunderstood the notes part, it is in general, not tied to ebooks. I use mostly Google Keep.
  - hsbauauvhabzb 2y ago
    Ah thanks anyway! I’d be after a pdf note taker that allows me to scribble on pages then later review scribbles :)

kcplate 2y ago

I am an avid iPad Pro user (on #3) but it took me making a concerted effort to unlearn over three decades of my understanding of what a computer is to me, my old standby app favorites, and to be willing to force myself to use the new instead of leaning on the comfortable old. Prior to that I’ll admit that it was an entertainment device. Now it can basically serve all of my computing needs. What caused me to make the switch is the portability, battery, immediacy, and cellular option. For me it provides the utility of a smartphone and laptop, but with a better form factor I hated it at first but its use quickly became second nature. Caveat here is I no longer write code or require total configurability into the bowels of the machine…and to date, for me, I haven’t found a computing task that I need or want to do that it cannot handle.

futuraperdita 2y ago
I bought the iPad Pro 11 (M4) on its release day and did the same thing you did: throwing out what I knew to adjust to new paradigms. I regret its purchase. It is still fundamentally a device that cannot handle code-based workflows, although it's OK for some media creation. For software development, the canonical advice consists of excuses that rely on a "Pro" device to be a thin client. Remoting out to a workstation somewhere else defeats the purpose of having an M4 in the tablet itself. I can't even run a VM with native virtualization. A Chromebook with Crostini offers more functionality in this regard. You are also a consumer in another way: iOS revenue models are optimized for rent-seeking, whereas that is only partially true for macOS - even for Apple itself. As an example, I use Logic on the Mac and I pay for it once - Logic for iPad is subscription based. I don't hate the idea of the iPad overall - I have an iPad mini I use to read and mark up papers, and it's great for that.
- gessha 2y ago
  Yeah, I have a 2018 12.9 model and I haven’t really felt the need to upgrade. The tablet still feels snappy and all I do is draw, and markup papers. I tried programming on it but without a shell and proper file system API, what can you even do?
- kcplate 2y ago

gjm11 2y ago

To buy one device that one can't figure out any use for may be regarded as a misfortune. To buy two looks like carelessness. -- Lady Bracknell