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My sister in law has used an iPad as here primary compute device for school. Frankly, it works absolutely fine for her. 95% of her need is reading, email, and w

My sister in law has used an iPad as here primary compute device for school. Frankly, it works absolutely fine for her. 95% of her need is reading, email, and writing papers (in Google Drive).

lostlogin 1y ago
This probably matches most users experience. It’s just that the remaining 5% makes you want to hurl the device out the window.
monkmartinez 1y ago
My parents use their iPad(s) for 100% of their compute needs. At 70+ years old, they will tell you those needs are minimal. If you use one program at a time, do not need an actual file system, have no need to install software from a variety of places (Github, Vendor sites, etc), have no problem installing multiple "apps" that only work behind paywalls or not at all and you don't care about replacing a functional device whenever Apple obsoletes it... iOS is the best thing since sliced bread. If you need anything outside of iOS's limited list of abilities, its a trash operating system that has crippled amazing hardware.
yjftsjthsd-h 1y ago
> 95% of her need is reading, email, and writing papers Sure, it's great for that kind of (computationally) light work, but then what's the point of putting a monster like the M5 chip in it?
- recursive 1y ago
  Smooth animation for throw-away-coded SPAs.
  - overgard 1y ago
    The target hardware for vibe coded startups!
- SkyPuncher 1y ago
  My understanding is battery life. I have no idea how accurate this is, but somebody basically graphed what I was thinking: https://techboards.net/threads/power-curves-of-a17.4348/ https://techboards.net/threads/power-curves-of-a17.4348/ You put a bigger chip in so you can run it at lower power consumption levels. Essentially, there are two ways this can pan out: * Overall utilization can remain lower, keeping it in a more power efficient band. * Expensive actions complete faster, thus using less power (since they run for less time). From an overall business perspective, there also doesn't really seem to be a reason to _not_ standardize the lineup on a single chip. I have to imagine is less overhead from a manufacturing standpoint and it's not like there's a particularly meaningful difference in manufacturing costs of these chips.
- apparent 1y ago
  Yep, I have the original 11" iPad Pro from 2018. It still works flawlessly and would be perfect for this use case. Someone who needs a device for school should buy a used iPad like this, not a new one that would be overpowered for the task and would cost double. Even with the edu discount, it's over $1k with the keyboard case. Why not just buy an MBA at that point?
  - thaw13579 1y ago
    Two reasons for are the cellular connection and smaller form factor. Would love to have a MBA with those
    - kcplate 1y ago
      This has been my reasoning for years and it has been great for that. If I have to leave in the middle of the workday for errand or appointment it’s with me in the Logitech folio case and I have connected computing power in my hands in a form factor that is roughly the size of a moleskine.
overgard 1y ago
I guess that's fine, but if that's all you're doing you could easily just get a hundred dollar chromebook. The marketing for this references things like transcode performance for Final Cut Pro. Implying that you would use it for some sort of serious computing task.
- JumpCrisscross 1y ago
  > you could easily just get a hundred dollar chromebook Terrible battery life by comparison. Worse display. Not as swift at video playback. And with LLMs on the rise, less locally capable.
  - overgard 1y ago
    I don't think the "I just need to edit things in google drive crowd" overlaps much with the "I want to run a local LLM on a tablet" crowd. Anyway my point isn't that people shouldn't buy iPads, my point is that it's silly that Apple has hardware that is incredibly capable and is held back entirely by terrible software policies.

My sister in law has used an iPad as here primary compute device for school. Frankly, it works absolutely fine for her. 95% of her need is reading, email, and writing papers (in Google Drive).

lostlogin 1y ago

This probably matches most users experience. It’s just that the remaining 5% makes you want to hurl the device out the window.

monkmartinez 1y ago

My parents use their iPad(s) for 100% of their compute needs. At 70+ years old, they will tell you those needs are minimal. If you use one program at a time, do not need an actual file system, have no need to install software from a variety of places (Github, Vendor sites, etc), have no problem installing multiple "apps" that only work behind paywalls or not at all and you don't care about replacing a functional device whenever Apple obsoletes it... iOS is the best thing since sliced bread. If you need anything outside of iOS's limited list of abilities, its a trash operating system that has crippled amazing hardware.

yjftsjthsd-h 1y ago

> 95% of her need is reading, email, and writing papers Sure, it's great for that kind of (computationally) light work, but then what's the point of putting a monster like the M5 chip in it?

recursive 1y ago
Smooth animation for throw-away-coded SPAs.
- overgard 1y ago
  The target hardware for vibe coded startups!
SkyPuncher 1y ago
My understanding is battery life. I have no idea how accurate this is, but somebody basically graphed what I was thinking: https://techboards.net/threads/power-curves-of-a17.4348/ https://techboards.net/threads/power-curves-of-a17.4348/ You put a bigger chip in so you can run it at lower power consumption levels. Essentially, there are two ways this can pan out: * Overall utilization can remain lower, keeping it in a more power efficient band. * Expensive actions complete faster, thus using less power (since they run for less time). From an overall business perspective, there also doesn't really seem to be a reason to _not_ standardize the lineup on a single chip. I have to imagine is less overhead from a manufacturing standpoint and it's not like there's a particularly meaningful difference in manufacturing costs of these chips.
apparent 1y ago
Yep, I have the original 11" iPad Pro from 2018. It still works flawlessly and would be perfect for this use case. Someone who needs a device for school should buy a used iPad like this, not a new one that would be overpowered for the task and would cost double. Even with the edu discount, it's over $1k with the keyboard case. Why not just buy an MBA at that point?
- thaw13579 1y ago
  Two reasons for are the cellular connection and smaller form factor. Would love to have a MBA with those
  - kcplate 1y ago
    This has been my reasoning for years and it has been great for that. If I have to leave in the middle of the workday for errand or appointment it’s with me in the Logitech folio case and I have connected computing power in my hands in a form factor that is roughly the size of a moleskine.

overgard 1y ago

I guess that's fine, but if that's all you're doing you could easily just get a hundred dollar chromebook. The marketing for this references things like transcode performance for Final Cut Pro. Implying that you would use it for some sort of serious computing task.

JumpCrisscross 1y ago
> you could easily just get a hundred dollar chromebook Terrible battery life by comparison. Worse display. Not as swift at video playback. And with LLMs on the rise, less locally capable.
- overgard 1y ago
  I don't think the "I just need to edit things in google drive crowd" overlaps much with the "I want to run a local LLM on a tablet" crowd. Anyway my point isn't that people shouldn't buy iPads, my point is that it's silly that Apple has hardware that is incredibly capable and is held back entirely by terrible software policies.