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> it's pretty easy for college students to justify this plus an iPad Why would you want an iPad? The Neo can run iPad apps and it's small enough that it can b
by pier25 8mo ago
> it's pretty easy for college students to justify this plus an iPad
Why would you want an iPad?
The Neo can run iPad apps and it's small enough that it can be used in most situations where you'd typically use a tablet (bed, couch, etc).
- wpsimon3 8mo agoI used to use both...laptop for quick typing, and then the iPad for hand-written notes or annotation. The OneNote app sync is quick enough that I could type lecture notes on the laptop, and then quickly switch to the same document on my iPad to sketch out a diagram. It was overkill for sure, but very useful
- ToucanLoucan 8mo agoI mean at this point with the latest ones, an iPad Pro with it's keyboard/trackpad accessory and a pencil could probably manage both for you pretty damn well. I just wish they'd let us run MacOS on iPads.
- wpsimon3 8mo agoThat's fair...actually totally slipped my mind that today this would be much more feasible to do on a single device.
- sodality2 8mo agoiPads are pretty common in education for the drawing capabilities. You can take notes by typing for most things, but when you get diagram/math heavy, you just cannot beat the pencil. I think it's probably pretty poor value of the small ability you gain to cost, relative to other things you could do (I like paper/pencil personally) but I see the use case, if limited.
- jazzyjackson 8mo agoHave iPads really replaced paper in college? I haven’t been on campus in a decade so I wouldn’t know
- vikramkr 8mo agoI haven't been on campus in a few years but even then paper was basically absent on campus. A class where a professor wouldn't allow tablets or laptops to take notes would be an aberration and a PITA. I remember I had to write like a paper check once and I had to physically go buy a pen since neither I nor anyone around me had a regular writing utensil on hand. The exception was when people were taking orgo or a diagram heavy class. For that semester not everyone would have a tablet and some people would have pens and pencils. Or writing classes that still required a handwritten essay for the final exam
- vimbtw 8mo agoYes, iPads (at least at my university) are incredibly common. I would guess they’re at least on-par with paper. So many people swear by Goodnotes because you get all the benefits of handwriting your notes without giving up the niceties of search-ability, auto correct, etc. I don’t know anyone who uses any other tablet besides an iPad, they’ve basically conquered the market.
- sprinkly-dust 8mo agoA lot of lower division math and computer science courses now presuppose iPads or other digital pen devices for working through handouts during lecture. Printed handouts are often available at request, but not the expectation / default. On the other hand, I've seen more professors — especially in the humanities, but also upper div CS — start banning devices in lecture partially or altogether. Complete distraction (scrolling Instagram, etc.) during lecture is extremely prevalent, and they keep citing noticeable improvements in engagement after banning devices. This also coincides with a shift back to less take-home assignments and more exam-style assessment since they want greater assurance people aren't completely offloading their cognition to LLMs.
- deleted 8mo ago[deleted]
- g947o 8mo ago> The Neo can run iPad apps In theory yes, but in reality barely any developer (at least the mainstream ones) make their app available on MacOS, and nobody enjoys interacting with a touch-screen optimized app with mouse/trackpad
- Cthulhu_ 8mo agoThat's an odd choice (for said developers), given in most cases it's a matter of checking a box. The second half of your comment is a generalization though.
- NotPractical 8mo agoIt makes it easier to pirate your app if you enable that checkbox. macOS attempts to disable iOS apps when SIP is disabled to prevent this but it's not difficult to bypass [1]. I don't necessarily agree with it but this probably does factor into their decision process. [1] https://github.com/paradiseduo/appdecrypt https://github.com/paradiseduo/appdecrypt
- raw_anon_1111 8mo agoThat couldn’t be the reason. 90% of App Store revenue comes from in app purchases of consumables from games. This came out in the Epic trial. The rest of the most use apps are front end for services where the app is free. There are very very few one time app purchases on iOS where pirating would make sense
- NotPractical 8mo agoPiracy is not the only risk when someone grabs your app binary, but also cracked versions with ads removed, or subscription checks disabled.
- raw_anon_1111 8mo agoThey can already grab your binary by using third party tools or by using the Apple Configurator from what I’m seeing. TIL: iPhone backups on computers stopped including full ipa’s back in 2017…
- general_reveal 8mo agoI have spent most of my life in a lazy couch posture and a laptop and keyboard doesn’t fit that lifestyle choice. I need to make more apps for people with my lifestyle choice, like IPad IDEs for development. iPad + voice, this seems like my new lifestyle choice and it looks like it’s going to work out too. I think human beings need to move away from sitting at the typewriter like it’s 1930. We’re more than this.
- Terretta 8mo ago> I need to make more apps for people with my lifestyle choice, like IPad IDEs for development. blink code to codeserver https://docs.blink.sh/advanced/code https://docs.blink.sh/advanced/code
- general_reveal 8mo agoTy!
- asdff 8mo agoLaptop is way nicer for lazy couch work. I can sit there with it on my lap with my arms crossed and I don’t have to waste a hand just holding the damn thing up the entire time I use it. It is the ipad that is actually the nonlazy choice.
- drstewart 8mo ago>Why would you want an iPad? Talk to Gen Z some time. They prefer tablet devices to laptops.
- NoLinkToMe 8mo agoOnly if you want to take notes with a pen and prefer digital over paper. For me that's terrible, but some kids swear by it. I think if I grew up on it, it'd be different. Homework for things like algebra and later calculus definitely is interesting to do on an iPad, as the ratio of time spent thinking:writing is high while you're learning. But pure notetaking where the thinking:writing ratio is very low? I'd much prefer to type than write on a screen.
- bwv848 8mo agoThat's a lot of money for a small amount of use cases, get a $70 Wacom.
- happyopossum 8mo agothe difference between writing on a screen and writing on an external tablet is hard to overstate...
- bwv848 8mo agoA Huion Kamvas then, still way cheaper than an iPad.
- chocochunks 8mo agoA Huion Kamvas is pretty awkward to drag to class or a meeting. Even the smallest ones.
- johanvts 8mo agoNot really, sure it is easier to find your cursor but that is not very hard using an external tablet, and you get much better ergonomics plus you can see what is under your hand.
- satvikpendem 8mo agoNot really, it works just fine and you don't obscure the screen with your hand.
- awkwardpotato 8mo ago> Why would you want an iPad? At this point, there are more people taking notes on an iPad + Apple Pencil than on physical notebooks in my lectures
- lucasverra 8mo agogood info
- crazygringo 8mo agoThe iPad is vastly better for reading and highlighting (with Pencil) class materials. Reading whole books on a laptop tends to produce a ton of neck strain.
- asdff 8mo agoWhy would reading on a laptop produce neck strain? Just sit comfortably.
- pier25 8mo agoThe laptop is better in many situations as the screen stands on its own. When reading in bed I use a stand to hold my Kindle at the best position. I would need a much heavier stand to be able to do that with my iPad.
- crazygringo 8mo agoThe way people use laptops, the screens are generally much lower than they should be for good ergonomics. iPads/Kindles are better because they're smaller and lighter so you can position them with far greater flexibility.
- asdff 8mo agoPeople still hold the ipad at the exact same height against their lap. You mean to tell me they hold it like arm outstretched in front of them? So easy to position my laptop. Edge of couch with screen tilted up, done. On lap of course, done. On table, done. Resting on my back, with the laptop on my chest, done. These things weigh only like 2lbs now. It isn't like 2010 when the ipad came out and the macbook was a good 5-6 awkward lbs and smoking hot.
- crazygringo 8mo agoI don't know what to tell you. I change positions and move my iPad around a lot in ways that I can't do with my Macbook. Whether holding it up while in a recliner or airplane seat, resting it on my belly while in bed or on a couch... also it's in portrait mode which makes a huge difference too, so the top of the screen is higher. It's smaller, it's lighter, it's by definition just way more flexible to use ergonomically. You can position it in lots of ways you can't position a larger 13" horizontal laptop.
- ashton314 8mo agoGrad student here. The paper-reading experience on an iPad is vastly superior to a laptop, and I've got an aging iPad Gen 8 that doesn't have enough storage to upgrade. I run the Zotero iOS app and it's absolutely perfect for annotating papers and keeping my bibliography organized. In undergrad my iPad was far and away my favorite note-taking device. Digital pen-and-"paper" beats laptop for 99% of note taking.
- levl289 8mo agoThe pen. 95% of the way our son does assignments now. He’s off to university in Fall ‘26, and I’m waffling between getting him an Air and keeping his current iPad, or getting a neo and new iPad. Probably go the former because of the long term cost effectiveness of the Air.
- palata 8mo agoMany students nowadays may say "why would you need anything other than an iPad?" :-)
- skelegorg 8mo agoAs a college student, I can't count how many people in my classes exclusively take notes and submit homework through iPads. It's an extremely popular option because you can handwrite notes that you can't type (e.g. following along with a proof)
- scuff3d 8mo agoiPad + the pencil got me all through my engineering degree without having to drag around notebooks or textbooks. To this day it's the only Apple product I've ever owned, and it was worth every penny. I'm sure there are other good tablets for writing now, but at the time there was nothing else even close.
- kelseydh 8mo agoMy wife traded in her Macbook for a laptop. I couldn't believe anybody could live without a proper desktop computer but she proved me wrong. Aced some pretty intense physiology classes just using an iPad + touch pen.