With the announcement of iPadOS, one of the biggest questions that repeatedly comes up is whether the iPad, specifically the iPad Pro, is finally ready to be that new computer thing that Apple has been advertising. Better yet, is it finally ready to become the primary computer for most people? The answer, as you might have guessed, is a “yes, but”. More than that answer to that, however, what the combination of the iPad Pro and the new iPadOS has done is give people fewer reasons to bear with Windows and Android and more reasons to get hooked and locked into Apple’s entire ecosystem.
Even with “just” iOS, the iPad Pro delivered that “always on, always connected” computing Microsoft is only now trying to achieve.
It’s one thing to be able to plug in USB mice and drives but the world of computing is filled with a lot more peripherals than those… Apple needs to embrace third-party accessory makes and third-party developers, preferably without killing them afterward as what may soon befall Luna Display.
With greater power comes greater need for tutorials and onboarding. The new gestures alone will require some training and the plethora of new features probably won’t all be discovered or understood in one go. The iPad Pro is well on its way to becoming a primary computer and, like the primary computers of old, might start needing a manual.
MacDailyNews Take: iPad Pro was always a “proper computer.”
Now, with iPadOS, it simply does some more things, and in more ways, that those who were raised on traditional personal computers expect.
These stupid articles and definitions need to die. The iPad is a giant iPod Touch with clumsy gestures, stripped down hardware and software, a small screen, and imprecise main inputs (finger/multi-touch). It does a narrow set of things very well, like Web surfing, movie watching, reading… but that’s it. It’s not a desktop or laptop replacement. For anyone that can “replace” their desktop or laptop with an iPad, they never needed those in the first place.
What MacOS and the requisite hardware provides over the iPad and iPadOS is as follows:
*PRECISE INPUT (mouse input to 1 pixel precision)
*MULTI-TOUCH (many trackpad multi-touch gestures)
*Powerful hardware much more capable than the iPad (e.g., iMac Pro, Mac Pro, MacBook Pro) with much larger raw processing power, much more RAM capacity, much higher hard drive capacity, etc. etc.
*LARGE SCREENS. This can’t be understated. It’s not productive to use a small screen as the only display.
The iPad may be good enough for some consumers. But anybody serious about productivity and work should not rely on it due to its inherent short-comings that will never be resolved given that it’s a mobile slab.
Of course. MDN’s “iPad Pro was always a “proper computer.” is a silly remark.
The Dim Witted Silly Egg speaks again with his “respect-May-authoritah” voice.
That last comment is an impersonation of me. Loser.
It’s not an impersonation, you möron. It’s someone who thinks you are a dim witted silly eeejiot. Now please fffff offfffff
If you can watch porn on it, it’s a computer. Now shut up.
Wow my old Betamax is a computer ? I never knew
Absolute nonsense MDN. An iPad cannot run my film scanner. There are all kinds of peripherals that an iPad is useless with. It is not even remotely a computer. Your incessant propaganda does not change this fact.
As I have happily state many times before, I love my desktop workstations and my MacBook Pros but to say the iPad Pro is not a “computer” is ignorant and wrong.
You are right, you cannot and should not use it to run your film scanner. Your film scanner should be attached to a fixed or mobile workstation. This one use though, is not all a person might choose to do with a computer. The iPad is an extraordinary creative computer combining the best Wacom style tablet with a powerful computer in one device. People who design or write for a living could easily us it as their mobile platform. They might still want something bigger for some uses, sure. Many of us have had multiple computers for years and years.
Saying the the iPad Pro could be a primary computer for many people is not propaganda. Most people use their computers for surfing the web, email, word processing and the occasional spreadsheet. These people could easily use an iPad and their iPhone for all of their computing needs.
Let’s realise that the world is bigger than ourselves and that each persons need is different. For you, Mr Greenspan, no iPad is appropriate but for many, even the base iPad is enough; for some the iPad Pro is perfect.
Not you again. How have you screwed up America’s economy again today, dingbat? Your legacy isn’t worrying about film scanners, it’s wrecking America. Thanks Greenspin.
FILM? Scanner? 2019. Use Digital Camera, chips & reader to iPad to import to Photos. Correct with PS.
Just because the iPad Pro doesn’t function as a pickup truck for some niche need does not disqualify it as a useful computer replacement for many. I use it for 90% of my job and the only reason why I can’t use it for the last 10% is that some of the mobile software for it sucks.
I’m hoping that with the new iPad Pro, iOS 13 and Apple’s communication with developers that they finally release apps that leverage the power of the iPad Pro instead of being a scaled up iPhone app.
There is a big difference between surfing the web and sending email vs accessing productivity apps that the rest of the world uses to do work that people get paid for. There are a lot of heavy duty apps for the Mac these days but not for iPads.
????? Get a under powered Surface and be happy……the iPad isn’t for you.
The iPad has continued to increase power as the Ax chips continue to increase in power. Try to guess what this fall’s release will bring with the A13, to be followed by the A14, A15, A16, etc. How many cores and how powerful will we be seeing? Actually, which Ax chip will become available to the Mac? You KNOW that Apple is co-developing a Mac version in preparation for this change, just as they did for the Intel change.
It’s coming….
Need a tissue then?
“Bear with Windows”
F off. Windows is infinitely more productive than any Apple OS.