Apple has finally given us a Safari browsing experience that makes it easier to take the iPad seriously as a laptop alternative or replacement… All the other changes essentially build off this one. The app’s “user agent” now tells a website that the iPad’s owner is using the macOS version of Safari, and so (for the most part), you’ll see the same thing you’ll see if you visited a certain webpage on a Mac…
Apple optimized all inputs for touch, so you should be able to interact with screen elements with your finger as easily as you might with a mouse… Desktop-class browsing on the iPad eliminates many of the core frustrations of using the iPad as a “laptop.” The web interfaces for Gmail, Google Calendar, Facebook, Squarespace, and YouTube now work the same way they do on a Mac…
MacDailyNews Take: There’s much more in the full overview, which concisely explains why Safari is poised to finally get real on iPad this fall!
I wish for once, the media spokesholes would just stop saying ‘laptop replacement’.To me, laptop replacement means buying a new laptop and replacing your old one. 2 totally different beasts, no matter who thinks what. If somebody came to me with a new iPad and said, look at my new laptop, I would laugh them off the face of the earth.
I agree with TronDude. The iPad was never meant to be a laptop replacement, but to be used in addition to your laptop when someone’s on the sofa or away from their laptop.
The iPad may not technically be a laptop replacement, but it is rapidly replacing a laptop as the tool to do much of what a computer was initially purchased to do.
An iPad will become a laptop replacement when it can do everything you can do with a laptop.
So will the iPad have a ‘Develop’ menu to override the User Agent, or a Flash player for those really annoying old websites that refuse to upgrade?
A web browser is supposed to make an iPad a better computer replacement? Call me when the iPad can run Mathematica. An iPad is great for surfing the web, sending email and playing games. Just don’t try to run heavy duty productivity apps. Steve Jobs knew the difference between a truck and a scooter. His heirs may have lost their way. ARM processors can make good scooters but they are useless for trucks.