Apple’s new iPad Pro 2024 ships with an absolutely beautiful Tandem OLED display and powerful new M4 processor. It’s super thin and noticeably lighter than earlier iPads, but it cries out for a better iPadOS operating system.
The new iPad Pro is fast, with the latest M4 chip, and it has a new OLED display that’s more colorful than prior screens. It’s the thinnest product Apple has ever launched.
But it still runs the same iPad software, and that’s starting to feel dated… It’s time Apple makes this more than just an iPad. The software, called iPadOS, needs to catch up to the hardware.
My guess is Apple has something big planned for next month’s Worldwide Developers Conference, and I hope it addresses this. I probably won’t get my wish, but I’d love to see the iPad Pro act just like a Mac. Plop it into the keyboard and it turns into a touchscreen MacBook. Lift it off and use it like a regular iPad. It has a newer processor than Apple’s MacBooks, so this should be possible if it’s something Apple wants. Regardless, we need better multitasking.
MacDailyNews Take: Sounds familiar:
Here’s an idea: Apple could sell iPad Pros as they do now, and for those wanting a “Mac,” Apple could sell them the macOS-powered display-less keyboard/trackpad/cpu/RAM/SSD/battery base unit. Attach your iPad for the display and off you go, you Mac-headed truck driver! Plus, you get to use the iPad’s battery, too, extending battery life to provide a truly all-day battery for portable Mac users. Detach the display and you get your iOS-powered iPad back, same as always.
Too outside the box? We’d love to be able to take our iPad Pro, mate it with this theoretical Mac base unit, and turn it into a portable Mac. Right now, we carry iPad Pros and MacBooks in our backpacks. Guess what’s redundant? Right, the displays. We don’t need to carry two screens on the road. The iPad Pro’s screen would do just fine, thanks.
Buy the Mac base on its own (for those who already have iPad Pros) or buy it as part of a package (get a new iPad Pro at a nice discount when you buy it with the Mac base). Imagine if Apple had unveiled this headless MacBook that you use with your iPad at their iPad event last fall. How many more iPad Pro sales would such a product have generated? Enough to return iPad to unit sales growth, we bet. And, how many more Macs would have been sold, too? – macDailyNews, January 7, 2017
Apple’s “Stage Manager” feature was supposed to make it easier to run multiple apps and switch between them, but it’s still too confusing and clunky. Apps should open in separate windows and minimize just like on a Mac. And, since the M-series processors also power Macs, we should be able to run Mac apps, too.
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
MacDailyNews Take: Here’s hoping iPadOS 18 brings some useful improvements to the iPad experience which, btw, is not to replicate the Mac. If you want a portable Mac, get a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. iPadOS just needs to grow up and let iPad users work more efficiently and powerfully, in iPad ways.
Please help support MacDailyNews. Click or tap here to support our independent tech blog. Thank you!
Support MacDailyNews at no extra cost to you by using this link to shop at Amazon.
The Mac base and iPad head idea are 7+ years old now. I don’t think we’ll see it this decade if ever at the rate Apple is going. What we’ve had for the past 14 years are baby steps and that’s what we can expect for years to come. Maybe we’ll see something like this with the rumored folding Mac next year, but if anything it’ll be like the Apple Vision Pro, essentially a very expensive, proof of concept dev-kit that won’t filter down to average Apple consumer form until years afterwards.
Same argument different year. Mac users simply have iPad envy…why, I don’t know, but the answer is still the same, if you want MacOS, get a Mac.
iPadOS is clunky now only because they keep trying to shove MacOS(legacy) features that normal users never asked for, into a iOS….how’s that Stage Manager working out?
Sport cars are great
Pickup trucks… great
But if you try to combine them you end up with the Pontiac Aztek.
…iPadOS is the Pontiac Aztek.
Having a base MBP using an iPad Pro has been my dream for years – and with the new iPad Pros measuring a mere 5.1+mm thickness, the combination doesn’t even have to be much thicker than a standalone MBP. The only sacrifice it would entail for me is that a 13″ display isn’t a great substitute for a 16″ one. Assuming other professionals would feel similarly handicapped, would such a base MBP product really fly off the shelves?
Drop iPadOS and put macOS the way it is on it and be done! Don’t ruin macOS!
forget iPad OS and Mac OS. Just give me windows ME then I will be set
I agree with everyone that there is a certain woodeness to the iPadOS when using it as a Mac replacement. The half way point between a mobile app and a desktop app can be an uncomfortable place to be in. For personal use, I have been using an iPad Pro exclusively for the last five years (well, once in a while I’ll jump on my wife’s MacBook Air) and it has gotten much better – but still not there yet.
I hope iPadOS 18, more than AI, is able to provide unlock that usability feature that makes it a killer device.
Just waiting for Apple to invent the iPad Surface with MacOS and scream “innovation”!
Apple just does not want you to replace a Mac with a iPad. It still believes that it wants to sell users on a 3 tier experience for maximum profit. That is a iPhone, iPad and a Mac. All of which are brilliant designs in their own way, but not designed in a way to replace each other only to complement each other.