I used to use my iPad a lot more, mostly for travel rather than taking my MacBookPro (two of them actually, work and personal). Now that travel has mostly stopped, I use the iPad only to offload work when my MacBookPro and Mac Studio are busy doing long jobs (Lightroom, Video Rendering, etc.). The iPad is still good for watching a movie when I do not want to be tied to my desk or the living room TV.
I have a 6th Generation iPad (2018) with a third party keyboard/case.
For me, the iPad never managed to be more than a secondary device.
Thanks to the keyboard, it provides a surprisingly nice experience with the iPad versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, and OneNote. It also works well with Evernote. With its light weight and “instant on” character, it’s great for things like impromptu working lunches.
The problem is that I generally have my laptop with me to go beyond basic capabilities, and the iPad doesn’t add enough extra value to justify carrying it and my laptop. Pretty much the only time I use it for that “working lunch” scenario is when I’m working from home and decide to meet someone at a café for a quick meeting. I do bring it with me to take notes at board meetings for a local charity. It does serve a special purpose on those occasions: we pass it around and use it to order lunch for the group using the GrubHub app. Very convenient!
It’s a niche application, but the iPad does provide a superior experience for digital publications that use “flipbook” style apps. Examples include digital magazines and conference/meeting programs. The iPad’s size, portrait display, and touch interface simply work better than a laptop or an iPhone for that use case.
I’m sure I would use the iPad much more often for ebooks and streaming media if we did not already have a few Amazon Fire devices in the house. The iPad’s screen and built-in speakers are superior to those on the Fire devices, but I find the Fire 7 and Fire 8 devices to be more comfortable to hold, their screens are adequate, and the sound is great with earbuds. Plus, it’s hard to argue with the Amazon Fire prices. If you catch them on sale, a Fire 7 can be had for as little as $40-50.
I often see the 64 GB 9th Generation iPad for sale at Amazon and Walmart for $269, and I sometimes feel tempted to buy one, but then I think about how I’m using my current iPad and how it will get support from at least one more version of iPadOS, and I decide it’s not worth it at this time.
Like yourself, I also owned iPads from the first one. I also prefer to use my Mac laptop instead. I just cannot get as comfortable with anything else! I have always felt that my MacBook Pro is a direct extension of my arm and I definitely don’t have that feeling for an iPad or any other device!!
I think the ever increasing cost of Apple products means one has to chose and therefore a computer seems to be the first priority.
I use my iPad every morning for mail and newspaper reading. But I also find it great for streamed athletic events and for comfortable reading and working away from the computer.
We recently had a storm that knocked out our electricity for almost a full day and our internet connection for close to 2 days. The iPad was fantastic and kept us connected during that time. My iMac and MBPs were all a waste of time since there was no internet and they are not on our cellular service - but OHHH did we eat up data $$$$ - looking for a newer and cheaper plan lol.
Horses for courses.
I read a lot, mostly on ipads. Like many readers, I resent the patronizing phrase “content consumption” that’s used as if reading was equivalent to eating a generic potato chip.
I prefer an ipad to real books. Built in dictionary is priceless. Being able to highlight and take notes without them becoming an unremovable part of the book, then being able to email them to myself for reference is priceless. Adjustable font sizes, text search, hundreds of books on device, library ebooks, all priceless. [I’ve tried e-ink readers, but they don’t compare well with ipads–slow, page flashes, limited utility.]
I have 6 ipads (3 full size, 3 minis), of which three get daily use, one occasional, one not much, and one (the original) has a sadly deceased battery which I’ll try to replace this winter. [It belongs to one of the cats, who would very much like to play koi pond again and she will accept no substitutes that I’ve found.]
iPads accumulated because a) it was the science fictional device I’d wanted since childhood; b) in the early years the hardware improved by leaps and bounds; c) two basic sizes doubles the joy; d) if anyone ever gives me a thomas jefferson style book stand, they’ll all fit on it nicely with a multicharger in the center. (Monticello Revolving Bookstand - Monticello Shop)
The mini 5 is the most used for the most things. Epubs (mapleread); goodnotes for project notebooks (I love the pencil, and goodnotes can read my handwriting better than I can); MusicaTouch (an ear training/music theory program), lire (offline rss newsreader); games and more. It’s the most likely to leave home with me because small and light.
The air 2, still on ios 10, gets used for mail when I hang out in the yard (I like ios 10 mail app better than more recent versions); icab for light browsing; smaller pdfs that don’t tax the processor too much, and software that ios 11 killed.
The air 5 gets used for big pdfs such as archive.org scanned books; icab/safari if I need a fully up to date browser version; a bit of stable diffusion. I’ll probably use it with stage manager for some projects later on. I wanted to use it for apple tv, but apple is as incapable of downloading or streaming episodes over a slow connection on an unadulterated modern apple system as it is on any of my older and more networked-protected macs.
The original mini is still on ios 6, so it can still run old software, including some games. I still like that interface, too.
Mini 4 is the odd one out and least used. I bought it in desperation when a newer version kept not coming out, because the original mini was slow in comparison to the air 2, and had run out of storage for what I wanted to have on it. (That purchase finally got apple going and the mini 5 came out a a couple of months later, sigh.)
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My first iPad was the iPad 2 (2011) which I used rather often at first, but became less and less frequent as I did a lot of the same things - reading, editing photos, etc. - on the Mac. It was tremendously useful while traveling; I can offload the photos to the iPad and edit them, and showed the photos to others - a good conversation starter in Kissa-ten’s in Japan. Eventually, though, I find the use case too limited so I did not upgrade the iPad and stopped using it.
When the iPad Pro 11" was released in 2018 alongside the Apple Pencil, I decided to give iPad a go again. I felt like I was buying into a bright future that was yet to be realised - a feeling that I came to associate with iPads. However, I did like it much better this time - not only it is good for light photo editing, but also for writing and drawing - which works very well with apps like Miro. I can project the Miro board on the big display during a meeting, write/draw/annotate on it on the iPad and everyone can see the results instantly. The addition of Magic Keyboard, while pricey, makes the iPad much more useful during meetings and focused writing sessions. When not in use as the primary device, it becomes a secondary device to my Mac thanks to Sidecar. While it is five years old, it is more usable than the first day I had it thanks to updates and accessories.
To be frank I always felt conflicted about the value of an iPad in my use case. It was tremendously useful at some things - the range of these things expanded over time in my use case, but it is still far from being able to function as a universal computing device for me. As mentioned earlier, there is always the sense that “someone ought to introduce this feature”, and that feature somehow rationalises the purchase further. The cost of an iPad and its accessories can add up to a frightening sum - and to commit this amount of money in the name of experimentation is uncomfortable to me.
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Agreed! That’s a vast part of my working life.
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Fully agree about the passive-aggressive “content consumption” dismissal. Its origin is similar to how the Mac was (is) denigrated as “just a toy” by Windows users. I hate to tell you, but you’re “consuming content” right this very moment. (Or, as Madge would say, “you’re soaking in it.”)
I think one of the obstacles to people transitioning from Mac is the wider variety of software that’s available for iPad. It’s overwhelming, and the successful players aren’t the same. (For example, if you’re a Photoshop/Mac user, Adobe is protecting their market by making less powerful iPad spinoffs.) Instead, look to other companies for apps that aren’t stuck in the 20th Century. Affinity is one such company.)
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I use my iPad Pro a lot—Apple pencil 2 raised the dial from a 4 to an 8.5. Fantastic for taking notes, even art work.
What I don’t understand is why the bleep does the iPad need a (or even multiple) rear-facing camera(s), adding to its significant cost. Doesn’t everyone have a phone anyway?
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When I was working (as a teacher) I loved my MacBook Pro and used my iPad (2016 9.7 inch iPad Pro) a little. Now that I’m retired, I use my 11 inch 3rd generation iPad Pro (which I bought when I retired) for at least 90% of my computer time.
I read a couple of newspapers on the iPad. I play hard or expert games of Sudoku daily (got to keep the brain active). I check channels I subscribe to on YouTube and might watch a couple.
I used to read a lot of books and now buy books on Books or occasionally Kindle and read them on the iPad. I’ve always got the books with me.
I read and send emails. I use dictation on the iPad Pro but have never used it on the MacBook Pro.
If I am going to write something serious (I have co-authored a couple of Physics text books) I will use Word on the MBP and I also use it for Excel. I don’t like them on the iPad.
I have a Wahoo smart trainer set up with my bike and use it with Zwift nearly daily. That’s about an hour each day and takes my daily iPad use up to about 6 and sometimes even 8 hours.
The iPad is just so much more convenient than the MBP for these things.
I travelled for 8 weeks in Europe and the UK last year and left my MBP at home (have always taken it me before).
I wouldn’t want to be without my iPad.
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David, I do have such things installed, but just like the helper apps for Safari on the Mac, they don’t work very well. As I said, I’ve been spoiled by just how well uBlock Origin works!
Yes, I’ve used iPad Mini tablets since they first were available, but not for word processing, spreadsheets, or as a substitute for a Mac. I use it daily, mainly to read email, web browsing, news apps, stream video, listen to audio, etc. when not at a desk.
Thanks for posting; maybe I need to give Excel on iPad another chance. The first time I used Excel on an iPad, it was such a wretched experience that I never tried again. (And this is from someone who believes Numbers is an example of a half-hearted effort by Apple.) I forget the details (it was a few years ago), but I think the most significant issue had something to do with Excel’s built-in functions (on the Macintosh version), which were either not available or didn’t work, but I seem to recall multiple problems, even on a simple spreadsheet. And yes, I did have an external keyboard.
The rear cameras make Face Time possible. It also works exceptionally well as when copying documents, illustrations, shooting large scale photos, portrait mode, dark mode, video mode.
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Your mileage may vary, as my spreadsheet needs rarely go beyond basic functions. My comment was mainly directed towards performance, rather than a full feature list. For example, the iPadOS version still doesn’t support macros, AFAIK.
All I gotta’ say is I am still eagerly awaiting the rumoured 14"!
I use my iPad daily. I use it to read my newspaper. I also use to look up a quick question and to check my email otherwise I would have to go to the other room where my iMac is. I also take the iPad with me when I travel. I do not have a MBP (my wife however does) All that said I prefer to do my important things on the iMac.
ACE comes to the rescue with logic. What’s the purpose of the poll?
I use my old one (2017) connected to my mini piano, the second (M2 iPad Pro) I’m using to write this comment. Use it a lot for browsing, reading, signing documents, watching videos etc. Use my M1 MBP for everything else. My iPads get many hours of use every day v
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I use it regularly, a few times a week at least. When classes are in session, it’s how I read course material (PDFs). Now that I’m working on a translation, I use it to show the source material while I use my laptop to type the translation and do research using the internet and PDFs on the laptop.
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