When I bought my current iPad I splashed out on the Apple Pencil as well - hoping it would elevate the iPad experience. I’m sure haven’t dedicated the time required to learn its intricacies (being of the ‘it should just work’ generation) but I wouldn’t buy one again. I just find it a foreign user experience over using my finger.
I tried using it with Freeform and found it enormously frustrating. Mind you, I find Freeform frustrating on the Mac as well. I had high hopes for it as I’m a big user of sketches and note-taking but I find it a major disappointment.
I probably shouldn’t have invoked Marco’s name to help make my point, but I don’t think he is uninformed and saying he is comes close to personal abuse. It is sad that discussions should degenerate into abuse (even when it is very mild, as this is). It brings back bad memories of usenet back in the day.
I appreciate that I have some strong opinions about the iPad (mostly from disappointment) but they are about things not people.
Oh, well, to be clear I think it’s possible in a case like this to simply point out a factual error. It’s nothing personal. I was simply pointing to the fact that a prominent podcaster has, on at least one occasion, made pretty declarative statements which were false, and as far as I could tell, it was simply because he had not used the application in question. I provided links above, which you can check out. Again it’s nothing personal, certainly not meant to be abusive.
It’s unfortunate that pundits and podcasters, with large audiences often make comments regarding the iPad (or other tech for that matter) which simply are not true. It might mislead users into thinking that a device that they have is not capable of doing something they need to do because they’ve read it or heard it and taken it as truth. I think it’s important to point these things out because it impacts how we use our devices.
I use both of mine daily. The second one I got very recently because the older one was getting long in the tooth, but the old one is now a more or less dedicated remote control for the home theatre. The new one I use for mail, news, and web searches, primarily so I can stay within my IDE on my work machine(s). I also use it to look up documentation particularly when working on hardware (not sitting at my desk).
As I understand it the intent was increased security. You have to remember, as a branch of iOS the initial market for the iPad was users that might be new to Apple and also might be new to computers. In my family I can currently, 13 years after the 1st iPad, point to 5 people in my extended family for whom the iPad is their daily computer. All retired, for 4 of the 5 in the iPad was also their first home computer and as a result they have all been using email, messages, Safari for 13 years. For that I am so thankful. But it was for those folks that the iPad was so locked down in the first few years.
I think the first 2-4 years the Files app was indeed a very basic app. But a side-by-side comparison with Finder today shows that the app has come a long way.
All that said, while it is still locked down in ways a Mac is not I regularly open, say, text, html, and Markdown files between apps. Same for jpgs, png, gif, pdf, Illustrator. I’ve got no problem, say, going into Affinity Publisher and opening a pdf from my downloads folder. In general, if a file is compatible with an app, I have no problems opening.
I no longer do FileMaker development but I routinely code html/css with an iPad using Textastic. Very similar to BBEdit or any old school text editor with built in FTP. And same for photo, video editing and graphic design. Have you by chance tried any of the Affinity suite? Designer, Photo, Publisher, all meant to compete with Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign. Fantastic apps. And in case you’re unaware as I’ve found some are, an M1 or M2 iPad has full support for external displays as of iPadOS 16. One last thing I’d mention, the M1 and M2 iPads are far more capable due to the increased memory. I think a lot of folks that tried earlier versions were frustrated by the 3 to 4GB of memory which could be a real workflow limitation in terms of moving between apps. With the base level M1, 8GB of memory I routinely work with 10+ apps all day long with no memory issues. The only limitation there is video editing and, specifically, exporting. Neither LumaFusion or Final Cut Pro will do well if the app is switched away from during an export.
All that said, hey, you do you! That’s the beauty of all this amazing tech. We can use what we like based on our preferences and workflows. If that’s Macs for you then, cool!
I often comment in threads like this simply because I see people making comments based on a lack of awareness of the latest features of iPadOS or available apps. Not that you did that specifically but others have in this thread. I just want to be helpful in terms of pointing out what’s possible just because tips, tricks, knowledge, sharing workflows, apps, etc is something I appreciate from others.
Yes, I own the suite across both platforms. I’m an experienced Adobe user and dev (30 + years) and whilst the Affinity apps are decent, they are a loooong way from being fantastic.
This is not to suggest people can’t use them on an iPad and achieve satisfactory results, just that those results would be achieved with far greater ease on a Mac. If all I did was email, web browsing, twitter etc - as many on here have said - with the rare or occasional use of Affinity Publisher or Photo, it would probably be tolerable. In any sort of serious way? No.
What I do find interesting is how many are using keyboards - essentially a faux laptop.
You’ve nailed the market for iPads. People who need a simple appliance rather than a computer, whose screen is big enough to read without squinting. It’s perfect for note taking. and flicking through photos, not so much for creating book manuscripts and serious photo or video editing.
I appreciate some people will try to push it beyond these boundaries but I’m not one of them. Mine sits on a shelf and only comes out when I fly the drone (so I’m not squinting :).
This has been my experience with iPad, for better or worse; the fact that one can do it does not mean one should. I have to admit that I was one of those who tried to push it. One of the use cases I was interested is querying databases and use the data for data science and analytics work. After I purchased the iPad Pro (2018), I tried a variety of apps - e.g. TablePlus (IIRC), Pythonista, Juno, etc.
These apps work rather well as standalone apps, but it is really hard - or perhaps impossible - to work seamlessly across these apps. I can use AWK to extract a few columns from a group of files anywhere on my Mac and continue in Python/R, but the iOS/iPadOS sandboxing makes this impossible, despite iOS/iPadOS’s file management getting better. When I need to use TensorFlow, Pythonista cannot run it; I am not sure whether it can run TF now. All the solutions I found online involved running some sort of interactive notebooks (e.g. Jupyter Notebook) on a server then accessing it on the iPad browser - which defeats the purpose of the setup.
Thankfully, there are other use cases which I originally had in mind, and made the iPad a worthwhile investment for me:
I will be spending a month trekking in Nepal at the end of the year, which let me to wonder again if I can do some coding on iPad - if anything, just to keep up with my proficiency and not lose the muscle memory; not to mention it is a great platform to edit photos. But that is probably a topic for another thread…
I’ve had an iPad Pro (9.7 inch) for a few years (I hold on to all my devices until they die or break down beyond repair)… I got it thinking an iPad would be useful to read on, I was also intrigued by the pen, but in the end I quickly lost interest in the pen and rarely use the iPad for reading. It ended up being my go-to device for listening to podcasts or music around the house and watching youtube. I use it to browse or read articles only occasionally. Anything requiring typing, I prefer a physical keyboard. Not sure I’d get a new iPad if this one dies.
My partner had an old android tablet which he used all the time to read/watch news and sports (often going directly to sources in Europe using a VPN), but it was essentially the same stuff he’d do on his laptop. The casing of that device ultimately fell apart, the back was coming off or something, but it still worked, so he kept using it. I am only bringing it up because I think it’s not the devices, it’s a personal inclination kind of thing. Just like everyone takes their coffee differently, we have our own quirks when consuming or creating content.
No, if it’s Books it has to be exported to Files first. I think it comes down to how apps are designed. Some use distinct files stored in the Files app, others use a database for files.
When possible I avoid the apps that use the database system so, for example, I use iA Writer instead of Ulysses, Drafts and Bear which all use their own databases for storage of documents.
Editing to clarify, this isn’t a limitation of iPadOS or Files but rather a decision by specific developers (Apple or third party) to not use files-based storage. This sort of thing can also be an issue on the Mac.
I have iMacs, so the iPad is my mobile computer. I use it whenever I’m away from my desk, at meals, in front of the TV, travelling and for reading. Including now, in a flat in Edinburgh between Fringe shows!
I use iPad for checking email, reading, TV watching (no longer watch TV so now have two redundant Apple TVs), writing small to medium length pieces, and using Screens to access my MacBook Air for filing emails on local storage and downloading software such as Copytables. It’s my go to device for everyday use but I will use Mac for sorting through photos and music collections, final edits and formatting of longer pieces, and finally at last disentangling from Dropbox.
It is rather amusing, in a frustrating sort of way, to read messages here from people who don’t use an iPad declaring that it can’t be used for certain tasks.
Meanwhile, I’ve written multiple books and edited hours of video on mine. Perhaps if you’re not using an iPad, you should be judicious about declaring what its capabilities are. Meanwhile, I’ll go back to “content creation,” and doing what you believe to be impossible.
Exactly this. When I read statements about what is not possible with an iPad my first assumption is that it’s very likely that the writer/speaker has not used an iPad consistently for a long enough time to actually learn how to use it, not used an iPad recently or some combination of those two. But it’s almost always the case that they are not informed enough to have come to any conclusion.
I’m sure there’s some truth to that. But I also think it’s worth acknowledging that there’s likely not one single best tool for everybody.
One person may just find themselves very efficient using one tool and cannot get the other to work for them. Not just because they never bothered to try, perhaps just because it doesn’t work well for them. To them that other tool is maybe useless, but that’s only to them while another person will find the exact opposite the case. And I believe both of those stances can be true at the same time.
I do not subscribe to one size must fit all. I think we can acknowledge that we each have our favorite tool, perhaps find another tool inadequate and yet remain aware that this other tool can be tremendously useful to somebody else. Choice is a good thing.™
I would certainly never say that something isn’t possible on an iPad, but I would say that there are tasks I vastly prefer to do on a Mac. (There are also tasks I prefer to do on an iPad instead of a Mac.)
Sometimes that’s because of the form factor, but often it’s just convenience and experience. I’ve been using Macs since the 1980s and I’m vastly more productive there for certain projects.
Other times it’s software: I write in BBEdit which has wonderful auto-complete of words which I miss on iPad (and despite testing hundreds of word processors on iPad, I haven’t found anything as good as BBEdit on Mac).
But I have noticed I don’t experiment and explore as much on iPad as in the past. After years of waiting for iPad software to improve and it didn’t, I finally gave up. There are probably new apps that do a lot more than the ones I have installed now, but I’m tired of trying, especially when I can just do what I need easily on a Mac.
I agree with this statement, and not just in the specific case cited here. I do wish more app developers put more thought into making their apps intuitive and “just work”, regardless of the platform OS they’re writing for.
I’ve tried a lot of apps lately that were recommended on certain forums but soon gave up on them. They required too much of my time and effort to try and sufficiently learn their interfaces so they’d be an improvement over my current efficiency using my current apps. Most had no user guides, and little documentation either with the app or on their website. Searches for specific conundrums produced no results.
(Literally. “No results found.” That’s just so frustrating to see that. Absolutely no results? Seriously?)
Software developers need to really take into account the monetary cost of potential customer’s time wasted trying to make their “superior” apps work more efficiently than the customer’s current workflow. I know I’ve become increasingly aware of this cost lately, and have deleted a great deal of trial software because of it.
