Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#151

Post by whywhywhywhy » Thu, Nov 08, 2018, 10:53 AM UTC

abalone wrote: post #125

carlesfe wrote: post #13

Apple are paving the way to A-chip laptops, not only by building excellent tech, but also PR-wise. Their last keynote was clearly a gymnastics exercise to ignore Intel CPUs and dismiss laptop performance while later praising their own chips which power a tablet that has no software ready to use that much speed. The fact that one of the most secretive companies executes a PR-stunt by providing an exclusive interview t…

> chips which power a tablet that has no software ready to use that much speed I think this comment underestimates the importance of performance to the iPad and Apple's long term vision for it. While "real Photoshop" won't be ready until next year, it's clearly aiming to make the iPad a real solution for compute heavy graphics tasks. More will undoubtably follow. Why not edit video on a film set on the iPad? I can se…

So for the past few years we've been hearing time and time again how amazing these Apple chips are yet were is the software that actually pushes them?

Wheres the example of software that truly shines on these chips? Wheres the software like After Effects, Houdini, Octane Render that you can truly see the power of the machine rev up when on the right hardware.

They're wheeling Photoshop out as proof of this devices power yet as a designer I certainly don't consider Photoshop a heavy piece of software anymore and the only reason it ever chugs is it doesn't use the machines power effectively, mostly single core and disk speed constrained.

This power has been available to iPad developers for a few years now so shouldn't we be seeing truly powerful pro apps that take advantage of it emerging? Are these chips actually powerful for real world pro tasks or are they just talented at providing Geekbench scores.

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#152

Post by chongli » Thu, Nov 08, 2018, 11:08 AM UTC

scarface74 wrote: post #137

chongli wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's more than just code. A "real" computer lets you do so much by piecing together work from different applications. For example, you can use a text editor like vim to transform a CSV file with powerful tools like regular expressions and shell commands, then load the CSV into your spreadsheet to work on. Yes, you can use the files application on iOS to manage your files but all of the other applications tend to stic…

It could probably be done with the Workflow app introduced in iOS 12 if you were so inclined that can stitch together different apps.

What workflow app? I'm on iOS 12.1 and I don't see a workflow app.

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#153

Post by flohofwoe » Thu, Nov 08, 2018, 11:17 AM UTC

Svexav wrote: post #31

carlesfe wrote: post #13

Apple are paving the way to A-chip laptops, not only by building excellent tech, but also PR-wise. Their last keynote was clearly a gymnastics exercise to ignore Intel CPUs and dismiss laptop performance while later praising their own chips which power a tablet that has no software ready to use that much speed. The fact that one of the most secretive companies executes a PR-stunt by providing an exclusive interview t…

Why does it have to be a laptop? What not an iPhone with a desktop mode you can pair with a monitor, keyboard, and trackpad? I’d love the ability to carry all my software and data around in a phone without lugging around a laptop or having to buy a desktop computer. And I’d love to never concern myself with transferring or syncing data again. And why not let us connect an iPhone to an eGPU for desktop gaming?

iOS is too restrictive for a development/productivity machine since it doesn't allow to install software from outside the app store (something like homebrew would be a security nightmare). The UI model of iOS also is still too touch-centric (while touch input provides zero advantages for a command-line interface).

But attach a proper(!) keyboard with touchpad to an iPad Pro, put macOS on it instead of iOS, and there's your next MBP ;)

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#154

Post by scarface74 » Thu, Nov 08, 2018, 11:28 AM UTC

chongli wrote: post #152

scarface74 wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could probably be done with the Workflow app introduced in iOS 12 if you were so inclined that can stitch together different apps.

What workflow app? I'm on iOS 12.1 and I don't see a workflow app.

Oh yeah. It’s called “Shortcuts” now. It was originally a third party app and was bought by Apple a little bit over a year ago and was given deeper hooks into the system.

https://workflow.is/

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#155

Post by titanix2 » Thu, Nov 08, 2018, 11:49 AM UTC

dieterrams wrote: post #55

aaronblohowiak wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am on the other side of this bet. I believe it is just a matter of time and the Surface Pro / iPad Pro are paving the way for just that.

Agreed. I think it makes perfect sense to have a phone that can plug into a tablet or any other form factor. The thermals might not let you run an iPhone-in-tablet as fast as a dedicated iPad, but given how fast their chips are getting, it's probably just a matter of time.

But Microsoft have no phone offering. And if they release a new phone, as a an ex-hobbyist Windows Phone developer who experienced all the consumer and developer hostile moves (no upgrade from 7 to 8, numerous lies, etc.) I'll be very reluctant to target this platform again. Other devs with experience on the previous phone platforms will probably have a similar view on the matter.

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#156

Post by suvelx » Thu, Nov 08, 2018, 1:25 PM UTC

I've been considering getting an iPad w/ Pencil for over a year now as a note-taking and doodling apparatus (too often I'll scribble a system diagram down, realise I've missed a bit, and had to start again thanks to the immutability of pen and paper). But beyond that, I don't think I'd have a use for one.

All this power sounds great, but I really don't know what else I'd do with it, beyond surfing an ad-riddled internet on my couch.

If any developer has a life-changing daily use case for their iPad, I'd love to hear it.

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#157

Post by Engineering-MD » Thu, Nov 08, 2018, 1:59 PM UTC

suvelx wrote: post #156

I've been considering getting an iPad w/ Pencil for over a year now as a note-taking and doodling apparatus (too often I'll scribble a system diagram down, realise I've missed a bit, and had to start again thanks to the immutability of pen and paper). But beyond that, I don't think I'd have a use for one. All this power sounds great, but I really don't know what else I'd do with it, beyond surfing an ad-riddled inter…

Content blockers allow for ad free (ish) browsing on iOS. I have found the iPad Pro with pencil an excellent tool for research (reading and annotating papers), and using Pythonista python based programming can be done, although more as a hobby.

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#158

Post by hermenaut » Thu, Nov 08, 2018, 2:17 PM UTC

camillomiller wrote: post #37

Svexav wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it have to be a laptop? What not an iPhone with a desktop mode you can pair with a monitor, keyboard, and trackpad? I’d love the ability to carry all my software and data around in a phone without lugging around a laptop or having to buy a desktop computer. And I’d love to never concern myself with transferring or syncing data again. And why not let us connect an iPhone to an eGPU for desktop gaming?

Look up what Tim Cook thinks about convergence. That is not what an iPhone is for. Period. This gimmick is just a pipedream of us nerds. It won't have the slightest chance in the market and it would be a subpar product. Both Huawei and Samsung have implemented such a solution on their flagship smartphones since at least two years. They work as advertised, but nobody could give half a shit about them.

Chromebooks are not a gimmick they are great laptop replacements for older folks who spend majority of their time on the web. As Apple keeps improving its own chips I have no doubt an iPhone can run a fast stable "chromeOS like" environment. Now how Apple would feel about canabalizing their iPad lineup by doing that is a different story but a chromebook/phone combo would do great in the markup imo, especially with how many older people there are that already know apples OS interface

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#159

Post by Redoubts » Thu, Nov 08, 2018, 2:52 PM UTC

gambiting wrote: post #36

Svexav wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why does it have to be a laptop? What not an iPhone with a desktop mode you can pair with a monitor, keyboard, and trackpad? I’d love the ability to carry all my software and data around in a phone without lugging around a laptop or having to buy a desktop computer. And I’d love to never concern myself with transferring or syncing data again. And why not let us connect an iPhone to an eGPU for desktop gaming?

>>What not an iPhone with a desktop mode you can pair with a monitor, keyboard, and trackpad? That sounds like the most un-apple thing I can possibly imagine. Their ethos was always to build a device that does something incredibly well - a phone that can be a phone but also a desktop computer is everything but this.

How do you figure? The iPhone was unveiled as a 3-in-1 device during its first keynote.

Re: Apple walks Ars through the iPad Pro’s A12X system on a chip

#160

Post by technofiend » Thu, Nov 08, 2018, 2:57 PM UTC

hermenaut wrote: post #158

camillomiller wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look up what Tim Cook thinks about convergence. That is not what an iPhone is for. Period. This gimmick is just a pipedream of us nerds. It won't have the slightest chance in the market and it would be a subpar product. Both Huawei and Samsung have implemented such a solution on their flagship smartphones since at least two years. They work as advertised, but nobody could give half a shit about them.

Chromebooks are not a gimmick they are great laptop replacements for older folks who spend majority of their time on the web. As Apple keeps improving its own chips I have no doubt an iPhone can run a fast stable "chromeOS like" environment. Now how Apple would feel about canabalizing their iPad lineup by doing that is a different story but a chromebook/phone combo would do great in the markup imo, especially with ho…

>Chromebooks are not a gimmick they are great laptop replacements for older folks who spend majority of their time on the web.

A friend of mine is a master real estate broker. He's a good example of someone can move almost entirely to a chromebook or an ipad because nearly everything is now web based. So it's not just old folks or people just surfing but regular people doing their jobs. In particular this guy is someone who has half his browser eaten up by toolbars and buys a new computer every few years "because the old one is too slow." A chromebook or ipad is a great place to park those people since they're curated environments and not the free-for-all virus delivery and identity theft machines PCs are for the unwary.