Live data from Hacker News

iPad Pro M1

apple.com

131–140 of 503 posts

Re: iPad Pro M1

#131

It'll be interesting to see if iPadOS 15 steps us any closer to laptop/desktop class usage. The biggest thing holding back iPad from being a real laptop replacement for so many is the software. It's also not as simple as porting macOS to iPad. I get Apple's hesitancy from a usability and a product cannibalization standpoint, but it's time they step things forward.

I'm a surface pro user. Why does Apple not just put macos on the iPad and then it can go head to head for my business? The comment above said it's not as easy as just sticking macos on them. Why? (Obviously the answer could be they simply don't want to take on that market, but technically I don't see the barrier.)

Re: iPad Pro M1

#132

To me, it doesn't matter how powerful the iPad is if the software experience is subpar. Multitasking is cumbrous enough that it might as well not exist, multi-display setups can only mirror at a fixed aspect ratio, it lacks multiple user profiles requiring a family to be under a single user, and the few apps that take advantage of the keyboard/trackpad are nowhere similar to their desktop counterparts. Take Excel for…

My thoughts exactly. Apple might have the apps, but actually getting stuff done on it feels cumbersome and strange. I'm not sure why they continue to stretch the iPad in so many directions when they could just be focusing on a good tablet experience.

It is a great tablet experience! They could have a dual boot option where you get a MacOS for real work. Otherwise you are right, don't try to make real work happen in the current form. SO MUCH FRICTION to copy and move a file around for example.

The bulk of my use is strictly tablet stuff and I think it is really great at that.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#133
For this Mother's Day I am thinking of getting my old mother either an iPad Pro (M1) or Macbook Air (M1). Emphasized on "old" because she is technically quite illiterate. She does use iPhone though. I wonder what will be the better gift for her? Is iPad quite foolproof? I am thinking of getting the magic keyboard as well and the mouse in case she needs a mouse.

Her workflow most likely just browsing, email, FaceTime, reading, thats all.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#134
post #73

The M1 has the necessary hardware to run virtualization. Apple could decide to allow VMWare or Parallels to bring desktop virtualization software to the iPad. You could have an all-in-one device for casual use, note taking, art and media consumption that turns into a capable Linux desktop at will. There's even 16GB RAM options available to make that reasonably comfortable, as well as a port to connect to a dock. But…

If it were possible to run Linux on the iPad Pro, I would upgrade in a heartbeat to a high-end configuration.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#135

To me, it doesn't matter how powerful the iPad is if the software experience is subpar. Multitasking is cumbrous enough that it might as well not exist, multi-display setups can only mirror at a fixed aspect ratio, it lacks multiple user profiles requiring a family to be under a single user, and the few apps that take advantage of the keyboard/trackpad are nowhere similar to their desktop counterparts. Take Excel for…

I can’t speak to these issues, however it would be excellent to have one of these running a full OSX. I’d certainly get one if I had that level of control to develop on it and choose which software I installed without an App Store. As things stand these devices aren’t for us, so judging them on the needs of hacker news user vs more standard consumers isn’t really a fair fight. They are deliberately limited to appeal to your gran and your 6 year old and your casual user without too many issues.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#136
post #109

To me, it doesn't matter how powerful the iPad is if the software experience is subpar. Multitasking is cumbrous enough that it might as well not exist, multi-display setups can only mirror at a fixed aspect ratio, it lacks multiple user profiles requiring a family to be under a single user, and the few apps that take advantage of the keyboard/trackpad are nowhere similar to their desktop counterparts. Take Excel for…

This is something I've been saying: Try cloning and building even a moderate project from github on iSH on the latest iThing with Apple silicon and compare the same on a pinephone with a decade old budget SoC. One will get painfully hot and visibly tick through a large fraction of the battery while not letting you look at anything else or look away from the screen without killing the 10s of minutes long operation whi…

> Try cloning and building even a moderate project from github on iSH on the latest iThing with Apple silicon

OK but you are describing something that 99.8% of iThing owners will never do.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#137
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have zero interest in using a worse laptop. Touch screens are an anti-feature. For decades we have tried as an industry to do touch interfaces on “real” computers and it’s always horrible because it’s not actually a thing worth doing. With M1 Macs being a thing I have no idea what benefits an iPad offers.

I own a 2018 iPad Pro, and it's possibly the best & most versatile device I've ever owned. Among the things I use it for are: surfing the web whilst on the couch, checking in on my RSS feeds, casual gaming, watching movies, reading PDF & Kindle e-books, handwritten & typed notes for work & study, replying emails, portable RDP, VNC & SSH client on the go. And I'm probably still forgetting a lot of things...

So about half as versatile as a big phone.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#138
post #109

To me, it doesn't matter how powerful the iPad is if the software experience is subpar. Multitasking is cumbrous enough that it might as well not exist, multi-display setups can only mirror at a fixed aspect ratio, it lacks multiple user profiles requiring a family to be under a single user, and the few apps that take advantage of the keyboard/trackpad are nowhere similar to their desktop counterparts. Take Excel for…

This is something I've been saying: Try cloning and building even a moderate project from github on iSH on the latest iThing with Apple silicon and compare the same on a pinephone with a decade old budget SoC. One will get painfully hot and visibly tick through a large fraction of the battery while not letting you look at anything else or look away from the screen without killing the 10s of minutes long operation whi…

Based on the way you phrased this I'm legitimately unsure which one gets painfully hot and which one does what you ask in your example.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#140

To me, it doesn't matter how powerful the iPad is if the software experience is subpar. Multitasking is cumbrous enough that it might as well not exist, multi-display setups can only mirror at a fixed aspect ratio, it lacks multiple user profiles requiring a family to be under a single user, and the few apps that take advantage of the keyboard/trackpad are nowhere similar to their desktop counterparts. Take Excel for…

Yeah, I saw this announcement and was thinking, “Why do I need more power?” coming from a 2018 iPad Pro. All this power is cool, but, the design of iPadOS is just not conducive to me wanting to get anything done on it. I know that’s ambiguous and hand wavey. Part of it is certainly the multitasking. Part of it is the keyboard. Part of it is no local Unix or build tools or good code editor. Yeah, I can SSH into another machine, even using mosh on a local network so it feels entirely local. But given the choice I’ll bounce and use my Macbook or desktop instead and I always make that choice because I’m not in an iPad vacuum.

It seems like they have everything lined up to put MacOS on the iPad, but it would be so unlike them to do it. What’ll they say, you can dual boot but you only boot MacOS if you have their expensive keyboard case attached? They wouldn’t do that.

Maybe someone will hack it on there eventually. An M1 MacOS on an M1 iPad “hackintosh” doesn’t seem impossible.

Post reply on HN