iPad Pro M1 • Hacker News Board

Re: iPad Pro M1

#171

Post by jandrese » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 6:56 PM UTC

fastball wrote: post #107

mulmen wrote: 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.

"Touch screens are an anti-feature" – I guess you don't have a smartphone then? The benefit is obvious: if you were the kind of person that previously had a laptop and an iPad (iPads / touch screens are nice for all sorts of things, esp. for say artists), then an optimal solution would be a device you can use as both. An iPad Pro that could run macOS and have a keyboard case with trackpad seems ideal. Or if you're th…

Touch screens are a design compromise. Not as good as dedicated input devices, but necessary if you're putting something in your pocket and perfectly acceptable if all you are doing is consuming media and maybe some light typing.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#172

Post by JimBlackwood » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 6:56 PM UTC

smasher164 wrote: post #46

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…

Exactly the same here, coming from a 2017 one.

There hasn’t been a moment I lacked computing power or battery life or anything else. The software experience has been lacking.

I was really hoping iPadOS would bring us closer to MacOS. There was even some hope that an M1 iPad would come with MacOS.

I just want to be able to do things without needing an expensive app or a really shitty work around. If it wasn’t for needing the pencil, I’d have stepped away quite some years ago.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#173

Post by joakleaf » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 6:57 PM UTC

supernova87a wrote: post #64

Correct me if my layman's understanding is wrong, but the M1 in an iPad is not as significant a change as it was in the Macbook/Mini, isn't that correct? iPad was already using Apple's Arm A12/13 chip, etc so this is kind of incremental?

Geekbench: iPad Pro 12.9-inch (4th generation), A12z: Single-core: 1128, Multi-core: 4713

MacBook Air, M1: Single-core: 1730, Multi-core: 7640

Re: iPad Pro M1

#174

Post by Ancapistani » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 6:57 PM UTC

jaaron wrote: post #104

nchase wrote: post #2

So do these things run Xcode and Terminal, or not?

I haven't used it, but I've heard of others using Blink Shell [1] with Mosh [2] very effectively. [1] https://blink.sh/ [2] https://mosh.org/

I use Blink regularly, and it’s great. The only issue is that the keyboard’s Cmd button gets “stuck” in software sometimes. Blink added a modal to warn you to tap the key to fix it,

Re: iPad Pro M1

#175

Post by jack_riminton » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 6:57 PM UTC

fastball wrote: post #97

Spartan-S63 wrote: post #13

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 mean, why can't you just port macOS to iPad? It's all M1 now.

Dual boot would be a great hack

Re: iPad Pro M1

#176

Post by Toutouxc » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 6:58 PM UTC

christiansakai wrote: post #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,…

I'd go with the iPad for some casual content consumption, but in my opinion even the iPad Pro is totally overkill. iPad Air has already been upgraded to the new design and is much cheaper.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#177

Post by heresaPizza » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 6:58 PM UTC

Austin_Conlon wrote: post #6

What kinds of iPadOS workflows benefit from this most? The device never seemed lacking in performance.

I agree with the ones below who say that it’s because of economy of scale, but I also think they made this choice because we’ll see more at the WWDC and in the next years. Apple keeps saying the iPad is a computer, when in fact it isn’t. But the iPad is capable of many things the Mac can’t do. It has the pencil, it can become more portable when used alone, it has 5G, cameras, the lidar and more. As long as they can sell both, they’ll keep doing it, but I think at some point 13” Macs (at least the Air and the cheapest Pro) will be replaced by the iPad, when it will have a better software. After the Apple Silicon announcement many choices started making sense, and in a similar way this iPad will be a way to test in which direction the computer market will take.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#178

Post by baby » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 7:00 PM UTC

Austin_Conlon wrote: post #6

What kinds of iPadOS workflows benefit from this most? The device never seemed lacking in performance.

My thoughts as well, I freaking love my iPad pro and it already is good enough at anything I throw it. I reminds me of the iPhone 6s which I kept for like 5 years, until recently where the scheduled obsolescence forced me to change phone.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#179

Post by camillomiller » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 7:00 PM UTC

swiley wrote: post #109

smasher164 wrote: post #46

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…

Peak Hacker News. Comparing an iPad Pro with a Pinephone to do something 99.9% of iPad Pro target audience wouldn’t even know the meaning of.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#180

Post by jordanab » Tue, Apr 20, 2021, 7:00 PM UTC

jandrese wrote: post #166

jordanab wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

surfing the web whilst on the couch -- consuming media checking in on my RSS feeds -- consuming media casual gaming -- consuming media watching movies -- consuming media reading PDF & Kindle e-books -- consuming media handwritten & typed notes for work & study -- light typing replying emails -- light typing portable RDP, VNC & SSH client on the go -- not sure This is what the OP was complaining about. It's fine for c…

Programming, video editing, graphics design, writing papers, etc... For these applications the iPad Pro has been a disappointment

Apart from maybe graphics design, I don't believe the iPad Pro was ever advertised to do those things (if I'm not mistaken), so I can imagine your disappointment if you expected to do those things on it.