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iPad Pro M1

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Re: iPad Pro M1

#481

Post by taxyovio »

I see a lot people bashing on how iPadOS is holding back the hardware of the iPad Pro. I totally understand where this train of thoughts is coming from. But how many of these people actually tried to use the iPad Pro to its fullest extent as the main computer? I suspect most of the people here are accustomed to MacOS and never really dug iPadOS for productivity for extended periods of time.

Besides, the iPad Pro is really not designed nor advertised as replacement for MacBook. They have very different audiences in mind. Of course it sucks for the desktop tasks that MacOS was built for. But the iPad Pro beats the Mac for artists, students, and researchers in most tasks.

I’ve been using an iPad Pro for all of my work as a mathematical physicist for many years. I think the iPadOS is absolutely fantastic for what I do on a daily basis: editing and reading PDFs (LiquidText), writing with LaTeX (TeX Writer), opening a ton of Safari tabs. It can even do an okay job on editing videos (LumaFusion), photos (Darkroom), writing codes (Textastic, Working Copy). Of course it’s not the best for all of these things, but it excels on where the MacOS sucks, and vice versa.

As for the new iPad Pro announcement, I absolutely don’t think the M1 is a waste. I can totally see myself utilising the extra RAM to stop Safari tabs from unloading, to working on larger workspace in LiquidText, to editing more tracks in LumaFusion, and etc.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#482

Post by ulfw »

FearlessNebula wrote: post #345
andy_ppp wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

My issue is that an $800 iPad Pro with keyboard and pencil ($1200 including the accessories) should be in a whole different class in terms of productivity than the $329 base iPad. But it's not. They both do the same thing (good for consumption, decent for creativity, pretty crappy for productivity)

A $2000 PC isn't any different from a $900 one either. It's just faster/more memory/more SSD/better graphics card. It still runs the same Office/Photoshop/Chrome/whatever people use.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#483

Post by silicon2401 »

jermeh wrote: post #209
jordanab wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you read the press release, Apple VERY heavily emphasizes "creative workflows"

Do you take all marketing that seriously? IMO it's best to decide what a tool is best for based on quantitative measures, and assume marketing material is just meaningless fluff to get readers excited. I'm pretty sure you can find $200 laptops get advertised as great for creative workflows

Re: iPad Pro M1

#484

Post by FqOD4xih7Uq6m9Z »

cjm42 wrote: post #288
Joeri wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the problem being described, but I just tried this and it is impossible for me to type so fast in the iphone calculator app that it misses inputs. The animation completes in the background but does not block anything.

If I type "3 + 6 + 9" as fast as I can, then hit "=", I only get 18 about half the time. Sometimes I get 12, sometimes 15, occasionally something else. This is with a iPhone 11 Pro on iOS 14.4.2. It's ridiculous. I always hear the same number of clicks, though.

Just tested this a few times on an XS Max 14.4.2 and got 18 every time.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#485

Post by kidagakash »

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…

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Re: iPad Pro M1

#487

Post by Grustaf »

majewsky wrote: post #476
Grustaf wrote: post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

iOS animations are not pre-rendered, and more and more they are even interruptible, even interactive. For example, if you start swiping the home screen you can catch the swipe at any point.

That is not necessarily evidence that the swiping animation is not pre-rendered. It just means that if it's pre-rendered, it can be slowed down, sped up and reversed based on the user's finger's motion.

I can tell you for certain that the OS swipe animations are not pre-rendered (you can easily tell, sometimes one or both of the views involved are animated for example), and I highly doubt anyone would do that. What would be the purpose? It's much more complex to handle, and there's no benefit.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#488

Post by manigandham »

parisidau wrote: post #446
manigandham wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, this is why the default iPhone calculator app is completely useless. These forced animations make tasks take the same amount of time regardless of how fast the hardware gets. I would love to be able to turn off all animations in iphone/ipad UIs.

You can. Settings -> Accessibility -> Motion -> Reduce Motion

That setting only changes the moving animations into fades but doesn't actually make anything faster.

Animations still take the same amount of time blocking interactivity.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#489

Post by dijit »

rvz wrote: post #479
dijit wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The hype so far is very well justified, though. There are issues, for sure, the "2 displays, max" limitation, the memory limitation, these are real problems- but they're not hidden away, they're well known and understood and if you can live with that then these are genuinely generational leaps in terms of performance/watt which _really matters_. Your negativity is misplaced, the machines limitations are well understo…

> We don't know what M2/M1X will bring, but if you want huge performance wins _today_ and not hypothetically then the M1 is delivering that. Given what Apple has done for their A10+ series processors, in their iPhones and iPads, I am long term Apple Silicon and not long term M1 which is why I skipping it and ignoring the 'huge performance wins _today_' crowd which means get in the M1 hype now, until the M1X, M2 hype…

But, I’m sorry, that makes little sense to me.

If I’m in the market for a laptop I would not buy an Intel Mac. Like you said, 3 generations ahead, it would be foolish. If we take what you said at face value then going from the latest Intel Mac to the M1 Mac is enough for most people to upgrade regardless (usual upgrade cycle is 3-5 generations). But I wasn’t making the argument that everyone should throw away their Intel Mac’s- only that if you can live with the limitations (as in, they don’t harm your productivity at all, many non-devs do use only one external screen if they use one at all) then it’s a no brainer and deserves the hype it gets.

Re: iPad Pro M1

#490

Post by calf »

camillomiller wrote: post #467
calf wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always desired an iPad Pro for displaying PDFs of piano sheet music while practicing, because it's light enough to not damage the piano stand, and has a high resolution display. But then I realize the iPad Pro is kind of overkill if I don't intend to use it for anything else. Can you recommend a cheaper alternative? Maybe one of those e-paper things, or some other light tablet?

iPad Air? But any non-Pro iPad is ok if you don’t mind much about the bezels and the less spectacular display. In general, if you have just one intended use for a tablet as a “smart lightweight device with a display”, and that use isn’t tied to an App Store app, then Android tablets are worth checking. The high-quality display might be a bit more of a problem, though, unless you go for a product with a similar price…

Ah I didn't mention, for music purposes a big screen is ideal for reading letter/A4-sized sheets of fine-print music for long periods of time. It's a pretty niche use case, I guess.
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