Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake • Hacker News Board

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#391

Post by mcphage » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 3:30 PM UTC

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #177

radicaldreamer wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In practice, this means being able to run MacOS on them. All the hardware is already there, it's just a matter of time until Apple has the "courage" to enable it.

The issue is not courage. Apple knows that the use cases for the Macbook Air and the iPad Pro significantly overlap. So they use software limitations to avoid canibalising sells of one with the other even if it means making the iPad Pro a lesser product than it could be.

> So they use software limitations to avoid canibalising sells of one with the other

I'm not sure that's the case—Apple has generally not been afraid to cannibalize sales of their devices by their own devices.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#392

Post by [deleted] » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 3:36 PM UTC

addisonl wrote: post #348

melvyn2 wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As surprising as you may find it, Apple doesn't have a monopoly on good hardware. The stereotype of any non-macbook being a toaster is practically a strawman at this point (while people are so quick to forget the atrocity of the i9 macbook).

Show me the laptop that is as good or better than the new 15” MacBook Air at the same price. Needs the same or better specs, build quality, and local in-person support (i.e. a worldwide dense network of retail stores). Good luck!

[deleted]

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#393

Post by diffeomorphism » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 3:41 PM UTC

ubermonkey wrote: post #388

diffeomorphism wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How so? An iPad pro plus keyboard is heavier, bulkier and much more expensive than a macbook air. That is the comparison, not "lugging your dell".

Even if what you said was true -- that an iPad + keyboard is heavier and more expensive -- an Air is less flexible, has only one usable form factor, and has drastically less battery life than the iPad solution.

Are you saying apple is lying? Because they publish both weight and battery life numbers. Hint: "less" means the number is smaller.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#394

Post by _fat_santa » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 3:44 PM UTC

loehnsberg wrote: post #323

jug wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, iPadOS has deep, lingering deficiencies as an OS for professional use. But their ads and keynotes are convincing, so I can't blame people falling for it! There's this weird juxtaposition of a terrible productivity machine combined with some mature, amazing and easy to use software in the demos, and Apple makes it look like iPads can be deeply embedded in your workflow and people have fun and laugh as that tiny d…

I use an iPad Pro mostly for my lectures and for reading and annotating PDFs. After the latest upgrade of iPadOS, I also explored it for more serious work connecting it to a mouse and keyboard. If you're happy with working inside a browser and use it as a terminal, it works just fine, but as soon as you need to manage files or quickly want to edit a document on the device, it becomes pretty painful. I really don't un…

And if you're using it primarily as web browser you can get a Chromebook that will do the job for a fraction of the cost.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#395

Post by makeitdouble » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 3:46 PM UTC

BiteCode_dev wrote: post #279

basisword wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Boggles the mind why people still fall for the iPad Pro as a serious work machine beyond writing meme. So it’s not good as a work machine…apart from most jobs. Most jobs are email and documents. If you’re on the move a lot then it’s a good device for those jobs. Jobs which require a lot of computing power, large screens, input devices other than a keyboard and touch screen, are definitely the minority.

Managing multiple windows, copy/pasting, using shortcuts from muscle memory and things like instant middle mouse click are terrible experiences on any tablet or phone. Just opening a new tab on a browser is tedious, and if you deal with a lot of intranet tools, this is the very basics of productivity.

> terrible experiences on any tablet or phone

It sometimes feel like an unspoken taboo, but windows tablets are a thing. Or Chromebooks if there is a strong need for mobile app support.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#396

Post by bjoli » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 3:46 PM UTC

reportgunner wrote: post #198

bjoli wrote: post #159

We use iPads for work. Reading music mostly, but also for a limited amount of office tasks. I have started carrying a razer huntsman mini (the silent red kind) because I can't stand typing on the touch keyboard. I also couldn't find any possibility to remap the keyboard to svdvorak so I remapped the huntsman in hardware. With a proper keyboard it is actually almost half-decent. My colleagues mocked me until they saw…

Why not just get a laptop ?

Because my work wont buy me one. The iPads are mostly used for reading music. A laptop would suck for that.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#397

Post by mcfedr » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 3:46 PM UTC

klyonrad wrote: post #238

behnamoh wrote: post #14

I’ve owned ipads for a long time and their productivity benefits compared to my Mac and iphone has never improved over the years. This year I’m selling my last ipad and won’t buy again until Apple throws a “real” OS at the thing. one of the worst things about ios is that files get copied for each app. Say I download a PDF in the Documents app and want to annotate it. As soon as I open it with NoteX, a copy of the PDF…

> until Apple throws a “real” OS at the thing + it still doesn't offer user profiles, so it fails to serve as a family device in the living room

Yeah, it's such an obvious use case and so limiting!

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#398

Post by scarface_74 » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 3:48 PM UTC

smoldesu wrote: post #382

scarface_74 wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Does your old Netbook have only 256MB of RAM and 500Mhz processor?

Because if so, that's enough to run 4 simultaneous instances of Linux!

How well will that work with the modern web and modern web browsers?

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#399

Post by nimajneb » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 3:52 PM UTC

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #204

Boggles the mind why people still fall for the iPad Pro as a serious work machine beyond writing meme. The fact that Final Cut launched on it recently and while its exporting you have to sit there leaving the app open you can't go do something else is the punchline of the decade for the lie that this is a serious machine. This is before we get into the comical evolution from "You just need the touchscreen" to "Actual…

I want an iPad for drawing to make sticker files to send to my Cricut. While it's apparently the best pen/device for drawing, the fact that they are priced $500+ is has been a blocking point for me so far. I'm not sure why people think they can export video from an editor, that doesn't sound like a pleasant experience.

Re: Buying an iPad Pro for coding was a mistake

#400

Post by _fat_santa » Fri, Jun 30, 2023, 3:53 PM UTC

gcanyon wrote: post #378

Well, yeah -- anything involving text on iOS is far from optimal, so buying an iPad Pro for: email, blogging, creative writing, memo-writing for work, working in spreadsheets, document creation in general; is a mistake. I read a commentary years back about Google's social efforts. The author blamed Google's failings on the author's assumption that no one at Google actually used their social products. For comparison,…

> 2. God help you if the insertion point is just a character or two away from where you need it: you either have to do the long-press on the keyboard, then carefully drag to correct it, or tap somewhere else completely and then tap where you want it.

I don't know if anyone remembers but back in 2012ish there was a jailbreak tweak in Cydia that allowed you to move the cursor by swiping on your keyboard. It was really intuitive as you don't have to lift your fingers off the keyboard and I remember asking myself why this wasn't just part of iOS. Apple never added that feature to iOS and I still miss it. Not sure how it would have worked today with keyboard swiping but I wish apple let you switch between "swipe to type" and "swipe to move cursor".