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Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

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Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Two hours of commuting in the south east of the UK is as little as thirty miles each way in the overground part alone. Quite a common commute. Far from a ridiculous one, and if you get a seat, not really very uncomfortable. You can either drive it and do nothing but listen to something relatively simple, or sit in a train and read/work/draw/listen/play games/sleep. (It’s not my commute; I work from home. But I visit…

30 miles is an outrageous commute. To put it another way, there are 2800 square miles of land closer than your job.

2 hours each way is indeed not a very sustainable commute. I had a 90 minute one about every other day for a bit over a year and I wouldn't have wanted to do that long-term.

However, 30 miles is significantly under the average US commuting distance. And, unless you live and work near an urban downtown, 30 miles probably doesn't get you to a lot of appropriate professional jobs. I live in an exurb outside a major metro and my (nominal) office is the nearest tech job I could physically commute to and it barely squeezes in under 30 miles.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For the same reason they deliberately made iphone apps look bad -- they want applications designed to work with the device to make it a good experience and not applications designed for something else shoehorned in. I see some real wisdom in this approach considering how poor some of the alternative experiences are. Ultimately why would you buy it if it's just an inferior laptop with a touchscreen that you can detach…

> Ultimately why would you buy it if it's just an inferior laptop with a touchscreen that you can detach? For the same reason you carry an "inferior" camera, pda, navigation system, cellphone with very short battery life and undersized movie screen: a smartphone does all that okay-ishly. Or why ultrabooks are vastly more popular than gaming laptops. Convenience and form factor trump "inferior" all the time.

If you have to use the keyboard for certain tasks and so basically must always keep it attached to one it’s now heavier and more awkward than a MacBook Air. So you’re making my point here.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#503
post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

30 miles is an outrageous commute. To put it another way, there are 2800 square miles of land closer than your job.

2 hours each way is indeed not a very sustainable commute. I had a 90 minute one about every other day for a bit over a year and I wouldn't have wanted to do that long-term. However, 30 miles is significantly under the average US commuting distance. And, unless you live and work near an urban downtown, 30 miles probably doesn't get you to a lot of appropriate professional jobs. I live in an exurb outside a major metr…

No, the average US commute is 16 miles one way, whereas OP was saying 30 miles each way:

https://hbr.org/2021/05/that-dreaded-commute-is-actually-goo...

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#504
post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2 hours each way is indeed not a very sustainable commute. I had a 90 minute one about every other day for a bit over a year and I wouldn't have wanted to do that long-term. However, 30 miles is significantly under the average US commuting distance. And, unless you live and work near an urban downtown, 30 miles probably doesn't get you to a lot of appropriate professional jobs. I live in an exurb outside a major metr…

No, the average US commute is 16 miles one way, whereas OP was saying 30 miles each way: https://hbr.org/2021/05/that-dreaded-commute-is-actually-goo...

I was basing it on this data: https://www.zippia.com/advice/average-commute-time-statistic...

But, yes, other numbers seem to be lower (and are generally more likely to quote commute time rather than distance which is probably more relevant for most people).

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#506
Tried using an iPad pro as a workstation. Terrible ergonomics. iPadOS multitasking is a terrible experience. USB-C transfer speeds were bad. Overall very disappointed with the experience. Went back to Macbook Pro after a couple of weeks of pain.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#507
post #149

The key sentence here is: > This is the fundamental difference between the Mac (a platform that basically lets developers and users do anything they want) and the iPad (where if Apple doesn’t specifically allow it, it can’t be done). Apple (since Lisa/Mac, after Apple II, which had an open architecture) likes appliances and to control the user experience, so the iPad is "more Apple" than Macs are. Whenever I am waiti…

You'd think depending on the person, they'd travel with EITHER their phone OR their iPad OR their laptop You're missing a few major scenarios. - The iPad works as a second monitor for a Mac laptop. Great for creative/tech people. - If people are traveling for work, they are bringing their work laptop which may have corporate lockdown/spyware software installed. Therefore using their work laptop for entertainment migh…

> The iPad works as a second monitor for a Mac laptop. Great for creative/tech people.

You need to be logged into the same Apple ID, which is a huge hassle for everybody who has a different Apple ID for personal and work use.

There’s tonnes of Apple features that break because of this. Apple’s view is that there’s a 1:1 correspondence between Apple IDs and people, and everything they do is designed around that fact.

> At least - thanks to the EU - soon they can all share the same USB-C charger.

I have a MacBook Pro, an iPhone, an Android phone, an Apple Watch, an iPad, and AirPods Pro; so I have fairly demanding charging needs.

I have the MagSafe Duo Charger and a Minix Neo P3 to plug into the wall. I have a lightning cable to plug the Duo Charger into the Minix. From there, the Duo Charger can charge both phones, the watch, and the AirPods. I have a USB-C cable I can use to charge the laptop and the iPad from the Neo P3. Obviously I can’t charge absolutely everything simultaneously, but I never need to because most of the batteries last days and I don’t use all the devices simultaneously anyway.

So all of those devices but I just need a wall charger, a Duo and two cables. The “oh no, everything is so complex because Apple refuses to use USB-C” hand wringing is massively overblown. Does it really matter that my iPhone, my AirPods, and my watch don’t have USB-C when all I do to charge them is put them down on a pad when I’m not using them? Sure, my Android phone has a USB-C port, but I charge my iPhone and my Android phone the same way – by putting them down on a pad. What is the EU forcing Apple to add a USB-C port on the iPhone actually achieving for me if I never use the Lightning port on the current models?

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#508

Earlier quoted context omitted.

you are missing thr point - can they use 'Only' iPad?

Who said anything about only? The article is about using iPad only specifically for travel. And the parent was discussing iPads in general.

Procreate is iPad-only. Nobody uses iPads because they like iPads. They just like that one software. They would much prefer use it on a Wacom or Xenselabs device, though.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#509
post #408

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair Microsoft has their own version of an iPad that converts into a laptop and it doesn’t work that well from what I heard.

It's been about 10 years since I used my surface pro at uni. The main problems that I remember were 1) top heavy, because all the hardware is on the screen portion, so it's difficult to balance and use it on your lap 2) lack of processing power due to the form factor and thermal limitations 3) lack of touch friendly windows apps that can make it truly useful as a tablet 1 probably can't be helped, but 2 and 3 should…

This reply comes to you via a Surface Pro on my lap as I lay on a couch. #1 is true but not as bad as it might come across to someone who hasn't used one. If they used a friction hinge range than a true flap this would be largely ameliorated, but I don't know if you can pull it off without ruining the form factor.

#2 is subjective and depends on your use-case. I find that for mine (circuit design, PDF markup, email/web, low-requirements mechanical CAD, casual gaming) it's totally fine.

#3 is very real. I don't use the Surface Pro as a pure tablet almost ever. The only exception is if I'm stuck on a plane and there's no room for the keyboard and all I'm doing is reading.

I really wish the keyboard could talk wirelessly back to the tablet so that I could put the keyboard behind the screen and still type on it every now and then when I'm primarily drawing with the computer.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#510
post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You'd think depending on the person, they'd travel with EITHER their phone OR their iPad OR their laptop, depending on whether they are private people, non-technical "creatives" or IT/technical/dev folks, but instead, everybody appears to be travelling with ALL THREE devices instead I can't answer a call or text my family with my laptop while I'm on the go. I can't plug my macbook into a car to use maps or play mus…

Maybe it's an American thing but I don't think I know a single person who owns or uses an ipad, with the exception of rich parents who use them exclusively to distract children. I certainly don't notice a lot of ipad users in airports or trains.

Most of my family in Germany have an iPad. In fairness many households I know have one. Especially for elderly people it’s the perfect computer (as in laptop, desktop) substitute.
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