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Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

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Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#541

Post by oracle2025 »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #423
mvdtnz wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

In US, I hear it's a common "computer for non-tech-savvy people, who you want to set up with once, and have them not bother you for the next couple years" choice. As for the form factor, I do travel with a tablet. More specifically, a 2-in-1 device, with a stylus. An x86 one, though (specifically, Dell Latitude 5290, which has specs like MS Surface, but was 3x cheaper) - because I've learned from experience that iPad…

Android Tablets with Mobile Internet are perfectly fine phones. I've used a LTE Samsung tablet exclusively as my only "Smart" phone for a while, and had a Dual-Sim to share the same Phone number as on my "Dumb"-phone, (Nokia 8110 4G) ...

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#542

Post by Toutouxc »

ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #365
noduerme wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not defending Apple here (I'm not an iPad or iPhone user) but why would you expect a tablet to substitute for a general computing platform? My "tablet" is a Boox Nova Air C that runs full Android on an e-ink screen, but I only use it to read books, sketch, and to hand-write notes. I don't let it connect to any website I have to login to, because I don't trust the software. I don't even have a keyboard for it. Onc…

> why would you expect a tablet to substitute for a general computing platform? it already is one, just with an OS that locks down its ability to function as one why would you expect the OS to do that when it could also give the user the option to use the general computing platform as a general computing platform?

Apple has never marketed iPad as a general computing platform. (Well, except that weird “what’s a computer” ad.) No version of iPad has ever been able to run any other OS than iOS/iPadOS and the device itself was introduced as a user-friendly alternative to the clunky and ugly “tablet PCs”. When a product reminds you of a different product, or has the same amount of hardware inside as the other product, it doesn’t have to be that other product.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#543

Post by esperkin39 »

sfjailbird wrote: post #317
jll29 wrote: 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…

> 3 full-blown computing devices It's four now, with the smart watch. With LTE, the smart watch can conveniently replace the phone a lot of the time. But not ALL of the time, so, again, you'll probably be carrying both.

I feel like Smartwatches are to phones what tablets are to laptops: a supplementary device that doesn't work as well without the primary computer.

While many people might work entirely from a tablet, or even a Chromebook, you'll run into so many issues that you're better off carrying a laptop to cover all bases. In a pinch, a watch or tablet can pinch-hit for the device they supplement, but using them as a primary device every day gets old really quick.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#544

Post by tomatocracy »

emodendroket wrote: post #520
tomatocracy wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find the Microsoft Surface Pro works in this niche much better than the Yoga devices - they're lighter, smaller and the keyboard cover can be removed entirely for a tablet experience.

That would help but some of what I found annoying was the delay in transitioning between modes and software generally not designed with tablet mode in mind. Not sure if the situation has improved in the last few years on those points.

Not sure if that's changed over time or not but transition speed is more or less the same between the two in my experience. There's some software which does a decent enough job at tablet mode (enough that I don't feel the need for a separate tablet - basically media consumption type activities - ebook readers, Netflix, etc are covered well enough and web browsing works for me) and the surface pro form factor feels much better for things like note taking using the surface pen in my experience (my work laptop is a Yoga, personal laptop is a Surface Pro so I use both regularly). On the negative side, the Surface Pro does make some different compromises - particularly the type cover isn't quite as good as the Yoga laptop keyboard (though of course any laptop keyboard is never that great) and the stand which folds out of the back isn't as good as having a laptop supported by the base if you have it on anything other than a decent desk. But overall I'd say the Surface Pro gets much closer to a true 2 in 1 device.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#545

Post by Toutouxc »

ryukoposting wrote: post #421
jll29 wrote: 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…

I don't bring my laptop with me on non-business trips. It's a matter of principle. I have a cheap Android tablet but it never leaves my living room. I don't know what people do with tablets while traveling that they couldn't do with their phone just as easily (at least in a non-professional context). The OP certainly didn't get me any closer to an answer!

As a proud (and happy) owner of an iPhone Mini, there’s quite a lot of things that I can’t do comfortably on a phone. I use an iPad Mini as a travel companion for reading, maps, some games, playing music (longer battery life) and sorting through photos I took on my phone.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#546

Post by newaccount74 »

The biggest issue I have with iOS is that it absolutely sucks at multitasking.

If you want to one task (eg. take notes, watch a movie, make a sketch) then it is great. Even the files app is good enough now to quickly find some document when you need it.

But it becomes unusable as soon as you switch between tasks.

On the Mac, I can just move some windows to the side, work on a different task, then go back to what I was doing before. My work is waiting for me right where I left it.

Advanced users can even use spaces for switching between tasks.

On iOS, I need to go to every app that I used and try to return to the previous state, at which point I'm so annoyed that I'm switching back to the Mac.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#547

Post by hackpelican »

millzlane wrote: post #528

I suppose the writer will have to wait a few more years before apple 'reinvents' the touch screen and convinces everyone they invented the touchscreen laptop. Notice how just about every other manufacture has a touch screen offering. The same was true for DVD writers back when apple called it the super drive. Many devices on the market came with DVD writers. The ipad pro as great as it is, will not replace a Macbook.…

I hope Apple never releases a touch screen MacBook. MacOS is the only operating system that still has UI elements appropriately sized for mouse use. Everything else uses huge buttons to account for touch use-cases.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#548

Post by jeroenhd »

TheHappyOddish wrote: post #367
jeroenhd wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think "iPad is a big iPod" worked great, but then they brought out the iPad Pro. That thing was supposed to be for Professionals doing Professional Work Things. After that came the iPad Mini, which is an iPad but smaller (so it's an iPod but bigger but smaller?). Weirdly enough, I don't think the iPad Pro is more than just the iPad but faster and bigger. There are tons of model-based software restrictions between t…

> Meanwhile, Samsung has had Dex for a few years now, and it works great. It's included on any midrange product and up and it feels like what you would expect from "what happens when I plug my phone/tablet into a USB C dock". It is a lot more convenent to carry an iPad with a magic keyboard than to carry a USB-C dock, keyboard and mouse though.

Dex also works on tablets without a dock, of course. You can just attach a keyboard sleeve to the tablet to turn it into a laptop.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#549

Post by bemusedthrow75 »

ghaff wrote: post #501
googlryas wrote: post #493

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…

Should clarify that I say two hours per day above. I don't think I'd spend two hours going thirty miles, or even necessarily choose a job that involved driving thirty miles every day.

But thirty miles in an hour on urban/suburban rail isn't particularly unusual. And this time is time you can use, if you have even a little bit of method about it. I know people who have done all the reading for entire higher education degrees in that period of time.

At any rate, the notion to which you're responding regarding the area of possible commute being 2800 square miles is foolish. You have to go to where the jobs gather, and there are all sorts of complex reasons why they don't distribute evenly across that area that a rational person should not spend time weighing up when they consider whether an iPad might be a useful thing for the train.

In my case, if I made the commute into London on a daily basis, knocking down the distance to this hypothetical US average of 16 miles might save, I think, about a third of the journey time in practice. It would knock off half of the price of a season ticket, which might be useful. But it would add easily 40% to the cost of a house, which is the overriding concern. And even then I'd still buy the iPad for that journey.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#550

Post by rchaud »

ryukoposting wrote: post #421
jll29 wrote: 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…

I don't bring my laptop with me on non-business trips. It's a matter of principle. I have a cheap Android tablet but it never leaves my living room. I don't know what people do with tablets while traveling that they couldn't do with their phone just as easily (at least in a non-professional context). The OP certainly didn't get me any closer to an answer!

I got a foldable phone, which has replaced my tablet. Somewhat ironically though, I bought a lapdock to use my phone's desktop mode. It's actually a pretty neat solution that bridges the mobile-desktop functionality divide. I wrote about my setup here:

https://rafichaudhury.com/fanzine/lapdock

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