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MacBook Neo and how the iPad should be

craigmod.com

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Re: MacBook Neo and how the iPad should be

#11

Post by justinclift »

ginko wrote: post #6

I just want a notebook the size and weight of a 10" ipad pro that I can run desktop software on. The Macbook Neo is 12" and weighs 1.23kg which is light but not "forget you have it in your bag" light. It's frustating knowing that the ipad _could_ run mac os but won't due to intentional market segmentation by Apple.

I was using an old (2nd or 3nd Gen) Surface Pro for several months doing this, and apart from it being Windows based (ugh) it was pretty good. Until I dropped the thing. o_O

I have a Surface Book now, that I put Linux on for a while (bad idea, super flaky with Surface Linux). I'd probably recommend the Surface Pro again over the Surface Book, and just put up with Windows (ugh x2). Using the AtlasOS variant at least, so less crappy compared to stock Windows.

Re: MacBook Neo and how the iPad should be

#12

Post by nayroclade »

I think this touch-only idea would be more viable if we had far better haptic feedback from screens. All the fancy gestures and fluidic UI don't help when your only means of interaction is pushing against an unresponsive pane of glass. Maybe something better just isn't possible, but I'd love to see Apple push things forward in this area.

Re: MacBook Neo and how the iPad should be

#13

Post by exidex »

vessenes wrote: post #9

Buried in here is the very nice idea of an AI dividend for CLI users - as we keep designing interfaces for LLMs directly, those interfaces are text-oriented, and afford us a look at a future with the command line being central. I like that. My recent tools are mostly AI first, and therefore CLI first. I’ve been toying with adding JSON modes to them, and this is undeniably useful, but I think I’ll keep JSON under flag…

That is only because there is no viable platform to build similar gui-based tooling on

Re: MacBook Neo and how the iPad should be

#14

Post by bnj »

This makes me think of the interface for one handed touch screen typing that was used in the movie version of Ended’s game; it stuck with me as an example of a more touch friendly flexible input mechanism that really challenged how I thought about interfaces. Someone made an open source implementation of it but half the battle is getting these idioms to take root. I wish Apple would experiment more with novel touch interfaces in the way the article describes.

Re: MacBook Neo and how the iPad should be

#15

Post by tomaskafka »

I sign this essay. Apple has apparently multiple opposing goals for the iPadOS:

1. Make it powerful enough so that it can be sold as equivalent to macOS

2. Keep it locked like iOS, to be sold as secure alternative to computer for your parents and kids (which rules out all the workflow customization pros need)

3. Don’t make it powerful enough for people to stop buying Macs (Tim Cook’s biggest fear is of you not buying another slab of glass - no multiprofile for you, ever)

The intersection of these is an empty set.

I use my 2018 Pro as a great browser and YouTube machine, with zero intent to upgrade until the above situation changes. It’s useless for anything else, and even if I got M4 powerhouse, I wouldn’t be able to take it as a single machine for holiday for emergency Weathergraph hotfix or server debugging.

Re: MacBook Neo and how the iPad should be

#16

Post by steveBK123 »

ginko wrote: post #6

I just want a notebook the size and weight of a 10" ipad pro that I can run desktop software on. The Macbook Neo is 12" and weighs 1.23kg which is light but not "forget you have it in your bag" light. It's frustating knowing that the ipad _could_ run mac os but won't due to intentional market segmentation by Apple.

They don’t even make the 10in pro anymore. The 11pro is 1lb but the keyboard case your inevitably also going to want is another 1.3lbs.. so you’re back at 1kg total, and worse than a MacBook neo for MacBook like uses.

Re: MacBook Neo and how the iPad should be

#18

Post by bombcar »

MDTHLN wrote: post #3
gyomu wrote: post #2

Touchscreens suck for text manipulation. The keyboard and the mouse are the superior input devices for wrangling characters and words and lines and paragraphs. The author wants using the iPad to “feel like a finger ballet, your hands swooping and swiping”, but also the author seems to care a lot about emails and Claude Code and writing. Those are fundamentally at odds, and it makes complete sense that they’re very ha…

> The iPad is fantastic for, as the author points out, “reading the news and watching YouTube and playing games” > I think there’s just a kind of techie who desperately wishes they could do everything on an iPad, but really the machine meant for them is a lightweight MacBook (Neo or Air) Couldn't agree more. I am that person. I spent months deliberating before buying an 11" iPad (with keyboard). Used it for a week fo…

I’ve tried three or four times over the decades to make an iPad “work” and have never found anything to “do” with it that doesn’t quickly get subsumed by my phone (more easily available) or my laptop (better typing etc).

It always ends up playing videos or the kids playing some silly game.

Re: MacBook Neo and how the iPad should be

#19

Post by nicbou »

tomaskafka wrote: post #15

I sign this essay. Apple has apparently multiple opposing goals for the iPadOS: 1. Make it powerful enough so that it can be sold as equivalent to macOS 2. Keep it locked like iOS, to be sold as secure alternative to computer for your parents and kids (which rules out all the workflow customization pros need) 3. Don’t make it powerful enough for people to stop buying Macs (Tim Cook’s biggest fear is of you not buying…

The iPad is really good for digital art.

Re: MacBook Neo and how the iPad should be

#20

Post by tonyedgecombe »

ginko wrote: post #6

I just want a notebook the size and weight of a 10" ipad pro that I can run desktop software on. The Macbook Neo is 12" and weighs 1.23kg which is light but not "forget you have it in your bag" light. It's frustating knowing that the ipad _could_ run mac os but won't due to intentional market segmentation by Apple.

The trouble is that would mean adding touch to macOS. Judging by what happened with Windows and Gnome I suspect that would be regressive.
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