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Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

sixcolors.com

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Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even Final Cut Pro on iPad requires staying in the foreground during exports.

Never understand why apple ships their iPads and Macbooks with such little ram by default. Yes I understand profit, but it really limits what these devices can do. The numbers have not really changed much in the last several years...

It's not that aenemic in current form though, with the 1TB model it has 16GB.

I'm pretty sure Final Cut Pro would export a video in the background of an 8GB MBA just fine.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#122
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And in the case of the iPad, try to sell you them individually for each family member... It's 2023, and you still can't have multiple user accounts on any model of iPad, "Pro" or otherwise. This is a feature you can just take for-granted on virtually any other "computer" too.

The thing is: I can't even do media consumptions and web browsing on iPad. Browsing the web without uBlock and a few other extensions is a battle I'm not willing to fight. And so many video codecs not supported on iPad makes it unusable for media consumption. And have you tried opening your videos in other apps? Guess what? The file gets copied to the other app, meaning that now you have two versions of the same movi…

For web browsing I recommend installing Firefox Focus and then using that as a content blocker.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#123

I know Apple has a strong resistance to the two-in-one form factor, but an M-series MacBook Air with detachable screen that seamlessly transitions between macOS and iPadOS is basically my dream device.

The iPad I have has effectively become a second screen for my MacBook as a with a walcom tablet. It's too heavy to read from.

I mostly use the iPad for reading, ebooks, pdfs, saved web articles, HN, etc.

I initially got the biggest iPad but it was certainly too heavy to hold like a book and read comfortably. I switched to an iPad mini which was perfect for reading everything but PDFs, the problem is I read a lot of PDFs. I currently use an 11” and take the cover off to read with it, I find it to be the right trade off between size and weight for me.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#124
post #80

I wrote a 160,000 word book this year on an iPad Air with smart keyboard (I find how the pro keyboard doesn't fold all the way back to allow holding the iPad landscape too big of an annoyance to buy one). I think it's a brilliant device, and while limited, does do some things better than the Mac - annotating PDFs and ebooks with the Pencil being one of them. Also nice to hold a document one is working on in landscape…

If apple did a proper convertible laptop format, which is a hinge and touchscreen away, how many pros would care about the iPad? It would be lighter than the iPad and keyboard combo too.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#125
post #27

I know Apple has a strong resistance to the two-in-one form factor, but an M-series MacBook Air with detachable screen that seamlessly transitions between macOS and iPadOS is basically my dream device.

The problem with a convertible MacBook is that you'd have to move the battery to behind the display, at which point you're really just making an iPad that can be attached to a keyboard dock and run macOS. I think the latter is a plausible evolution of the iPad Pro.

Or they can leave it in the body and give it a 360 hinge

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MacOS allows me to run any software I want. It has a terminal, and allows me to run scripts. It has a shared file system and offers true multi-tasking. You can already run some iOS apps in MacOS. I'd like a single computer where I can switch between mobile / pencil usage and desktop keyboard / mouse usage.

That's exactly what I have with a convertible Chromebook. Super Snappy ChromeOS for web browsing. It can run Android apps, or stream them from my phone. Flip it around and it's a BIG tablet. 15.6" 4k screen. Going back into computer mode I can run full blown Linux, very quickly via Crouton or virtualized slightly less quick with official Crostini. Can also do a lot of the terminal stuff directly in the ChromeOS shell…

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Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#127
post #68

My dream is to do all computer work from a couch or hammock. I’m not sure if it will ever work out.

This can be done but ergonomics become a consideration if you plan to spend some time there: https://mgsloan.com/posts/supine-computing/ https://www.piratekingdom.com/blog/my-productivity-couch-set... https://www.jefftk.com/p/folding-couch-monitor

Great links! Thanks.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Never understand why apple ships their iPads and Macbooks with such little ram by default. Yes I understand profit, but it really limits what these devices can do. The numbers have not really changed much in the last several years...

Limiting the amount of ram goes a long way in reducing power consumption. It takes constant voltage to keep the cells alive, even when the device is locked and seemingly doing nothing. The iPad really does have great battery life on the other hand.

I may be way off base but I think on iPhones/iPads RAM isn't a concern so much as processes sitting in the background keeping the CPU and radios doing cartwheels indefinitely for little to no reason, as they tend to on desktop operating systems. By throttling or quitting backgrounded apps they've made it much more reasonable to deliver promised numbers on battery life.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#129
post #78
post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are just speculating - having a 2 in 1 device is not as easy as “osx on an iPad” or “iOS on a Mac” Until the m1 is was 100% not possible, now that they are both arm it’s possible but still would require an entirely new device class to do it justice

> Until the m1 is was 100% not possible. Microsoft made that possible at least 6 years ago with Surface Book. Why couldn't Apple? (spoiler they could) https://youtu.be/SdQQ8uvylJ0?si=as1k5R5BhFTZiys_&t=106 And there are other brands too: https://www.ign.com/articles/best-detachable-laptops Took me 10 seconds to Google. Why do people go to these great lengths to defend giant soulless corporations is beyond me.

Sure, and they don’t sell particularly well. That whole segment of the Microsoft ecosystem is a dusty corner that doesn’t get a lot of respect.

Hell, Microsoft has had a tablet offering since 2003 or earlier. It’s hard to do touch and traditional and do justice to both.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#130
post #94
post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> they care nothing for what's better for you for productivity What is your perspective based on? I'm not sure it's accurate, especially for productivity/professionals [1]. This matches my personal experience. [1] https://www.jamf.com/blog/total-cost-of-ownership-mac-versus... edit: Any comments about the accuracy of this? Or perhaps something to dispute it?

Well if they were really for productivity they would have made all their software offerings over the last 20 years cross platform in order to allow users of other systems to feel such amazing productivity boosts. But they didnt, they walled it off and made mac's about as incompatible and hard to work with for any other device (android,windows,linux) as they possibly could. Proof in case, I can plug an android phone i…

As a person that always had, and still has, PCs, and also now has MacBooks, I'm suspecting that I use my devices in a significantly different way than you do.

> made all their software offerings over the last 20

What Apple software would people want outside of the Apple ecosystem? Do you have an example? Most of the "niceness" is system wide/cross device integration related, many of which don't have an equivalent in the other OSs to share. For example, try to wirelessly transfer a file, quickly, between any combination of linux and Windows without an active WiFi connection.

The only "substantial" software I can think of, from Apple, is iMovie. My only frequent use is Preview and Keynote. Everything else is either Microsoft (including Office), or third party.

> they walled it off and made mac's about as incompatible and hard to work with for any other device (android,windows,linux) as they possibly could.

Is this also about wired connections? Do you have an example? For me, NFS, VNC, and lots of third party stuff to take care of the rest, the same that I use for PC to PC/linux. I'm not aware of walls for macOS. There's no restrictions for software. I even have third party kernel extensions installed right now.

> plug an android phone into a windows or linux os device

That is obviously intentional, and probably annoying. Although, I can't say I've used wired transfer with a phone in over a decade, including on my Android phone. I have a far less $/Gb USB3 drive to go from computer to computer.

I might be breaking HN guidelines with this comment.

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