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Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

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Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#151

Post by tmpX7dMeXU »

perardi wrote: post #6

When the iPad first came out, people knocked it as "a big iPod touch". But…maybe that wasn't a bad thing? I feel like the iPad, despite alllll the efforts to seemingly make it a pro device, is an iPhone, but bigger. It's great for messages, browsing Facebook, and watching video, and that's just fine. Because that serves a lot of people's needs, and trying to add in a bunch more stuff just overloads the touch interfac…

I remember when iPad came out, and I was younger and cared more for arguing online. This is one of the hills I time and time again chose to die on. The anti-Apple brigade was about at its most insufferable at that point in time. The ‘full Windows running on a tablet’ utopia has to this day neger eventuated to any mainstream degree. iPad as a larger iOS device was and is the right way forward. IPadOS’s inscrutable ‘power user’ features of late are purely a consequence of Apple setting the expectations for a continuous iteration schedule, and Apple as a company being a huge self-serving bureaucracy looking to make work for itself year after year.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#152

Post by narrator »

I recently bought a full-size bluetooth keyboard with a slot on it for mounting tablets. It's must easier to type on then any portable mini-keyboard and totally worth it if you are going to write a book or code. I consider those little ipad sized keyboards a total waste of time since I started working on one with a full-size keyboard that's even bigger than a laptop keyboard.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#153

Post by ramranch »

fudged71 wrote: post #142

What if Apple released a device that was an M2/M3 MacBook, but the back side of the screen was another screen? I didn’t used to believe this was likely, but now we have the Vision Pro which has an internal and external screen. A combo laptop/tablet would be incredible, and they use the same chip so why not?

Double sided devices are inherently more fragile, for one.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#154

Post by pavel_lishin »

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…

> 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 music. I can't use my macbook on the beach to take a picture of my child playing in the surf. I can't really use my phone to type out anything shorter than a quick text.

(Caveat, for the pedants: yes, I could do all those things, but with terrible inconvenience.)

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#155

Post by Retric »

zakki wrote: post #116
gizajob wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the same time though, limited tools can lead to creativity. I know we're in the company of coders with complex workflows, but using and understanding a limited tool well to the point where you can max it out can be better than living with a "long tail" of untapped power and productivity. Strange though, how the iPad is ostensibly a much better device given the touchscreen and keyboard (and now pencil) and yet rema…

Creativity also happened in unlimited environments. That’s why there are many more use cases for computer/laptop.

Does it? I find creative solutions very rarely occur when I am actually using a computer rather than sitting back and thinking or going for a walk etc.

Computers seem to be awesome tools for refining ideas yet really bad at facilitating their creation.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#156

Post by uzername »

An anecdote: I hadn't taken the iPad seriously. It didn't have the apps I needed to get things done, either in my personal life or work life. Or it didn't have the physical aspects (why stream on a small screen when I have a TV at home?)

As I entered into a more senior work role, I refused to put work email or teams on my phone. No device management or malware on my personal device.

Instead, I found out that my company let me use an iPad with email and teams and the management software didn't infect the whole system making it nearly useless, and I could even take screenshots. It's not perfect but let me have a lighter daily carry.

All that said, I can't develop on an iPad. I think if I could get an MBA for on the go meeting type work and a mac studio for delivery, that would be fine. But then we're right back to: I refuse to have any of that stuff on my personal device.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#157

Post by megablast »

madeofpalk wrote: post #85
gizajob wrote: 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…

Like all things Apple, iPad is great if you only use it for the exact, limited use cases it was designed for. The moment you start to be beyond that slightly it completely falls apart. Contrast it to a more general computer running macOS or Windows, which does a poorer job at what iPad does best, but it has a much longer tail where the complexity ramps up linearly, compared to the hockey stick of iOS.

Limited case?? Come on. Slightly harder does not equal fall part.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#158

Post by crazygringo »

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…

> You'd think depending on the person, they'd travel with EITHER their phone OR their iPad OR their laptop

But why would you think that?

I don't want to have to pull out my laptop (or even iPad) for phone calls or to check a quick e-mail.

Obviously there are types of real serious work that can only be done on a laptop.

And then I'm bringing the iPad to read books on, which takes up a lot less space than if the books were physical. It's far nicer reading on the iPad than the other devices. It's also far easier to position the way I want on my tray table for a movie.

I have zero complaints. My phone doesn't take space away from anything else, and my laptop+iPad together are slimmer and weigh less than a single laptop did in the pre-Air days. And much less when you consider I no longer bring physical books/magazines.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#159

Post by jfengel »

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…

They each fit a different use case. You don't stop having those use cases just because you're not at home.

You make a tradeoff between the extra weight and the convenience of the right tool for the job. None of those devices are all that heavy. It would be very different if they each weighed ten pounds.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#160

Post by ckrailo »

politelemon wrote: post #29

I'm also looking for a two in one, a tablet that can be a laptop. The best I've found is a surface, and I think dell has some two in ones too. The surface feels like the right call because it's just light enough to be a powerful tablet, but not so power hungry that it's stationary. I think they've hit the right balance here. It's a shame this form factor isn't so common, and what would be perfect for a vacation would…

I love the Surface tablets! Runs Windows, Linux (WSL), and Android (WSA) so covers almost any use-case I'd need. Stick to the ones with Intel processors for maximum compatibility.
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