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The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

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Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#161

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

Maakuth wrote: post #14

> How would anyone ever figure out how to split-screen multitask on the iPad if they didn’t already know how to do it? I actually recently got my first personal iOS (okay, iPadOS) device and this is how I feel about many of the UI features. Touching some side of the screen triggers this or that surprising feature and I'm struggling to undo what I did to get back to the business. Maybe what's needed is good old RTFM,…

> having heard how easy Apple device are to supposed to be to use

That was a rule for very good reason, and it will take some time to erode, but it’s definitely not as true today as it once was. It’s no consolation, but the first iPad - from the era of usable Apple design - was much better. Not in terms of power or weight, of course, but the OS didn’t have all these weird mystery-meat controls, gestures, broken multi-windowing etc.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#162

Post by bathtub365 »

apexalpha wrote: post #143

This is excellent. My grandma (89) uses an iPad and iPhone. She can use both these devices exactly because of the simplicity mentioned in the article. 1. Open app by tapping it. 2. Close it by tapping the physical button. (rip) That's it. And that's why my grandma can use it. The first and only device she comfortably uses to this day. People in our (tech) communities tend to overestimate a users ability with technolo…

The article is partially about how bad the UX is on iPad.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#163

Post by CarlRJ »

majewsky wrote: post #106
Phenix88be wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And Steve Jobs was old enough to learn that much earlier: that the "modes" are bad and that good UI doesn't require one to do some magic to switch between them, as it can be summarized in the joke: "How to Quit Vim and Exit the VI Editor — the most popular Stack Overflow question -- and I'm using vi last two years because I can't figure out how to exit it." The more a software do, the less it's user friendly... You…

I would argue that vi(m) is more user-friendly by being more upfront about its learning curve.

Vi(m) favors “easy to use” over “easy to learn” - which is the right tradeoff for a tool that one can use for hours a day for decades.

Though I always liked the line, “Vi is user-friendly - it’s just picky about who its friends are”.

(BTW, “ZZ” is usually the right answer to quitting/exiting - still funny to see, decades on, people teaching “:wq”.)

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#164

Post by tsmarsh »

apexalpha wrote: post #143

This is excellent. My grandma (89) uses an iPad and iPhone. She can use both these devices exactly because of the simplicity mentioned in the article. 1. Open app by tapping it. 2. Close it by tapping the physical button. (rip) That's it. And that's why my grandma can use it. The first and only device she comfortably uses to this day. People in our (tech) communities tend to overestimate a users ability with technolo…

I work with people with multiple phds. They’re smart. Technology focused professionals and they still have problems. Computer skill must be a parretto distribution. The difference between the top 1% and top 0.5%is enormous.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#165

Post by d--b »

> “It’s just a big iPhone” was the most common initial criticism

> The iPad has been a spectacular success, and to tens of millions it is a beloved part of their daily lives, but it has, to date, fallen short of revolutionary.

Yes, well it has fallen short of revolutionary, probably because it's just a big iphone, (or a laptop without keyboard). There was no new paradigm here.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#166

Post by jeromegv »

have_faith wrote: post #65
jwr wrote: post #20

This is a very good take on the subject. I love the iPad, I use it all the time. It's an unbelievably good piece of hardware with a number of really good software applications. It is a surprisingly good thinking and note-taking tool, it's the best tool (period) for reading datasheets (or any large PDF documents), it is a great music workstation if you connect a MIDI keyboard and/or an external USB audio interface. Bu…

I think a big part of the mediocre sales is related to the use-cases that most iPad users have which seems to mostly be watching videos, browsing the internet, reading etc. Any 2 or 3 generation old iPad will do this fine with very little reason to upgrade. It doesn't have anything near comparable to the upgrade path that a lot of phone users who seem very eager to upgrade to a better camera/battery/etc.

The iPad is a 20 BILLION dollar a year business. Let's not get crazy on "mediocre" sales, this is one of the most popular product line of all companies combined. Did not get as high as some people were expecting but this is far from mediocre.

Source: https://sixcolors.com/post/2020/01/fun-with-charts-a-decade-...

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#167

Post by dhruvmittal »

Jemm wrote: post #123

My main gripe is that Apple chose to very aggressively kill or sleep apps running in the background. I can understand this from a battery perspective but why not give us an option to let certain apps run in the background, especially when the iPad is plugged in to power. As an example, if I start a download in Safari, I can’t use a different app until Safari finishes the download. I could use split-screen but who wan…

Related to backgrounding apps, I don't understand why if I split screen an app during a video chat, my video turns off. It's a little awkward if I'm trying to read an email during a Zoom call.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#168

Post by theriddlr »

It's good value for money due to its lifespan. My family's iPad 2 is 8 years old and still going strong. Daily game-playing and web surfing sites still compatible with the old version of Safari. Whereas my Samsung Note tablet died after 2 years and wouldn't charge.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#169

Post by robohoe »

scarface74 wrote: post #129
cactus2093 wrote: post #126

Good points in the article. I also find the model names weirdly confusing, how did the iPad become the smaller, less powerful variant when the Air still exists? They did this with MacBooks too, though I think the tiny one may be discontinued now. And why is the iPad peripheral system such a mess? The released the pencil 2 which is a significant usability improvement and had every indication of replacing the pencil 1,…

The first generation pencil wasn’t bad and it works with all iPads now.

Yeah I use one extensively. It’s great, especially for browsing website with tiny buttons (like HN) and drawing in notes. I don’t think going to 2 is a huge concern.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#170

Post by mlfia »

pdimitar wrote: post #155

As a programmer, I absolutely gave up on the multitasking on my iPad Pro. I don't use it in such a way and usually don't care. And the very few cases I wanted to use it like that I couldn't succeed in doing it even after my wife showed me 3 times (she uses her own iPad Pro in split screen very often and gotten used to the gestures; and even she makes mistakes occasionally). Just an anecdote. I am a very technical use…

Yes - I have the same experience.

I use the iPad Pro and Juno connect as my main development tools, together with a VNC connection to an AWS instance for tasks that need a desktop.

I tried to use split screen initially but found little value in it and now ignore.

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