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New iPad Air, powered by M4

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Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#281

Post by rvanmil »

tomaskafka wrote: post #234
moolcool wrote: post #214

The iPad would go from a never-buy to a buy-right-away for me, if they added user profiles. It'd be a nice thing to have on your coffee table, where anyone in the household can pick it up and be logged into all of their stuff. Windows XP had this feature. Chromebooks have this feature. It's inexcusable that such an expensive gadget can only have one user.

Tim Cook's fear of people not buying a full set of Apple devices for each person is the driving force behind not just the lack of multiuser support, but also the overall nerfing of iPadOS. For the past 5+ years it's been, "This will be the year of real work on the iPad," but they keep circling around it, trying not to make iPads accidentally powerful enough for someone to skip buying a MacBook.

I mainly use my iPad Pro like a MacBook with the Magic Keyboard and a Razer mouse (I can even play ARC Raiders perfectly on it, streamed from the gaming pc in another room; having a completely silent gaming setup in the living room is amazing) connected.

My macOS muscle memory works most of the time, but there are also quite some details which are slightly different or missing. If they would allow a macOS “mode” on iPad I would choose it over a MacBook instantly for work.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#282

Post by [deleted] »

dmd wrote: post #268
tsycho wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that this would be an awesome feature, and it would also significantly enhance iPads' value for me. That said, having worked on account/identity systems at another FAANG, I think that the commenters saying that Apple is holding this back purely to sell more iPads are underestimating the complexity of this feature. This is not a feature that you just bolt on to the top. It will require a significant ground up…

How does your assertion hold up give they've already written this code and it's used every day by millions of people? You just have to turn it on with a MDM profile. It's just consumers they don't let use it.

[deleted]

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#283

Post by nthdesign »

moolcool wrote: post #214

The iPad would go from a never-buy to a buy-right-away for me, if they added user profiles. It'd be a nice thing to have on your coffee table, where anyone in the household can pick it up and be logged into all of their stuff. Windows XP had this feature. Chromebooks have this feature. It's inexcusable that such an expensive gadget can only have one user.

I agree 100%. When I purchased my Steam Deck, I was actually surprised that it was so easy to switch between Steam profiles. Last year, my wife and I tried Apple Vision Pro. While we aren't the target audience for a $3,500 headset, we might be tempted at $1,200. But not if each of us needs to buy our own.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#284

Post by progforlyfe »

moolcool wrote: post #214

The iPad would go from a never-buy to a buy-right-away for me, if they added user profiles. It'd be a nice thing to have on your coffee table, where anyone in the household can pick it up and be logged into all of their stuff. Windows XP had this feature. Chromebooks have this feature. It's inexcusable that such an expensive gadget can only have one user.

wow, had no idea. that's honestly hilarious!

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#285

Post by gffrd »

moolcool wrote: post #266
tomaskafka wrote: post #234

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tim Cook's fear of people not buying a full set of Apple devices for each person is the driving force behind not just the lack of multiuser support, but also the overall nerfing of iPadOS. For the past 5+ years it's been, "This will be the year of real work on the iPad," but they keep circling around it, trying not to make iPads accidentally powerful enough for someone to skip buying a MacBook.

I could excuse it if the iPad was a $200 novelty like the Amazon Fire tablets, but they're putting M-series chips in them and marketing (and pricing) them like PC replacements.

They _are already_ PC replacements for many of the people who buy them.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#286

Post by apparent »

tomaskafka wrote: post #234
moolcool wrote: post #214

The iPad would go from a never-buy to a buy-right-away for me, if they added user profiles. It'd be a nice thing to have on your coffee table, where anyone in the household can pick it up and be logged into all of their stuff. Windows XP had this feature. Chromebooks have this feature. It's inexcusable that such an expensive gadget can only have one user.

Tim Cook's fear of people not buying a full set of Apple devices for each person is the driving force behind not just the lack of multiuser support, but also the overall nerfing of iPadOS. For the past 5+ years it's been, "This will be the year of real work on the iPad," but they keep circling around it, trying not to make iPads accidentally powerful enough for someone to skip buying a MacBook.

> trying not to make iPads accidentally powerful enough for someone to skip buying a MacBook.

TBH, if you buy an iPad and their nice keyboard case, it costs almost as much as an MBA. This is one of the reasons I simply cannot justify getting a new iPad these days. The other is that my 8 year old iPad Pro still works just fine, in case I ever need to do iPad-ish things like draw with the pencil.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#287

Post by thewebguyd »

moolcool wrote: post #214

The iPad would go from a never-buy to a buy-right-away for me, if they added user profiles. It'd be a nice thing to have on your coffee table, where anyone in the household can pick it up and be logged into all of their stuff. Windows XP had this feature. Chromebooks have this feature. It's inexcusable that such an expensive gadget can only have one user.

The stupid thing is that iPad does have this feature natively, but you need to use an MDM (or apple configurator profile) to access it.

I'm still of the opinion that there's a market, albeit a small one, for a "consumer" MDM product for use cases like this, better parental controls, etc. but almost all are for business and come with some kind of minimum device purchase like 30+ devices.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#288

Post by minton »

bubblewand wrote: post #271
tsycho wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that this would be an awesome feature, and it would also significantly enhance iPads' value for me. That said, having worked on account/identity systems at another FAANG, I think that the commenters saying that Apple is holding this back purely to sell more iPads are underestimating the complexity of this feature. This is not a feature that you just bolt on to the top. It will require a significant ground up…

I’m guessing the main (technical) hang-up is that it messes really badly with one of the most distinctive things about iPads vs other devices, which is extremely low time-to-interactive from any sleep state. Device been sitting on your desk untouched for three weeks? Pick it up and it’s ready to go almost before you are, and still with a useful amount of battery left (offer void for cellular models).

Not my experience. I have iPad Pro and I only use it for workouts. It sits on my workout machine and once or twice a week I try to watch a ~45 min episode while doing cardio. It’s always dead and needs constant charging. Never last more than 3 days without needing charging.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#289

Post by giobox »

jtbayly wrote: post #279
tsycho wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree that this would be an awesome feature, and it would also significantly enhance iPads' value for me. That said, having worked on account/identity systems at another FAANG, I think that the commenters saying that Apple is holding this back purely to sell more iPads are underestimating the complexity of this feature. This is not a feature that you just bolt on to the top. It will require a significant ground up…

Isn't it already possible with MDM? If so, do these problems all exist? I've considered using MDM just to get this feature, so I'm curious if anybody has experience with it.

There are some drawbacks, not everything is supported:

https://support.apple.com/guide/apple-business-manager-m/sha...

There are other potential issues as well not listed on that page. Apple could address all of these though if they really wanted to roll the feature out broadly.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#290

Post by nine_k »

moolcool wrote: post #214

The iPad would go from a never-buy to a buy-right-away for me, if they added user profiles. It'd be a nice thing to have on your coffee table, where anyone in the household can pick it up and be logged into all of their stuff. Windows XP had this feature. Chromebooks have this feature. It's inexcusable that such an expensive gadget can only have one user.

An iPad is a great art production device. It's great for drawing / painting using Apple Pencil and software like ProCreate. It's good for doing music.

It may be a fine media consumption device (browsing, reading, watching); it's a bit heavy but has a large battery.

I don't see any other serious applications for a home user, such that would play the iPad-specific strengths.

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