The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10 • Hacker News Board

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#31

Post by ekianjo » Tue, Jan 28, 2020, 9:32 AM UTC

broodbucket wrote: post #5

iPads have complete market dominance in the world of the kiddies. I can't believe how many there are - big iPads in big cases, young children playing with some game or watching YouTube Kids. I don't think it's the market Apple invisioned, but it's a hugely successful one regardless. I think judging the iPad based on changes they make for power users is near pointless in terms of its success.

> iPads have complete market dominance in the world of the kiddies.

Hence it can almost be fitting to categorize them as toys.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#32

Post by rhlsthrm » Tue, Jan 28, 2020, 9:33 AM UTC

nallo wrote: post #26

I actually use iPad for coding nowadays. It is of course slower than using a keyboard but also a quite relaxing and fun way of programming.

What type of code do you write on iPad? Do you ssh into something to make it run?

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#33

Post by nallo » Tue, Jan 28, 2020, 9:37 AM UTC

rhlsthrm wrote: post #32

nallo wrote: post #26

I actually use iPad for coding nowadays. It is of course slower than using a keyboard but also a quite relaxing and fun way of programming.

What type of code do you write on iPad? Do you ssh into something to make it run?

PHP, html, JavaScript. Using FTP to push code directly from the app.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#34

Post by kerrsclyde » Tue, Jan 28, 2020, 9:37 AM UTC

Plenty of iPad use within industry. Using it as more than just a consumption device.

Yesterday the guy fixing the mobile traffic lights was using an iPad to configure them / My gym gets me to change my membership plan using an iPad within a floor standing cabinet.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#35

Post by thomasfl » Tue, Jan 28, 2020, 9:41 AM UTC

The iPad has slowly revolutionized personal computing. After the music production apps became available, including Apples own Garageband, the iPad has become a very common sketching tool for musicians. When the Apple pen and the Procreate became available, the iPad pro also became one of the most used tools for painting and sketching. An iPad pro with Apples keyboard, is more useable for most common day users than most windows based laptops.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#36

Post by acqq » Tue, Jan 28, 2020, 9:42 AM UTC

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…

> The worst thing is that the forced over-simplification of the UI features did not make it easier to use for beginners.

I believe Gruber argues completely the opposite: that the recent changes to add features like split screen make it more confusing (e.g. the example of his mother getting stuck in the split screen and calling him). He continues in the very article we comment here (emphasis mine):

"if I could go back to the pre-split-screen, pre-drag-and-drop interface I would. Which is to say, now that iPadOS has its own name, I wish I could install the iPhone’s one-app-on-screen-at-a-time, no-drag-and-drop iOS on my iPad Pro. I’d do it in a heartbeat and be much happier for it."

And I think that should be a configurable accessibility option: to have UI completely discoverable and non-stuckable, even if some "so-called-Pro" features need more steps (or can't be implemented). Or even better and safer: that should be the default, with "advanced" shortcuts as an opt-in option.

The interface should by default to never bring users to the point where they can remain "stuck" in some mode from which they can't get out.

Steve Jobs understood that that 100% "discoverability" and "non stuckiness" must be the default UI, that's why Gruber would like to switch back to that older ideal.

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."

Even these "visual" UI changes that made the UI more "Ive-conform" (removing buttons and having only text) made the UI more confusing for anybody not trained and retrained. The back "button" in the apps was drawn as a button when Jobs controlled the UI. Then it got to be switched to just the < sign, which those who don't frequently use the UI never understand to be anything more than a meaningless symbol on the screen.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#37

Post by tragic » Tue, Jan 28, 2020, 9:42 AM UTC

lowkeyokay wrote: post #11

>By 1994 almost all graphic designers and illustrators were using computers for work. The iPad is a great device but, it isn't essential to anything or anyone. If tomorrow there where no iPads anymore, we would all just get on with our lives.

That's not quite true - iPads are a huge hit in electronic music for performance and production. Whether that counts as 'revolutionary' is another matter - there was the original Lemur which proved the multitouch MIDI use in principle - but it has created a new software niche market that genuinely is thriving and used for 'proper work'.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#38

Post by rusk » Tue, Jan 28, 2020, 9:45 AM UTC

Any chance we could get a Ctrl-F type function?

I'm enjoying the mental training of learning to scan text for keywords myself, but from time to time this is a feature that I miss ...

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#39

Post by rusk » Tue, Jan 28, 2020, 9:47 AM UTC

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,…

> Touching some side of the screen triggers this or that surprising feature

Ah this brings back fond memories of Windows 8 :-)

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#40

Post by killjoywashere » Tue, Jan 28, 2020, 9:47 AM UTC

The issue is the entrance into split-view, which should expose the springboard, not the dock.

The intuitive way to launch a second app would be to slide in from the right or left with two (three?) fingers, which would expose a compressed view of the springboard in split view. Then you could access all the apps intuitively (by swiping to the next page of apps) and launch the second app in the intuitive click-an-app method. This could even be tiled in a golden-rectangle geometry to expose a third app.

All you're trying to do is repurpose the slide-right slide-left function to expose springboard in a new way, which can be done with a multi-finger gesture.