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The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

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341–350 of 617 posts

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#341
post #311
post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ever see anyone at a coffee shop using a Surface Pro in tablet mode? I haven’t. That’s because the second you sit down to complete tasks for more than a minute or two you’ll want a keyboard at least if not a mouse, too. Precisely because they are sitting on table. Have you seen those same users in their couch or bed?

So basically, add a table and a tablet becomes silly. That isn’t a good look for that device category. Who doesn’t have a table? Now imagine how many of those people wouldn’t just use their phone while sitting on the couch or bed instead. Why should I use a tablet over my 6 inch phone screen? Why use a tablet instead of my TV? The only two devices most people would need to own are a laptop and a phone. The tablet is…

> So basically, add a table and a tablet becomes silly

Yeah, I didn't express that right. What I meant is that a Surface would make more sense in a coffee shop as a laptop than a tablet.

> Why should I use a tablet over my 6 inch phone screen? Why use a tablet instead of my TV?

In most situations I'd rather use my tablet than my phone.

The TV for me is relegated to watching tv shows/movies with the home theater. For anything that is casual like youtube I prefer using my tablet.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#342
post #152
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,…

> struggling to undo what I did to get back to the business You'll love this one: to undo (don't think it works for everything, but it does for typing), shake your device rapidly from side to side.

Are you serious?

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#343

It’s interesting how success & potential is defined. iPad generates ~$20B/year in revenue with huge margins. [1] If iPad was a standalone business, it be the 156th largest company in the world by revenue (Fortune). [2] How can having a single product where only 155 entire companies are bigger than it, “not live up to its potential”? [1] https://sixcolors.com/post/2019/10/apple-results-64b-in-reve... [2] https://fortu…

If the iPad was a standalone business, and had no access to the Apple ecosystem or brand, do you think it would still generate ~$20B/year?

Obviously we can't know, but the point is success is relative.

Some people might expect better from Apple and so their standard for success is higher than $20B/year on one of their flagship products.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#344
post #322

As someone who uses his iPad Pro regularly, I love all the multi tasking of the iPad. I know many have written that they have issues with multiple windows on the iPad, but for me it's never been better or easier. My main gripe is keyboard behavior which is very buggy, but not related to how easy/hard it is to make and move apps around the screen. The fact is that the iPad is only useful because of its software. In my…

Fully agree. I think Gruber’s dead wrong, and folks should try it for a couple months. Leave the Macbook or Win10 laptop at home, and force yourself to rewire your brain into the iPad affordances and apps. Aside from being able to turn his complaint off: To turn Multitasking features on or off, go to Settings > Home Screen & Dock > Multitasking then turn off Allow Multiple Apps if you don't want to use Slide Over or…

folks should try it for a couple months. Leave the Macbook or Win10 laptop at home, and force yourself to rewire your brain into the iPad affordances and apps

Stop using other devices and give yourself a few months to learn the basics? This is how I used to encourage people to try desktop Linux in 2001.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#345
post #322

As someone who uses his iPad Pro regularly, I love all the multi tasking of the iPad. I know many have written that they have issues with multiple windows on the iPad, but for me it's never been better or easier. My main gripe is keyboard behavior which is very buggy, but not related to how easy/hard it is to make and move apps around the screen. The fact is that the iPad is only useful because of its software. In my…

Any computer is only useful because of its software.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The file system if you use it is a god sent. You can share files, organised files ... not as good as lap top one but it is good enough especially if you have an macbook to arrange and tag files.

Why on earth should I need a separate device to organize the files on my device?

You don't need to, but doing so with a virtual on-screen keyboard is annoying and slow compared to using a separate laptop.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#347
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 I still haven’t figured out how to get split screen reliably and every time. But I don’t find a need for split screen either. A few times, I tried I had to google how to get split screen then I gave up. Also, sometime I automagically get split screen and can’t figure out how to get rid of it. Usually land up just closing apps in split screen and restarting apps.

I use my iPad Pro in splitscreen almost exclusively. Probably because I mainly use it for notetaking and research, instead of as just an entertainment device. That said, the usability of multitasking has for some reason become far worse on iPads since iOS 11 and I'm still waiting for them to do anything to improve it. I still can't believe it's in the state it is now, years later.

Is this the 13" or the 11" version you have?

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#348
post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why on earth should I need a separate device to organize the files on my device?

You don't need to, but doing so with a virtual on-screen keyboard is annoying and slow compared to using a separate laptop.

And there's the problem.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite pet peeve is trying to edit URLs in the address bar in Safari. Just trying to get the cursor to the end of the address field a an error prone chore. Often the text is select and there’s no way to unselect it. Then of course it doesn’t help when you want to remove some components of the URL that Safari helpfully autocompletes back to the URL you jus visited.

Two fingers on the keyboard, it turns into a cursor control. You're welcome :)

That does not work for me on iOS 13.3.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#350
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 can see many people (including myself) struggling. So we have been forced into a "compromise" with all the downside, but none of the upside. I wholly disagree, at least at the beginning. When the original iPad was released, I remember seeing multiple viral videos of two-year-olds being given iPad…

I have to disagree - the ipad shouldn't be simpler than the iPhone - it should be binary: simpler for the grandparents, powerful enough to compete against a surface. When I travel, I'm only taking 1 big screen. The ipad should replace my laptop for trips where I don't have to work a bunch.
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