New iPad Air, powered by M4 • Hacker News Board

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#341

Post by etempleton » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 8:03 PM UTC

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 think the iPad could be a full desktop replacement if they rebuilt the OS as a branch from Mac OS vs as a branch of iOS and allowed for automatic switching based on what it is docked to. That would not be a small task and would fundamentally change the product, but it would be interesting especially for the iPad Pro. When in portable mode it functions as an iPad, but plug into a keyboard folio an it switches to a laptop; plug into a monitor and have it switch to desktop. Plug into a certain mag safe 3 charger in the kitchen and it switches to tvOS; unplug and it is right back to an iPad. I think this kind of user controllable context switching would be really compelling for an iPad, but it would be a complete reengineering an I am not sure the incentive is there.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#342

Post by overfeed » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 8:04 PM UTC

ectospheno wrote: post #315

recursive wrote: post #270

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Working as intended. Even the way you framed it. Every family member has a separate physically distinct iPad, paid for separately. It's never considered that two people might be able to use the same hardware, which is the question here.

We each have our own car too. Hard to share the things people use at the same time.

> Hard to share the things people use at the same time.

How many TVs do you have in your living area?

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#343

Post by jclardy » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 8:04 PM UTC

nesky wrote: post #248

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.

The flip side here is if I could use an iPad to replace the MacMini on my desk and connect to a monitor with the same support my Mac does I'd most likely have a top end iPad Pro as opposed to my mildly spec'd MacMini M2 and iPad Air M1. I'd literally spend MORE money on that 1 iPad than both existing iPad and Macs I have today.

Same. Plus with multi-user, I would own multiple size iPads since they instantly become more useful as shared family devices, rather than only being tied to one persons iCloud/messages/email. And more importantly for our old boy Tim - they would be larger storage sizes because they would be logged into multiple users.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#344

Post by pjmlp » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 8:06 PM UTC

cweagans wrote: post #243

pjmlp wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They sell them to hardcore Apple developers. Developers isn't synonymous with Linux, or UNIX like for that matter.

I think you missed the implied /s in the parent post.

I guess I have seen UNIX === Developer too much around some social media places.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#345

Post by Hamuko » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 8:06 PM UTC

bubblewand wrote: post #277

game_the0ry wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, my wife is a student and her ipad has probably helped out her out a lot, for a lot of reasons: * compact form factor allows her to study anywhere easily, especially on public transportation * can access the internet almost anywhere * note taking and drawing diagrams with apple pencil * communication wit for both personal (imessage) and school study buddies (discord) * can entertain herself with netflix, youtube…

Maybe a minor thing, but the largest pro in landscape is just barely smaller than a two-page spread in a comic book, making it possibly the best way to read digital comics. Though, I personally don’t need all the horsepower and would get lower-end iPads in that size if they existed and were cheaper.

The iPad Air and iPad Pro are both available in 11" and 13" variants. 30% savings if you want like-for-like storage, almost 40% if you can do with less.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#346

Post by squidsoup » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 8:06 PM UTC

Mindwipe wrote: post #45

The Pro really looks like it's struggling for a reason to exist given how much cheaper this will be and the difference in feature set.

The pro has the perfect form factor for sheet music. Absurd over kill in terms of other hardware, but there's really no alternative for musicians (other than paper).

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#347

Post by teekert » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 8:06 PM UTC

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.

Same here. Ours is just a streaming device. Because nobody can really own it. I won't put my password manager on it when the kids can use it, and without that it's near useless. It has my Signal profile so I can transfer stuff (and passwords) to the device but I already feel bad about that. My wife won't put Teams on it because it would bother others and conflict with all other MS accounts. The kids laptops have accounts for all 4 of us.

We switch in apps (ie in netflix). This whole "one person one device" just makes the iPad a shallow consumption device and keeps the laptops for work (and also often for streaming because of this. Btw they are all 2nd hand business laptops running Linux; for the Kids Gnome is very iPad/ChromeOS like and familiar).

It would be so much more useful a device, and maybe we'd even then start buying more, if we could just switch user profiles.

Oh, because it's just a consumption device when we "needed" another one, we got a Xiaomi. Who cares about al the niceties of the iPad anyway when all it does is show video.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#348

Post by mmaunder » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 8:08 PM UTC

upmind wrote: post #244

I owned a few iPads as a kid but as I get older I see less and less reason to buy one. It kinda sits in the middle of usefulness of a phone and laptop for me. Larger screen than phone yes, but can't run any of the applications I need from a laptop. If it had MacOS, I'd be much more inclined to buy it.

There's a small army of pilots who can't live without one thanks to Foreflight.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#349

Post by moolcool » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 8:09 PM UTC

lurking_swe wrote: post #327

hvjackson wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apps can hook into the Apple TV user profiles if they want, but many don't.

the developer needs to write code to detect the current profile. Most app’s don’t do this, and they explicitly ask a 2nd time. Not apple’s fault. There are some apps that get this right. Infuse recently added support for this.

It's not the end user's problem whose fault it is.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#350

Post by jclardy » Mon, Mar 02, 2026, 8:10 PM UTC

rvanmil wrote: post #281

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 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 i…

I’ve been experimenting with a 13” iPad Pro and Mac mini, setup with Tailscale. I love it, minus the general issues you run into with Remote Desktop. That plus not being able to deploy apps unless I’m on the same wifi (as an iOS developer.)

A dual boot iPad would be killer. I would go out and by the maxed out M5 if it was possible. MacOS for workdays, and iPadOS for everything else. That or just finish the last mile of iPadOS (Add terminal access, long running processes, lower level file system access, actual developer tooling.)