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New iPad Air, powered by M4

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Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#371

Post by hedgehog »

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.

It was rumored to be in the original prototypes and cut before launch. I don't know why. They also have very restrictive device limits per account / family and installing apps across accounts is a huge pain. I've mostly given up on solving that problem.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#372

Post by badc0ffee »

lostapathy wrote: post #337
b33j0r wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad and my brother use ipad pros for their healthcare business and rarely use laptops. For them, the year of real work happened several years ago. My brother even has a mouse for it somehow.

What's the "somehow" about the mouse? They've supported that for a while now.

I believe it, but it's not something I've ever see in the wild. I have seen people using a trackpad in a keyboard folio, though.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#373

Post by thecopy »

benfrancom wrote: post #339
JadeNB wrote: post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even MacOS is still pretty bad at it. What problems do you see with multiple users on macOS? I don't use it intensively, but I've never noticed issues.

USB security prompt disappears when multiple MacOS accounts signed in Still a problem for me, and has been for years, but I may be holding it wrong. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/255929514?sortBy=rank The solution posted in the discussion is not really secure.

For me quitting preview, or maybe it is settings, resolves it.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#374

Post by rsync »

thewebguyd wrote: post #287
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.

"... there's a market, albeit a small one, for a "consumer" MDM product for use cases like this ..."

When my children were younger I used configurator to adopt, and configure, their ipod touch devices. It was a bit of a pain but not too bad.

Anyone can do this - configurator is free and runs on any old macbook ...

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#375

Post by skybrian »

godelski wrote: post #368

I still don't get what they're for. Most people I know end up in the same situation as me, buying one thinking you'll use it mostly as a writing device but then either it ends up in a closet or just a web browser you use while sitting on the couch watching TV. In that case what does any of the improvements matter? With first party native apps it's not great for writing, editing pdfs, nor drawing. I mean the notes app…

The iPad mini is great for reading books (what I bought it for) and if you don't have an iPhone, any other iOS apps you want to run. I also use Chrome a lot for general web browsing.

Also. I inherited an older, full size iPad that I plan to leave on my piano for sheet music.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#376

Post by k12sosse »

matthewfcarlson wrote: post #363
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.

It's doubly frustrating as iPads do support multiple profiles! Just education MDM managed iPad only. https://support.apple.com/guide/deployment/shared-ipad-overv...

From what I hear it works okay at best. You basically want to allocate a subset of iPads to a subset of users. You can't just throw 30 ipads onto a cart and let all 30 students randomly pick them, or you'll be evicting profiles unnecessarily. Would do fine in a small household. You reserve space based on # of profiles you want to cache.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#377

Post by p1necone »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #312
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.

> they keep circling around it, trying not to make iPads accidentally powerful enough for someone to skip buying a MacBook. Which is really silly, because if someone needs to do actual work they are not going to do it on an iPad no matter how capable it is. The form factor simply does not work for getting work done. Apple has nothing to fear here.

I haven't seen one yet, but theoretically a case that secures the tablet in a holder that has a proper hinge (instead of the typical kickstand style) attached would work. You'd have to weight the keyboard a bit but there's no reason it wouldn't work, and effectively give you the exact same form factor as a laptop.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#378

Post by verst »

lostapathy wrote: post #337
b33j0r wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad and my brother use ipad pros for their healthcare business and rarely use laptops. For them, the year of real work happened several years ago. My brother even has a mouse for it somehow.

What's the "somehow" about the mouse? They've supported that for a while now.

Exactly - any USB mouse via the USB-C connector (or lightning camera adapter before that) works. External displays also work via USB-C.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#379

Post by tomaskafka »

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #312
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.

> they keep circling around it, trying not to make iPads accidentally powerful enough for someone to skip buying a MacBook. Which is really silly, because if someone needs to do actual work they are not going to do it on an iPad no matter how capable it is. The form factor simply does not work for getting work done. Apple has nothing to fear here.

I would absolutely carry an iPad Pro with a dev environment with me on the holidays for emergencies instead of macbook. And I could add a cheap keyboard, mouse, and connect it to TV to get good enough work environment. Or connect it to dock at home, just like I do with the macbook.

Re: New iPad Air, powered by M4

#380

Post by tomaskafka »

vardalab wrote: post #366
rvanmil wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 bought M1 pro ipad that ended up being on a windowsill in kitchen as a youtube tv or a again a youtube viewport while rowing, lol. What a waste, but I cannot find a better use for it. User interface also sucks, half the time i have to ask chatgpt to extricate me from some accidental split screen or what not. Kicker is that it needs to be charged almost daily while it is really only used about 30-45 min a day in the…

Cue Steve Jobs keynote slide about 1st gen iPad lasting 30 days in standby.
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