391–400 of 617 posts
Lots of good discussion here about the state of iPad tablets. My SO is returning to school and wants a tablet for school. She likes her iPhone. Is the iPad ready to be a primary note taking solution? I have seen its note taking app used to great effect but how is external keyboard support? Does anyone use an ipad in uni as their primary input device?
I completely agree with this article. The iPad hardware is absolutely wonderful, it's light, gorgeous and powerful. I got the latest iPad pro to watch Netflix in bed and it fills that purpose completely. However, the OS running on the machine is bad. Very bad. The multitasking is horrifying. The Files app is unusable (especially if you want to access your files from an FTP server). You have to use your finger to sele…
Others use it for games and social media, where the many accurate deficiencies you point out don't matter much. The average person seems to use it within a narrow sandbox where it works. The minute you try to do something else with it, you'll struggle and be disappointed.
Multitasking? Huh? You’re missing the iPad business model. You’re not allowed to do anything (except maybe wash the dishes or get dressed) when the iPad is showing an ad that gets you free something. True multitasking would break the business model of thousands of sites.
How can this be when you can multitask on a computer anyway
The answer to a lot of this should be "open the Tips app and follow the tutorials," but they don't cover the entire set of possibilities, so a valid criticism would be that the Tips app should be improved.
A tip for people that might not know:
> apps that aren’t in the Dock can’t become the second app in split screen mode.
Not true: on an external keyboard you can execute the same key command you use for Spotlight in macOS: ⌘ + Space, then you can immediately type the name of the app you want, and drag it into multitasking from the results. As Gruber points out with the dual purpose gesture of dragging icons from the dock (either multitasking or removing from dock), there is one here too: if you swipe down in the center of the home screen to activate a search, you can't drag those icons into multitasking. It makes sense because there's no other app open to multitask with, but the gesture is overloaded nonetheless.
A personal bummer lately is that my $150 smart keyboard stopped working, so I'm rocking a Magic Keyboard with it currently at my desk. The Bluetooth connection story isn't perfect, and I don't take it around with me, so when I'm mobile I just have the dead keyboard cover.
Good points in the article. I also find the model names weirdly confusing, how did the iPad become the smaller, less powerful variant when the Air still exists? They did this with MacBooks too, though I think the tiny one may be discontinued now. And why is the iPad peripheral system such a mess? The released the pencil 2 which is a significant usability improvement and had every indication of replacing the pencil 1,…
Another head-scratcher with the Pencil 2 is that Apple doesn't sell a first-party case with a retaining flap for it. The magnets are strong enough to keep it in place during normal use, but there's no way to put it in a bag and retrieve it without the Pencil flying off. I eventually got a third-party case that does the right thing, it's just a strange oversight.
Good points in the article. I also find the model names weirdly confusing, how did the iPad become the smaller, less powerful variant when the Air still exists? They did this with MacBooks too, though I think the tiny one may be discontinued now. And why is the iPad peripheral system such a mess? The released the pencil 2 which is a significant usability improvement and had every indication of replacing the pencil 1,…
And iPhones too, I just used iPhone with USB powered hub, USB mic and USB DAC for headphones, worked great :)
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They make good head units too. I guess what OP was trying to say is that their application as creative tools (production vs consumption) is far more limited than the full fledged PC systems that we are used to.
In my experience that has more to do with the artificial limitations devs put into ipad software. Take MPC drum machines for example. iMPC Pro 2 could replace all hardware MPCs if they wanted to but they would cannibalize their hardware if they did that so they made the ipad version a toy instead.
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So you think you know better than Microsoft and Adobe? Have you thought that they may know their customer base better than you do?
Unless we can see the numbers we don’t know if Microsoft profits from Office for the iPad. So I could be right for all you know.
I completely agree with this article. The iPad hardware is absolutely wonderful, it's light, gorgeous and powerful. I got the latest iPad pro to watch Netflix in bed and it fills that purpose completely. However, the OS running on the machine is bad. Very bad. The multitasking is horrifying. The Files app is unusable (especially if you want to access your files from an FTP server). You have to use your finger to sele…
I don't think HN is the target audience for the iPad. I have one and use it as a reading device. Others use it for games and social media, where the many accurate deficiencies you point out don't matter much. The average person seems to use it within a narrow sandbox where it works. The minute you try to do something else with it, you'll struggle and be disappointed.
It’s the corporate lawyers and junior investment bankers that rely more on laptops (mostly for Word, PowerPoint and Excel).
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…