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The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

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Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#401

Post by austinhutch »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #390
FreakyT wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My single biggest problem on the iPad is the way Safari just randomly kills your background tabs. Filling out a web form? You'd better hope that their half-baked tab state saving worked! (Spoiler alert: it probably didn't) It's particularly annoying because of the headline features of iPadOS was that you could finally use Google Docs in Safari! It's actually amazing how well it works...until you switch tabs or apps a…

Whoa, they do this on iPad? Is that a new iOS thing? I have 500 tabs in Safari on my iPhone. It's a nice time capsule of what I used to be reading. (500 is the cutoff limit, apparently.)

The tab won't go away, but it will trigger a fresh http request (and thus any input in a form will disappear), I believe the behavior is the same on iOS for iPhone.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#402

Post by zaphoyd »

sillysaurusx wrote: post #390
FreakyT wrote: post #374

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My single biggest problem on the iPad is the way Safari just randomly kills your background tabs. Filling out a web form? You'd better hope that their half-baked tab state saving worked! (Spoiler alert: it probably didn't) It's particularly annoying because of the headline features of iPadOS was that you could finally use Google Docs in Safari! It's actually amazing how well it works...until you switch tabs or apps a…

Whoa, they do this on iPad? Is that a new iOS thing? I have 500 tabs in Safari on my iPhone. It's a nice time capsule of what I used to be reading. (500 is the cutoff limit, apparently.)

The parent likely means background killed in the sense that iOS fairly aggressively removes loaded web pages from memory and replaces them with a screenshot and a url. Most of your 500 tabs are likely screenshots and urls. When you select them they fetch the page from the server fresh.

In most cases this is fine and frees up memory for other apps/tabs, but with web apps with local state, said state gets clobbered in a way that never happens on a desktop browser. Because it is fully automatic you can never really tell or trust that local application state will still exist if you tab away and back.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#403

Post by kbutler »

wool_gather wrote: post #355
kbutler wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That turns out not to be true. The newer low-end models have various changes from the previous high-end models, including case changes, but also other hardware. The original low-end iPhone SE had the plastic case with the hardware of the 5-something - but a smaller display. The iPad mini had the guts of an iPad 2, except it was a smaller device, requiring a new motherboard and display, and it had a better camera, too…

> The original low-end iPhone SE had the plastic case You're thinking of the iPhone 5c, which came out at the same time as the 5s -- well before the SE, which, slightly confusingly, was released after the 6. The SE has always had a metal body.

Woops, sorry, yes, I was conflating the 5c with the original SE release.

So that gives another example of apples making a new low-end device from a mix of old and new components.

5c new plastic body, better front camera and LTE than 5.

SE new low-end device with display of 5s, processor and back camera of 6s, front camera of ??, etc.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#404

Post by 40acres »

iPad is an excellent consumption device, I never quite saw the appeal in productivity based add-ons. A few years ago my MBA died and I was quite slow in getting a replacement due to financial commitments. As a cord cutter w/o a TV my iPad was my main source of video entertainment and I was surprised that I didn't miss my Air as much as previously thought.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#405

Post by ljm »

austinhutch wrote: post #401
sillysaurusx wrote: post #390

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whoa, they do this on iPad? Is that a new iOS thing? I have 500 tabs in Safari on my iPhone. It's a nice time capsule of what I used to be reading. (500 is the cutoff limit, apparently.)

The tab won't go away, but it will trigger a fresh http request (and thus any input in a form will disappear), I believe the behavior is the same on iOS for iPhone.

It’s identical and it’s aggressive. It’s more forgivable on the iPhone but I don’t reckon so on an iPad Pro.

Oftentimes I’ve been underground and I’d go back into Safari to read a page I already had open, but it triggers a new request with no internet connection and then blows up.

I would hope that at least the last open tab would be held in memory or otherwise heavily cached when the signal degraded enough to prevent a reload.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#406

Post by dividedbyzero »

Firaxus wrote: post #319
Fiahil wrote: post #269

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…

Consider looking into iSH, it let's you access a Linux like environment where you can download and use common packages like vim and python in a terminal. It has to emulate x86 calls, but for my use case of writing notes in vim and compiling and running simple c++ programs, it works. You can see some more information here: https://www.reddit.com/r/ish/ But I completely agree that it's practically a moral crime that th…

This can't be installed like a regular app, can it?

Also, I wonder why they emulate x86 – isn't the iPad CPU ARM64? Couldn't this simply use binaries for that architecture?

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#407

Post by omikun »

Swizec wrote: post #250
CarlRJ wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IIRC, the Pencil 2 requires different (and likely more expensive) support in the screen, as well as docking to the side of the iPad and charging magnetically - both of which raise the costs for the iPad. And then the lower cost models wouldn’t be so lower-cost any more. It does feel like they could have thought ahead a little better on that, though. FWIW, the Pencil 1 isn’t a -bad- stylus - it was hugely praised when…

I bought an Air 3 with Pencil 1 and yeah it was okay . Went back the very next day to upgrade to a Pro with Pencil 2. It really is that much better of an experience. Just the ergonomics of magnetic storage and charging make a world of difference. And the pencil feels natural in your hand instead of like a stylus. Sure they’re still not on the level of a circa 2010 Wacom Intuos – damn I loved that thing – but there’s…

I have a first gen pro with the pencil 1 and find it better than an Intuos 3. I wasn't aware the later Intuos got much better, but I have not gone back to Photoshop/Wacom after getting the pencil. The comfort, form factor, and ease of use are just too good to let go.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#408

Post by _5uxp »

flixic wrote: post #69
Slartie wrote: post #42

The iPad has failed as a general purpose computing device, sure. But it has succeeded (along with other tablet devices of similar form factor) as a basis for a large and growing number of single-purpose use cases in various industries: - iPad POS are popular in smaller coffee shops and similar outlets - iPad-based document viewing solutions are used by pilots to replace large bags with manuals for planes that they us…

The issue with each of these examples is that hardware advancements barely matter. $200 Android tablet with a simple enough design works just as well. Apple doesn't want to participate in such markets. That's why they try to push creativity narrative, "what's a computer" and so on. iPad can only succeed as a premium enough product, and that requires software differentiation.

This reminds me time (2013) where I had to choice new Nexus 7 or Ipad Mini 2. They were close in the price, in my country and they were both new. In few years , Nexus stopped getting updated and support but that Ipad mini got even ios 12 and still works well. For me Apple hardware is consistent and reliable that it can work well even more than 5 years.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#409

Post by gwbas1c »

tguedes wrote: post #256
gwbas1c wrote: post #247

> The iPad at 10 is, to me, a grave disappointment. The biggest disappointment to me is that I can't buy a Macbook that converts into a tablet. I've never owned a tablet, and my wife never replaced her 1st generation iPad, because there's just too much overlap between tablet and phone; and between tablet and laptop. And, as far as multitasking goes: When I do serious work that requires that kind of multitasking, I ne…

There is a clear use case for the iPad, it just depends on if that use case justifies the price for an additional device. The iPad is the best portable device for reading (besides a kindle), watching entertainment, or using an Apple Pencil. Just because you don't have a use case for it, doesn't mean no one does.

> Just because you don't have a use case for it, doesn't mean no one does.

My point was: A Macbook with a foldable or detachable screen can handle that use case.

Once you have a laptop that's also a tablet, multitasking in tablet mode is silly.

Re: The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10

#410

Post by jandrese »

ljm wrote: post #405
austinhutch wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The tab won't go away, but it will trigger a fresh http request (and thus any input in a form will disappear), I believe the behavior is the same on iOS for iPhone.

It’s identical and it’s aggressive. It’s more forgivable on the iPhone but I don’t reckon so on an iPad Pro. Oftentimes I’ve been underground and I’d go back into Safari to read a page I already had open, but it triggers a new request with no internet connection and then blows up. I would hope that at least the last open tab would be held in memory or otherwise heavily cached when the signal degraded enough to preven…

Yep, and it's really frustrating when the tab was just a static webpage with some text you want to read. It has the iOS baked-in assumption that you always always have fast Internet access.
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