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Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

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Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#561

Post by ngcc_hk »

bemusedthrow75 wrote: post #369
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only Apple iPads or are you using the term generically? I'm guessing you're in London or another major city? Similar to the parent I only ever see iPads in two places, the hands of rich kids in restaurants, and in primary schools.

Only Apple iPads as far as I could see, but by no means only the most expensive or newest. Non-Apple tablet devices really are not often seen in the UK (some convertible PCs, the occasional Samsung tablet). If you spend a lot of time on public transport, an iPad isn't really that much of a luxury item. It's a really pragmatic choice, and at least in the UK an entry-level or recent secondhand iPad is not much more exp…

Same; except I also do south England to Scotland by train … the one thing is the 4/5g reception or Wi-Fi is really no good. Have to download things before (Netflix) or make sure the book you want to read is actually in the book app. Then 7 hour is ok. Notebook as said is too big.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#562

Post by katbyte »

hu3 wrote: post #78
katbyte wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are just speculating - having a 2 in 1 device is not as easy as “osx on an iPad” or “iOS on a Mac” Until the m1 is was 100% not possible, now that they are both arm it’s possible but still would require an entirely new device class to do it justice

> Until the m1 is was 100% not possible. Microsoft made that possible at least 6 years ago with Surface Book. Why couldn't Apple? (spoiler they could) https://youtu.be/SdQQ8uvylJ0?si=as1k5R5BhFTZiys_&t=106 And there are other brands too: https://www.ign.com/articles/best-detachable-laptops Took me 10 seconds to Google. Why do people go to these great lengths to defend giant soulless corporations is beyond me.

different cpu architects - surface book is still just x86 under the hood.

ios is arm, macbooks were x86, now is arm. thats why. it is impressive what rosetta 2 does, but it still impacts a significant performance and battery hiut

Now why they didn't make a touch macbook/detachable screen with osx is another question, and likely because there isnt the demand. i was just addressing why you couldn't just smush ios and osx together/run both on the same device

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#563

Post by katbyte »

afavour wrote: post #88
katbyte wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are just speculating - having a 2 in 1 device is not as easy as “osx on an iPad” or “iOS on a Mac” Until the m1 is was 100% not possible, now that they are both arm it’s possible but still would require an entirely new device class to do it justice

Anyone that used an iOS simulator back in the x64 days would tell you that it’s entirely possible to run iOS on x64, just Apple chooses not to do it. (before anyone jumps in to tell me the simulator is not a full OS: I know. But there was a full toolchain to build for x64, if they’d chosen to Apple could have leveraged it)

the os isn't the hard part, its the app ecosystem and navigating how do you ensure they all run properly on x86, and not with a huge performance or battery hit. i would be rosetta2 in reverse, and as great as rosetta2 is it has limitations & does come at a cost.

sharing the cpu arch makes things easy, case in point at launch m1 ran ios apps.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#564

Post by noduerme »

diffeomorphism wrote: post #296
noduerme wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not defending Apple here (I'm not an iPad or iPhone user) but why would you expect a tablet to substitute for a general computing platform? My "tablet" is a Boox Nova Air C that runs full Android on an e-ink screen, but I only use it to read books, sketch, and to hand-write notes. I don't let it connect to any website I have to login to, because I don't trust the software. I don't even have a keyboard for it. Onc…

Because a surface does that and so have all tablet pcs since Windows XP times. > once you are planning to carry a keyboard. Apple sells you a keyboard cover, Samsung does, Microsoft does. They are ridiculously expensive for what they are (buy a few HHKBs), but seem very popular. > at that point. That is the point. After adding all that, you would expect your tablet to do all that. Hardware wise it totally could, but…

This is a fair point, but Apple addled the iPad with those limitations from its inception. The stated reason back then was that it wasn't powerful enough - which I disagreed with even then. If it had been able to boot Linux or OS X, I would have snapped one up. Now the only real difference is form factor, pricing discrimination, and touch screen (although I still believe that on some level it's a point of embarrassment for Apple that their desktop OS is completely unusable by touch, hence their endless reluctance to bring a touch-enabled Mac laptop to market. However that may be the factor that saves Mac OS from going completely down the consumer road of iOS).

So you're right that these categories of devices and capabilities are completely artificially imposed at this point, but the question is, why have an iPad at all?

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#565

Post by ubermonkey »

ghaff wrote: post #458
ubermonkey wrote: post #420

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple people, and people who have shifted away from "texting" to using some other platform (e.g. whatsapp) often shift between computer and phone for this job. But in the US at least, people outside those groups typically don't. I don't think you can (easily) send SMS from a laptop as though it were your phone. (Yes, it could be argued that the two groups in the first paragraph are actually ONE group, since Apple "te…

>I don't think you can (easily) send SMS from a laptop as though it were your phone. Sure you can--at least with Macs. I do it all the time to both Apple and non-Apple users.

I mean, the point of my post was that it IS easy for Apple users; just not people outside the group.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#566

Post by ubermonkey »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #394
nicbou wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The iPad is a much better tablet than the Surface. The art and note apps are incomparably better. The ebook reader apps too. iPad OS is limited, but it's fine for reading, writing and sketching. It's good to do that on a separate device that is not connected to work stuff. I can bring my iPad in the bedroom because it's just a fancy book. Windows is also far too needy for this sort of device. I returned my Surface af…

> The iPad is a much better tablet than the Surface but useless as a computer? I needed to apply for a visa -It can't even handle that simple task! Like all I had to do, is collaste togesther a few dozen documents (bank statements, utility bills, etc.), merge all them into PDfs and organise pages cronologically. Couldn't even do that. whats the point of having a great processor in an iPad if it's all wasted. This is…

>but useless as a computer?

LOLNO. Many, many people use an iPad as their primary or only nonphone computer.

Sounds like you had a tool chain problem, not an iPad problem.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#567

Post by afavour »

katbyte wrote: post #563
afavour wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone that used an iOS simulator back in the x64 days would tell you that it’s entirely possible to run iOS on x64, just Apple chooses not to do it. (before anyone jumps in to tell me the simulator is not a full OS: I know. But there was a full toolchain to build for x64, if they’d chosen to Apple could have leveraged it)

the os isn't the hard part, its the app ecosystem and navigating how do you ensure they all run properly on x86, and not with a huge performance or battery hit. i would be rosetta2 in reverse, and as great as rosetta2 is it has limitations & does come at a cost. sharing the cpu arch makes things easy, case in point at launch m1 ran ios apps.

> how do you ensure they all run properly on x86

Again, simulator builds in Xcode are exactly that on x64 devices.

> it would be rosetta2 in reverse

It wouldn’t. Rosetta takes programs compiled for one CPU and runs them on another. But in this scenario apps would be built specifically for x64. Xcode previously had the ability to build multiple architectures in one package (32bit and 64bit), they could totally package ARM and x64 together if they wished to.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#568

Post by katbyte »

afavour wrote: post #567
katbyte wrote: post #563

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the os isn't the hard part, its the app ecosystem and navigating how do you ensure they all run properly on x86, and not with a huge performance or battery hit. i would be rosetta2 in reverse, and as great as rosetta2 is it has limitations & does come at a cost. sharing the cpu arch makes things easy, case in point at launch m1 ran ios apps.

> how do you ensure they all run properly on x86 Again, simulator builds in Xcode are exactly that on x64 devices. > it would be rosetta2 in reverse It wouldn’t. Rosetta takes programs compiled for one CPU and runs them on another. But in this scenario apps would be built specifically for x64. Xcode previously had the ability to build multiple architectures in one package (32bit and 64bit), they could totally package…

You seem to be forgetting that every app in the App Store would need to be rebuilt.. and developers would need to buy in and do so

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#569

Post by EricE »

I tried the iPad only lifestyle with the original iPad Pro - stuck with it for almost a full year. In the end the abysmal text editing and extreme restrictions when multitasking drove me to distraction. Thankfully the M1 MacBooks fixed the battery, size, weight and heat issues of the Intel based laptops.

And yeah, if you have the magic keyboard/trackpad text editing is a lot better - but at that point you might as well just have the full laptop.

Re: Giving up the iPad-only travel dream

#570

Post by afavour »

katbyte wrote: post #568
afavour wrote: post #567

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> how do you ensure they all run properly on x86 Again, simulator builds in Xcode are exactly that on x64 devices. > it would be rosetta2 in reverse It wouldn’t. Rosetta takes programs compiled for one CPU and runs them on another. But in this scenario apps would be built specifically for x64. Xcode previously had the ability to build multiple architectures in one package (32bit and 64bit), they could totally package…

You seem to be forgetting that every app in the App Store would need to be rebuilt.. and developers would need to buy in and do so

Make it a requirement in order to ship a new version, developers would do it in an instant. Just like they did with 64bit builds.

Sure, a small number of apps would fall to the wayside. But it’s not like Apple has hesitated to do that before.

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