
iPadOS review: The iPad is dead, long live the iPad - feross
https://arstechnica.com/?p=1582717
======
thomasfl
When playing chords on the piano in Garageband, the new three finger gesture
is activated. The new gesture cannot be deactivated on iPadOS. It makes making
music on the iPad, really hard. Three finger gesture activates the undo
function. Music you record suddenly gets deleted now and then.

~~~
mamp
At WWDC the speaker said that apps can deactivate the gesture if it conflicts
with pre-existing functions. I don’t know why they haven’t.

~~~
dTal
Ah, so the user gets no control and the responsibility is on the authors of
all the thousands of apps to update their apps that Apple broke.

Standard stuff.

~~~
coldtea
Sounds excellent. Better than having the user scratch their heads and have to
see why this happens, and how to deactivate this in apps where it makes no
sense (which tons of users wouldn't figure out in a million years [1]).

Plus the apps can re-activate the feature automatically in other screens where
it does make sense (e.g. de-activate it on the virtual piano screen, but re-
activate it for other Garageband panels), which would soon get old for the
user.

If Apple gave a customizability toggle for every BS like this, they'd end up
with Emacs.

Their whole value proposition is that they try (and they're not perfect, but
better than other OSes in that) to give you sane options for those things
without too much customization.

[1] Heck, tons of users use Google search and enter "Facebook.com" and click
the result to go to facebook, and you're expecting to figure how to disable a
gesture?

~~~
dTal
I get it, of course.

The problem is that "our way or the highway" only works when your way is
actually _good_. They have a responsibility to their users to _never_ break
things, if they intend to provide no means of workaround.

In cases like this, the responsible thing to do is to make potentially-
breaking functionality _opt-in_ instead of _opt-out_. That way, until the app
gets updated, the user sees no change and nothing breaks. The clean way to do
this is to make the app have a version manifest that says "I am built for iOS
version <x>", and then the OS can be smart enough to disable functionality
that might break it. That way apps don't have to opt-in to every new feature -
they just certify "not broken on iOS <x>".

The _wrong_ way to do it is to break the world, and punish the users for
upgrading while expecting thousands of third parties to pick up the pieces.

(I don't know why this versioning technique isn't used more in general - if
all programming languages required version declarations then breaking changes
needn't be a thing.)

~~~
coldtea
> _The problem is that "our way or the highway" only works when your way is
> actually good. They have a responsibility to their users to never break
> things, if they intend to provide no means of workaround._

Yes, but seeing that no human endeavor is 100% perfect, it's enough that they
don't often break things, or that they get it right a lot more than they get
it wrong -- I wouldn't really expect them to never break things.

In the end, we get to vote by using another OS if they fail at this too far...

And we can of course complain when an individual feature or other is badly
implemented.

But my point is, if one adopts macOS, they should agree to the general idea
("we think of the better way for most things so you don't have to") -- and not
complain on that level (which is basically amounts to wishing macOS was not
macOS as opposed to being better in X or Y).

------
schuke
Multitasking reminds me of the Windows 8 fiasco. Terrible discoverability,
compounded by the fact not all apps can be multitasked by dragging from dock.
Very confusing and inconsistent behavior. Personally I haven’t come across any
situation where multitasking on iPad is actually more efficient and pleasant
to use.

~~~
ksaj
For me, it is finding a music video I like, and then clicking another tab to
read something. Now the music stopped. I'd like at least enough multitasking
to allow _that_. Otherwise, we're weirdly back to something akin to the old
DOS days... just prettier.

~~~
PeterStuer
Don't know how it is on iPads, but on Android background audio from YouTube is
a feature unlocked by subscribing to YouTube Premium.

~~~
ksaj
That may be the case then. My desktops don't have that problem. A tablet-
specific "feature."

~~~
dep_b
It used to be disabled so Google could demonstrate how bad iOS was at multi-
tasking (while a background audio API was available for a very long time),
nowadays it’s disabled on both platforms because they want to sell premium.

TLDR: corporate greed

------
vikingcaffiene
Contrasting this with the shit show that is Catalina and the last 4 years of
mbps, I don't think it's controversial to assert that this is where Apple is
going long term. I ain't mad. I'm just not interested in sticking around for
it. Perhaps I'm falling behind the times...

~~~
puranjay
I don't really think Apple is serious about power users anymore. The company
seems to have embraced the Starbucks crowd fully, leaving serious users
dealing with crappy keyboards and increasingly poor operating systems.
Whatever hardware they do have to satisfy power users is absurdly priced (Mac
Pro).

I switched completely to Windows last month and built a PC. It's incredible
the kind of hardware you can get for a third of the cost.

~~~
PKop
But who is going to develop the apps for the iPad and iPhone if the Mac
platform stagnates?

~~~
vbezhenar
They can port Xcode to iPad, offload compilation to the cloud and you don't
need Mac anymore.

~~~
PKop
I think the UX of this idea will be bad, just like the UX of the Mac has
declined, both resulting in lower developer support for the platform over
time.

Just a theory. Not sure why Cook wants to test it.

------
melling
Adobe Photoshop is supposed to be released this year.

[https://www.cultofmac.com/562307/a-full-version-of-
photoshop...](https://www.cultofmac.com/562307/a-full-version-of-photoshop-is-
coming-to-ipad-in-2019/)

Hopefully, Xcode or a good web development tool will turn the iPad into a
coding device.

~~~
ericlewis
Playgrounds is a surprisingly nice experience. Supports combine & SwiftUI. A
joy to use really. I’m building my next app using (only) it.

~~~
gnicholas
I thought Playgrounds couldn’t be used to create actual apps?

------
egypturnash
Does anyone have any idea how to _close_ windows? I keep on accidentally
opening new windows in Safari on the new IPad OS and have found no way to
close them except for double-tapping the home button and swiping away the new
copy of Safari, which feels like a hell of a lot of work for something I
almost never want to be doing in the first place. CLOSE WIDGETS ARE USEFUL
APPLE.

~~~
mattip
Long press the overlapped squares in the upper right, then Merge All Windows
will at least turn it into a tab that can be closed

~~~
jen729w
Heh. Tried this as I wasn’t aware of it. Crashed Springboard.

------
0x38B
Does anyone else like using your iPad __less __since the update?

My iPad is my only computer. iPadOS 13 is full of little bugs - especially
switching back and forth between Google Docs in Safari and another window.

Often times, sites are frozen and not even a refresh fixes it: have to copy
the URL, open a new tab, and paste it.

Using the iPad used to be fun; now it's had a bunch of stuff bolted onto it.
I'm not your average user, but I find iPadOS confusing.

~~~
emrehan
Count me.

1) I've lost all my open Safari tabs twice due to crashes. Holding on URLs
usually results unintended actions. Even rearranging tabs is a pain now.

On the plus side, Firefox works better than Safari on iOS/iPadOS for the first
time.

2) Running apps usually can't be launched from the dock. You need to close the
app and open again.

3) The PDF reader of Files doesn't keep track of its position most of the
time.

4) I had to lost screen keyboard once. Needed to restart the iPad.

------
zelienople
None of the changes reviewed in the article are what we need from a "pro"
device. Some of these are:

\- a real browser with a fully functional ad blocker like uBlock origin

\- the ability to see MAC addresses for network troubleshooting

\- a VOIP app that alerts reliably to voice calls and text messages and that
doesn't get killed when backgrounded

\- an SD card slot for expandable and transferable storage

\- an extremely low-latency analog audio interface

\- full USB C support

------
gherkinnn
I wish people would stop reusing and reusing that irritating title.

~~~
messick
Especially since everyone always gets it wrong. “The King is dead. Long live
the King” refers to two different people.

------
benjaminwootton
This is all nice, but simply adding proper mouse support would be a bigger
stride to laptop like productivity. They don’t do it though for fear of
canibilising MacBook sales.

~~~
bonestamp2
They did add mouse support in iOS 13. Unless you mean something more than they
added?

[https://www.imore.com/how-use-mouse-or-trackpad-your-
iphone-...](https://www.imore.com/how-use-mouse-or-trackpad-your-iphone-or-
ipad)

~~~
jplayer01
It's basically just touch input controlled with a mouse. It's not really what
one wants or expects when one thinks of mouse support. It's one of my few
disappointments with iPadOS (next to multitasking still being a pain in the
ass after all the changes they made with iOS 12).

~~~
andriosr
Agreed, you can’t drag most HTML+javascript components in an app, making 80%
of modern SAAS apps unusable.

------
dgregd
As a long time Android user I bought in May iPad Mini for CPU speed, high DPI
screen and OS updates. I was shocked to learn that it was impossible to
increase the text size in Safari. So I wasn't using my iPad Mini as often as I
intended. After OS upgrade a few weeks ago you finally can increase the text
size. Only in Safari, Brave and Chrome are not yet updated.

However I often read web / watch YT lying on the bed so I have to lock the
screen orientation. And to switch from portrait do landscape mode you have to:
1\. open quick settings 2\. toggle lock screen orientation 3\. close quick
settings 4\. position iPad correctly so sensors cen detect orientation and
switch screen mode 5\. open quick settings 6\. toggle lock screen orientation
7\. close quick settings

Huawei recently added a feature to EMUI which automatically sets correct
screen orientation using a selfie camera. I hope that Apple will copy that
feature. But how many years it will take?

------
jarcane
Honestly, I have consistently found the changes in the last couple of versions
of iOS on iPad to just make things worse and worse, for no reason.

Moving the control panel to the upper right despite this making no sense on
the massive iPad screen as compared to the iPhone X this feature was developed
for.

Making the new floating dock ... and then making the gesture both to raise the
dock _and_ to open the app switcher _the same gesture_ , with only fractional
timing between them.

And that's not all. There's an additional context menu on Dock items now if
you hold them, but ... you also need to be able to hold on a Dock item if you
want to drag it up and make a floating window. Once again, fractional timing
differences: hold too long and you get the menu instead. Hold too little, and
instead either the app switcher comes up, or worse, it tries to drag the whole
dock up, _even though the dock is not a movable element._ So about half the
time when I try to drag up to create a window, instead I wind up moving the
actual dock a fraction of an inch, and then it bounces back and nothing else
happens.

There's also new "cleverness" about how windows are organized, and by
cleverness, I mean "Why in the nine hells would I want this?" Previously, if
you made a floating window, it was just that app, and you could swipe it in
and it would always be the same app regardless of whatever full-screen app was
currently open. For example, I commonly would make my IRC client the current
floating window, so I could swipe over to it while watching Youtube or reading
in Firefox to check chat.

Except now, the current set of windows is _app-specific_. If I'm in Firefox
and I make a floating Discord window, and then go switch to Youtube ... that
window is gone. Swiping in will instead bring either nothing, or whatever
window I happened to create the last time I was in Youtube. This constantly
results in confusing surprises and manually having to reopen windows.

Oh, and they redesigned the Reminders app, and in the process managed to screw
up my notifications and delete or corrupt several important medication
reminders, so thanks for fucking with my health, Apple.

The rest of the changes are mostly useless or cosmetic. The only vaguely
useful thing is something they should've done years ago, which is expanding
the app grid dimensions to something more sane for this resolution. The rest
just feels like overblown marketing hype, a push for a new "desktop-like" iPad
feel ... without any features that actually make it feel like a desktop.

Pointless.

~~~
Terretta
As a test, I'd used the iPad Pro as a self-imposed "daily driver" instead of
MacBook and Surface Pro for some time now.

As a content creator, the changes in iPadOS unblock the sense of being
constrained within a modal UI. It now feels multi-tasking, yet without being a
distracting clutter of unrelated tasks.

Once past the natural "something is different" discomfort, the removal of
several constraints feels like a big step to a new kind of mobility: upgrading
from tablet, making a laptop into an appliance.

PS. On the couple of your notes that aren't just bugs:

\- There's a setting for the short or long press timing, try lengthening it.

\- Apps (and their windows) are now organized into the concept of workspaces.
Idea is that for a given kind of work on a primary window you'd most likely
typically have a given set of correlated windows. Different mental model from
the prior series of app cards, and fixed set of overlay applets.

While I appreciate the new capability, I struggle with this newness too,
unclear when I'm shifting spaces vs. windows, for instance. Haven't yet found
a well done summary or reference on interacting with the new model (Spaces +
Expose) holistically.

~~~
Terretta
ADDED: Related excerpt and synthesis of the Ars review on these points, here:

[https://macdailynews.com/2019/10/11/ars-technica-reviews-
app...](https://macdailynews.com/2019/10/11/ars-technica-reviews-apples-
ipados-its-now-viable-to-replace-your-macbook-with-an-ipad/)

------
bArray
Ubuntu Gnome, is that you?

~~~
washadjeffmad
I did think the top image looked like classic Unity rotated 90°.

And it only took 7 years from when Microsoft first copied it for Windows 8 for
Apple to invent it.

That said, iPadOS on an iPad Pro is almost everything I wanted from a Linux
tablet a decade ago, so I'm decidedly pleased.

------
drcross
I would get one in a heartbeat if they had usb-c but I can't bring more cable
confusion into my already chaotic life.

~~~
chacha2
The iPad Pro does have USB-C.

------
juahan
For me the 13.1.2 update broke all networking on my ipad Air 2. Mobile, WiFi
and Bluetooth all not functioning and looks like it is reasonably common issue
as well. Only way to get it working again looks to be a factory reset from
iTunes. It just works, I guess...

------
quizme2000
100+ 9.7 iPads,20+ iPad Pros, and about a bakers dozen of iPad Minis less less
than 6 months old all have reported a 33 to 50% shorter battery life. Fucking
wonderful iPadOS, same old apple bull shit.

~~~
Terretta
Reminder that at every major update, battery life for the next days or week is
affected by CPU intensive re-indexing and re-training ML _on device_.

Previously it was just Spotlight, but when Photos added Faces and object
recognition, kept locally on every device and not sharing among them, the
length of time it spends re-learning ballooned.

