I recently left my job at Apple where I worked on the Prototyping Team, exploring new user interaction concepts for future hardware and technology. Before that, I worked on Apple's Video Apps Team and helped design the latest versions of Final Cut Pro and iMovie.
Can someone address her points? She should know the strengths and weaknesses of both products. Did she gets the iPad's strengths (e.g latency) right? Did she omit any cases where the Cintq wins?
At this point I'm not sure there are many people who know and could talk. Apple people in any third parties would be under NDAs, and any reviewers who have one also wouldn't be allowed to talk about it until whatever the embargo date is.
And it's not like the assessment matters when the author doesn't even identify which operating system exhibited the driver issues that are the source of the complaint.
Good catch - I was already unsure how a fair review would be possible of something that's only been shown and barely played with, so I guess my questions valid.
It really depends on whether or not Apple can get third parties to produce useful iOS applications.
Recently, I was somewhat surprised to find that Lightroom on the iPad is missing 90% of the desktop application features, including the ability to show RAW files that are sitting on an SD card attached to the iPad. They have a long blog post blaming slow Internet connections (because it would "have" to sync your RAW file and edits to the cloud) and some Apple misfeature (there would have to be two copies of the photo or something) for why the iPad can't do "field triage" from an SD card. I don't buy it, it's clear to me that they have limited resources and they don't care about their iPad app.
If Apple wants to make a first-party photo editor for the iPad that beats Lightroom, fine, that will help the iPad Pro catch on. I would be happy to buy one. (OK, it needs photoshop too.) But the path of least resistance is to get a Surface and have every Windows app ever made running on your tablet. The fact that the Apple Pencil is better than other pen input devices doesn't really matter; if all you can do is adjust the brightness of the image with said pencil, it's all moot.
(That said, I've never used a pen-on-screen interface. I don't mind having my pen away from the screen, and it's cheaper. But I don't use computers for drawing, where that might matter.)
Honestly I don't think developers get access to the SD card, that would defeat the whole 'there is no file system for users to worry about' thing.
I wouldn't be surprised if it simply shows up as a second photo stream, where they'd have to pull the images off edit them and save them back again as a new image.
I can understand why you wouldn't really want to trust Adobe, but I'm pretty sure they're actually correct on this one.
You're right that getting good software that is sustainable price is going to be what causes the iPad pro to live or tie. It's too expensive for a general tablet for students who might want normal notetaking, but if it doesn't have the software than pros might not want to use it and would stick with the surface or other laptops with Cintiques.
Yeah, they say something to the effect of having to make a copy of the "Camera Roll" photo in order to edit it. Yes, that uses twice as much storage.
I personally don't care, I will just upload it to A Real Computer when I get home and then delete it from the iPad. I look at it like a cache, not a permanent home for the photograph.
Unfortunately, if Apple made a first-party photo editor for iPad that was as good or better as Lightroom, I'd still get a Surface (looking to do just this in a few months before a big trip, very interested in how well the pen works for local adjustments).
Why? Because I was an Aperture user before I was a Lightroom user. It'll take a long time to convince me I wouldn't just be buying into the wrong system for a second time.
I'd be nice if this turns out to be true. I'm hoping for pen support on the Air next year.
But the big issue for pros is software. If the software doesn't come to the iPad (and doesn't buck the $5 app model so it can survive) I don't think the iPad pro will be much of a threat.
Centiq prices are quite high. If this (and the Surface) put price pressure on it all the better.
> So my advice to anyone trying to decide between buying Apple Setup vs. Cintiq is run far far away from the Cintiq. Especially if you're a student. Specialized professionals that have their cintiqs hooked up to PC's running Solidworks, C4D, CAD, yeahhhhh.....I guess cross your fingers they make iPad apps.
Latency is definitely the issue with all the pen tablets I've tried, so I hope the iPad is at good as this article says it is. In my opinion, latency is the #1 design mistake in hardware interfaces and GUIs in software. For example, useless animation takes time and disrupts the hand-eye coordination required for skillful workflow of a text editor or window manager.
The points about the quality of the screens are good ones though. Even if the latency isn't great and is only comparable to other tablets, simply having such a high-quality screen could make a difference (assuming software is available).
I recently left my job at Apple where I worked on the Prototyping Team, exploring new user interaction concepts for future hardware and technology. Before that, I worked on Apple's Video Apps Team and helped design the latest versions of Final Cut Pro and iMovie.