I’ve been thinking about picking one up after reading 6 or 7 rave reviews. It would be my first iPad. I’ve used them plenty, and owned Macs and iPhones for years. This article/review was the one I have been looking for— The only one to confirm my reservations about this new iPad “Pro”
Indeed the hardware looks unbelievable, but its still running iOS. All these quirks with photo importing, and inability to use the same app side by side seem like deal breakers. OSX lets you invent ways to work on the fly, and has virtually no limitations between apps. iOS seems so un-pro, designed only to let you do what each app is individually capable of, with a modicum of communication between different apps. I know I would hit a wall and be downloading tons of junky apps to accomplish little things that would be a breeze on OSX.
The iPad Pro seems to occupy this tiny sliver of space between “things I can do just fine on my iPhone” and “things I must do on my Mac”. I’m not sure it’s worth it, and I certainly don’t think this suits my idea of “Pro” anything.
My favorite bit:
> "How would the simplicity of iOS be subverted by allowing this new thing to happen?"
I do think this is the issue. Apple has done well to differentiate iOS and make it something a great deal simpler. Now can they enable more Pro features without losing that simplicity, potentially encroaching or converging on OSX?
There is no “Pro” user story. Every “Pro” is different. Some sales dudes just need to make calls, take notes, and manage email. An iPad is plenty for that.
Hmm fair point that every “pro” is different, but this hardware is about 6x more powerful and 3x more expensive than necessary for the tasks you mentioned. Pro is short for professional. The author is a professional writer who has gripes with it. He also mentions why a professional photographer might have issues. The hardware seems pro-caliber, even for the most extreme uses, but the OS simply is not.
i had one compelling use case for my 1st gen ipad pro with pencil when i got it - notetaking/doodling (in meetings, as a scratchpad, sketching out ideas, etc.) so that i could finally leave paper behind. i was especially excited about the real-time OCR they touted. (the smart keyboard sucks though - the connection is error prone, it's oddly angled, and it doesn't feel sturdy)
it handles this use case satisfactorily but i can't say i'm totally delighted. the OCR is limited and the 1st gen pencil and notes app left a lot of little use cases aside. i still revert to paper occasionally (unfortunately) because it's faster, intuitive, and practically failsafe.
i'm glad i have the pro w/ pencil, but just barely. if you don't have a current compelling use case, wait until they fix the multi-tasking at least. that will likely happen in the next release or two.
It is important to remember that malware is no small threat to desktop OS users; these limitations do come with significant security benefits from the radically different architecture of iOS.
Apple and to an extent all tablet makers are treading somewhat uncertain ground here. As far as I can tell, people know what a tablet computer should look like but nobody really knows what a tablet computer should feel like.
Microsoft strangely has perhaps the most experience here, they’ve been meddling with the overlap between a traditional computer experience and one finally embracing new interactions for the longest but it's always been hamstrung by their at best questionable decisions in interface and is design.
Partly by the nature of its marketing the iPad is currently this weird looking slice between phone and all the phone things we did and now do (actually talking to people, fitting in a pocket) and computers where the legacy of the past has meant you can do all these weird unsanctioned things with relative impunity.
Until this point I don’t believe Apple actually cared much about ‘pro’ usage, other than the excuse for higher specs and a bigger price tag. Until then they were for using things up, not making them. As he points out in the article it only became even mildly possible to use iPads seriously to do work with the ability to multi-task, something dating back thirty years on other computers.
In my experience one of the most annoying things about ios and it’s to their credit that it’s not the hardware that drove me mad trying to draw on graphics tablets, is the unwillingness to have applications interact. With a desktop you can just plonk a file down and have it be grabbed by something else, pipe it to a new process and carry on. With iOS there’s this maddening chunking of everything, from just trying to get a text document between programs to attempting to have an image library that isn’t split between various messaging applications and editors.
I realise file systems are hairy and there’s a desire to protect the common person from it but I also wonder if anyone at Apple actually uses the iPads they create to do something like import and retouch a photograph.
I’m sure I don’t know what the real solution is to this, but then again neither do some of the best funded engineering teams on the planet.
How about Apple's own Pro software? Logic Pro/Final Cut Pro? These applications are daily drivers for me and I've often said the iPad Pro will be a 'Pro' machine when it gets them.
Making a sketch in Garageband is cool. It's great I can open that project in Logic on my Mac. But it's not a 'Pro' device if we don't have 'pro' software for it.
Even Adobe's beaten Apple at it's own game by delivering the first app that can actually push this hardware that isn't a game with Photoshop for iPad.
Steven Sinofsky, who formerly lead Microsoft's Windows development, raises some very interesting historical comparisons to prior paradigm shifts in the industry.
Great article. I suspect that as Apple gets closer to throwing out Intel entirely across their product lines, they'll take care of the problems the author describes.
Aside from what they can fix themselves, they're much better placed to put pressure on app developers than, say, Google or Microsoft, thanks to the tight control they have over the app ecosystem.
As a "only go to the Mac if you have to" iPad Pro fulltime software developer, I wholeheartedly agree with the pros, cons and promise of the software. It's just unfurtunate that new and existing iPad Pro users will have to wait almost a year for the iOS to catch up to the hardware - iOS 13 beta in June? and release by beginning of October.? Who knows, by that time a new version gets released, one that makes the smart cover keyboard double as a trackpad.
In the meantime, nothing incites Apple more than bad press. Shame is a great motivator, specially when you have $240b in cash in the bank. For 1k for the iPad Pro, 200 for the keyboard and 130 for the pencil I expect the experience to be... well "magical." Better yet... "at the intersection of
getting my work done better than on a Macbook Pro and Jeff Raskin's wet dream."
But Alas, Steve Jobs is dead and with him Apple's reality distortion field.
So maybe it's time to give our friends at Apple a hand and show them - as this article has done - all the areas the iPad - all iPads btw - are lacking.
How about:
ipadshortcomings.com
pcreplacementneverwillbe.com
ipadinsearchofapro.com
excelisnotforipads.com
ipadprobutnotxcode.com
pcreplacementifyouonlyconsume.com
externalstorageiscalledicloudsubscription.com
For me, frustration was from software forcing the form factor (fighting or disallowing pinch-to-zoom, forcing precise ratios like 2/3 of the screen, etc.). And heck, just the fact that 10 years later we still have a grid of icons on the primary screen that can’t occupy extra space and are awkward to arrange.
An iPad works well when you can do whatever you want with it. If I can briefly zoom “beyond” the screen with my fingers, etc. it’s incredible. Obviously it’s great for tasks that are naturally bound to fingers, like drawing circles.
Apple is really far behind on software though. I won’t even say a year...I’m thinking we are five more years away from a well-thought-out tablet.
I have the obsessive behaviour where I want to like devices (GPD Pocket, iPad, ...) which have usability issues because I really do like them otherwise. The iPad Pro is one of them; I love the device; I even do not mind the keyboard (although Apple could do so much better) but the software is annoying. Although I do 80% of my work on the iPad Pro by now, it has serious issues as described in the article and others. I like the chromebook way of working; it all is sandboxed until you unsandbox it. I would hope that Apple, with it’s chip designs, would be able to do more advanced sandboxing and allow more freedom.
Buy one of these new iPads. They’re seductive beyond reason. Buy it knowing well what its limitations may be. But knowing also that it will get better.
The overall story hasn't changed since the first iPad. Just the particulars.
I couldn't agree more with the author. Give me a terminal and better solutions for the list of awkward workflow restrictions the author mentions and I am ready go to full iPad. I don't need a clamshell shape and a touchpad, I just need a full OS.
it’s not an opinion that a mouse uses less physical energy than pointing on the screen.
I can’t imagine using a 3 monitor setup that only had touch input.
Software and work requirements can change but interfaces matter greatly. And in this regard the iPad is lacking.
I think if you gave an iPad a hinged keyboard and mouse then it could be pretty useful Mac replacement. We already are putting keyboard on them. A mouse is the same as a finger, but just easier to move around without using your whole arm.
Indeed the hardware looks unbelievable, but its still running iOS. All these quirks with photo importing, and inability to use the same app side by side seem like deal breakers. OSX lets you invent ways to work on the fly, and has virtually no limitations between apps. iOS seems so un-pro, designed only to let you do what each app is individually capable of, with a modicum of communication between different apps. I know I would hit a wall and be downloading tons of junky apps to accomplish little things that would be a breeze on OSX.
The iPad Pro seems to occupy this tiny sliver of space between “things I can do just fine on my iPhone” and “things I must do on my Mac”. I’m not sure it’s worth it, and I certainly don’t think this suits my idea of “Pro” anything.
My favorite bit:
> "How would the simplicity of iOS be subverted by allowing this new thing to happen?"
I do think this is the issue. Apple has done well to differentiate iOS and make it something a great deal simpler. Now can they enable more Pro features without losing that simplicity, potentially encroaching or converging on OSX?