"Here's a computer where you cannot even build apps, but it's Pro."
The war on general-purpose computing is here.
The war on general-purpose computing is here.
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Apple Shares New 'What's a Computer' Ad Focused on iPad Pro Features
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A lot of people seem to use the word “proper” when they mean “traditional”.
If you need multiple CPUs, screens and tons of RAM, that doesn’t describe a use case suited to an iPad. But for what a lot of people use a computing device for, an iPad is certainly the “proper” tool.
Ok, so all you hardcore computer users: why is it so scary to think that an iPad is all some users need? No one is going take your desktop or laptop away from you lol. But they’re simply not necessary for _everyone._
My Mom is 77 years old. She facebooks, emails, texts, watches Netflix, monitors her stock portfolio, checks her bank balance, pays her bills, FaceTimes the grandchildren, reads kindle books, searches on google, shops on Amazon, and other things I don’t know about or don’t remember. Does she need a traditional computer, or is an iPad the “proper” solution for her?
(Not specifically directed at you, nutritious, I just got triggered lol)
AirPlay already allows for this. An app can enable different content on an AirPlayed screen. Keynote is a notable example. You can display the upcoming slides and controls on the iPad and the presentation slide on the tv.
There are some cars games like this. The steering wheel and map on the iPad, the road on the external screen. Also, I could’ve sworn that Lightroom for iOS used to do this, showing a full sized photo on the external screen and thumbnails on the iPad. It doesn’t seem to do this anymore.
I’m hard pressed to think of other examples but it’s up to the developer to implement it. It’s there.
Man, I feel so old with my iMac after seeing this ad. Really good ad I think. I don’t really do anything that requires macOS anymore, no gaming or development etc. Of course some workflows takes more time on iOS, but the number of these workflows is decreasing every month. Given how Apple is putting way more attention on iOS than macOS (which I agree with, macOS is not the future), I’m pretty sure I can go iOS only very soon.
I’ve gone from huge desktop tower PCs in the mid 90s, to iMacs in the ‘00s, to a MacBook Pro and MacBook Air in the ‘10s, and now Im settled with just an iPad Pro 12.9.
My needs have never changed; a little word processing for school, university or work here and there, but mostly my ‘computer’ has been for media consumption and a little creativity. The iPad suits my needs and I regard it as my ‘computer’.
My needs have never changed; a little word processing for school, university or work here and there, but mostly my ‘computer’ has been for media consumption and a little creativity. The iPad suits my needs and I regard it as my ‘computer’.
It seems that people's definition of work hasn't really changed much from the Microsoft era of excel spreadsheets (pivot tables is one commonly cited example of what excel on iPad can't do) and remote network drives.
Doesn't it stand to reason that as technology evolves, the manner in which people work ought to evolve as well in keeping with the times, and the capabilities offered by this new generation of computing devices?
I can manage my email just fine from my iPad, and we are seeing more alternatives emerge in the form of services such as Slack and Trello. If I want to share files, there's cloud storage for that, or even airdrop for close-proximity passing of stuff. Group collaboration can be handled via google docs, and its myriad of alternatives.
And in the process, I wouldn't be surprised if people start discovering new workflows that are superior to the ones they are using now. New workflows that wouldn't be possible if not for the mobility and ease of use offered by the iPad.
People seem to love the ending but it’s not accurate, they would never say ‘what’s a computer?’, they would either answer the question or they could say ‘it’s an iPad’ (although that’s less likely). They may say ‘what computer?’, but regardless it was a cool ad, I just wish they spent less money and went back to their simplistic ad approach.
The iPad is not going to replace the Mac. Period. What it may do is redefine what people want from a mobile computing experience. While its true - there are limitations versus a desktop - however, it also does things in a document setting - signatures, mark-up etc that a laptop readily cannot.
I put forward that the tablet represents a new platform -- that provides opportunities for existing and new workflows.
To choose an iPad over a desktop is a good decision to make, but to choose an iPad over a laptop is a no brainer (imo). Laptops are thin enough now a days to to make the portability factor not matter so much. The decision then falls to; do I want my hardware behind the screen with a flimsy rickety keyboard or do I want my hardware under a sturdy keyboard? Do I want a device that I can't connect any other device to or one that has many options to connect devices to (with dongles 
). There just is no decision between a laptop and iPad that makes sense to choose an iPad over a laptop.
). There just is no decision between a laptop and iPad that makes sense to choose an iPad over a laptop.yeah, the iPad is fine for people like your granny. I said that in an earlier post. Great for people like her. Trying to shove the iPad down the youth's throat is a mistake. The iPad doesn't encourage tinkering like a real computer does. It's that ability to tinker with their system that inspires many young kids to become developers or to get an interest in hardware.
Nobody’s shoving anything down anyone’s throat lol. I see some improvement; you’ve gone from “proper” to “real”.
Make no mistake, the iPad is a real computer. It’s not a traditional laptop/desktop and it doesn’t run Windows or MacOS or Linux. Which doesn’t matter in the slightest.
And I think that robot that Apple stores just started carrying, which uses Swift playgrounds to program, will end up getting a lot of kids interested in hardware and software.
It additive, there’s a continuum and there’s some crossover... it just depends on what you need to do:
- Cloud-based computing/rendering if you need 20 or 50 or 500 CPUs/GPUs
- HPC workstation (iMac pro crossing over to this category for some use cases)
- Desktop
- Laptop
- iPad
- iPhone
Traditional computers have changed remarkably little over the last 30 years, and at some point they will go away. It might be 20 years from now, and they’ll have had a good run, but technology marches on.
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Difference is a 77 year old person is either in retirement or ready for retirement while a child has a long road ahead in terms of educational and career growth. An iPad will leave the child ill prepared for the real world vs laptop/PC. The only jobs that you can get with iPad-only experience is possibly McDonald's kiosk while industry leading companies like SpaceX, Tesla, etc. require development, tool and OS experience only available on laptop/PC. Choosing an iPad over a laptop/PC for a child is just setting that child up for failure.
When there was mass speculation about a pro ipad and the MacBook was released, I assumed that was it. Brilliant, except for the limited original CPU.
I tried the original 12.9 when it became available as a refurb and while it was good, I returned it and kept my ipad4, but then I'm still using FCP Studio 7.
This ads seems fine except for the for the weird Microsoft style line at the end, "what's a computer". You know what's a *}%^ing computer? A pre 2013 Mac Pro or pre 2016 MacBook Pro. What's an iMac Pro? Especially since they insisted on sticking it in essentially the same case. WTF? Is that going to melt down like the Tube if you run an app?
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I was apprehensive about going from 10 to 11 on the original Pro, especially since my 6s+ is sluggish on 10 already, so l returned it. Same thing happened with my iPad 4 going from 6 (great) to 7 (dog), but it's still chugging along on 9.3.3 even though the stupid animations are slow, as is app switching.
Apple offered us the "computer freedom" we wanted in the worst days of the Microsoft monopoly practices. It's just sad, very sad, overly sad that Apple is not offering us today a kind of oasis in which we could be protected against our data going to the cloud and to who-knows-what servers out there. Instead of that, Apple jumped into the bandwagon, storing, processing and using our data as well. This is so disappointing!! Oh, Apple, how opposite you are to Jobs style and tastes... how opposite!! This is too sad.
So most people should learn to use a traditional computer for jobs they're never going to have?
And what Apple is doing with the Mac product line they’d be doing regardless if iOS and iPhone/iPad existed.
How do you define what makes something a computer or not? If iPad isn’t a computer then why does Microsoft and Adobe make apps for it? Why would Microsoft waste their time on porting office to devices that aren’t computers?
Is iOS and/or the A-series chips limiting Excel from having pivot table functionality or is that just Microsoft not building it in?
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First of all, a calculator can be considered a "computer," not the point. Stop with the stupid semantics.
I know of swift playgrounds. Have it on my iPad. Not one teen I know has heard about or even has interest in it. They barely know how to use traditional computers these days. I'm around a lot of teens and younger kids due to my large family. Anecdotal but I've seen enough. No point in arguing semantics here over how I labeled things, you know what I mean when I label things real/proper/traditional. There's no officially accepted label. Your point?
Traditional computers haven't changed a lot in the past 30 years because they are a mature platform. I don't get your point. It's the same way smartphones are not changing much anymore because they've matured. Using that logic, I guess smartphones won't be around much longer because they haven't changed in quite a few years so they will be relics of the past. Honestly, the iPhone hasn't changed much since the original except added features, speed and becoming mainstream. Smartphones were around before the iPhone and the iPhone is when they began to "mature." What will make these devices obsolete is a completely new computing paradigm. The smartphone is just a miniaturized traditional computer with less capability, so is the tablet. The idea that that a less capable, miniaturized version of a traditional computer will be its replacement is absurd. The capability needs to be there.
And yes, by Apple saying "what's a computer," it means they envision a future without real/proper/traditional computers. I've seen some of Tim's quotes on the subject. He even wonders why your average person would want a PC. Anyway, look at who they are marketing it to in the ad: a kid. Most of the content they consume on their iPhone or iPad is dominated by the "apps" on the first page of their home screen. Even when you click a link within most apps, it's opened in a web browser within the app. This is due to UX, but it still keeps people stuck within their most used apps without as much room to explore. Back in the day, you wanted to discover, you used the web to look around, which further increased the need to tinker and exposure to different channels. The apps that dominated your home screen were not monopolizing and filtering your content back in the day because they didn't exist.
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People who are against the idea of iPad are just not looking at things objectively. It's almost ready to be a PC. It is just missing the require "apps" for power user.
Saying that it cannot do things like programming etc is like saying a Windows machine is not a computer because it cannot run Xcode or Mac is not a computer because it cannot run Visio studio or Linux machine that barely has support for main stream apps.
Is ChromeOS a computer or tablet?
Apps needed for a computer
Word processing
Presentation slides
Excel
Video editor
Photo editor
Image creation
Music creation
File manager
And others...
Support for peripherals
External storage for photos and videos
External Mic
External camera
What's missing?
Multi screen support
Proper IDE and compiler
IPad is just missing some apps that makes people think that it is not a computer. In fact, it might be more "computer" than a Linux machine for many. (Where it is inarguably that Linux is a computer)
Saying that it cannot do things like programming etc is like saying a Windows machine is not a computer because it cannot run Xcode or Mac is not a computer because it cannot run Visio studio or Linux machine that barely has support for main stream apps.
Is ChromeOS a computer or tablet?
Apps needed for a computer
Word processing
Presentation slides
Excel
Video editor
Photo editor
Image creation
Music creation
File manager
And others...
Support for peripherals
External storage for photos and videos
External Mic
External camera
What's missing?
Multi screen support
Proper IDE and compiler
IPad is just missing some apps that makes people think that it is not a computer. In fact, it might be more "computer" than a Linux machine for many. (Where it is inarguably that Linux is a computer)
Agree.... that's literally the first thought that came to my head.
Now if she would have said it more sarcastic I think it would have been ok.
To choose an iPad over a desktop is a good decision to make, but to choose an iPad over a laptop is a no brainer (imo). Laptops are thin enough now a days to to make the portability factor not matter so much. The decision then falls to; do I want my hardware behind the screen with a flimsy rickety keyboard or do I want my hardware under a sturdy keyboard? Do I want a device that I can't connect any other device to or one that has many options to connect devices to (with dongles
For me, it essentially boils down to me preferring to work with iOS rather than macOS.
I’m sure you can turn off WiFi and save files locally in the pages app.
You can turn off iCloud Drive and never sync any files if you want that.
"Whats a computer?" " Oh Honey, its the thing in the house that allows you to do everything faster and better and more intuitivly than that tablet you are using."
Well, to Apple's credit, neither the iPad or MacBook can be connected to anything anymore without a $79 adapterTo choose an iPad over a desktop is a good decision to make, but to choose an iPad over a laptop is a no brainer (imo). Laptops are thin enough now a days to to make the portability factor not matter so much. The decision then falls to; do I want my hardware behind the screen with a flimsy rickety keyboard or do I want my hardware under a sturdy keyboard? Do I want a device that I can't connect any other device to or one that has many options to connect devices to (with dongles
Appl has been claiming the death of PC for the past 7 years, meh
Delightful Advertisement.
As for wether or not an iPad is better than a traditional laptop for a young person (middle school & high school), I have my doubts. All three of our kids went through the laptop program at our middle school. They used laptops throughout high school and eventually college. Hands down, a laptop is better than a tablet at creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations. The laptop OS & UI (Keyboard & trackpad) are just better suited toward this type of activity.
As for wether or not an iPad is better than a traditional laptop for a young person (middle school & high school), I have my doubts. All three of our kids went through the laptop program at our middle school. They used laptops throughout high school and eventually college. Hands down, a laptop is better than a tablet at creating documents, spreadsheets and presentations. The laptop OS & UI (Keyboard & trackpad) are just better suited toward this type of activity.