Are you interested in switching to iPad primary use now with the changes introduced in iPadOS 26?

[Shirasaki]

The features being brought are great, but I didn’t phrase that in the best way. What I meant was the ability to mount and eject drives safely. A nice eject button would be perfect.

Eject button is one thing. Having the operating system to control the computer to safely eject hardware in the hardware level is another matter. I’ve been very much dreaded for ages to use HDD on Mac, seeing the computer just “pull the plug” after eject button was hit in macOS. It has yet to cause any data loss for me but Windows approach is so much more gentle. I’ve since grown a habit of letting the drive go idle by itself before disconnecting it, bypassing macOS eject entirely. At least I know the hard drive has stopped properly. iPadOS will, with little doubt, NOT treat HDD nicely. Not looking forward to it at all.

 

[AlanMarron]

That makes sense. Are you trying the web version of Google Sheets in Safari on the iPad, or the native App Store version? Because the App Store version is significantly different from the web version, and Google has removed a number of features out of that version. But the web version is identical to the one on the Mac. Note that if the App Store version is installed, Google will reroute you to that instead of the web version, so I generally recommend people ignore the native version of most of the Google suite and use the web versions like on a Mac. And with using the web versions, you can even set up a tab group for them, which is very handy. 👍🏻

Also the web versions fully support cursor and Apple Pencil input, so for things where fingers aren’t precise enough, those can really help. And with the new pointer in iPadOS 26, the experience should be even more Mac-like. 👍🏻

I hope that info might be helpful for you. 👍🏻🙂

Thank you and I know. I use Safari on iPad for minor tweaks to a Sheet, but have never used an Apple Pencil or an Apple keyboard. The point of an iPad is to have a multifunctional slab that does things without accessories.

I had a Newton with a stylus and a Palm Pilot, too. During the 2007 iPhone reveal, St. Steve said, “Who wants a stylus? You have to get ’em, put ’em away. You lose them. Yuck.”

 

[sparksd]

Eject button is one thing. Having the operating system to control the computer to safely eject hardware in the hardware level is another matter. I’ve been very much dreaded for ages to use HDD on Mac, seeing the computer just “pull the plug” after eject button was hit in macOS. It has yet to cause any data loss for me but Windows approach is so much more gentle. I’ve since grown a habit of letting the drive go idle by itself before disconnecting it, bypassing macOS eject entirely. At least I know the hard drive has stopped properly. iPadOS will, with little doubt, NOT treat HDD nicely. Not looking forward to it at all.

I regularly use a 1TB Samsung T7 SSD (exFAT) with my M4 13" iPad. I connect it and disconnect it often, always checking that the activity light on the SSD isn't blinking and have never had an issue. I switch it between the iPad and my Win11 desktop.

 

[AlanMarron]

Eject button is one thing. Having the operating system to control the computer to safely eject hardware in the hardware level is another matter. I’ve been very much dreaded for ages to use HDD on Mac, seeing the computer just “pull the plug” after eject button was hit in macOS. It has yet to cause any data loss for me but Windows approach is so much more gentle. I’ve since grown a habit of letting the drive go idle by itself before disconnecting it, bypassing macOS eject entirely. At least I know the hard drive has stopped properly. iPadOS will, with little doubt, NOT treat HDD nicely. Not looking forward to it at all.

I use an inexpensive Western spinning external hard drive (with USB to USB-C adapter!) with my M2 iPad Air to move movies, and I just unplug it. I usually wait until it stops vibrating before I move the drive itself but sometimes I forget. Been doing this for a year without problems. When I plug it into my 2009 MacBook Pro and check the file system every couple of months, it’s okay.

Remember the good ol’ days when one had to use the DOS command PARK? And had to lock cardboard into the drives?

 

[Kal Madda]

Eject button is one thing. Having the operating system to control the computer to safely eject hardware in the hardware level is another matter. I’ve been very much dreaded for ages to use HDD on Mac, seeing the computer just “pull the plug” after eject button was hit in macOS. It has yet to cause any data loss for me but Windows approach is so much more gentle. I’ve since grown a habit of letting the drive go idle by itself before disconnecting it, bypassing macOS eject entirely. At least I know the hard drive has stopped properly. iPadOS will, with little doubt, NOT treat HDD nicely. Not looking forward to it at all.

So I think you’d actually be surprised. I’ve used an old internal SATA HDD from an old MacBook plugged into my iPad via USB adapter on several occasions, and have never had an issue with any corrupted files or anything. I also routinely use an external USB-C flash drive, and I’ve never had any issues with that either. I’ve been using the iPad as my primary computer for the past 5 years, and have never had any issues with external drives or anything corrupted files. 👍🏻

 

[Shirasaki]

I use an inexpensive Western spinning external hard drive (with USB to USB-C adapter!) with my M2 iPad Air to move movies, and I just unplug it. I usually wait until it stops vibrating before I move the drive itself but sometimes I forget. Been doing this for a year without problems. When I plug it into my 2009 MacBook Pro and check the file system every couple of months, it’s okay.

Remember the good ol’ days when one had to use the DOS command PARK? And had to lock cardboard into the drives?

I wasn’t born that old so I never truely used DOS seriously. My computer journey started with Windows 3.11, followed by Windows 98 and beyond.

With that being said, nowadays dealing with hard drive unplug I just let the driver itself stops spinning (yeah the sound is loud enough for me to hear) before unplugging. Safer to the hardware imo. If I’m in a hurry, I hibernate the Mac (not just closing the lid) before removing the hard drive. For ssd I’m less worried about it since it has no moving parts.

 

[Shirasaki]

So I think you’d actually be surprised. I’ve used an old internal SATA HDD from an old MacBook plugged into my iPad via USB adapter on several occasions, and have never had an issue with any corrupted files or anything. I also routinely use an external USB-C flash drive, and I’ve never had any issues with that either. I’ve been using the iPad as my primary computer for the past 5 years, and have never had any issues with external drives or anything corrupted files. 👍🏻

Your drive must be in pretty good quality. I almost corrupted my HDD while trying out early iPadOS support to USB storage devices because iPadOS just cut the power upon eject without letting the disk to stop spinning and head parked first. Almost lost all data stored on it. iPadOS eject is not designed with HDD in mind.

 

[StoneJack]

Your drive must be in pretty good quality. I almost corrupted my HDD while trying out early iPadOS support to USB storage devices because iPadOS just cut the power upon eject without letting the disk to stop spinning and head parked first. Almost lost all data stored on it. iPadOS eject is not designed with HDD in mind.

It is not designed to actually work, lets rephrase it. It is a toy system

 

[Kal Madda]

It is not designed to actually work, lets rephrase it. It is a toy system

Well, many of us do our professional work on that “toy system”. So apparently it actually does work…. Perhaps it’s “toy” to you, but to many of us, it’s our primary computer, and does things the Mac can’t…

 

[Shirasaki]

Well, many of us do our professional work on that “toy system”. So apparently it actually does work…. Perhaps it’s “toy” to you, but to many of us, it’s our primary computer, and does things the Mac can’t…

iPadOS in and of itself isn’t really a “toy” per se but that doesn’t mean aspects of it is primitive and feel like “a toy”. Yes different system serves different needs and what is “a toy” depends on who you ask, but different people will show different view of the same OS. I too would say iPadOS can’t handle spinning disc drives properly if at all, but ssd is ok. And that’s just me.

 

[boston04and07]

Also:

Can you hold a MacBook in your hand?
Can you use a MacBook in portrait orientation?

Or, my favorite, can you connect to the internet anywhere you get data service without having to tether to another device?

 

[Jimmie Geddes]

I can hold my MacBook Air and iPad with one hand, but I still feel that my MacBook Air has more capabilities than my iPad. It might just be muscle memory, but whenever I need to get something done, I always reach for my MacBook Air.

If you REALLY want to use your MacBook in portrait, you can.

iPadOS 26 does a better job than previous versions of being more Mac-like, but a Mac is still where it's at for me—different strokes for different folks.

 

[Momof2.1107]

I’ve been using my iPad Pro with my Brydge keyboard, as my laptop replacement for almost 2 years. I only bring out the laptop, to transfer ringtones to my iPhone or when I have to do a DFU restore. Other than that, I primarily use my iPad as my laptop replacement 99% of the time.

 

[tim@ipad]

Good to know. I'd like to see LR Denoise on the iPad.

Well, Herde we go.. there has just been a massive new Update to LR for Mac with denoise improvements and all LR Mobile got was AI People Removal… Still nothing….grrrr

 

[ProbablyDylan]

I’d say this is more about security than “greed”.

Yeah, admittedly, greed probably isn't the right word in this specific instance. Hubris? Apathy? Either one probably works better.

Ultimately, I think it’s pretty clear this is about better system security and not just allowing browser engines to poke all kinds of holes through the security model of the platform. It’s also probably about preserving privacy and maintaining good performance as well. All of these are net positives in my opinion.

Right, and that's all good and fine, except where it does not address the issue of Safari not working with all websites. Since other engines are not allowed to exist, that means those websites that do not work in Safari will not work on iPad. This, to me, is an unacceptable flaw with a general-purpose computer.

We depend on the internet for so many things in our lives. The browser either better work every time or be replaceable with one that gets closer to that goal.

 

[Woodcrest64]

My workflow is evenly split between my iPad Pro 12.9 5th generation and my Macbook Air M1. Photo editing is done with the MacBook Air until Lightroom can use an external SSD on the iPad.

 

[Kal Madda]

Yeah, admittedly, greed probably isn't the right word in this specific instance. Hubris? Apathy? Either one probably works better.

Right, and that's all good and fine, except where it does not address the issue of Safari not working with all websites. Since other engines are not allowed to exist, that means those websites that do not work in Safari will not work on iPad. This, to me, is an unacceptable flaw with a general-purpose computer.

We depend on the internet for so many things in our lives. The browser either better work every time or be replaceable with one that gets closer to that goal.

What websites don’t work with Safari? I’ve never seen one that didn’t work. That doesn’t necessarily mean there aren’t any sites that don’t work, but I have to imagine they must be ancient sites that are incredibly niche in order for them to not be compatible. Again, could be wrong, but I don’t think there are really any common sites I’ve ever heard of not working with Safari, and I actually haven’t heard of a single website that doesn’t work with Safari, so I would be interested in seeing what sites are incompatible. 👍🏻

To clarify, I’m not at all trying to say your criticism here is invalid. If there are mission critical websites that people need access to that don’t support Safari, I get that could be a problem for them. 👍🏻 I just think that while it’s true that we depend on the internet for many things in our lives, I’m pretty sure there aren’t a ton of websites out there that lots of people need to use that also are incompatible with Safari. 👍🏻

 

[Ipadonly1]

Nice with the upgrades, but why would I buy a 13” iPad and a keyboard, at a higher cost than a MBA that does more?

It still lacks a customisable desktop and a fully fledged file manager too.

ok, but say you already had a keyboard and a trackpad... the ipad would be cheaper than the MBA?

 

[Ipadonly1]

I successfully used my iPad Pro as my primary computer since ~2020 or so. It was great during that time! Handled everything I could throw at it - photo editing, writing, some light video work, even spent a lot of time reading and taking notes on it.

This year I just couldn't do it anymore. I found myself running into the limits of iPadOS constantly. It wasn't even that multitasking was rough - it was some core functions of a computer it was failing at.

The straw that broke this camel's back was my day job now offering a 401k. Great! I'll fire up the web portal on my iPad Pro and set up my contribution or whatever. Imagine my surprise when it would not work in Safari. Weird, I thought to myself, let me try Orion or disable all my extensions or something. No dice. Can't run alternative browser engines on iPadOS - if a site doesn't work in Safari, you can't just switch browsers. Gotta fire up a whole other device to use that site.

I'm sure Tim was laughing all the way to the bank when this schmuck hit the order button on a MacBook Pro.

Apple needs to understand is that they need to do more than make iPadOS look like a real computer operating system. It needs to work like one, be as flexible as one.

Frustrating for you, but I can’t help but think that the fault lies with the web developers who create websites that aren’t compatible with one of the largest browsers out there

 

[ignatius345]

The new multitasking features are a great step forward, but iPadOS is still missing two major things I use a lot: multiple user accounts and the ability to use third-party software.

I keep three user accounts on my Macs: one for work, tied to all my work logins and files; one for personal use; and one for my kid to use where she can monkey around at will without disturbing any of my stuff. It's fast and seamless to switch between them, and in use it's almost like having separate computers.

If I was to use an iPad, I'd have to do a bunch of awkward juggling with different apps to make all this work, and I would still be missing a good file system and the ability to use non- App Store software.

I think sooner or later we may get third-party software in the US, but I think they're committed to not letting us have multiple users on an iPad because they want everyone to own their own device.

 

[AlanMarron]

I’m old enough to remember when SMTP/POP3 email was the standard. Unless one used Compuserve or AOL, one dealt with one’s email on one’s primary desktop/laptop. If one had an email service that added a web interface, it was a different beast than what one had through one’s dedicated email client.

Then along comes Gmail, and I was overjoyed that I had all my email everywhere with the same look and feel, whether on my own computer, or at a school, or on a friend’s computer that I could use for five or 10 minutes. Mac or Windows—it didn’t matter.

To me this is what’s stimulating about iPadOS 26. So far, I’m turned off by Liquid Glass, but am pleased with the added functionality. The more that I can work on ONE DEVICE for the consistency of the experience, the happier I am.

(I don’t recall when Apple added “Files” to iPadOS, but that addition was when I began daily use of the iPads that I’ve had since 2012. )

 

[AlanMarron]

The new multitasking features are a great step forward, but iPadOS is still missing two major things I use a lot: multiple user accounts …

When I was a middle-school teacher, one of the most frustrating experiences of using an iPad cart was the lack of multiple users. We were constantly working with students to keep them from overwriting the work of other students.

 

[AlanMarron]

Frustrating for you, but I can’t help but think that the fault lies with the web developers who create websites that aren’t compatible with one of the largest browsers out there

The revenue “service” of Mexico. Please remember that citizens of developing nations don’t have the wealth to buy Apple.

 

[ProbablyDylan]

The revenue “service” of Mexico. Please remember that citizens of developing nations don’t have the wealth to buy Apple.

Imagine not being able to file or pay your taxes because Tim Apple decided can't and won't run another browser engine.

Making it look like a real computer will never be enough. It needs to work like and be as capable as a real computer.

 

[AlanMarron]

Imagine not being able to file or pay your taxes because Tim Apple decided can't and won't run another browser engine.

Making it look like a real computer will never be enough. It needs to work like and be as capable as a real computer.

What am I missing here? Looks like Chrome to me.

And why the hatred for Tim Cook? He became CEO in August of 2011.