I have a Chromebook that sits unused because of the screen brightness: there isn’t any. It’s a decent laptop otherwise.
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Are you interested in switching to iPad primary use now with the changes introduced in iPadOS 26?
- Thread starter Kal Madda
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I just upgraded from an iPad mini to an iPad Air because of the new features and got a keyboard/trackpad combo for it. It’s a great setup. Just wish it had a real system level terminal and vscode. It’s so close to perfect now.
I don’t know if you know about this or not, but there are some apps for a terminal like iSH, I don’t know if that’s system-level enough for your needs, but it may be a good supplemental tool. Also, there is an official web version of VSCode, which works well when connected to the internet. But in addition to that, there’s a great native app called Code (app icon is blue rounded rectangle on black background), and this app is built on VS Code’s engine, with most of the same features. I would highly recommend it. I do a little bit of coding here and there, but I am not a professional coder or anything. But a friend of mine who is a professional coder says that app is like native VS Code for iPadOS. 👍🏻
Yeah. It could do pretty much everything I needed. It just wasn't as smooth and powerful enough for some things and I could warm it up pretty easily at times. Outdoor brightness was a problem too. I tried Linux Mint on it and it helped a good deal, but it brought some issues that I didn't care to fix.
This was my issue with CB, unless you spent significantly more. But…why not just get an iPad…which is what I did.
What do most regular people need with a laptop that iPad/other tablet device doesn’t do? I mean, I appreciate that users of MacRumours are kind of an outlier for tech usage, with a lot of people here pushing the edges of some need or use case and I get a lot of people here might feel iPad isn’t a ‘Fly Solo’ device. But for most ‘regular’ people…?
My use cases aren’t heavy duty, I don’t code, I’m not into serious photography (I dabble in a little astrophotography) and play around with music recording via GarageBand and a Scarlet Solo. My daily driver is an Air M1 and I have it set up like an ‘iMac Nano’ on a magnetic stand, Apple keyboard and mouse combo. A ho-hum monitor from my employers works super well. Work also kicked me an iPad 9, which I use a lot while travelling to/from work.
I’ve long been interested in tablet devices and PDAs before that for their ultra portable natures. Heck, I even used an Apple Newton. I loved pushing the boundaries of a Newton or Palm device. Latterly I was on the Android train but the then poor levels of OS upgrades annoyed me greatly. A flirtation with Chromebook left me disappointed and I migrated to iPad finally having found that while a 2009 MacBook could be dragged up to 2018 levels with a bit of work but…wasn’t a stellar ride. And no, I didn’t have the cash for a new Mac…
What even is computer?
I hope they introduce multilple windows for Iphone so I can replace my Ipad that replaced my Macbook.
I hope they introduce multilple windows for Iphone so I can replace my Ipad that replaced my Macbook.
Main device since 2018. I couldn't bare to switch to a MacBook at this point. My life is run from my M4 iPad Pro with iPadOS 26 enhancing that experience even more.
Actually…yes. I mean, it’s been discussed on threads before. Just make it where connecting to an external display opens up a MacOS type operating system, which at this point would probably be a iPadOS/MacOS hybrid. This would probably be a bit clunky in daily use, so it won’t happen and I don’t really it want it to happen anymore. It would just be cool.
I would actually love it if I could plug my iPhone to an external monitor and get the iPadOS interface. Our smartphones have a lot of power, let us unleash it! Also, when you slap iPad onto a Smart Keyboard it could be a perfectly functional MacOS laptop. I don’t see why people are so against this. An iPad could be both an iPad with ipadOS and a macOS laptop when hooked up to a keyboard and trackpad. You could choose to boot into MacOS from iPadOS and vice versa.
The update is definitely nice, but I don't think there is much real world impact for whether you'd want to use it as a primary device or not. There aren't many people whose particular usage wasn't great on 18 but is great on 26.
It makes it better for those who already use it that way, but it isn't a huge change. Except I suppose for people who actually edit videos on their iPad and can now render out a large video in the background without the render inexplicably stopping. I grant that is a massive change.
It makes it better for those who already use it that way, but it isn't a huge change. Except I suppose for people who actually edit videos on their iPad and can now render out a large video in the background without the render inexplicably stopping. I grant that is a massive change.
In the same way that a laptop can't replace an iPad for you, an iPad can't replace a computer for many. I can't play World of Warcraft on my iPad while talking to my guild on Discord, while I'm recording the session, where the game is on an external monitor and I've got the device's screen showing me information like what gear I'm chasing or other info I need for that raid. Even if WoW could run on my iPad some day, it still wouldn't be able to do all the above.
Or my job, where I need 2 external monitors in order to have everything open that I need to have. Where there are industry specific apps I need to run that simply don't run on iPadOS and never will.
Even if you could do a fraction of the above scenarios with an iPad, and technically suffer through the inconveniences to get some approximation of that stuff done, at the end of the day, why would you? It just wouldn't be worth it. I don't use my 16" MacBook Pro to watch YouTube in bed. I could, but why would I? I use my iPad for that because it's better at that.
Yeah, I agree, I think different people have different needs. Some people are better served by the Mac, others are better served by the iPad. 👍🏻
Out of curiosity though, I don’t understand how the first example you cited wouldn’t work on an iPad. You can currently run a game on an external display and record it, and use the native iPad display for other things like Discord. Is there something I’m missing there?
The vast majority of games don't run full screen on an external display. Most just run in a window. Even if they did go full screen, most often run at the aspect ratio and resolution of the iPad, which isn't going to look very nice on the external display. The game is also not going to run at 1440p 144hz like it does from my MacBook.
More importantly, I would be extremely surprised if you could use Discord adequately. For me, that means being able to use push to talk while gaming, as well as seeing the Discord overlay over the game that is showing who is talking.
For recording, I doubt you can record the way I do, where I can adjust the volume of my mic in the recording vs the game audio, which is crucial for getting a useful recording of the raid.
And most obviously, the games I want to play simply aren't out on the iPad.
What I'm saying is that while you can technically do some of the above, it kinda sucks, right? It sucks at doing those things in the same way that my 16" MacBook Pro sucks for watching some YouTube in bed. You can do it, but why wouldn't you just use the thing that does it extremely well?
Ok, that makes sense. Though it deserves to be noted that games not going into fullscreen and filling an external display is entirely on the game devs. Not saying you were blaming Apple or anything, I just see people bring this up as if it’s a limit of iPadOS, but it’s just devs not using the available tools provided for supporting it. 👍🏻
I’ve never really used Discord, so I can’t say whether or not it would work the same. 👍🏻
I think there definitely are things that make sense to use a Mac for, and other things that the iPad is better for, just like you’re saying. 👍🏻
For me, I do have a M1 Mac Mini, but it sees very little use. Mostly, I use it for remote access to some external storage I have connected to it, like my own private cloud storage. I also use it for comparing features and apps between iPad and Mac for purposes of my SubStack. 👍🏻
Yeah it's not Apple causing this, however it still ends up being a limitation of the iPad for the user. When you've been using a platform for about 5 years like I have with the iPad, you realise more and more along the way that for the most part, developers just aren't going to put in the effort for what are always going to be niche use cases for a niche platform.
I would be surprised if there was one single game on iPad where the developers have bothered to allow it to run in 16:9, full screen, on an external display with full mouse and keyboard control. Apple can make it as easy for developers as they like, but the developers just aren't going to do it. I wish they would, but they just don't.
That's where you have to start thinking, if developers aren't going to come to the table, does the iPad have to evolve to meet them halfway? Or does the iPad remain a simplified platform and you just resign yourself to always having an iPad + a computer?
I think some of that is true, some developers are just going to go the lazy route and never add some of those things. But if that is true, then I don’t think “meeting them halfway” will work. Because Apple has already been meeting them halfway for years, they just refuse to adopt full screen. Perhaps there are ways Apple could continue to make it simpler, but Apple can’t really force an app to change ratios without one of two outcomes: stretching content, or cropping out content, neither of which would be a great experience…
Also, even without games fullscreening on an external display, it’s still a good experience. You still get a bigger window, which is essentially what most people are after. A little bit of unused monitor space isn’t the end of the world, though of course it would be optimal for games to support full screen. I don’t think it’s really a major limitation most people would be too upset over, but perhaps I’m wrong…
I think Assassin’s Creed supports 16:9 on an external display, but I could be wrong. I think Asphalt 9 also supports 16:9. There definitely are games out there that do, it’s just that some games don’t.
I think ultimately the problem is that some developers have opted over the years to put in low-effort into their iPad apps. Apple has been pushing for developers to take their iPad apps more seriously and to make them desktop class, and it seems to be paying off and working. Many apps have made major improvements over the past few years to become more desktop-level, and many of the changes in iPadOS 26 will make bigger changes in this area. I think iPadOS has already evolved, it’s just that developers can sometimes be slower on the uptake. But I see a few things converging that could push further desktop-level treatment for iPad apps, and unify the ecosystem further: for one, you have Swift Code and SwiftUI. Apple is pushing for developers to switch to this framework over the older legacy options like AppKit and such, because with Swift, the UI can be written once, and automatically adapt for each of Apple’s platforms. This is a major part of Apple’s push for universal apps: apps that run on all of Apple’s platforms. Apple has been pushing this effort forward for many years now, and it’s beginning to pay off. Another factor in play is the Game Porting Toolkit. With this, game devs can port their game to all of Apple’s platforms. So features expected in the Mac port of the game can also be included in the iPad version (such as external display scaling), unless the game dev specifically decides not to allow that and remove some features like that from some platforms. This will particularly result in more unified console-level gaming on Apple’s platforms in the long run. And another factor that’s converging is the end of life of Intel Macs. Once all Intel Macs are no longer supported, Apple can begin to create even greater unification at the system level, since they won’t need to worry about it running on Intel hardware. I think all of these factors are driving apps towards greater unification and convergence across Apple’s platforms. There will possibly be some holdout developers who are either slow to unify their app offerings, or downright don’t want to create more unification, but I think many of the apps are going to see further convergence, we’re already seeing this trend.
I think people overstate when they call iPadOS a “simplified” system compared to the Mac. Is it more intuitive and simpler to use? Sure, I think so. But that doesn’t equate to “watered down” sense of the word. Outside of a few niche legacy things that likely don’t really make sense on a modern/futuristic OS (like a Terminal command line interaction, which doesn’t make much sense for vast majority of users, and is being displaced by an AI interaction that understands natural language and doesn’t require specific command prompts), iPadOS is mostly on par with conventional OSes now in terms of capability. To my knowledge, there are zero technical hurdles that somehow make it harder to support fullscreen 16:9 on an external monitor on iPadOS than on macOS. This is purely just a matter of some developers deciding not to do it, possibly because they assume most people won’t plug it into a monitor, or because they overlooked it, or who knows. But because iPadOS isn’t macOS and doesn’t include some legacy desktop interactions or paradigms doesn’t mean it’s a “simplified” platform in the negative sense…
Sorry for the very long comment, this is just a topic that I find very interesting. I hope you don’t take it as me knocking your thoughts or anything, I just really enjoy talking about this, and I’m enjoying this conversation. 🙂👍🏻
To be honest, most developers go the lazy route and never add those things. It's sad, but it's true.
When all the alternative gaming platforms offer easy full screen and easy control, yes it is a major limitation because why wouldn't you just use the cheaper device that provides the vastly superior experience? The number of people actually gaming on an external monitor from their iPad and controlling it with a mouse and keyboard is tiny.
The answer is almost every single person who games on an external monitor and mouse and keyboard isn't doing it from an iPad.
I've been experimenting with the whole "iPad as main device" thing for about 5 years now, and this idea really is a long wait for a train that doesn't seem to be coming. There are always a couple of apps that do it right, a few features that look exciting, but it's been 5 years man. The promised land is always just around the corner, but the years keep passing and it remains just over the horizon, just out of sight.
MKBHD says it well in his most recent video: "We have smartphones, and we have computers, and so very few people actually need a device that's between a smartphone and a computer."
Because of this, the developers who will make a full featured iPad app that takes great advantage of the iPad sized display, offers a UI that adapts to touch or mouse/keyboard, takes advantage of external monitors, behaves well with stage manager, it's just a very small subset.
I personally no longer think this situation will meaningfully change, unfortunately. The incentive just isn't there for developers.
@teh_hunterer @Kal Madda
Would it be possible for Apple to make Mac apps run on an iPad without putting MacOS on it? Me thinks that would be the best solution....IMHO of course. Maybe only active when hooked to an external monitor, keyboard, and trackpad/mouse?
Would it be possible for Apple to make Mac apps run on an iPad without putting MacOS on it? Me thinks that would be the best solution....IMHO of course. Maybe only active when hooked to an external monitor, keyboard, and trackpad/mouse?
Well beta 2 just came out and I've decided to jump in head first on my M1 Ipad Pro. It's updating now and I'm all excited and giddy.
Been really aching to use the new features and upgrades. Was killing me at the thought of waiting for the public beta.
Been really aching to use the new features and upgrades. Was killing me at the thought of waiting for the public beta.
At some point it could be possible, but currently would be several system dependencies that are a bit different. But with Macs switching fully to Apple Silicon, they could potentially unify things more underneath. I think if they were going to do so though, it would be ideal if they used something similar to SwiftUI to make the apps UI fully (or at the very least mostly) touch optimized.
I think the option that is most likely, and we already see starting to gain traction and in motion is universal apps. Apple has been moving developer tools to make it simple to create one universal Apple app for all of their platforms. Apple can incentivize developers to adopt this approach in multiple different ways, and has up to this point kind of gently nudging developers to go this route. But if developers are too slow on the uptake, Apple can get more aggressive and drop support for some of the older frameworks to force developers to adopt new universal frameworks to continue to support Apple’s devices. They can’t do this all at once, they have to give developers time to adopt the new standards. But they’ve actually already been doing this with some of the frameworks on the platforms. Mac apps and iPad apps are sharing more common frameworks underneath each year, the convergence is definitely real.
Ultimately, I think universal apps would be the better route, and seems to be the path Apple is already moving developers towards. This would have several benefits. In effect, every app on all of Apple’s platforms would be a “Mac app”, because they would all be the same base code, but with optimized app UIs for Apple’s different platforms. They all could share the same features and such. And Mac apps could benefit from a greater security and privacy framework. Overall, this seems the most likely route.
But I certainly wouldn’t oppose iPadOS being able to run Mac apps. I think that would likely be a couple years out though, as I said, I think as long as some Mac apps use legacy frameworks, it would be more difficult to add support for those into iPadOS than to just continue to unify the app frameworks. 👍🏻. And apps that require a cursor to run on a device that doesn’t have one built-in doesn’t seem like something Apple would do. And I think if we look at the Surface Pro, many of the problems we see commonly mentioned with the Surface Pro are apps that aren’t well optimized for tablet use.
Also, I have a more optimistic view of iPad app developers. While I think it’s true that some will potentially drag their feet, many developers are demonstrating that they are taking the iPad seriously, and are treating it as a desktop-class platform as Apple is encouraging them to do. I think the majority of apps will continue to improve. I don’t think it’s the bleak picture that @teh_hunterer paints. I have been using the iPad as my primary computer for the past 5 years, and the platform has dramatically evolved over that short period of time.
Yes, but the problem is that are underlying differences in the OSes. Just saying there aren't doesn't mean that those differences don't exist and that they aren't critically important. I have found zero iPad Pro level apps that match their desktop counterparts. Not one. Photoshop, nope. Scrivener, nope. Lightroom, nope. Obsidian, comes close actually, but still nope. Affinity Photo comes close, but again, nope. Same with all video editors.
There are still too many underlying limitations within the OS architecture that allow anything near true desktop level.
And I say this as someone that literally uses my iPad Pro as my "out and about" device.
This is certainly true of some developers. But I’m not sure I’d say it’s true of most.
There are actually many people who even dock their iPhones to an external display to play games with a bigger screen. I have no idea how you could possibly know whether or not the number of iPad gamers who use an external display is tiny or not. I think that’s conjecture. And with Apple’s focus on gaming, games likely will improve on this front. As it is, many console-level games on iPhone and iPad actually do support full-screen 16:9 ratios, it’s some mobile games that don’t. I could see Apple possibly requiring game devs to deliver support for this as they push more into the gaming market, and/or developing a solution they could automatically apply to games to force support. And many people don’t necessarily use a mouse and keyboard for iPad games, many use controllers instead. In fact, many people even do that with the Mac.
I’ve been using my iPad as my primary computer for about the same time, and I have taken away the opposite take. I have watched iPadOS completely evolve. And most of the apps, at least the ones that I’ve tried, have followed suit. All kinds of apps have even ported over from the Mac to the iPad with either full features or near full features. Even incredibly niche pro apps like OctaneX! Most developers seem to be onboard. And I think iPadOS 26 will continue to improve that. Developers won’t have to create app ui elements to incorporate features they provide in the Menu Bar on the Mac now, which will make things even easier when it comes to porting apps, and when it comes to incorporating more features.
And especially with gaming, I think big things are on the horizon for Apple’s platforms. Apple is going hard at the gaming market, and they’re providing something to developers that other platforms like Android and even dedicated consoles aren’t really providing: a tool that dramatically streamlines porting games already written for other platforms to all of Apple’s platforms with one porting toolkit. Rather than spending tons of resources on converting graphics frameworks, developing on-screen controls, etc., Apple’s providing automatic tools that can do the heavy lifting for game devs, and just leave some refining and tweaking. This puts Apple in a very good position. And game devs can reach all of Apple’s game platforms with one tool and one port. This was something that wasn’t possible before with Intel Macs. And already in the couple of years this tool has existed, we’ve seen several big titles porting over or working on porting over. Apple is actively courting game studios, and even acquiring them. And the new Games app makes a big difference in streamlining things and providing a more unified, console-like experience. You even have the game overlay, which is pretty cool. I think we’re going to see major improvements in this area the next few years, and really for many years to come.
Overall, I guess I’m more optimistic about the iPad’s prospects. I am completely sold on the iPad, I would have zero reason to move to a Mac, and it would actually make me less productive, and many of the apps would actually be worse for my use-case. And with the change I’ve seen over the past couple years, I think the iPad’s future is bright. 👍🏻
What are these apps that are superior on an iPad? I, again, am honestly curious?