iPad as a laptop replacement

[bondr006]

You might want to yank that pic - it's blurry but does have your name & address. You want a bunch of forum goombahs showing up at your house?

Thanks for pointing this out!🙂 Wouldn't want some "unstable mental patient" here getting ahold of my address.😉 I thought I got them all. I was tired when I posted last night but all addresses are blocked out now. As for my name, I've never hidden that, or where I'm from online. I have nothing to hide. If you hover your mouse pointer over my avatar, that info is there. I do appreciate you watching out for me @sparksd.

 

[Kal Madda]

It's specifically Quickbooks Online website. On the Windows PC, it opened a pop-up window with the PDF to print. I couldn't get that pop-up window to open on the iPad (clicking the button did nothing). I have no issues printing anything else from the iPad in Safari, Mail or any other app (I print probably 20-30 pages a day from it at work).

I went back to Quickbooks just now as I’m posting this comment to try to get a screen recording of what I was trying to explain. Of course now that I try it again this morning, I'm getting a message saying "This site is attempting to open a pop-up window." Tapping Allow opens up the paycheck PDF file I had issues with yesterday. I was on a slightly different page inside Quickbooks yesterday, maybe it was just an issue on the specific website page.


View attachment 2481117

I guess problem solved! 😅

I’m glad to hear it’s working now! 👍🏻.

 

[elmoss]

Gee mail is hopeless on a iPad v mac, iPhone even worse.

 

[Kal Madda]

Gee mail is hopeless on a iPad v mac, iPhone even worse.

How so?

 

[elmoss]

How so?

If you used mail on both you would know

 

[Kal Madda]

If you used mail on both you would know

I do use Mail on both. There’s nothing notable that sticks out as different to me…

 

[sparksd]

If you used mail on both you would know

I'm not sure what the problem is, either - I have two accounts feeding my Mail inbox on multiple devices, one of which is gmail, and I haven't run into a problem.

 

[Mainsail]

I'm not sure what the problem is, either - I have two accounts feeding my Mail inbox on multiple devices, one of which is gmail, and I haven't run into a problem.

Same with me.

 

[bondr006]

I'm not sure what the problem is, either - I have two accounts feeding my Mail inbox on multiple devices, one of which is gmail, and I haven't run into a problem.

Yeah, I have no problems with Gmail either. I use the Gmail app, 2 Gmail accounts with the Apple Mail app, 2 Gmail accounts with Outlook, and directly on Safari...all with no issues on iPhone or iPad.

 

[Bungaree.Chubbins]

Joining the chorus, Gmail even works fine on my iPad Air 2! Both in the mail client and even in Safari, though it is a little slow there.

 

[sracer]

Files.app is still just an app... not a filesystem manager.

I was tinkering with iDOS from the app store. Nice to see it formally allowed.

I needed to rename a folder so that iDOS recognized it. DOSBoxW311 ➜ DOSBoxW311.idos 👍
Files.app did that fine... and no longer recognizes it as a folder... and launches iDOS when selected. 👍

I needed to add a file to the folder so I used Files.app to rename it back to: DOSBoxW311
Files.app still "sees" it as a file (not a folder). There is no way in the Files.app to tell it that an object is a folder type once it has been changed to a "file" type.

 

[Kal Madda]

Files.app is still just an app... not a filesystem manager.

I don’t get this. Of course it’s an app. The Finder is an app as well.

 

[sracer]

I don’t get this. Of course it’s an app. The Finder is an app as well.

Many proponents of the "iPad as a laptop replacement" have pointed to the Files.app as "proof" that we don't need direct access to the filesystem in iPad OS. They claim that the Files.app serves that purpose. It doesn't.

Files.app is nothing more than Apple's version of Reedle's Documents app from back-in-the-day.

 

[Kal Madda]

Many proponents of the "iPad as a laptop replacement" have pointed to the Files.app as "proof" that we don't need direct access to the filesystem in iPad OS. They claim that the Files.app serves that purpose. It doesn't.

Files.app is nothing more than Apple's version of Reedle's Documents app from back-in-the-day.

The Files app provides access to files on the iPad. If you’re talking about accessing background OS files and such, most people don’t want or need access to such things. And Files is extremely similar to Finder in most regards. It’s an app you use to access your folders and files…

PS, I am a proponent of the iPad as a laptop alternative. I use my iPad as my primary computer. When I use my Mac, I don’t see any major differences between the Finder and Files app, there’s just a few minor differences in UI…

 

[janl]

It took some time to findout my ideal MO. I had a MacStudio, a MacBook Pro, an iPad Pro M4 and a iPhone. There is a lot of overlap, but I convinced myself I needed that. Every trip I needed to decide if I would take my MacBook Pro with me, or the iPad Pro. For both were compelling arguments, and most of the times I ended up with taking them both.

Some months ago I decided to sell my MacBook Pro. So now my MacStudio is my only mac, and I use my iPad Pro (with a esim) on the road. I use Screens 5 from my iPad Pro to take over the screen of my MacStudio. That works fine. I had some problems with not using the full resolution of my iPad Pro screen (and getting black bars). I was able to solve that with a HDMI dummy adapter (which makes a headless display on my MacStudio) and the terrific BetterDisplay software.

So now I use my iPad Pro on the road (or on the couch; makes a happy wife in the evening) and takeover my MacStudio screen for applications I need to run on my MacStudio. Also I can use the VPN on my MacStudio for a connection to the company I work for. It is a mixed solution, and you can argue that I don’t really use the iPad Pro as a laptop replacement. But it fits me really well.

Last week I subscribed to NVidia GeForce Now, so now I can play Diablo IV on my iPad Pro M4 (or on my MacStudio). There is a lot possible with an iPad Pro.

 

[Ludatyk]

Some months ago I decided to sell my MacBook Pro. So now my MacStudio is my only mac, and I use my iPad Pro (with a esim) on the road

Yeah, that convenience factor… being connected everywhere I go. That’s why it’s difficult for me to give the iPad up.

 

[Ultracyclist]

I’ve been iPad only for the last 2,5 years, as soon as iPadOS 16 beta 2 dropped. Recently I learned that my MacBook Pro 2015 passed away. Although I was really disappointed art first, (because I never had a piece of hardware die from loneliness before) I couldn’t care for it.

On the matter of the files app, I can be clear as day.
If you just want to controle where you store your files and want to be able to access and move them the app is way better than just good enough. I you want to tinker with the way the OS works on the other hand, maybe the OS isn’t for you or you should consider jailbreaking. Other than that the intended use case for finder or files has always been accessing and moving around your own files and not playing around with OS related files.

 

[Zwhaler]

On a related note, I can't figure out what some commenters mean by "real work".

How about printing to office/workstation class printers with stapler-finishers and label printers with proprietary software?

 

[GalileoSeven]

I’ve been iPad only for 3 months now and am still enjoying the flexibility (have been taking my iPad mini out with me and using my phone as a hotspot to stay connected).

There are times when I miss the traditional touchpad/keyboard/screen setup of a laptop, but I’ve slowly, but surely been getting used to using a BT mouse (MX Master 3) with this here.

Started writing my first novel here on both iPads (my mini & 5th gen Air - depends on where I’m at as to which I take with me) and the next challenge will be when I actually get it finished and ready to format all nice and proper - I’ve got enough experience with that on the desktop versions of both Pages & Word, but haven’t bothered digging into the iOS versions to see how challenging that might be.

 

[Kal Madda]

How about printing to office/workstation class printers with stapler-finishers and label printers with proprietary software?

So if you do your work with one of the many AirPrint printers on the market, that means it isn’t “real work”. Come on, I think you mean to say “niche work”… And, btw, proprietary software can run on the iPad as well…

 

[janl]

So if you do your work with one of the many AirPrint printers on the market, that means it isn’t “real work”. Come on, I think you mean to say “niche work”… And, btw, proprietary software can run on the iPad as well…

Real work? Corporate IT makes it impossible to connect with an iPad… have to use a VPN (even for mail) that isn’t available on my iPad. In the office the wifi is blocked. So even though there are ‘native apps on my iPad’ I can’t use them. So what’s the definition of real work?

 

[Kal Madda]

Real work? Corporate IT makes it impossible to connect with an iPad… have to use a VPN (even for mail) that isn’t available on my iPad. In the office the wifi is blocked. So even thought there ‘native apps on my iPad’ I can’t use them. So what’s the definition of real work?

And that sounds like a problem with your particular corporate IT, not the device. Some companies only allow Windows devices and don’t allow Macs, does that mean Macs aren’t capable of “real work”? The problem is that some people seem to think their particular workflow is more “real” or valid than others. Any work performed on the device is “real work”. People going around claiming a computer can’t do “real work” because it can’t do their work is silly. Different workflows require different things. Different people have different preferences, and different computers fill those different needs and preferences better than others. It’s that simple…

 

[sparksd]

And that sounds like a problem with your particular corporate IT, not the device. Some companies only allow Windows devices and don’t allow Macs, does that mean Macs aren’t capable of “real work”? The problem is that some people seem to think their particular workflow is more “real” or valid than others. Any work performed on the device is “real work”. People going around claiming a computer can’t do “real work” because it can’t do their work is silly. Different workflows require different things. Different people have different preferences, and different computers fill those different needs and preferences better than others. It’s that simple…

To take it a step further, some companies (e.g., where I worked before retiring) don't allow any personal devices of any sort to connect to the corporate network.

 

[Zwhaler]

So if you do your work with one of the many AirPrint printers on the market, that means it isn’t “real work”. Come on, I think you mean to say “niche work”… And, btw, proprietary software can run on the iPad as well…

I didn’t say it isn’t real work, but that’s one reason I can’t use it. I bought an iPad Pro M4 and used it as a laptop replacement 85% of the time, btw.

 

[Kal Madda]

I didn’t say it isn’t real work, but that’s one reason I can’t use it. I bought an iPad Pro M4 and used it as a laptop replacement 85% of the time, btw.

Ok, it’s just the way you phrased things, it sounded to me like you were saying that people who didn’t have a use-case like that weren’t doing “real work”. Thanks for the clarification, and sorry about any misunderstanding. 👍🏻