iPad Pro iPad, M1 Pro and ports

[mectojic]

Apple brought back the HDMI and SD card slots for their new M1 Pro MacBook Pros. They even bumped up the thunderbolt ports to 3, made the headphone jack able to support high power headphones, and added back friggin MagSafe!

Apple has therefore finally backtracked from their minimalist USB-C port attempts, and given PROs what they want.

Could this possibly mean that we could hope to get more ports for our iPad PRO too next year?

Personally, I am pretty desperate for the return of the headphone jack, and having 2 USB-C or even Magsafe on an iPad Pro would be stunning.

Please discuss- could this happen?

 

[fwmireault]

I think a second USB-C/Thunderbolt is not impossible. I don’t see any other port being added to the iPad Pro, including the headphone jack, but who knows what Apple plans to do

 

[darngooddesign]

No. Just one TB4 port and maybe the headphone jack on the Pros.

Doesnt the MK give you a second USB-C port?

 

[Shirasaki]

No. Just one TB4 port and maybe the headphone jack on the Pros.

Doesnt the MK give you a second USB-C port?

That port is only for charging. Does not provide computer connectivity in any way.

 

[Shirasaki]

Apple brought back the HDMI and SD card slots for their new M1 Pro MacBook Pros. They even bumped up the thunderbolt ports to 3, made the headphone jack able to support high power headphones, and added back friggin MagSafe!

Apple has therefore finally backtracked from their minimalist USB-C port attempts, and given PROs what they want.

Could this possibly mean that we could hope to get more ports for our iPad PRO too next year?

Personally, I am pretty desperate for the return of the headphone jack, and having 2 USB-C or even Magsafe on an iPad Pro would be stunning.

Please discuss- could this happen?

I doubt there will be another TB4 port on later iPad given how gimped it is as a "laptop" and it runs iOS (yeah yeah iPadOS but how far it is from iOS? Heck, iOS beta profile is compatible with iPadOS).

And headphone jack? iPad doesn't even support some of the most basic features macOS has in music production, plus "always up to date" nature means software will break YOY, which is terrible for production companies.

 

[darngooddesign]

That port is only for charging. Does not provide computer connectivity in any way.

Still the equivalent of one mag-safe (esp if you use a magnetic adapter) and one data port which is better than only one port.

 

[ericwn]

Even if they add a ton of ports - which I doubt - it will remain to be seen what we can actually achieve with them on iPad.

The change to M1 chips hasn’t really done much to most iPad workflows except maybe adding a few layers in some apps and speed a few things up, but even stuff like extended desktop with an attached monitor doesn’t exist after more than a decade of iPad.

 

[mectojic]

When you look at what the iPad is, and what it could have been, it does make you concerned about Tim Cook's leadership.

I mean really, the guy is meant to have meetings with the teams all the time. What on earth do they discuss during the iPad sessions? The weather? Their favourite shade of space grey?

(They probably don't discuss weather, since there is still no iPad Weather app.)

 

[darngooddesign]

(They probably don't discuss weather, since there is still no iPad Weather app.)

If only there were more than ten alternative weather apps. That would be great.

 

[Abazigal]

Apple brought back the HDMI and SD card slots for their new M1 Pro MacBook Pros. They even bumped up the thunderbolt ports to 3, made the headphone jack able to support high power headphones, and added back friggin MagSafe!

Apple has therefore finally backtracked from their minimalist USB-C port attempts, and given PROs what they want.

Could this possibly mean that we could hope to get more ports for our iPad PRO too next year?

Personally, I am pretty desperate for the return of the headphone jack, and having 2 USB-C or even Magsafe on an iPad Pro would be stunning.

Please discuss- could this happen?

I think that Apple still has their own internal vision of how they envision the iPad being used, which doesn’t entail being tethered to a desk.

Personally, I would like to see Apple go even more opinionated and let the iPad Pro resemble the iPhone more closely. Thinner bezels, reinforced sides, a notch if necessary.

But what iOS desperately needs more than anything else is desktop apps. Zoom for example is still extremely limited on the iPad. Google drive apps are still an exercise in frustration. And still no instagram app…

 

[ericwn]

If only there were more than ten alternative weather apps. That would be great.

In fairness a lot of third party weather apps are ad infested hot garbage.

What would be really great would be at minimum feature parity to iPhone. Apple should lead by example instead of not providing a weather app, the darn calculator and the Apple Watch app and then top that of with great feature rich creative apps that rival the desktop apps’ functionality.