Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iPad Pro iPad Pro instead of laptop?!
- Thread starter Loopy65
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I had a Surface 2 and 3 and you can't do anything with them that you can't do with the iPad.
There is no such thing as a Mickey Mouse OS. I only need one OS per device. If I'm a regular user I'm not going to be going back and forth between two OS's. Going between the tiles and the normal windows interface was a pain for the longest time. So glad I have an iPad Air 2 now. I really want the iPad Pro with the Pen and keyboard cover.
After trying to use an iPad Air 2 like a laptop, I'm convinced it can't be done...even if it's an iPad Pro. For me personally, it's too cumbersome and I need a mouse or trackpad to do anything serious. I write for a website and the editing interface (WordPress) is horrendous in safari and so frustrating to use without a mouse / with a touch screen and the official app sucks because it lacks most of the browser capabilities. Sold my Air 2 and Mac mini and went for a 2015 MacBook Air...works like a dream compared to the iPad.
Last edited:
How so? what could easier? You go to the modern ui and double click the modern app you want to run. To go to the desktop you click on the desktop icon.
To me, having used it before, it's not so much that it's a pain, it's just that the transition between the 2 interfaces never made sense. Why did/do I need a modern UI and normal desktop UI for one app? I just wanna click the app and open it and not worry about there being theoretically two different versions of the same app with each being in a separate spot.
Sounds like he's ever used it before. On 8.1 I have it set to boot to desktop and clicking on Start brings up the Metro UI. It can't get any easier than that.
It is possible to have both a modern and desktop version of an app on your computer, but you will have to install and launch them separately. Launching a desktop version of the app DOES NOT also launch the Modern version, and visa versa. So its not really that confusing. A good example of an app that exists in both formats in Sketchbook pro
The easiest way to simplify life is to install only one version of the app. Or if you want to maintain both versions--pin the desktop version to the desktop taskbar and move its tile out of the modern menu. Then--you will launch desktop version from the desktop toolbar and the modern version from the modern ui tile
I never set it to automatically boot in the normal windows despite knowing this. Admitedly I was lazy and couldve done it but I didnt. Finding apps in normal windows was a pain for me. Thats just my experience. I was given the Surface devices specifically for testing purposes. Its easier for me to make sure my stuff works on all browsers. What I came away with is that Surface doesnt work as a tablet but is useful as a laptop and ...... but not quite as useful as a laptop because the size was "off" to me in terms of the proportions. I personally felt myself getting annoyed after using it for 20-30minutes or so. Apps were hard to find on it if you are in regular windows. Going between the two OSes Id end up spending too much time refiguring out how to switch from metro to regular windows. The reverse was not true.
Last edited:
Like i said earlier, using clouds provided by companies isnt the best solution. There is just a new news about ms shrinking their cloud, onedrive, from 15gb to 5gb and no 15gb camera roll anymore. If you have bought 100/200gb plans, they are cut off too.. And then you have 90 days time to decide what to do with onedrive and will you accept the new policies... I got earlier the same kind of message from google that some bonus space, 10gb (ftom installing an app? Or did it came wih an android phone?) is going to end and if i want to continue using it, i need buy a plan...
and with google drive i lost all data at once, but luckily i was backed up my gdrive to my nas earlier. I lost only couple of files. And how did it happen? I was using my own laptop but logged in as a differend user, i needed to access to google drive to store some large files and i opened the gdrive software installed to my computer. It asked me to give the username and password, but then it didnt sync the data from the cloud but it erased the cloud because the just created gdrive directory on my laptop was empty. You needed only a one user error(?) and the whole cloud drive was deleted. 10gigs of my work files!
I dont need a tin foil hat because nowadays im using my own encrypted nas. And rather than playing and paying for only few gigs i have space for terabytes of data... I do agree about using and losting usb/sdcards/etc. But im sure these same people would lost their heads if they werent attached to their body. The main problem of clouds are that they are slow and you are 24hours dependent on internet access and the service provider. What happens if you need some files from the cloud drive and you get a message "maintenance is going" or at home you lost your internet connection...
Im sure too that in the future everything is in clouds - a good money cow...
Its always been a hybrid...
For ceratin things like music Im happy with AM/iTunes. For many videos in particular tech videos and books Im happy keeping that stuff in the cloud. Photos go to the cloud as well as Im not that attached to them quite frankly. I need to get rid of some of them anyway. Really personal docs stay on the machine or a drive.
Here's an interesting article:
How We Hold Our Gadgets
Go about three-quarters of the way in, and the writer talks about hybrids. Turns out most experienced users don't poke at the screen, but grip the screen with two hands and operate the touch interface with their thumbs. Also, most users use both touch and mouse interaction techniques, rather than one exclusively over the other.
I still think of hybrids as more laptops-first with touch second, rather than tablets-first with keyboard and mouse second, but the article kind of opened my eyes a bit to the advantage some find with a touch-enabled laptop. For me, I still want a tablet as a complement to my notebook PC, not as a replacement. The iPad Pro feels like the ideal companion.
But this article puts some research behind some of these ideas.
How We Hold Our Gadgets
Go about three-quarters of the way in, and the writer talks about hybrids. Turns out most experienced users don't poke at the screen, but grip the screen with two hands and operate the touch interface with their thumbs. Also, most users use both touch and mouse interaction techniques, rather than one exclusively over the other.
I still think of hybrids as more laptops-first with touch second, rather than tablets-first with keyboard and mouse second, but the article kind of opened my eyes a bit to the advantage some find with a touch-enabled laptop. For me, I still want a tablet as a complement to my notebook PC, not as a replacement. The iPad Pro feels like the ideal companion.
But this article puts some research behind some of these ideas.
Again, you pin desktop apps to the desktop taskbar. Its very apple like. Windows is very simple except for people who refuse to learn
This process begs the question "what's the point of the modern UI?" if you're not going into it and instead pinning apps from it to the desktop?
I never understood the purpose of having two separate user interfaces.
There are two user interface types: modern--which is explicitly designed for touch. and desktop--which is designed for pointer devices (trackpad/mouse) but is also responsive to touch. Modern ui is analogous to ios, desktop is analogous to osX. There are two separate ui's because MS wanted to support both types of apps.