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iPad Pro iPad pro replacing laptop?
- Thread starter garyleecn
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With the right accessories (keyboard, Pencil) and apps, I could reproduce 95 % of my workflow in an efficient way. I still have my Razer Blade for laptop related things though.
Well my Air 2 is my daily driver, so it can be done. I'm getting more of a handle on multitasking and picture in picture so it's really starting to shine. I really wish I could MS Word working in a few key areas, but other than that, I'm awesome.
Well, I can feel what you mean regarging MS Word. It misses some basic features, like creation of table of content or simply open two documents at the same time. Although I believe that latter limitation comes from iOS itself. iOS 9 is starting to shine in the multitasking department. I'm confident that iOS 10 will fill in the gap (or most of it).
I finally received all components of my IPP right after the NY, and since then, I've sold my MBP and loving my new toy
As a daily go-to the Pro is perfect. Handles all my comms and business admin, and wi-fi'd up to my new laser copier its just peachy. It only falls down for me when i need to use non-Pro software for my real job.
My needs are a little outside of what the iPad Pro can handle. Accessing Servers, and my workstation in the office remotely is not as easy on the iPad Pro vs. a computer that is running a desktop class operating system. The lack of mouse is probably the biggest impediment.
Then there's my other activities, such as using Lightroom, and Photoshop, neither of which have the same version on iOS as OS X.
Finally, there's MS Office, while its great that its there, it lacks certain features as found in the desktop OS. Close, don't get me wrong on this. I think I can get most of my work on that done, but there are some niggling differences.
Then there's my other activities, such as using Lightroom, and Photoshop, neither of which have the same version on iOS as OS X.
Finally, there's MS Office, while its great that its there, it lacks certain features as found in the desktop OS. Close, don't get me wrong on this. I think I can get most of my work on that done, but there are some niggling differences.
Ha ha, no. It's not even sold as a laptop replacement...
It's literally just a bigger iPad, with stylus support and decent speakers (for once.) If you can get away with an iPad Pro as a computer replacement, chances are even a Mini could have replaced it for you just as well as the Pro, screen size and pen support aside.
It's literally just a bigger iPad, with stylus support and decent speakers (for once.) If you can get away with an iPad Pro as a computer replacement, chances are even a Mini could have replaced it for you just as well as the Pro, screen size and pen support aside.
The iPad Pro is a very nice iPad. Its strengths are in how it gets out of my way when I want to do one thing at a time, like draw or read or watch a video. But it can never replace my MacBook Pro, which lets me easily do many things, like have multiple windows open for research as I write, or use a dozen terminal windows to control a server farm.
I honestly gave it a real go but got extremely frustrated when using the keyboard. Like Tim Cook said, laptops with touchscreen's fail because the user has to reach up and over the keyboard to use it. The same thing applies to the iPad Pro ironically, I found using the keyboard without a mouse just not very comfortable or even that useable. As a programmer who now predominantly uses a Cloud based IDE, I thought the iPad Pro, like my ChromeBook would be a good fit for me but I quickly found the entire experience daunting without a mouse. Hopefully Jail Breaking it and installing the mouse drivers will fix my issues.
I'm also having a real problem not being able to run the apps that I need to in the background, like a terminal app for instance. This is an absolute must for me as I practically live inside of a remote terminal that's connected to multiple development servers. I want to be able to start a compile job and than minimize it. Running one in the dual app view isn't possible yet as that feature still has very limited support, as in, I see only 110 apps that actually support it. Also, not all apps actually run in the background when in dual app view, as once the focus is off of it, they to pause, even though you can still see it.
The lack of a decent file management system is also a huge problem for me and I absolutely hate, I mean I really hate that apps manage and even store their own files, this is just poor design. Also when sharing a file between another app, you don't send the file but create a copy so I have this problem of many instances of the same file existing on the system. This is especially apparent when using a browser. A central document management system in which all files are stored and apps access using a common system to open or save a document would fix this problem. Till than though the iPad Pro is basically useless to me as a content creation system or work tool.
External display support just sucks, not only does iOS not support the resolution of my monitor when mirroring the desktop, which is another problem, I want to extend the desktop not mirror it, but the DPI is so comically huge that it's pretty much useless. My little Tab S2 8" from Samsung is a 100x better at this as not only does it support everything, but I can change the DPI to reflect that of a normal looking desktop UI. I can also extend the desktop using a great little app called Second Dispay. Having a second monitor is an absolute must for any of my productivity computers and the iPad Pro just isn't one of those at this moment.
There are also to many UI inconsistencies and bugs still for me to even consider using the iPad Pro for anything but content consuming, media and light gaming. Maybe in 6 months when hopefully a lot of my concerns are ironed out but I'm not holding my breath. It took Apple 8 years to get inner app sharing working properly, more than 1GB of RAM, multitasking (which is still no where near that of a desktop computer), etc. iOS is nothing more than a mobile OS and as such using it as my everyday driver would be a lesson in futility. Not to say the iPad Pro doesn't have it uses, I use mine as a night stand media player, magazine reader and some light computing like answering emails, etc.
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Have you tried something like Coda (or Prompt, once they update for iPP), where you can have multiple tabs of terminal windows? This has been working for me - split view with one side having multiple terminals, and some other app in the other side.
This. People have different needs. Some have/can do this. Others can't. My usual rant...I was never hardware limited (proc speed or screen size, I infact went to the mini's from the regular ipads in the past because I liked its smaller size). Its the iOS. Some go to apps I run cannot be on iOS because of well, the iOS.
Remote not an option as have been told by some. In my mind if you are remoting a system for several hours you have not replaced it....you have merely changed how you access it and its still just as vital. 4 hours on an IPP to remote the mbp running the app I need I may as well be on the mbp for that 4 hours anyway.
remote also something not only IPP can do. I could do the same, and have done so, with my mini, it remotes fine.
I think my iPad Pro could possibly replace my RMBP. I mostly just write and edit, so it's not as though I need any more processing power...but I don't think I can live with all my files just in the cloud, and there is just no way to organize everything the way I wish to. So maybe my next computer will be a Mac mini instead of a laptop, since the iPP can do most everything most of the time...but I'm not close to ready to be without OSX and a real computer.