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I’m sure some apps will be optimized for the 8GB and 16GB RAM versions of the new iPad Pro, but iPadOS and most apps will still need to be well optimized to run on 3GB of RAM iPads since the 2019 iPad Air is 3GB of RAM and the 10.2” iPad as well. It now seems almost insane that Apple launched the 2018 iPad Pro with an A12X and just 4GB of RAM. The A12X was already well past most intel based MacBook Pros in 2018/2019. They could have utilized 6GB at minimum then.
 
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Never seen so much whinging about the option to get more RAM. And some of you need to hear this - the screen on a M1 Macbook does not freakin’ detach and magically become a tablet. So no I won’t be buying that instead.

iPad Pro 12.9 cellular 256GB it is for me.
Same boat here. My iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard is my go to computing device for just about everything I do in med school. Not to mention, no pencil support on the Macs. Different strokes for different folks.
 
Why are people STILL comparing an iPad to a Mac??

An iPad is not a Mac, and a Mac is not an iPad.

They are very different devices, and the price only matters to those that don't really want or need an iPad.

For God's sake, let it go.

This new M1 iPad will take everything that I (maybe not you) throw at it without getting up from the couch, for a decade.

Finally.

Now Apple, make an even bigger one.

17 inches, please.
 
As a photographer, I would actually buy the iPad pro, maxed out, to use as a travel laptop and for location shooting, but not if it doesn't run Mac OS and Lightroom Classic and Photoshop.

Without Mac OS, it seems wildly overbuilt and overpriced. With Mac OS, this is an ideal tool for me.

I wonder how that will play out? Everything else with an M1 chip runs Mac OS... Any indication this might be able to switch between the two?
 
As a photographer, I would actually buy the iPad pro, maxed out, to use as a travel laptop and for location shooting, but not if it doesn't run Mac OS and Lightroom Classic and Photoshop.

Without Mac OS, it seems wildly overbuilt and overpriced. With Mac OS, this is an ideal tool for me.

I wonder how that will play out? Everything else with an M1 chip runs Mac OS... Any indication this might be able to switch between the two?
Craig Federighi said: "No. Of course not".

Sounds like you want a Mac, and Apple doesn't build the one you want.

I know the feeling: I still use my 17" MBP as a daily driver.

But I can finally lay that baby to rest with this iPad. I'm getting rid of my practical sedan and getting a crotch rocket.

Just for fun, just 'cause I can.
 
You have to think that eventually, these things will run macOS. There's no reason to have so much power to run anything but a full fledged operating system
 
With that amount of RAM you can run XCode, Docker VMs etc. It's pretty much the same hardware as Mac. People wanting a touch screen Mac, this is going to be it. With BigSur UI looking more touch friendly, iPadOS will look more like Big Sur in the near future. This hardware is begging for macOS.
 
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Yeah, the ipad does not compete with a laptop for me, it competes with a Wacom Cintiq. I just don’t want to work at the desk. If they do merge MacOs and iOs... just maybe, I did not need to upgrade my Mac Mini. Which only has 16gb as well.

Right now, Photoshop on iOs is unusable. Which is why I work in Procreate.
16gb would make the iPad a true contender to run a real Photoshop. Even 8gb might work.

With the Pencil 2 (I am still on 1), it will set me back $2500 for a 1tb. I am in tears about that. But honestly, I will be in more tears if I don’t get the RAM. In 11”, it would be $2150. Is that enough of a price difference to go for a smaller screen? I mean, I do like my 10.5”.
 
You have to think that eventually, these things will run macOS. There's no reason to have so much power to run anything but a full fledged operating system
macOS is not designed for touch. It really is that simple, folks.

iPadOS will gain features from the Mac side, just like the Mac has been gaining features from iOS over the years.

But the devices are FUNDAMENTALLY different hardware, with differing interaction methods baked in.
 
I just can’t imagine Apple ever allowing an iPad Pro to run macOS - doing so would decimate pro app development for the iPad. Why bother developing an iPad version if the pros can just run the Mac version instead? At that point you also hit the same usability issues that Windows 10 tablets have encountered - running desktop apps and a desktop-first OS on a tablet makes for a lousy tablet experience. Plus Apple is a hardware company and they want to sell you two devices (alongside subscription services to help your devices work together even more seamlessly).
 
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running desktop apps and a desktop-first OS on a tablet makes for a lousy tablet experience.
Unfortunately true. I used the Luna dongle as an experiment, and aside from the lag it still had... Photoshop on that small screen and with touch just didn’t work.

That said. With 8-16gb, maybe we finally get a Photoshop app that actually works. Adobe’s first attempt was miserable.
And not having MacOS on the ipad would actually make me feel better. :) Could have not upgraded the Mini otherwise.
 
Not bothering to ever optimize your code resulting in a slow bloated platform (aka. Android).
That's not a problem with the hardware. that's a developer problem.

Optimization also only goes so far. assets require storage in RAM. the more advanced we expect our devices to do. the larger the assets that are required to do stuff. the larger the data and the larger the RAM requirement.

Using Video ram as an example here:
Do you want space efficient 360i based textures in your games, or do you want 4k based textures? Do you want hiDPI displays or do you want to give up retina?

As we ask more of our devices, they use more resources. More cylces. more storage. more cache requirements. Doesn't matter how efficient your code is.
 
That's a hard sell to start selling the hardware, with a price increase, before the software that can begin to touch using it...



It's not complaining about future-proofing. But unless they plan some MAJOR OS updates its wasted RAM all but for a niche user base like some have posted about (illustrators, etc). The average person won't care if it is 8 or 16. They care more you are now at an over $1000 starting price. And unlike an iPhone they aren't going to their carrier for monthly payments so it's a very different animal.

Same argument with the M1. Great but what does it do for average Joe user right now trying to sell it before any OS update? For a $100 more starting price. I've NEVER heard anyone say the last A series was slow. Absent some big OS update, which may or may not even be done in the future, it's a hard sell.

Parading big specs is manly just justifying the price increase, nothing more, to 95%+ or more of average users not in a niche creative sector.

If you go back, my argument is give people a big screen option but with an A-series or M1, and whatever RAM or storage you want. THAT is "pro" to me. $999 was already an expensive sell for the average user (before accessories).

We heard the same arguments with the iPhone. Oh its "only" going up $50 or $100, stop whining. Then year after year it crept up from $749 for the first Plus size phone to where we're at a $1,100 base price big display phone in not many years (what, 4 years?)

Listen, i'm actually with you on the price side of things and how they sometimes use this as an artificial means to drive up the price. But lets be honest here, Apple could likely give us the more RAM and not change the price and still be massively profitable. I was purely talking from a technical standpoint about RAM and if you didn't mean it that way, sorry.

from a technical standpoint, never complain about the more ram. but Apple is doing Apple things regarding pricing and always will. I don't defend it. But i'm happy that others recognize it too
 
As a photographer, I would actually buy the iPad pro, maxed out, to use as a travel laptop and for location shooting, but not if it doesn't run Mac OS and Lightroom Classic and Photoshop.

Without Mac OS, it seems wildly overbuilt and overpriced. With Mac OS, this is an ideal tool for me.

I wonder how that will play out? Everything else with an M1 chip runs Mac OS... Any indication this might be able to switch between the two?
I imagine the file system sees a large update in iPadOS 15, and now that it runs the same processor as the M1 Macs, the full feature and design of the Lightroom Classic and Photoshop apps should be cross-platform. We are now realizing the beauty of Apple moving to Apple Silicon. This iPad Pro is the next phase in that transition. This is an exciting launch and even though I don’t need the performance of the new iPad Pro, having the additional RAM and front facing camera with the $535 trade-in for mine make for a lot of temptation.
 
A couple of points I couldn’t find in the thread so far:

ProXDR display, depending on the performance and implementation with that TB port, could be a game changer and worth the price of admission. There was a shot in the promo with some hint at using it as an on-camera monitor (in addition to a remote monitor). Both a remote monitor and a quality studio-style direct attached viewfinder / monitor is a very interesting proposition. Even just a quality screen at the 13” size is incredibly compelling.

By the same token the value of such a monitor on tablet/surface is a compelling proposition even if the remote viewing capabilities don’t come to fruition.

If you told me I could get an M1 based tablet with a stylus that has a professional quality display (and I have been in love with my current IPad Pro’s display) I’d say sign me up.

Do I want LPX and FCPX on my iPad Pro. Yep. A CLI with git and Xcode. Yep. If these don’t come it still seems like a value prop worth considering for many customers.

Is it worth $200-300 more than a similarly spec’ed Air, or just a tad more than a 13” MBP, as with all things: it depends.



I have a 2018 11” and the RAM is sorely needed. Switching between editors and some web sites has lots of reloads in the current iPadOS (my unit only has 4GB).
 
Never seen so much whinging about the option to get more RAM. And some of you need to hear this - the screen on a M1 Macbook does not freakin’ detach and magically become a tablet. So no I won’t be buying that instead.

iPad Pro 12.9 cellular 256GB it is for me.

I was going to make a dad joke about the MacBook Air that I tried to detach the screen from no longer working. Most people can only see the world through their lens and not consider that there are other use cases. The screen on the MacBook is also no comparison to the new iPad 12.9 screen. Never mind touch screen/pencil support. The reason I’m shifting to iPads is heat. I’m sick of my 15” MacBook Pro getting stupid hot and the fans cranking up. The ipad gets hot once in a while, but not like that and it has no fans.

I’m torn between the 512 and the 1TB WiFi. I can no longer justify cellular, and I can’t point to a reason to have 16 GB of ram, but I think I should get it. :)
 
Why are people STILL comparing an iPad to a Mac??

An iPad is not a Mac, and a Mac is not an iPad.

They are very different devices, and the price only matters to those that don't really want or need an iPad.

For God's sake, let it go.

This new M1 iPad will take everything that I (maybe not you) throw at it without getting up from the couch, for a decade.

Finally.

Now Apple, make an even bigger one.

17 inches, please.
As a professional photographer, an iPad with an M1 chip would be a great tool, replacing my travel laptop, but only if it could switch between Mac OS and iOS. Then I could use it for drone work, tethered shooting, and then light editing while sitting on a plane or overnight at a location.

If it can't run Mac OS it just seems terribly overpriced and overequipped. Given that every other machine with an M1 chip can run Mac OS, I would think such a thing would be on the horizon, although I'm surprised it wasn't launched that way.
 
Did not see M1 coming to iPad, which further blurs the line between iPad (pro) and Mac ( at least entry level)...
Maybe there will be touch screen coming to some macs running iPadOS in a window...
It’ll be interesting to watch this evolution
Logic Pro already does something like this. And, for those music professionals that have tried it, it’s MUCH nicer than clicking and dragging a mouse AND you can modify multiple faders at once.
 
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That's a hard sell to start selling the hardware, with a price increase, before the software that can begin to touch using it...



It's not complaining about future-proofing. But unless they plan some MAJOR OS updates its wasted RAM all but for a niche user base like some have posted about (illustrators, etc). The average person won't care if it is 8 or 16. They care more you are now at an over $1000 starting price. And unlike an iPhone they aren't going to their carrier for monthly payments so it's a very different animal.

Same argument with the M1. Great but what does it do for average Joe user right now trying to sell it before any OS update? For a $100 more starting price. I've NEVER heard anyone say the last A series was slow. Absent some big OS update, which may or may not even be done in the future, it's a hard sell.

Parading big specs is manly just justifying the price increase, nothing more, to 95%+ or more of average users not in a niche creative sector.

If you go back, my argument is give people a big screen option but with an A-series or M1, and whatever RAM or storage you want. THAT is "pro" to me. $999 was already an expensive sell for the average user (before accessories).

We heard the same arguments with the iPhone. Oh its "only" going up $50 or $100, stop whining. Then year after year it crept up from $749 for the first Plus size phone to where we're at a $1,100 base price big display phone in not many years (what, 4 years?)
Word. I recall my eyes bugging when I paid $399 for iPhone 3G. Last time I checked wages haven't more than doubled in 15 years.
 
I do not understand why Apple doesn't just go the Surface Pro path and make a version of
MacOS for touchscreens so this large iPads could both in Big Sur and run Mac apps natively. Am I missing something here?
 
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Pretty weird. The top spec iPad is now $2,400.

Apple is talking about how having a unified architecture will allow people to more easily port applications to iOS, but they haven't even done it for their own applications like Final Cut or Xcode. Multitasking on the iPad is still pretty abysmal.

I'm surprised at this point Apple hasn't just merged iPad OS and Mac OS pulled a Microsoft and added a "tablet/desktop" toggle to just flip between the two.
That price is not far from the top end iPad from 2020, though. No surprises there. :)

More likely, they’ll just release their Mac apps for iPadOS. That’s a lot easier for them than to try to shoehorn a non-touch enabled OS into a primarily touch based system.
 
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