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The iPad Just Got a Lot More Like a Mac Thanks to These 20+ New Features
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My post wasn't releated to security features, but about desktop features, windowing, multitasking, side-by-side apps. It's evident that they are making it very similar to macOS, and will be easier for more people to use it as a desktop replacement.
Not good enough for daily productivity.This is MS' answer. And it's really good
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Similar is good as it would allow users to easily transition between the different devices. I think that the idea scenario is a desktop Macintosh, iPad Pro, and iPhone for daily productivity, but that is highly optimized for my work flows in teaching, preparing lectures, and performing research in Cybersecurity. My desktop is a workstation & server replacement. So I look at keeping everything as simple as necessary to be efficient and effective in my daily productivity.
I go all the way back to the 1st Gen iPad also...with a little 4th gen iPad Touch on the side. I knew I was hooked from the very beginning. My next iPad after that was the 4th gen. Attached is a Zagg Keys Pro. I've had many more after that, but didn't make my iPad a laptop replacement until 2021 with my M1 iPad Pro 11. It's been a great ride.
I just looked at the receipt for that iPad 4 with cellular
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I had purchased an iPod touch for my wife to use with a group when doing some ceremonials, but ultimately we ended up trading it in at some point before Apple discontinued the iPod touch. My current setup is the Mac Studio to use as my workstation and home server while the iPad & iPhone as my primary personal computing devices while mobile. I have the Apple Studio Display that I can use with both the iPad & Mac Studio. I really love the optimization that I have with all three devices working in concert, something that does not happen as well with Windows.
Can you explain why is not good enough? I had one many years ago and was very productive with it.
There will always be people complaining. And it’s good in a way, if people just accepted whatever slop they were served the slop would never improve. But the wallet has to back up the mouth.
I use OneDrive for work so probably won't need Files. But I agree on mobile apps. It's time that developers gave us full-featured apps on the iPad, particularly for productivity apps.
First reason and the most important reason is that it runs Windows and not macOS. I had won a Microsoft Surface 2 and it was pretty terrible at the time. If Windows as acceptable, it would be an ok computer. After upgrading from Windows to the iPad, I have only run Windows from a virtual machine. Over the last ten years my most used application in Windows has been Windows Update. A couple of years ago I ran Autopsy in a virtual machine to verify that students could perform the forensic analysis in Windows.
Apple has done numerous times in the past to disrupt the tech world, and this time I firmly believe they will destroy desktop operating system as a whole when the opportunity presents itself. Even in the business world, good PCs aren’t cheap, let alone Mac. While Windows has Linux to contend with for desktop OS market share, macOS is just, macOS. Apple can kill it and phase out Mac. It’s not like there will be tons of folks installing Linux natively on their macintosh anyways. When iPadOS is versatile enough to cover most (98%) needs, macOS would at best be phased out from consumer market, and iOS would run on all Apple computing devices.
Mainframes still exist even though servers and even clusters of servers have replaced them for most businesses. I do believe that iPads will ultimately replace notebook computers, which is why I feel that the best deployment of the technology is a desktop Macintosh + iPad Pro + iPhone is the optimal environment for power users, while most consumers will find that the iPad + iPhone would be wholly sufficient for their daily computing needs. I do not see Apple replacing macOS with iPadOS nor replacing iPadOS with macOS. Each of the devices that Apple makes will have an optimized version of the base macOS for each device.
This is my exact setup and use case(except for teaching, lectures, and CyberSecurity of course😊), except I have an M2 Pro Mac Mini instead of a Mac Studio. I don't see me changing this setup anytime soon except for upgrading to newer versions of the devices. I 100% agree with you and think it will be a frosty day in hell before Apple replaces their Desktop Computer OS with a Tablet Computer OS.
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Students, enterprise and business have no issues at all being productive with their Windows devices, same as macOS.
And your definition of a Surface is one from a device released 12 years ago. Don't you think they improved in all of these years? Can you point out specifics on how the Surface is not good enough for daily productivity?
True, but I and many others rely heavily on Microsoft 365 apps (in my case, I don't have a choice).
Both school (requires) and my employer subscribe to Microsoft 365, and yet I still use Apple iWork and export to Microsoft Office formats and nobody is the wiser. Just because they require me to have access to these applications does not mean that I will comply when I can use the better tool
Actually it was eleven years ago when I used that Surface and yes I know that the newer devices as well as Windows 11 for ARM is much better than Windows RT (ARM) as I currently run Windows 11 for ARM in Parallels Desktop on my Mac Studio. I am more productive using Apple iWork than using Microsoft 365, and all of the productivity degrading issues with Windows makes the device less productive than using my iPad Pro (while mobile). My wife has a corporate issued Windows computer (still running Windows 10) and has had many problems where she has to reboot the computer in order for the computer to start working normally. If you require Windows, then a Surface would be a sufficient computer. I have grown past the limitations of Windows and therefore I would not find the computer all that productive. If my company had issued me a Windows computer, it would be sitting in a drawer in my desk on campus gathering dust as I would use my iPad instead.
I would say the universe's temperature would reach 0 K before Apple replaces macOS with iPadOS on the Macintosh and replaces iPadOS with macOS on the iPad.
I upgraded from the M1 Mac mini to the M2 Ultra Mac Studio so that I would be able to run multiple virtual machines at one time in a home networking virtual lab environment. It works great for continual learning and with the Mac Studio & Parallels Desktop it is still less expensive than running the average amount of time that I use the environment (mainly updates between semesters) using Microsoft Azure.
You may have moved from the Windows limitations and entered the limitations iPad have. At the end, every operating system, applications and ecosystem have limitations. We just choose one that match our preferences and let us complete our tasks. But that doesn't mean you cannot be productive with other environments, as you said.
Great article...
9to5mac.com
With iPadOS 26, Apple has finally turned the iPad into a computer - 9to5Mac
With the announcement of iPadOS 26, Apple has finally done something it had seemed to be resisting for well over...
9to5mac.com
I have a MacBook Pro but when I'm on holiday I prefer to take the iPad because I have that configures primarily for life rather than work. Should I have to work while I'm on holiday, opening an "app" on a personal device to do something isn't too bad. Taking my laptop with me is a constant reminder I brought the job with me.
It is just that the iPad has better functionality than Windows, at least from a UX point of view. In the case of the Surface, you can be productive if you beat Windows into submission until it breaks and bricks itself with an update.