TE
TechEcho
Home24h TopNewestBestAskShowJobs
GitHubTwitter
Home

TechEcho

A tech news platform built with Next.js, providing global tech news and discussions.

GitHubTwitter

Home

HomeNewestBestAskShowJobs

Resources

HackerNews APIOriginal HackerNewsNext.js

© 2025 TechEcho. All rights reserved.

The 12.9-inch iPad Pro took me by surprise and replaced my laptop

55 pointsby aparashkalmost 7 years ago

17 comments

dschuetzalmost 7 years ago
Well, I hoped for an actual review. What I got was &quot;The iPad Pro is always ready to go ... which is, like, totally amazing! Yeaas!&quot; The most pro points he makes are based on features which are actually a normality. The whole thing is emotionally laden and he sounds like a typical fanboy.<p>After reading this dripping wet review, I am now absolutely convinced that an iPad will <i>never ever</i> replace a computer. Because it is <i>not</i> a computer, but rather a consumer device, like a television set. People who think that an iPad replaced their actual computer laptop didn&#x27;t know and still don&#x27;t know at all what their laptop actually <i>can</i> do: being programmable.
评论 #17300432 未加载
评论 #17300538 未加载
sheetjsalmost 7 years ago
This article is incredibly light on actual details.<p>JS development, as long as you aren&#x27;t using webpack or some other nodejs-based toolchain, is awesome on an iPad Pro. Many developer-oriented apps ship with WebDAV servers which can serve JS scripts. And thanks to the iOS 11 Files app, you can even test sites that involve the HTML5 File API.<p>For example, doing some work on a VBA-related tool on a plane was surprisingly productive: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pbs.twimg.com&#x2F;media&#x2F;Dc9JZBMUwAAg2BY.jpg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;pbs.twimg.com&#x2F;media&#x2F;Dc9JZBMUwAAg2BY.jpg</a><p>More than anything else, I felt more productive on the iPad than on my MBP because the constraints ensured there was no visible chat application or time wasting website screen.<p>P.S.: the VSCode sidebar never really made sense until I saw it executed in the Kodex app: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;kodex.space&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;kodex.space&#x2F;</a> -- the ability to jump down to a particular place in the file with a single touch is mindblowing and immediately boosted productivity when dealing with huge scripts.
评论 #17300649 未加载
评论 #17301128 未加载
评论 #17300251 未加载
Yhippaalmost 7 years ago
I went on vacation recently and decided to just take an iPad and my camera. I got one of the new regular iPads and I had a Lightning -to-SD dongle. When I finished a day of shooting I plugged everything in and had the same issues Paul did. I couldn&#x27;t even view the photos because they had to be imported to Photos on the iPad and I definitely didn&#x27;t have space to do that.<p>I&#x27;m frustrated at how hard it is to do something simple like take pictures off my Canon 6D and make them go straight to the cloud. We live in adapter and dongle hell.
评论 #17301230 未加载
评论 #17300490 未加载
评论 #17301009 未加载
评论 #17300550 未加载
评论 #17300662 未加载
Wataboualmost 7 years ago
I know a lot of people have mentioned that they have transitioned to using the iPad and even making it their main computer but having owned and daily use an iPad Pro (the 10.5 inch), I don&#x27;t see it anything other than a media consumption device (which I love using it for).<p>I occasionally used it to carry with me at work, when I got it new last year, to try and make it my &quot;laptop&quot; replacement. I used everything, SSH to log into my Mac back home, I was on irc, browsing the web, writing emails on it, even used Pixelmator and iMovie to edit images and movies for real work things, which my colleagues were impressed by.<p>It was difficult, however, and I felt like I was constantly fighting with the iPad.<p>For example, Spotlight just isn&#x27;t as fast on the iPad like it is on the mac. Try it out. Type command + Space, then type &quot;me&quot; and hit Enter. If you thought you&#x27;d get Messages, you will only be right half the time. Enough to make it frustrating. On the Mac, I can fluidly bring up Spotlight, hit a few characters and launch that app. On the iPad, sometimes, it&#x27;ll miss typing the first character as spotlight animates, and even if it caught the first typed character, it takes painfully long to update results. So by the time you type &quot;me&quot; and hit return, the results haven&#x27;t updated to show Messages.app yet, and Messages won&#x27;t be launched.<p>There&#x27;s no Xcode on it yet, so I can&#x27;t code on it properly. There&#x27;s no terminal, Files.app feels like a poor man&#x27;s Finder, there&#x27;s no indication of focus and when you have two apps side by side, there&#x27;s no way (that I know of) to switch between them using the keyboard. So you have to tap.<p>So I gave up. I&#x27;m sure my experience, needs and workflows are different and maybe the iPad-as-a-laptop is not for me, but I am a bit skeptical now whenever someone tells me they use their iPad as their only computer. At least, not this version. iOS on the iPad at its current form just isn&#x27;t convenient to use as the only computer.
评论 #17300578 未加载
wei_jokalmost 7 years ago
I’m sorry, but what exactly did Paul make on his iPad Pro?<p>This article is more like an advertisement.
评论 #17300249 未加载
评论 #17300318 未加载
评论 #17300241 未加载
评论 #17300187 未加载
评论 #17300531 未加载
评论 #17300208 未加载
ultimooalmost 7 years ago
I purchased a Surface Pro last week, which is my first Windows device in more than a decade. Couldn&#x27;t have been happier.<p>Though I enjoy using macOS for software development and other tasks much more than Windows, I don&#x27;t think I can say the same for iOS. For the same price and form factor you get a full operating system as opposed to the iOS walled garden (which I fully appreciate on my iPhone X).<p>Since the Surface Pro is actually a full computer with a Core i5 processor, it can run any application -- including Ubuntu over Microsoft Hyper V, Docker, Photoshop, and even Steam. Plus the keyboard cover has a trackpad.
评论 #17300462 未加载
walterbellalmost 7 years ago
The biggest problem with the iPad is iOS developer attrition - so many promising apps stagnate due to invisibility and developers running out of funding. Steve Jobs wanted to avoid another Adobe ISV competitor to Apple and he succeeded. But he also starved the iPad of software that could take advantage of the fantastic hardware. Things may improve when iOS developers can sell apps that also run on macOS.<p>If Apple wants to keep iOS app development limited to small development shops and cheap apps, then they need to improve inter-app workfllow&#x2F;composition, which is currently gated on a very small whitelist of functions. Only the audio community has successfully pulled off inter-app interop on iOS, thanks to Audiobus &amp; friends. Would be nice to have similar multi-app pipelines for text, images &amp; video.<p>iPad Pro 12&quot; can replace several devices, but not a laptop.<p>HARDWARE<p><pre><code> - 4:3 (!) HiDPI screen - loud&#x2F;clear speakers - Logitech Create backlit keyboard &amp; case - iXPand drive (USB+Lightning) - &quot;Camera adapter&quot; for USB nic&#x2F;kb&#x2F;mic - headphone jack - good battery life - TouchID for banking apps </code></pre> SOFTWARE<p><pre><code> - very fast Safari w&#x2F; Firefox Focus adblock - Transmit: web upload &#x2F; email attachments - vSSH - Wire: usable E2E chat&#x2F;audio app - Bria: VOIP softphone - GoToMeeting&#x2F;WebEx conferencing - Video streaming + GoGo airline videos - CornerTube: PIP video overlay - Microsoft RDP to desktop&#x2F;laptop&#x2F;VM - Native VPN client - Codebook for passwords </code></pre> OFFLINE APPS (iCloud not needed)<p><pre><code> - GoodReader: in-app &quot;filesystem&quot; - Omnifocus (WebDav) - 2Do (CalDav) - Notebooks (markdown, WebDav) - Notability (audio synced to text&#x2F;ink) - DevonThink (web clips, offline search, WebDav) - LumaFusion: multitrack video editor - TwistedWave: mulitrack audio editor - VoiceDream: offline web&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;epub to audio - Marvin: epub reader</code></pre>
Rjevskialmost 7 years ago
Counterpoint: I tried using an iPad and an external keyboard for web (Django) development. It sucked.<p>The lack of mouse for text selection is a huge problem, and constantly switching between Safari and your code editor (I used Vim in a remote terminal) is a pain as well.
评论 #17300501 未加载
评论 #17300452 未加载
aparashkalmost 7 years ago
OP here (not Paul, the blog author): I am surprised by the amount of attention this has had!<p>I understand the iPad can be a useful dev environment if one is using one of the Web IDEs, e.g. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;aws.amazon.com&#x2F;cloud9&#x2F;?origin=c9io" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;aws.amazon.com&#x2F;cloud9&#x2F;?origin=c9io</a><p>What about an IDE that runs natively on the iPad using asm.js or Web assembly, with remote storage for files, and ssh for running on a remote dev machine? Even better, what about a complete local Linux environment, including gcc, using something like: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bellard.org&#x2F;jslinux&#x2F;vm.html?cpu=riscv32&amp;url=https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bellard.org&#x2F;jslinux&#x2F;buildroot-riscv32.cfg" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;bellard.org&#x2F;jslinux&#x2F;vm.html?cpu=riscv32&amp;url=https:&#x2F;&#x2F;...</a><p>Does this exist, or still a pipe dream?
Sanketkalmost 7 years ago
No doubt iPad is worth replacing the conventional laptops. I had the bulky old HP Envy laptop and then saw iPad 12.9&quot; in my friend&#x27;s hands. Casually handled it and loved it so much when there was only reason worth considering is Battery backup but then again my Friend suggested to buy Laptop power banks from this research bloggers website: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.powerbanktalk.com&#x2F;best-portable-laptop-charger-aka-external-battery-power-bank-for-laptop-in-2016&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.powerbanktalk.com&#x2F;best-portable-laptop-charger-a...</a> Bought Anker power bank and This combination are best I have ever used. I can work on the go without worrying about charging and iPad is so flawless.
评论 #17301036 未加载
woolvalleyalmost 7 years ago
Unless you want to draw with the pencil or use it in a cramped airplane environment, I don&#x27;t know why someone would get the ipad pro 12.9&quot; over the macbook 12&quot;?<p>The keyboard + tablet combo is heavier than the macbook 12&quot;, the ipad keyboard is gummier and worse, you get hover hand issues when using it in keyboard mode and multitasking &#x2F; web browsing is slower due to design issues and animation wait times.<p>If the cpu is slower than the iPad pro, you know that is going to get fixed with the future arm macbook. Same with the current butterfly keyboard issue.<p>I&#x27;m pretty sure we are going to get the &#x27;full screen ipad&#x27; soon since the ipad UI is leaving a big blank space in the middle of the status bar currently.
评论 #17300690 未加载
saagarjhaalmost 7 years ago
&gt; If you want to drag something from one full-screen app to another that is not open, you have to use one finger to drag and hold the object, then with another finger you need to summon the Dock to find the app you want and release. Oh and you better hope you had already opened that app earlier to the exact document&#x2F;file&#x2F;place where you want to release, otherwise the app won&#x27;t know what to do and you&#x27;ll have to release the object then try it again.<p>You can navigate around while holding those files to exactly where you need to be, then drop them there. No need to release the drag.
kallebooalmost 7 years ago
The title makes you think he replaced his computer usage with the iPad, but further down in the article he reveals that he uses a desktop PC to get real work done due to inflexibility in iOS.<p>Seems like the iPad is still not a productivity machine.
itomatoalmost 7 years ago
I keep thinking I want to try this way of working, but I just can&#x27;t into the walled garden of an App Store ecosystem.<p>Until I can run Homebrew and a proper shell and &#x27;git clone&#x27;, the iPad is still just a gargantuan iPhone in my book.
评论 #17300265 未加载
pocketstaralmost 7 years ago
is this an ad?
mozumderalmost 7 years ago
Love my iPad Pro. Only wish it had an actual usable IDE for Django web development, including a local Postgres database &amp; H2O web server with uWSGI. If it had that then I could get rid of my MacBook Pro.<p>BTW get the Logitech keyboard. It&#x27;s backlit and you can adjust the angle of view. It&#x27;s great but the only problem is that&#x27;s its really thick.<p>Seriously, it&#x27;s just missing the pro apps. Where are they?
ageitgeyalmost 7 years ago
You still can&#x27;t use a real third party browser (i.e. not just reskinned Safari) on the iPad Pro, right? I&#x27;d be a lot more tempted if iOS was a little less locked down.
评论 #17300203 未加载