Good example. I would could contest this, but only because I’ve wasted spent so much time customizing my macOS experience. You’re so right, though. The stock experience on i*OS seems much more efficient, on reflection.
My father’s been an iPhone user for 5+ years and got a Mac only in the last couple of years (after yet another cheap Windows laptop failed). Just yesterday he was telling me about his challenges getting some photos onto a USB stick—the menu options just weren’t helpful or were too hidden, and he had to rearrange windows to be able to drag and drop. Kinda silly when you compare with iOS interfaces.
Edit: hey look, Gruber is talking about the same stuff!
While I’m editing: I had an interesting experience the other day trying to practice text work in the iPad. I was trying to use the new test selection tools introduced in iPadOS 13 and they are super cool, but my gods, what I wouldn’t give for some visual indicator of progress during tap-and-hold. Microscopic changes in those features lead to completely different results. After two hours I still felt like an idiot.
I think certain media people push the iPad to be what it is not just to prove a concept or how clever they are, which probably does it a disservice. While reading this thread I suddenly realised I have never (well maybe a few times) used my iPad 12.9 in anything other than landscape mode sat on a stand and 90% of the time with an external keyboard, so I am pretty much using it as a laptop.
I think we have now reached the stage where for many tasks it is not a question of which is better more which do I fancy using at this time. Every morning I work a couple of hours in a coffee shop, sometimes I take the MacBook (today) other times the iPad, sometimes both. The MacBook is more flexible in that I can code if I need, the iPad is better for research, reading and writing. but for a lot of things it’s just my current mood.
Agree about Luma fusion, a joy to use for the little video editing I do.
It’s not a mistake, it’s a regret that despite very powerful hardware, Apple hasn’t upped its software game to make an iPad with a hardware keyboard as capable as a MacBook Pro.
No-one said that the iPad “needs” to do everything a Mac can, but there’s no reason it can’t, with the right software support.
One thing hinted at above - ergonomics. While for many the iPad is a “sit with it in the lap” kind of device, I do think Apple needs to go the rest of the way with keyboard/trackpad/monitor support for the multitude of users who use it differently. There’s a reason that paradigm was created and has stuck around. For focused “traditional” work, the ergonomics of being hunched over a small screen for hours, constantly reaching up to touch it, is not comfortable and is not healthy. The same can be said for working solely off a MacBook, but to a lesser extent because of the keyboard and trackpad. That said, I do love the iPad (I have the base iPad and the latest 12.9 inch iPad Pro), but generally only use it in relatively short bursts of an hour or two, or on vacation.
That’s your take. I’d far prefer the same functionality in a tablet form factor so I can use it as a tablet when I want, without the keyboard. And as a Laptop (with the Brydge) when I want to type a lot. Built in Cellular is the icing on the cake which MacBooks don’t have (they can, but Apple has decided that they shouldn’t.)
If you want to use a MacBook, more power to you. again, there is no reason the iPad can’t have exactly the same functionality as a MacBook. And I believe it should.