I have 2 instances of Files set to open in split screen when I launch Files.app. It makes moving files, etc. much simpler, IMO.
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It seems reading through here that the iPad is becoming more of a consumption app through reading, browsing etc. Many find it too limiting as a laptop replacement.
What makes this non trivial is that the ipad is not a cheap device and depending on configuration can cost as much as a mac air. Anyone buying an ipad to replace their laptop and finding it doesn’t work ends up paying twice or having to limp through until they have enough finances. That makes this quite an important issue.
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I’m beginning to think I’ve joined the wrong forum here… 
Just for some balance, I’m one of those “insane” people. Or maybe “insane” adjacent: I use my iPad 95% of the time. (I know, I’ve written this elsewhere, and it seems I’m possessed by a masochistic drive to present a contrary voice whenever this topic comes up…).
I’m a writer, freelance educator and facilitator. Up until recently, I was a poetry professor. I’m also the artistic director for a self-elective poetry workshop programme, and an editor. So I write and edit things, handle research, manage projects (email, task management, CRM , scheduling etc), manage finances and budgets and do many of the other functions you might associate with the above roles. It’s all “real” work. Not just consumption. And I’m no blogger or influencer trying to build an audience off the back of a romanticised vision of an iPad-dominant working life.
I’m not stubbornly iOS exclusive. I have a couple of old Mac Minis and a 2016 MacBook— legacy machines. I used to be a full-tilt macOS kinda guy, but so much of what I was doing at one point was on the road that I sought a trade off between portability, ease of use and processing power. I benefit from the mobility and flexible form factor that iPads offer.
My current iPad inventory: a 12.9” 3rd gen, an 11” 3rd gen, and a 5th gen Mini. The 11” was my daily driver, and the Mini was really useful to have in hand through meetings and workshop sessions. I picked up the 12.9 from eBay during lockdown when I decided I needed some more screen space while working from home.
I use a Corne mechanical keyboard (split ergo) and generally stay away from keyboard cases. I’ve tried a mouse with iOS once, and it’s cool to know I can do that, but that’s not part of my set-up. I like my tablet to be a tablet, and I’m under no illusions of it being a laptop replacement. I use a generic Apple Pencil alternative when I need to do anything that demands precise fine grain control.
I have a background in web development, though I haven’t been keeping up with that at all (my personal site is woefully overdue an update…). I also dabble with a bit of creative coding, though again it’s been a little while. I’ll probably fire up one of the macOS machines when I get back to either of those. The other main reason I’d go back to a Mac would be hardcore file management— I’ve got a dud HD that I’ve been meaning to attempt to retrieve files from. That said, I haven’t powered up any of my Mac machines thus far this year.
I’m no apologist for iOS. Text selection and file management can be painful. Aggressive memory management is also painful, which raises another point: being an iPad Power User (ahem), you’d think I’d be first in line for a fully specced, top-o’-the-line M1 with all the RAM, but hey— my tech budget has limits, and I try to be responsible. And I don’t get to test out all the hot new PKM tools at launch because so many of them don’t work well in mobile Safari, or don’t have equivalent iOS apps. I’m a Notion user, but it’s taken a long time for them to get anywhere near feature parity on iOS, and they’re not even all the way there yet (though the latest update for text selection was welcome). Don’t even get me started about my love/hate relationship with Shortcuts. And I’m looking out for the day when I’ll be able do more with an iPad and an attached monitor than simply mirror with a restrictive screen ratio…
I first tried working exclusively on a first gen iPad. Whatever MacBook I was working with at the time died, and the iPad was all I had while waiting for a replacement. It was a terrible experience. But it didn’t turn me away from tablet computing entirely. I got back to it with the 9.7” Pro, and haven’t looked back since.
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Out of interest does anyone use their iPad for business calls (Zoom, etc)?
I’d love to use it, but the camera is in the wrong place for landscape mode to make it a good option.
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Back in 2010 Steve J. said , “PCs are going to be like trucks. They’re still going to be around, they’re still going to have a lot of value, but they’re going to be used by one out of X people”
You are in the right forum, you’re just surrounded by truck drivers. And many people need a truck to do their job.
Others just like trucks. 
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Not exactly the best metaphor these days 
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Yes, I often use my iPad for teleconferencing, although not for work calls. I use it for club meetings, ‘get togethers’ with friend, personal interest webinars and the like. It works fine for me.
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That’s great!! 
20 characters …
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I think there’s just a lot of people in here for which the iPad doesn’t really fit as a main computer, for better or worse.
For me, I spend most of my day in iTerm (mostly vim), Vivaldi, Raycast, and Obsidian. The first three don’t even exist on iPadOS, and the last is often less smooth to use especially since the iPad is smaller and I can’t sync my vault directly to OneDrive. As much as I like the vision of the iPad, these things are deal-breakers.
Also, utilities such as Karabiner are not on iPadOS, and probably never will be, which is also a deal-breaker because muscle memory. Scripting is limited to Shortcuts or hacks like iSH.
I’m also aggressively portable but I’ve found a 13" M1 MBP is small/light enough to carry around without much effort while also having enough battery to last through the day.
If the iPad works for you, I’m happy for you, I just wish it worked for me too 
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Well this is the Mac Power Users forum after all…
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You’re not insane. Maybe you’re one of the fortunate ones. But you will find much camaraderie with those equally insane-adjacent folks (along with some commentary from the truck drivers (h/t @WayneG)) over on this thread: Why I transitioned away from the Mac (mostly)
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Throwing in my 2 cents here. I was traveling for a month and the iPad was invaluable as a 2nd screen. My normal setup is a MacBook Pro connected to a 27-inch monitor. I couldn’t lug around the 27-inch monitor on my trip, but I did have my 12.9-inch iPad Pro. I would set it next to my MacBook and use it as my secondary screen. I didn’t use Sidecar mind you. I mostly use it for reference material. Usually Safari or a PDF, while my development work was done on the MacBook Pro.
I also had my task manager, Things running on the iPad.
It’s impossible to do real development work on the iPad alone, but I found it to be a great help when working on the road.
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Last year, I used an iPad as my main computer. I wanted to learn the best ways to use it and forcing myself to make it my main computing device was the way I did it.
I moved back to the Mac in November when I got my M1 iMac. After moving back I realized how much I had missed all the automation that I developed in apps like Keyboard Maestro, Alfred, PopClip, and Hazel.
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Ah— missed that one. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!
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Yeah, I can understand that. Sometimes it seems like many of us expect iPad + magic keyboard = MacBook. Which it obviously doesn’t (yet?). And the RRP for a decently specced iPad is a lot to put down if it’s just going to be a secondary device in someone’s set-up.
Also, I get how some of the very things that bring us together in this forum (specific apps, workflows, etc…) don’t exist on the iPad, and how establishing/finding equivalents takes effort, if it’s possible at all.
I guess part of my knee-jerk reaction is against the notion that the iPad is only good for consumption, or that you can’t do “real work” on one, or that the idea of doing anything more than watching Netflix or reading PDFs on an iPad is a marketing ploy/myth. It certainly doesn’t work for everyone, and that’s obviously determined by what “work” entails for each individual. But it does work for some. Horses for courses, as you say.
For me: I don’t really want the iPad to just be a touchscreen Mac. What I’m hoping is that it will continue to evolve to be as functional but in its own way— I’m interested in how future iterations of iPadOS might overcome some of its current speed-bumps and failings in a way that makes most sense for a touchscreen computing device. And I wouldn’t be unhappy if that evolution happened faster, but in the meantime, I’m happy with my 95% insane status.
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Agreed.
The iPad works very, very well for what I expect is a vast majority that just want a very simple to use computer. I’ve said it many times that in my extended family, I see it being used as originally intended, day in and day out, by people who previously would never have touched a Mac or Windows computer. In the last 8 years of her life my granny was, for the first time in her life, comfortable using a computer. She used her iPad 3 or 4 hours a day, maybe more, to share photos with her kids, grand kids and great grandkids. She was comfortably downloading apps (games and puzzles mostly), sending email, texting, using facebook, etc. In the last few years FaceTime too. And yes, this was mostly “consumption”.
But my granny didn’t think like a MacPower User or have the same needs. She was just my granny that had never sent a text or email. Living in a rural area she was somewhat isolated from family that mostly lived elsewhere. And yet, here she was, tapping away everyday sending emails with far too many emojis (though just right to her) to her son 5 states away who also had no clue how to use a Mac but used an iPad. A daughter two states away who was, yes, using an iPad. All of these iPad users were older and had a life history in which they’d never used Windows or Macs.
My mom used a computer everyday at work with a very specific set of apps but when she retired she had no need for a computer and stopped touching them for years. It was a necessary part of her job but in no way an interest or hobby. The same is true of my aunt who did nearly the same job and who just recently retired. While my mom only started using a computer again with the iPad my aunt still uses a Mac a couple times a week. The rest of the time she uses her iPhone.
The iPhone and iPad, for many previously non-computer using people, are the easy to carry, easy to use computers that they don’t have to worry about. They can feel safe and at ease while using these computers. Exactly what Steve Jobs had in mind (seems to me).
I think the narrative of the iPad is that the vast majority of the above people are quiet, are absent from our vocal corner of the internet. They have no clue what Slack is, most may have not yet downloaded a podcast. Mac/Tech podcasts, blogs, websites and forums are populated by the power users. Computer tech is our thing. And so of course we wanted the iPad to be our thing too. Shiny new toy. But it initially wasn’t to be for us… certainly not as our main devices. It was meant to be just a fill in fun device for us and a bit more for non-computer users. Filling in lots of gaps.
So, there’s been this 12 year process in which the very loud tech audience has complained that the iPad wasn’t for them in the way they wanted it to be. The other audience has quietly and very happily been using it as intended. And Apple has been walking the line of keeping that simplicity available even as they’ve iterated both the hardware and software side of the iPad into a much more capable platform. The past 7ish years there’s been this yo-yo thing that the tech audience has gotten more cantankerous because as Apple amped up the power, available sizes, “pro” models they’ve not iterated at a pace that makes that demanding tech audience happy and that audience is loud and very good at complaining. There’s been a back and forth between this loud minority of Mac users that year-to-year keep at it. Keep trying to use a device that was never really intended for them in the way they think it was. Apple fed the narrative because they started to make efforts to bend the device to the will of our community. Just never as fast and to the degree that we want.
Mac power users are always (for now) going to view the iPad with a bias because of it’s origin story. But, you know, as I said, my granny wasn’t managing files (other than her photos). She wasn’t creating spreadsheets or running automations or creating and managing websites. No editing podcasts or videos for YouTube. She had no need to design annual reports, brochures or Keynote presentations. She had no idea what FileMaker was or what a database was for. She managed her finances in a paper checkbook not in an app.
But I do all of those things on my iPad and with little fuss. The only fuss for me is when my fellow nerds insist on telling me that what I’m doing can’t properly be done or that I’ve chosen the wrong device. You’re doing it wrong! Your preferred, dare I say favorite device, is the wrong device. Don’t you know, you can’t do those things properly, you can only watch tv or play games or read websites. No one wants to be techsplained to. 
But you know, it’s an old tradition for nerds to argue about the superiority of their chosen platform. 15 years ago the argument was Mac vs Windows. These days it includes Mac vs iPad. Mostly it’s a silly thing but it’s got momentum and a life of it’s own it seems.
Anyhooooooooo hooo, It’s time for me to use my iPad to create something for a client that’s going to give me money so I can buy food. It’s a good thing they don’t care about what tool I’m using!
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That is rather eloquently written! I’m saving it for future reference. 
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I know I shouldn’t wade in here, but I can’t help myself…
The trouble is that for 5+ years now, tantalizing narratives like @Denny’s make me look at my iPad and wonder what I’m doing wrong. Over and over again I’ve thought “It would be really nice to pick up that thin and light piece of glass and do everything with flourish…”
However, every time, I run up against many of the issues already discussed in this thread. Every time I inevitably and bitterly realize that Apple’s decision to hold back a variety of parts of the iPad’s OS means that key things I need to do are simply slower and more frustrating on that thin and light piece of glass than on a Mac.
So, unfortunately, this…
The only fuss for me is when my fellow nerds insist on telling me that what I’m doing can’t properly be done or that I’ve chosen the wrong device. You’re doing it wrong! Your preferred, dare I say favorite device, is the wrong device.
…sorta works both ways.
This thread plays an important role in underscoring that, in general, the iPad isn’t going to work for most people doing “Mac Power User” stuff. A brave few will try it and love it, but the rest will want to open more than three windows or run a process in the background.
I admire people who love their iPads. Just, based on my own experience, I can’t help but worry about you. And, if I’m not careful, I will admire you too much and be lured back by your siren song once again.
As it happens, I also have a solution to this whole debate.
Who wants to fund the iOlympics?!
Competitors will choose their favourite device and compete in such events as:
- Referencing data from five different documents simultaneously
- Walking while reading and taking notes
- Drawing a picture
- Connecting to cellular data
- Extending to external displays
- Typing in economy airfare seats
- Recording audio from multiple inputs
The device with the most medals wins. 
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As I see it, iPads are the new kids in the neighborhood. We’re still waiting to see what they will become. Macs, and PCs, are the “boomers”. Some will be around for many years, but not forever.
We tend to forget our favorite devices will eventually be obsolete, and the younger MPU’s among us will someday laugh at these Mac vs iPad “discussions”.
Things change very quickly. At least from the perspective of those that have been around for a while.
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Or just arrange icons on the Home Screen without them bubbling up to the top left - ala Windows’ auto arrange that drove some of us nuts.
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