I do not need a MacBook Pro for my role. The superior display, however, both on the MacBook Pro and, even more so, on the iPad Pro, is why I ask the IT department to purchase them. I would willingly downgrade to a MacBook Air, likely the 15-inch model, if its screen were comparable. Reading and writing are simply easier on the better display. My eyes are not what they were.
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I understand. Mine got so bad I needed lens replacement three years ago.
I was joking. We were a Windows shop when I joined the company. Until I suggested the boss get a MacBook Pro to replace his ThinkPad that been destroyed. He liked it and a few months later asked me if our employees could use Macs. My plan had worked 
. I think I ordered 60 Macs that first year, and more the next.
I always purchased what I thought an employee needed. They got iMacs, I got the MacBook equivalent. And the executives got what they requested.
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What he actually says is āI wish this had the 16 GB M1 insideā, which really isnāt very controversialā¦ The headline implies something different.
Given that Apple likely wants to stop producing that chip, and they want to make this computer at a low cost, I donāt really get his point. Itās like saying Iād like a million bucks (potentially true, but not a very helpful statement most of the time).
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I think the plan is to keep them stripped of all the fun stuff. If not, Iām not sure if we are back in the screentime administration land. To date weāve never been able to get that to work effectively.
Case in point. We have Screen Time set up to notify us if the screen time password is entered directly on a protected device. I have gotten a few notifications, assuming my wife was entering the code on the device. I was sitting on the couch today next to our 7(!!) year old, and I get the notification. I looked at her and asked: āDid you just enter your screen time password?ā She blushed and nodded a confession with a cheshire grin spreading across her face. I demanded: āYou know your screen time password?ā She went back to her game and said confidently, and perhaps, dismissively: āI saw mom type it in.ā
Our innocent 7-y-o daughter āsocially engineeredā us.
We are outclassed by these little tech geniuses but are doing the best we can to stay 1/2 step ahead of the curve.
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Next steps after shoulder surfing passwords are exploiting buffer overflows and discovering zero days.
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Buffer overflow: using the device beyond the scheduled sleep buffer at 9 pm.
Zero-days: zero access to the device for X days because a parent uncovered repeated buffer overflow events.
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Hereās a task that I have been doing lately that shows up the difference between an iPad and a Mac. Backing up photos.
Itās a piece of cake on the Mac to export originals to a NAS drive and even run a quick script to rename them using EXIFTool to get the shot time.
Can anyone do this simply on an iPad?
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Back up photos AND rename them? No. Just backup your photos? Yes, but the process is manual.
One way is to use CCC Mobile Backup to export your photos to an attached external drive, or āNetwork Attached Storage on your local Wi-Fi network.ā I have used the attached storage method on occasion.
Another is to use the Google Photos app to sync a copy of my photos to my Google Workspace account. But it needs to be open on my iPhone/iPad while it is syncing.
Then I need to manually download the Google Takeout files, that are exported by Google every 30 days, to my iPad and then to an external drive or cloud storage.
I have used the above when traveling, just in case my automated backup should fail.
Because Apple really wants you to purchase an iPhone, an iPad, and a Mac (along with all their services), they donāt offer a true backup for mobile. So I have Google Drive running on my MBA which is constantly syncing all my Photos to Google Photos. And backing up my Apple Photos to B2 and an external drive every hour.
So, IMO, an iPad can be a primary computer for some people. But you really need a Mac, or Windows PC, for automated backups.
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Parachute app would do the backup, but not the re-naming. Not sure it can work to a NAS, though, which is what you really want.
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Itās interesting that any solutions involve āuse this other app or serviceā. Granted, my rename involved another tool (EXIFTool to extract the shot dates), but even just exporting photos as HEIC (+MOV for live photos) files, unadulterated, is not straightforward (for instance, would any of those tools mentioned ignore edits currently applied to photos?).
But thereās another aspect. In order to find the photos I need to back up that have not been backed up beforeā¦ I use a Smart Album. A native Apple Photos concept that has been around since before Photos itselfā¦ that has never made it to iOS/iPadOS.
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In a complete reversal, I am actually considering selling my M4 11ā iPad Pro and the Magic Keyboard to buy a MacBook Neo.
I only bought this iPad to run iPad OS 26 and it still canāt touch MacOS for usabilityā¦ although to be fair I havenāt yet used Tahoe
Interestingly I have been using my MB Air more often lately and my iPad Pro sits more unused. And when itās time to switch to more reading type things (Kindle, GoodLinks, News, magazines) Iāve been reaching for my iPad Mini. Right now that setup has been really nice for me.
My MB can do all the things, help me be productive, process through my links to save off to GoodLinks, etc. Then I can have more focused reading time on my iPad Mini.
Nothing about that precludes me from using my iPad Pro, but Iāve just found Iām reaching for it less often with this setup. I give a ton of credit to the iPad Mini in this. And having the MB Air be able to do anything, run any application, use any website, use any browserā¦itās nice.
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Similar story. I have both an iPad mini 6 and iPad Pro M4. I regularly change my preference but if I had to keep one it would be the iPad mini.
Iāve powered down and moved both iPads, and Iām focusing on using the MPB for the lightweight use cases which I might use a iPad Pro. This a test of the form factor and to determine where I really would prefer an iPad mini over a MB.
Outside of my particular circumstances Iām sure Apple already knows that the Neo will consume a portion of iPad sales and is ok with that.
I agree. But it is also likely, IMO, to take a bite out of MacBook Air sales. And they are probably OK with that if it brings in more Services revenue.
Another possibility is that Apple will gain enough new customers purchasing a Mac Neo who otherwise would not be Apple customers that whatever cannibalization takes place with the MacBook Air and the iPad is more than offset by new customers buying Mac Neos. Those customers are also likely to upgrade later. All of that would be in addition to any new services revenue. I suspect the net of all of this will be substantial for Apple.
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Tahoe is fine. Yes, it looks daft in places. Yes sometimes things are hard to read. But this is also true of iPadOS.
Iāve managed to leave my iPad mini sitting on the table ever since I got my Neo. There is one thing so far for which the iPad clearly stands out as the best tool and Iām making myself live with that. When you want to show someone a photo, an iPad mini is superb. Big enough to really be able to see the photo. Small enough to just hold in one hand. Iāll make do with my iPhone 16 for this task, unless I happen to be sitting next to the person with my Neo already open.
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Imagine how much Apple will charge us for their products if they end up with massive computer market share in addition to tablet and phone market share.
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Of course I donāt need to buy anything, just to use my MBP rather than try to get iPad OS to do what I want.
This is the entire message in there marketing. Clearly targeting iPhone users where the Mac was previously out of their price range.
Indeed, the ARP would go up as far as Apple can push it and still be competitive.
Yeah, metaphors can be tricky!