What are your biggest barrier(s) to going iPad only or primary

My biggest pain point is that it seems I left my Apple Pencil at the library. :scream:

Now that’s unfortunate!!

@Rob_Polding have you tried downloading another browser iCabmobile or Dolphin? I have used these on my iPhone and iPad when Safari wouldn’t open a particular website?

My recent barrier wasn’t my iPad. It was people who didn’t understand it and using Pages to put together the organization’s Community Page and newsletter. They were stuck in their ways and was listening to other people about publishing software. There was no problem on my end, but unfortunately I’m no longer in the media coordinator position.

What about WordPress is it you don’t like? Is it the interface for customizing or posting or all of it?

I currently use WordPress two blogs though the hosting provided by MacHighway ($60/year for 2 sites).

The benefits I think, inexpensive hosting that is has been steady for me for 10+ years. I can move to another host if I choose. But I find that, once the blog is set-up/customized then posting via a third party app such as iA Writer is quite nice and easy. Sometimes I do log in via the WordPress app which has gotten much better and I agree with Brian, it’s actually quite nice on the iPad.

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Thanks for the reply. Yes, I have tried both and neither work with the website. It works with Safari for Mac but not at all on any mobile browser. I imagine it’s because none of our students or staff use iPads, they all have either Macbooks or Windows laptops. I am the only person I’ve seen at the university with an iPad (most of the students are studying either programming or design so they could not get by with one anyway).

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Sorry, if this is redundant, but it is something I missed the first time trying iCab Mobile as well, so I figured it might be worth mentioning: You can explicitly tell iCab to interpret every website as Safari for Mac (or Chrome, Firefox etc. ). Have a look at Preferences > Websites > Browser ID > Standard Browser ID

Did you try this and it stil does not work for that particular website?

I’m a web developer and I’ve switched to a 12.9" iPad Pro for my primary device. I say primary because anyone in my field is managing multiple servers remotely all the time, so there will never be only one single computer in my life. However, I’ve chosen the iPad to be the driver for everything I do and it’s been an enjoyable experience.

I’ve always edited code in a terminal, so Blink is a fantastic app granting me access to tmux and vim over mosh for a seamless workflow. Additionally, the SFTP app FileBrowser provides a convenient interface to browse my servers and upload files. There are wonderful image manipulation apps available such as Pixelmator and Affinity Photo/Designer, so no problems disecting PSDs from designers and preparing image assets.

Weakness are present in two main areas: image optimization and web inspectors. In both cases, I fall back to my always-on 2009 Mac Pro:

  1. ImageOptim is an incredible macOS tool for shrinking images, so I’ve combined Dropbox and Hazel to make an “Optimize” folder available in the File app. I drop an image in there and seconds later it’s replaced with a web-ready version.

  2. Nothing can touch Google Chrome’s web inspector on the desktop, so I’ll sometimes use Screens to visit my Mac Pro when I need to debug a website. Alternatively, I use a third party service CrossBrowserTesting which also lets me test browsers from other operating systems. There are iPad apps I use (Inspect, Web Tools) which are super helpful but not as full featured as Chrome.

I don’t mind the additional dependency, because I’d keep my Mac Pro running regardless. I still need it to host my Plex Server, as well as managing my iTunes Match library (drives me nuts I can’t add/edit songs on iOS!). But I rarely sit in front of it anymore and just visit with my iPad.

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Like others here, my biggest pain point to going iPad only is the variety of programming tools that I use. I’m a data scientist, and use R extensively. I also enjoy using macOS-only automation software such as Hazel and (hopefully soon!) Keyboard Maestro. However, a few points come to mind that could ease the transition:

  • Set up a headless Mac Mini somewhere - possibly with a Luna display - to run programming servers (e.g. R Studio Server) that I could run on my iPad.
  • Move to mainly web-based automation, such as Zapier and IFTTT.

Otherwise, I just need to suck it up and adopt the way of life proposed by iOS - no windows per se, one or two apps at a time, etc.

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Would love to know how R Studio works out. I am a pretty light R user & while I’ve installed R Studio I just use the regular Mac client for the most part. Which makes me wonder if I could find a way to work it with an ssh and sftp client on the iPad and a remote install of R somewhere.

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My biggest hold back is browser support. I run into way too many websites that completely break when viewed in a mobile format or small screen. It might be better if I had the 12.9” iPad, but the 9.7” just isn’t enough real estate and not enough websites out there properly support a mobile first world.

The Inspect Browser is pretty great for this. You can zoom and resize your viewport to any dimensions and browse a website as though you have a massive monitor.

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LOL I guess I’m doing a toy level being on iPad Pro only. Better hide my iPad Pro with my clients for fear that they won’t pay me for using a toy for creating images and illustrations and editing website on their brands.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Yes, I tried setting it to pretend to be the desktop version of the app and the website still doesn’t work. I cannot use the web application parts with a touchscreen, for example data input tables do not scroll and buttons don’t work. Safari on the desktop works fine.

This is a major hurdle for me because it means I cannot view my student’s grades, take attendance or upload grades and results. So, for now I’m stuck using a Mac for even basic tasks.

Why do you think Apple is in a rush for anyone to go iPad only?

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I’m a programmer and not an Apple one, so to go iPad only I’d need enough money to retire. Would still rather use a very light MacBook though but I could go iPad only for a lot of things if I didn’t work.

I think they’d like Windows/Chrome/nothing users to go to iPad (and ideally abandon other things), but personally I don’t think they are trying to push Mac users that way. Yet.

Blah! “More powerful than most computers …” . FASTER is “more powerful” only in the most literal of senses because speed and power have comparable units (per unit time) in engineering equations.

I’ll never be able to run interactive simulations in Maple or Igor Pro on an iPad Pro to anywhere the same level as I can run them on a “slower” (LESS POWERFUL) desktops. In engineering, when a system gives an output of nothing, its power output is identically ZERO.


JJW

That does not answer my question though.