M2 iPad Pro 11

Oh, I have no doubt. The iPad vs MacBook appears to be “You’re holding it wrong!” territory for Apple. If I weren’t loving the the MBP14 as a laptop, and the integration across devices, I’d be dumping everything and go back to the SP8 and maybe an iPhone 13 Pro Max (but should be Android for Phone Link compatibility - then I’m incompatible with family, friends, and many clients)…

This is an interesting idea. I’m not sure if Apple actually pays attention/cares, but It might be a middle ground for those wishing that they would just let the iPad Pros run MacOs

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That’s what MS tried with Windows 8, and has been gradually erasing ever since. Full OS when there’s a keyboard, more tablet friendly UI when there’s none. Unfortunately MS’ approach changed too many things at once, while they didn’t really have the tablet apps, AND while the tablet form factor was not particularly common for Windows machines. So basically it wasn’t ready at the hardware AND software front.

I’m sure Apple could do better than MS, but I’m curious if they’d want to. Right now their “each user their own iPad” approach is going swimmingly, and keeping the MacOS and iOS devices separate is probably pretty good for device sales as well. The only thing that makes me think they might end up making iOS more powerful is the fact that they keep increasing the iPad performance. Definitely something interesting to watch!

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@JoeS Yes that’s the basis for my doubts about this as well. Especially considering that every Apple engineer seems to sincerely believe that the iPad and Mac have distinct users and user case scenarios and that they are divirgent eg. no touch for Macs and no full finder or Mac OS like mouse support.

OTOH, If anyone could get this “right” it would be Apple IMHO.

And FWIW, according to our sources, MS has over doubled the size of the engineering group working on Touch/Pen for future revisions of Windows 11. Allegedly that’s due to significantly increased tablet centric use with their Pros and Go’s with Windows 11 from their own tellemetry.

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Just in time to miss the AR/VR boom :+1:t2:

(j/k…mostly)

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Interesting, is this spurred by the work-from-home trend? I’ve found anecdotally, many people paradoxically use their devices in portable mode more often when they are forced to stay indoors.

Maybe advertisers have been getting it wrong all these years, and should actually be showing how mobile and easy your device is to use, while sitting on the can. :laughing:

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Toilet jokes aside you might be on to something. Myself when I’m home are more likely to say be doing some work related task like responding to emails, and then since I already have the Pro 8, on/open. move to the couch with it to do some web browsing or a casual game.

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I’M GOING TO SUE GURMAN FOR STEALING MY IDEAS!

“Apple’s iPadOS might cater to a few percentage of users, but Mark Gurman believes that with this new ‘pro’ mode, the iPad Pro could offer more, but only when external accessories communicate with the tablet. According to the Bloomberg reporter, iPadOS is just an expanded version of iOS.”

How many times have I fought here and numerous Apple fanboy sites for Apple to let the iPad use MacOS when connected to a keyboard and mouse/trackpad - AD NASEUM!

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Dex has entered the chat

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Side note, what would be a good tag for threads like these? “Prediction”? “Dreaming”? “Unreleased”? Would be nice to set these apart from “real” device threads. Another example is the “Fold 4” thread. “Rumor” doesn’t quite capture it. Thoughts?

Both of those will “soon be” so I don’t think there is a need to separate these from real devices. On the other hand, my beloved MacOS M2 Surface Pro would definitely fit in the “fantasy” “dream” “hallucinating” categories.

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I very much doubt they will.

My suspicions are that they keep improving the iPads in order to get new customers for them, but they very much want to keep Mac users buying Macs (at considerably higher prices). And if they want some iPad features? Well, they can pony up for an iPad then. They’ve made them work well together (Sidecar disappointment sort of aside) to increase the allure for that.

The same underlying reason Apple Watch only works Apple devices.

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Unrequited Expectations.

And yes that is my imaginery band’s name, and no, you can’t have it.

What disappointment ? Works great for me.

Could borrow the late Jerry Pournelle’s “Real Soon Now™”, though it had the implication of vaporware.

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Pencil support wise.

If the shoe fits…

Silly user, you want a Wacom tablet mode for your iPad? That’s right up there with my MacOS SP8…

I have been taking a lot of flak at Apple sites lately for my rants about unleashing the iPad Pro in iPadOs16 - seems there is a STRONG majority that have an “I want my iPAD PURE - no MacOS-like contamination!” Frankly I can’t begin to understand that visceral reaction if “Pro Mode” is a user switchable option (as Gurman said it would be selectable IF AND ONLY IF it were an M1 iPad with keyboard and mouse/trackpad attached).

Then I specced out a M1 MacBook Air equivalent iPad Pro and came away shocked:

12.9" with 1tb ssd (16gb ram), WiFi only, and Magic Keyboard - $2148; ADD $200 for 5g, $2348
11" in same configurations is $1798 and $1998 respectively
That same configured M1 MacBook Air - $1649

And the MAJORITY wants pure iPad - INSANE. No wonder Mr. Evil wants to keep you buying TWO devices with same specs.

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I think Apple is in a tough spot here, though of their own making. In our own customer base, opinions are all over the place as well.

But if you distill it down, the concern that those that aren’t in favor of it are doing so because they believe the experience on either MacOS or IOS will be compromised or dumbed down.

And they point to, as an obvious example, Windows 8 which while it was a significant leap forward for touch, did so at the cost of the traditional desktop experience. And it took several years in to Windows 10 before it got back, but (and I blame MS for this) at the cost of the touch experience.

As I watch more generally in computers and recently some of the preliminary data from my daughters college study, doing both well seems to be extraordinarily, almost impossibly difficult.

PS: To the point about this being to Apple’s own making, I strongly suspect the reason for the M1 in the iPad Pros and now Air has a great deal to do with the ongoing (and looking to be no end in sight) supply chain issues. In other words, in more normal times, the iPad Pros would have gotten A15Z chips

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This I never understood/bought. A toggle in settings to startup with either tablet or desktop mode plus a Stardock-like return of the Start button would have taken care of most of the Win8 complaints while keeping the touch functionality. Refine it from there—they had people capable of that at Microsoft, surely, and if not they could have bought Stardock or hired them as consultants to teach them how to do it. But they threw it all in the dumpster instead. :anger:

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