FWIW with the recent M1 iPad Pro I think it’s finally come into its own as a useful computing device for real work. Surface pro and such are more capable but still hampered by their desktop OS roots. I’ve found I am nearly as efficient on the new iPad, with zero fuss and bother with any other platform.
Which counts when I’m out and about. The idea of ‘beach computing’ was always an unrealized fantasy as it doesn’t take much to kill it. Poor battery, a device UI which is too complicated, poor screen for the outside, too many peripherals needed (even a pen is too much sometimes). Maybe a Surface could navigate this as well as an iPad but I doubt it.
For example, when I need some inspiration I’ll take it to the coast or other wild bit (I’ve posted about this here) and actually get some work done. There’s never a battery problem, and all I need is the iPad in my pocket. The wireless ear pods (whatever they’re called)d work perfectly, even having wired ear buds would make me feel like I’m at a computer.
I sound like an advertisement, but yeah a tablet just gets me to the point where I forget I’m on a computer, and the new iPad is powerful enough and has enough capable apps for me to do much of what I need to do.
I can’t think of anything I’d do with an iPad Pro that I wouldn’t prefer a surface or MacBook for, except drawing/art/design apps (over the MacBook).
Desktop roots are an advantage for a Surface or MacBook. The Software is generally more capable there, and there is far more choice of solutions on that formfactor.
Putting M1 in an iPad doesn’t upgrade iPadOS to macOS, and that is the Achilles heel of the device. Always has been. Processors were not a factor. We reached the point of not having to care that much about mobile CPU grunt (or a lack thereof) years ago.
iPad needed this and for the OS running on it to mature a bit more before competitors (and ultrabooks) caught up in portability and battery life. Now, its just another tablet to me, running a fundamentally limiting operating platform.
I’ve not updated my computer hardware for some years. My mobile devices are a 2015 MacBook Pro 13", and an iPad mini 4, also from 2015. All considered, 2016 was the year an earthquake destroyed my buen retiro on the mountains, and having something to work far from my studio became less indispensable.
But I feel time to update the mobile devices may be coming. I have to consider what I use them for.
Reading on the couch or the bed. My iPad mini is still a fantastic thing. The only alternative I might consider would be a Kindle, if they could finally make one that looks good and has decent typography.
Editing documentation at the lab. Here, too, I’m happy with my iPad mini and GoodReader. Light, easy to lay everywhere and to write notes on.
Writing or composing in the nature. I like white paper blocks and roller pens. When editing, I like doing it on printed paper.
What if I could find a way to get a buen retiro again?
I would need something to write and do page layout, to work from remote. The Affinity suite is promising, and Photo and Designer already perfectly fine for me, but they are far from replacing InDesign. I would likely still need a MacBook or Surface.
I’m more and more hoping to include composing and engraving in my portfolio. Dorico for iPad is very basic in engraving, so maybe a MacBook or a Surface could be a better bet.
Writing narrative or essays. My preferred combo will remain the iPad mini, a good wireless keyboard, software like Ulysses. I hate Apple laptop keyboards. No idea of the Surface. I liked a lot the keyboard in a Lenovo laptop. In any case, I like being able to move the display and keyboard far one from the other, to set them in a much more comfortable way than a laptop. Funny how dedicated keyboards for tablets try to replicate the unhealthy position one has to get at a laptop.
So, maybe I should continue to use an iPad mini and a laptop (either Mac or Windows). It looks like there is not a single device that could do everything I want to do.
Have you seen the new version 2.0 Affinity Suite? Many of the shortcomings, compared to Adobe products, have been addressed.
iPad OS is definitely moving towards macOS (but still a long way off). Personally, I think the new M1 MacBook Pros are the best laptops they’ve made since 2014.
The Surface 9 is nice, but expensive compared to an iPad+keyboard. (It’s the Microsoft tax, don’t you know… )
Seen, purchased, installed the Windows version (since I have to stay on Mojave, so I can’t run them on my Macs). Together with many new features come some regression, and not everything that I need is there.
Publisher can no longer show free windows floating around. There is always a background covering the windows below. In other words, the Mac is transformed in a Windows machine, with each application living in a separate ecosystem.
Exchanging data toward users using InDesign is not possible, since Publisher can’t export in a compatible format (notably, IDML). This means that you can’t use it if working in a collaborative environment.
Cross-References, Conditional Text and Text Variables are still missing.
Long and complex tables are missing.
At the moment no, I can’t consider it an InDesign replacement. I still hope it will, not too far away.
All considered, the iPad is an inexpensive device. The only expensive one is my beloved iPad mini, powerful and with the added cost of miniaturization. But an iPad Air or Pro, plus an Apple Magic Keyboard, is inexpensive compared to the power and elegance.
Added minus I forgot to mention: the iPad can’t use custom keyboard layouts. I need it. What Apple calls ‘Italian’ is an American layout with the many diacritic marks needed for Italian stickied wherever they fit. I use my own keyboard layout, a modernized Olivetti/Apple-pre-2000 QZERTY layout. On the iPad, this can only be done with TextExpander, until the developer doesn’t decide to change the way it works.
One of the advantages I’m thinking about, when composing with Dorico on an iPad, is that one should be able to do so by tapping and dragging in the Key Editor.
Entering sequences of shot notes: Tap to choose duration, multiple tap in the Key Editor to enter notes.
Entering long notes: Tap in the Key Editor to enter a note of whichever duration, tap&drag its right margin to make it longer.
It should feel like drawing music. It sort of works with fingers on my obsolete iPad, I guess it should be great on modern iPads with a dedicate pen.
Since the iPad Air is much less expensive than the iPad Pro, despite featuring similar power, how about 11" vs. 13"? Is an 11" tablet a viable compromise?
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