iPad

Federico Viticci on the 10.5″ iPad Pro →

June 12, 2017 · 13:30

Federico on MacStories:

I’m not even a week into my tests with the 10.5” iPad Pro, and I think scrolling on my first-gen 12.9” iPad Pro looks choppy now. I’d be surprised if 120Hz displays with ProMotion don’t expand to the iPhone later this year and other Apple computers in the future. The combination of hardware and software really is that good.

At first I just wanted the 12.9″ UI in a 10.5″ form-factor, at 326 ppi. We didn’t get that. I am however extremely curious about ProMotion — I spend 4-6 hours a day on my iPad, scrolling a lot, and this could change everything.

I was curious to see if the larger screen could make the 10.5” iPad Pro a viable alternative to multitasking on the 12.9” model, but, as I imagined, working with Split View on this iPad is the same as the 9.7” version, showing enlarged iPhone interfaces instead of two full-size iPad apps at once. If you were expecting the same Split View experience from the 12.9” iPad Pro, the 10.5” doesn’t allow it.

I admit that I had hoped for the same experience as on my 12.9″ iPad but I think I’ll be able to accept the trade-off.

Unfortunately, Federico does not directly compare the 10.5″ Smart Keyboard with the 12.9″ model, but you can find a comparison to the 9.7″ version in his review.

“Full Size” Keyboard on 10.5″ iPad Pro →

June 12, 2017 · 13:19

Dieter Bohn:

I was all set to complain that increasing the size from 9.7 to 10.5 was not a big enough jump to justify requiring people to buy new keyboards and accessories. Then I started typing on the on-screen keyboard and on the new hardware Smart Keyboard. Even though I’m dubious about Apple’s claim that the software keyboard is “full size,” I find the slight size increase makes touch typing much easier. It’s still a little cramped, but it’s much easier to bounce between this and a real keyboard now.

I currently switch between a Magic Keyboard, a MacBook Pro (late 2016), and the 12.9″ iPad Pro’s Smart Keyboard. I don’t have any major issues doing so. The curious thing is that since getting the MacBook Pro, I now find the Magic Keyboard’s key travel to be too long — I actually prefer the shorter throw now.

I have the new 10.5″ iPad Pro on order — it will replace my 12.9″ — but I’m still hesitating about getting the Smart Keyboard for it. I just don’t like cramped ones…

My Mac, Hackintosh, and iOS Setup →

April 24, 2017 · 21:11

Jeffrey Abbott, on The Sweet Setup:

Every week we post a new interview with someone about what software they use on their Mac, iPhone, or iPad. We do these interviews because not only are they fun, but a glimpse into what tools someone uses and how they use those tools can spark our imagination and give us an idea or insight into how we can do things better.

My Mac and iOS setup is up today, with detailed specs of my Hackintosh! Yay!

The 2016 Panic Report →

April 5, 2017 · 10:28

Cabel Sasser:

iOS continues to haunt us. If you remember, 2016 was the year we killed Status Board, our very nice data visualization app. Now, a lot of it was our fault. But it was another blow to our heavy investment in pro-level iOS apps a couple years ago, a decision we’re still feeling the ramifications of today as we revert back to a deep focus on macOS. Trying to do macOS quality work on iOS cost us a lot of time for sadly not much payoff. We love iOS, we love our iPhones, and we love our iPads. But we remain convinced that it’s not — yet? — possible to make a living selling pro software on those platforms. Which is a real bummer!

This is what worries me most about the state of iOS. While Apple’s motives to bring the price of software down seemed like a good idea at the time — developers would make up their profits by the sheer volume of the platform — it appears that app sales are slowing, especially in the more demanding part of the market. Most people already have everything that they need and are not spending as much money on new software as in the early days. While I continue to be able to do about 90% of my work on an iPad, most don’t even try. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for iOS, hoping that it will start evolving at a faster pace, making it easier to work productively on it. Also, I’m still waiting for a full Adobe Lightroom experience on iPad, with the ability to transfer catalogs between platforms, not using Adobe’s cloud.

10.5″ iPad Pro Entering Limited Production, But Launch Remains Unclear →

March 28, 2017 · 11:36

Joe Rossignol:

At this point, however, it remains unclear whether the 10.5-inch iPad Pro will be announced later this spring, at WWDC 2017 in June, or in the fall or later, as rumors are lacking consensus.

If the 10.5″ iPad is going to showcase a new iPad design language, perhaps akin to the new iPhones, then I would assume it will debut in Autumn, along with or after the iPhones.

March 19, 2017 · 13:40

Just got back from our vacation, and as I sat down, I realised that I didn’t have to use my iPhone. iPad! Missed you so much!

10.5-inch iPad to be Announced at Apple Event in Early April →

March 14, 2017 · 14:19

Benjamin Mayo:

Following leaks about as-yet-unannounced iPad device identifiers, Digitimes is today reporting that Apple has moved up production plans for a new 10.5 inch iPad to this month, and will unveil the new iPad at a product event in ‘early April’.

I seriously doubt Digitimes has a single source inside Apple, which is where event decisions are made. The supply chain has nothing to do with them. I’m willing to bet it’s speculation, perhaps based on Apple’s orders, and it might turn out to be true, but it’s speculation nonetheless.

iPad Pro 10.5″ Reported to Have 2224×1668 Resolution Screen →

February 27, 2017 · 22:25

Mike Wehner, writing for BGR:

Apple’s long-rumored 10.5-inch iPad Pro is expected to fill in the gap between Apple’s 9.7- and 12.9-inch top-of-the-line tablets, but until now the mythical slate’s display have been a subject of debate. Now, thanks to Rhoda Alexander, IHS Markit’s Director of Tablets and PCs, we might have an answer. Speaking with Forbes, Alexander claims that the new tablet with have a resolution of 2,224-by-1,668, which will allow the 10.5-inch Pro to maintain the exact same PPI ratio as the two existing iPad Pro models.

At that claimed resolution, the new tablet’s pixel density comes in at 264 pixels-per-inch. That matches the 9.7-inch iPad Pro (2,048-by-1,536) and the 12.9-inch version (2,732-by-2,048) in terms of sharpness. That makes a lot of sense for a tablet that is aimed at creative types, and will essentially remove one technical factor from the decision process of anyone shopping Apple’s tablet lineup.

While this theoretically makes sense, I do not believe this will be the case. Adding a 2224×1668 px screen would force developers to adopt yet another resolution, bringing the total up to three (the others are 2048×1536 and 2732×2048). This would complicate many things unnecessarily, including the keyboard, new UI layouts, etc.

I already made this case last year, doing the maths behind the 10.5″ screen. Adopting the 2732×2048 resolution from the iPad Pro 12.9″ makes much more sense. First of all, no major changes to the UI, keyboard, and software would be needed — everything would look exactly like on the 12.9″ model, but smaller. That new 10.5″ screen would have 326 ppi, which is on par with the iPad mini and iPhone 7. Secondly, Apple would retain just two resolutions in the iPad line-up (not counting the non-Retina 1024×768 of course).

This is the simpler and more logical solution, especially since so many people appreciate the additional space and more advanced layout of the 12.9″ UI, including space for two portraits apps side by side, the full keyboard, and more.

The Case for the 10.5-inch iPad Pro →

January 18, 2017 · 12:21

Jason Snell:

Dan Provost of Studio Neat wrote an interesting post last week about reports that Apple is planning on releasing a new 10.5-inch iPad Pro alongside the 12.9- and 9.7-inch versions.

The idea seems kind of far-fetched at first. Provost himself cites John Gruber’s statement that it doesn’t make any sense, but after reading Provost’s post, Gruber said that “the math works out”. And I have to admit, the more I think about it, the more appealing this possible product sounds to me.

I did the math 5 months ago, after Ming-Chi Kuo’s first rumour about the new iPad:

If you take the resolution of the 12.9″ iPad Pro of 2732 x 2048 px (it also has 264 PPI) and shrink it down to 10.5″, you get approximately 326 PPI. This could mean that the 10.5″ iPad Pro would get the slightly larger UI of the biggest iPad in the lineup, together with the better virtual keyboard and more room for two apps side by side.

I have not changed by mind — I love the amount of information that fits on the iPad Pros 12.9″ screen, but I would love to have it in a smaller form factor. My only worry is the Smart Keyboard — I use it because of its full-sized keys. Back to Jason:

A slightly wider iPad Pro would give Apple and third-party keyboard makers a little more room with which to work. Yes, the 12.9-inch model is 65 millimeters wider than the smaller iPad, but a look at the respective Smart Keyboards suggests that the 12.9-inch Smart Keyboard has width to spare. There’s at least 30 millimeters total of wasted space on the sides of the larger Smart Keyboard. Squash a few of the modifier keys at the edges, as on the smaller model, and an iPad that’s only slightly larger would probably allow for a keyboard with full-sized keys.

I really hope Jason is right about this and this is the path that Apple chooses — typing on the 9.7″ Smart Keyboard is a pain for me.

I also wonder if this might be an opportunity for Apple to release its own keyboard cover based on the new butterfly keyswitches it’s using on the MacBook and MacBook Pro, rather than leaving traditional keyboards to the third-party market.

I’ve grown to really like both the Smart Keyboard and the new butterfly mechanisms on my late 2016 MacBook Pro and Magic Keyboard. A marriage of the two would be a very interesting concept. It should also be more than possible — Microsoft’s Surface Pro 4 keyboard is very good.

But I’ll give back a little bit of physical size if it also can bring support for full-sized external keyboards to the party.

Me too!

Todd Was Wrong About the iPad Pro →

August 22, 2016 · 22:23

Todd Haselton:

I’m quick to criticize new products, our readers know that all too well, but I was wrong about the iPad Pro.

Respect.

I personally know a few people who totally trashed the iPad until the day they spent some time with it and got it. They then went and got one for themselves.

Apple iPad Pro 10,5″ Rumour — It Could Adopt the 12,9″ UI →

August 22, 2016 · 14:42

Benjamin Mayo:

Apple is going to shake up the iPad lineup in a big way in 2017, according to securities analyst KGI Ming-Chi Kuo. Next year, Apple will reportedly release three new iPads, a 12.9 inch iPad Pro 2, a low cost 9.7 inch iPad and — most interestingly — a new iPad Pro with a 10.5 inch display, a new screen size for Apple’s tablet range. With a diagonal increase of just 0.8 inches over the 9.7 inch iPad, its unclear at this stage what will justify the introduction of another SKU.

I had my doubts about this rumour until I started crunching numbers. The current 9.7″ iPads have around 264 PPI, while the Minis have 326 PPI (which is the same as the 4.7″ iPhone). If you take the resolution of the 12.9″ iPad Pro of 2732 x 2048 px (it also has 264 PPI) and shrink it down to 10.5″, you get approximately 326 PPI. This could mean that the 10.5″ iPad Pro would get the slightly larger UI of the biggest iPad in the lineup, together with the better virtual keyboard and more room for two apps side by side.

I currently use the 12.9″ iPad Pro because the UI allows for more, due to its higher resolution — using two almost-full iPad 9.7″ apps side by side does make a difference. If Apple packages the experience in a smaller form factor, I’ll be standing in line on day one, waiting to get one as soon as possible.

Misplaced iPad Takes Its Own Vacation →

May 13, 2016 · 22:48

Nick Wingfield for the New York Times:

Last month, Shelby Bonnie’s iPad vanished from his carry-on bag somewhere at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport after a red-eye flight from San Francisco. He figured he would never see it again.
But sometimes our devices aren’t ready to say goodbye.

The ending is priceless.

Why Does iPad Not Have a Native Calculator? →

April 12, 2016 · 12:41

User tangoshukudai on Reddit:

It is actually a funny story. When they were prototyping the iPad, they ported the iOS calc over, but it was just stretched to fit the screen. It was there all the way from the beginning of the prototypes and was just assumed by everyone at apple that it was going to be shipped that way. A month before the release, Steve Jobs calls Scott Forstall into his office and says to him, “where is the new design for the calculator? This looks awful” He said, “what new design?” This is what we are shipping with. Steve said, “no, pull it we can’t ship that”. Scott fought for it to stay in, but he knew he had to get their UI team involved to design a new look for the calculator but there was no way they could do it in that short time frame, so they just scrapped it. It has been such low priority since then that no one cares to work on it since there is more important things to work on. (Source: I worked at Apple)

They should have just licensed PCalc [App Store].

9.7″ iPad Pro — the Bad and the Ugly →

March 29, 2016 · 15:13

Andrew Cunningham, reviewing the 9.7″ iPad Pro, noticed a discrepancy in memory bandwidth when compared to the 12.9″ iPad Pro:

We’re not sure what to blame for the reduction in memory bandwidth. The memory bus could be narrower (the 12.9-inch iPad uses a 128-bit memory interface, as opposed to 64-bit in the iPhone), but the scores are still substantially higher than they are in the iPhone 6S, and we’d expect them to be lower if the memory interface had actually been scaled back. The smaller Pro could be using DDR3 RAM like the iPad Air and Air 2 did instead of DDR4, but every A9-equipped device has used DDR4 memory, and the A9 and A9X memory controller might not even support the older DDR3 standard. We’ll need to wait for additional insight from iFixit or Chipworks before we have enough information to say for sure.

This is the third thing that surprised me, after I learned that Apple’s Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter only supports USB 2 speeds on the smaller of the two iPad Pros.

If this A9X had shown up in an iPad Air 3 and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro didn’t exist, it would have blown us away. It still represents a tangible improvement over the A8X in the Air 2. It’s only next to the full-fat, 4GB-of-RAM A9X in the big Pro that this one looks a little disappointing.

While ‘only’ 2 GB of RAM wouldn’t impact me personally, I don’t quite understand why Apple wouldn’t want to future-proof the most popular iPad size category, especially since its sales are declining over the past few quarters. Four gigs could actually be a valid selling point, especially since people seem to keep their iPads for years. I realise that I partially answered my question, but raising the ASP should account for something, right?

Apple’s 40 Years of Selling Macs →

March 29, 2016 · 10:27

Horace Dediu:

In Apple’s first 40 years it shipped 1,591,092,250 computers.

This shipment total is higher than any other computer company in its first 40 years. Actually there are no PC makers that are 40 years old. One computer maker (IBM) is older but they only sold PCs for 24 years and what they still sell they don’t sell in high numbers.

Federico Viticci’s iPad-Only Setup — a Year in →

February 23, 2016 · 15:24

Federico Viticci wrote at length about his iPad-only workflow yesterday, and I have to say that I envy him that he can go and do this:

OS X is a fantastic desktop operating system, but it runs on machines that increasingly don’t fit the lifestyle of users who, like me, can’t sit down at a desk every day. I can’t (and I don’t want to) depend on Macs anymore because I want a computer that can always be with me. The majority of the world’s population doesn’t care about Xcode. I want to use an OS without (what I see as) cruft of decades of desktop conventions. I want powerful, innovative apps that I can touch. An iPad is the embodiment of all this.

I’m currently travelling, as you may have noticed, and I had a touch decision to make when packing — iPad Pro or MacBook Pro. I ultimately went with the MacBook for one reason, and one reason only — to retain the ability to edit my RAW files in Adobe Lightroom. iOS software still has a way to go, and I wish companies such as Adobe would start working on a full LR replacement, instead of making it a companion app.

A year into my iPad-only setup and with only one task left for my Mac, I feel safe to say I’ve moved past OS X at this point. The iPad Pro and iOS 9 have continued to free me from the physical constraints of my MacBook thanks to better hardware and a stronger software ecosystem. Macs are great, and they’re not going away any time soon, but they’re no longer the kind of computers I want to use. I need a computer that I can hold, with built-in 4G Internet and apps I can touch, and with a vibrant developer community whose apps constantly improve how I get work done. That’s an iPad.

I wonder at times if younger people have it easier when adopting a newer platform. I’m probably ten, if not more, years older than Federico, and I find things easier on OS X, most probably because I’ve known the intricacies of this operating system for a numbers of years now, whereas iOS is constantly evolving. This reminds me of the time in my teens when I used to play Doom a lot, using just the keyboard for everything. When I switched to Quake, I continued to use the keyboard, despite the fact that using a mouse and keyboard simultaneously gave the player much more precision. I still remember the day I walked into an internet café and saw four kids firing away, right hands on mice, left on keyboards. I finally made the switch, but it wasn’t easy for me, and they were probably just five or six years younger than me. The difference was that they skipped the keyboard-only phase…

And I never even tried to switch to playing FPS games on a gamepad…

iPad Mini Slowly Slides Into Irrelevancy →

February 5, 2016 · 15:43

Neil Cybart:

The iPad mini’s best days are behind it. Using app analytics data from Fiksu and Mixpanel, along with my own iOS device sales estimates and projections, I was able to derive iPad mini sales since launch. Over the past two years, iPad mini sales trends have deteriorated much faster than most people think. When taking into account the move to larger iPhones and iPads, the iPad mini’s value proposition has likely been weakened to such a degree that the decline in sales is permanent. We have experienced “Peak iPad mini.” More importantly, by analyzing the iPad mini’s sales trends, we have better insight as to where the iPhone and iPad product lines are headed and the iOS platform’s overall direction when it comes to form factors.

If the data is accurate, this is a very interesting take on the iPads — big and small. I am constantly shocked how my own view of the iPad (of all sizes) differs from ‘a typical user’. I am using an iPad Pro at the moment, but I love all three sizes. Each one naturally has different strengths and weaknesses. The mini was perfect for reading books and thumb-typing, the Air was near ideal for displaying magazines, while the Pro adds comic books to the latter, and increases productivity, but is less comfortable to use with one hand. At the same time I’m constantly thinking of getting an iPad mini to use just for Tweetbot…

Nilay Patel Bought His Mom a Chromebook Pixel →

February 2, 2016 · 21:31

Nilay Patel:

We were off to the races. It’s a month later and she loves the thing. It’s not fighting her, or asking her to learn anything new, or foisting complicated new products on her. There are no apps to update, and no new versions of the OS to install every year. It’s just Chrome, doing its thing. And because it’s still a thousand-dollar laptop, it’s incredibly fast. (Apparently the secret to making Chrome run really well is to totally dedicate a 2.2GHz Core i5 and 8GB of RAM to it.)

I’ve used a Pixel for a few weeks and even reviewed it — it truly is an amazing little computer, certainly much better in its second iteration. What I don’t still quite understand is why it requires a Core i5 and 8 GB of RAM to run as well as it does. It shouldn’t need it.

When we talk about laptops still being popular and important, we tend to talk about things like the precision of the mouse and the power and flexibility of a desktop operating system. We talk about all the things they can do better than a phone or a tablet. We talk about more. But it’s worth talking about the power of technology that strives to do less — much less. The thousand dollars I spent on a Pixel didn’t buy my mom crazy extensibility, or the ability to run powerful apps like Photoshop or Excel. It didn’t even buy her that much storage. But it did buy her a beautiful, well-designed product. And most importantly, it bought her focus, and the ability to spend her time using her computer instead of trying to learn how to use it.

That’s a lesson I think Steve Jobs would have liked very much.

I believe that Steve understood the concept quite well — please don’t take this as putting words in his mouth; that’s not my intent. I am referring to a product you can actually buy, which most certainly ticks the ‘focus’ box. It’s called the iPad. While probably not best suited for Nilay’s mom, you can’t beat the focus a single window into the internet gives you. That’s probably why I get so much done on my iPad Pro, with or without an external keyboard.

PC Sales Drop by 8-10% in 2015, Macs Up by 6% →

January 13, 2016 · 10:34

Micah Singleton:

But none of those issues have affected Apple, which has kept growing its Mac sales despite declines in every other aspect of the PC industry. Apple is now the third largest PC maker in the US, passing Lenovo, according to both Gartner and IDC. Worldwide, the firms differ on Apple, with the IDC placing them in fourth place, while Gartner places them in fifth.

This is not counting iPads. They are in decline, but Apple should have easily taken the top spot were they included in the totals. And no, I don’t believe the iPad is dead.

Using an iDevice for Podcasting is Maddness →

November 25, 2015 · 08:17

Jason Snell:

In the meantime, there is a way to make a Skype call and also record on a high-quality microphone using only iOS. It’s just kind of ridiculous: You make the Skype call on your iPhone, presumably with iPhone earbuds or other compatible headphones with a microphone, while sitting in front of an iPad that’s attached to a microphone and recording locally. The people on Skype hear your bad microphone, but your good microphone is what gets used on the actual podcast. Serenity Caldwell used this method for both this week’s Incomparable Radio Theater and Upgrade episodes. The risk is that if your recording fails, all that remains is a lousy recording of your voice on a set of earbuds via Skype—not a great backup.

This is so convoluted that I would probably just prefer to use a Mac—less hassle, more foolproof.

Also, I’m using Jason’s posts to test my Workflow workflow. See previous post.

Tim Cook about converging Mac and iPad →

November 17, 2015 · 18:03

Adrian Weckler interviewing Tim Cook:

Speaking to Independent.ie, Cook denied that the death of computers such as the Mac was imminent and said that there would be a market for such traditional personal computers for the foreseeable future.

“We feel strongly that customers are not really looking for a converged Mac and iPad,” said Cook. “Because what that would wind up doing, or what we’re worried would happen, is that neither experience would be as good as the customer wants. So we want to make the best tablet in the world and the best Mac in the world. And putting those two together would not achieve either. You’d begin to compromise in different ways.”

He’s right, it wouldn’t be a good experience. Macs and iPads excel in different areas: the former is extremely powerful and potentially complicated to use, while the latter is simpler, but due to iOS’ constraints, requires more work to incorporate advanced workflows. The good news is that people will be able to get more and more done on the iPad over the next few years, especially since the operating system will gain new capabilities, empowering developers to make even more amazing apps.

An E-book Reader, a Portable TV, a Multipurpose Personal Computer—These Are Not Three Separate Devices

June 12, 2015 · 11:53

I fell in love with the iPad immediately after getting one in 2010, soon after its debut but not soon enough for my liking. It was a bit limited for use in Poland until iOS 4 if I recall correctly—it didn’t support Polish at the time—but apart from that it was amazing. It's possibilities were only limited by the human mind and I couldn’t wait to see what the wonderful world of Apple’s developers could do once it got creative. It was so much smaller than a laptop, so much more usable when on the move. Yes, we had iPhones and other smartphones at the time, but this was something else. A 9.7” window into the internet, with you wherever you went. My mind was blown back then.

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