Ipad Let Loose event

ablelocks

new Ipad pro 11" and 13" - thinner body, oled screen and m4 chips

new ipad air 11" and 13"

9th gen ipad removed from line up

cheaper price for 10th gen - now €449 for the 64gb (but it's $349 in the USA)

new magic keyboard

new apple pencil pro

awec

iPad will always be very meh until they fix the pile of crap that is iPadOS.

it makes no sense at all to buy one of these right now.

PaulT21

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058350770/ipad-let-loose-event

I have an iPad 11 Pro, Gen 1 (Original 2018, I think) and it's Can, still doing everything I need it to do, browsing and watching streaming services. Can't see the point of upgrading.

bnt

I have a standard iPad 32GB from 2018, just passed six years with me this week. It can still do a lot, but is now seriously hampered by the low storage space. So my order for a purple iPad Air 128GB is in, and I can dedicate the old iPad to music apps. No point trading in, they offered only €30 for it.

whippet

I have a 12.9" iPad Pro Gen 3 - got it in dec 2018 I think and i've been using it as my main personal machine up until now. My Macbook Pro was my main work machine until I changed jobs about 2 years ago and have to use windows machines. The MacBook Pro barely gets a look in day today. So I'm seriously considering the new 13" iPad Pro … but the cost of the Magic Keyboard is a real pain .. My current Magic Keyboard won't fit the new one so that is an extra €400 !

Royale with Cheese

I have the 2018 11" Pro with the keyboard. It's nice hardware but iPadOS is still fairly limited, nuts to be putting these M4 chips in new iPads and charging €2000 for one with the keyboard when the iPads from 3-4 years back are still only using a fraction of their CPU's potential.

I had planned to get whatever the final version of the iPad Pro was that supported the keyboard case I already own, and keep that long term. That would be the M2 version it seems. I can get an M2 Macbook Air for less than the 256gb M2 iPad Pro currently, I'm thinking of doing that and just selling the keyboard case I have. iPadOS is too limiting to really make it a true laptop replacement, and I find the typing experience on the 11" keyboard a bit cramped too. Also it's bulky enough with the keyboard case on, think the 13" MacBook Air would actually be more portable. Will happily keep the 2018 iPad I have for as long as possible to just use as a tablet.

Royale with Cheese

Grabbed a base model MacBook Air M2 via Apple refurbished for €1059. That'll do, don't need it for anything heavy. Anyone want to buy an 11" iPad magic keyboard 😃

awec

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122111090#Comment_122111090

There has to be huge changes to iPad OS coming at WWDC, otherwise this new hardware is just stupid.

squonk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122111698#Comment_122111698

funny, I was saying the exact same thing back in 2021 or 2022 when they put the M1 chip into the iPad Pro. I was convinced all of the signs were pointing to them finally taking the training wheels off iPadOS and starting opening it up to being a macOS alternative for mobile computing. I mean, no point in sharing the same hardware as the MacBooks if they weren’t but yet, several years on, here we are!

Doodah7

If I was in charge of iPadOS I would read the following article, send it to each of my team and tell them to follow it exactly and implement each and every point. It would revolutionise the iPad:

https://www.macstories.net/stories/not-an-ipad-pro-review/

squonk

Good article and lots of very relevant points. The most immediate thing they could do is just let users install macOS if they want. Stop telling us that people don’t want a desktop OS on their iPad. The average Joe certainly doesn’t, and doesn’t need to even go there, but it shouldn’t be a barrier fir pro users.

I say this because I did think there might be a Pro OS in the offing, but that won’t happen. Instead we’re getting drip fed pro class apps. They’re mostly aimed at content creators.

Start with macOS on iPad and start to reskin as they want to specialise it over time. In lieu of a Pro OS I figured they may be looking to an iPad specific macOS reskin. They’re not doing that either by the looks of it.

If they opened up the os I would have ordered the new pro already but I don’t get right now what it can do they my 2018 pro can’t do anyway. Right now the iPad is still a Fiesta with a Ferrari V12. You’ve got the oomph but you won’t really get to ever really use it 95% of the time.

turfthrower

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122143079#Comment_122143079

I had a chance to look at an M4 iPad Pro yesterday in Dundrum Town Centre. When it's in a magic keyboard case, it feels marginally thinner than my M1 version. But when you take it out of the case, it's truly weirdly thin. Like, it's reached that point where it's just not like any other piece of tech. Worth picking one up to see what I mean.

However I think Apple will never allow MacOS on an iPad. Sure, it would suit consumers and create a really great device, but why sell people one device when you could sell them two?

squonk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122148334#Comment_122148334

The thin factor was a big draw for me for sure. I’m dying to play with one. I was going to order on spec but kind of copped myself on as the next version will also be as thin. I can still wear out my old Pro and upgrade when it’s unsupported.

Agree with Apple being greedy and wanting to sell punters two devices. However times have changed. Budgets aren’t what they are. Back when I bought my Pro I had more money for yearly Apple purchases and the previous year I’d bought a refurb MBP as well. Apple’s prices have gone up substantially too so now it’s really one or the other. Tim Cook is more concerned about cash dividends and targets for the markets than catering to Apple’s customers.

They’re maybe right in that an iPad and Magic Keyboard is plenty for what most people do these days but if you’re stuck in the middle, not an all out power user but want to power use sometimes, you’re out in the cold in the Apple world unless you pony up the dish for a MacBook you might use 20% of the time.

turfthrower

Yeah I suppose with these things though you always come back to the problem with capitalism. I love Apple's kit, and capitalism has made it what it is, but it's also hamstrung it. They're forced to iterate each year on their phones in particular, launching a new one regardless of whether they genuinely have something of value for the world.

They can't afford not to, because they are accountable to their shareholders. Basically this means that we as consumers never get the best actual device they could make. Because if we did, we wouldn't upgrade. And if they actually fixed every problem and genuinely did produce the best products they could, they'd shoot themselves in the foot because they'd undermine the appeal of next year's product. They are forced to be constantly working on the next generation of products.

The iPhone 16 arrives in September so its design is locked in now and it's ready to be produced. Apple is mostly working now on the 17 and there are teams sketching out the 18 and 19. That means they have to have features for those phones compelling enough to be at least able to put in a presentation but they are also forced to space out those features to try to create a compelling product not just now, but in the future.

To an extent, all the tech companies are in the same boat but Apple in particular is locked into an upgrade cycle that is stifling. No matter what you buy from them, something 5 per cent better will be along later. Not 50 per cent better - because that would destroy the cycle - just 5 per cent.

This cycle pulls in tech-geeks who upgrade every year, and creates enough of an appeal for the average tech user that replaces their phone or ipad every four or five years that there is something compelling for them. They get a product that is 25 to 30 per cent better than the one they are replacing.

Doodah7

MacOS on an iPad would be appalling experience. Trying to use the traffic light buttons using a fat finger to expand/close a window; trying to copy or rename files in Finder using touch etc. etc. Even Microsoft has admitted that the touch version of Windows 10 was awful. All well and good possibly using MacOS with a Magic Keyboard or Apple Pencil but the iPad is first and foremost a touch device. MacOS UI is designed for mice not fingers and long may it continue that way.

The risk of unifying the two OS's is that you have to change macOS to accommodate touch - bigger buttons, larger interfaces etc. which would kill the whole experience.

iPadOS needs to be its own creature but it has to move in a way that is necessary for the iPad, not the Mac and not the iPhone.

whippet

I bit the bullet and picked up a 13" pro with the keyboard and mouse. I had a Gen3 12.9" which eventually became my main personal device with my MBP being only used about 10% of the time. I was 50/50 on going for the new pro until I looked at one in Harvey Norman over the weekend. The weight and dimensions sealed the deal.

So far so good and delighted with it. I had a fairly hefty spreadsheet I needed to work on last night which would have always been via the MBP and after a few mins of some fiddly stuff the experience was perfectly fine.

I'm no expert on screens but as a test I watched the golf on sunday evening via the SkyGO app on both the new ipad and the Gen3 and it was remarkably better.

The pencil for me was always a bit of a gimmick - so can't really comment on that as I haven't really used it much.

Royale with Cheese

Was away last week and brought the iPad with me. Had it plugged into the tv there and was able to watch some things I'd downloaded onto it. Wanted to keep watching on the TV but listen on my bluetooth earphones after everyone else had gone to bed, not possible on iPadOS. If it's plugged into an external screen then that's where the sound goes to, was able to do this on my Mac no problem.

Then just other annoying stuff like not being able to run a bittorrent client on the iPad, the NOW app for iPad not allowing you to watch on an external screen (not exactly Apple's fault but just another annoying limitation I had to deal with). To be fair to the iPad it has a native app for Netflix which allowed me to download some shows for offline viewing, which the Mac doesn't so it had one advantage there.

I tried using one as a laptop replacement for a while and there's just too many issues you'll run into that Apple appear to be completely happy to leave there as it forces you to hold onto your Mac. I'll keep my 2018 iPad Pro til it dies/becomes obsolete and then I'd probably replace it with the cheapest iPad going at whatever point that is.

Xavi6

I picked up the 11" Pro 256gb yesterday, an upgrade from my 2018 6th Generation 128gb iPad, and it's beautiful at first glance.

I went Pro over Air for the better chip and facial recognition, amongst other things, and hope to get six years out of it too. A bit spicey price wise but should be worth it in the long run.

The Black Oil

Still using an Air 2 from 2014, though granted there was a long time when I didn't use it at all and I've thought about upgrading because of shiny new things. Got a new case for it recently. I mostly use it for TV shows. I had downloaded some stuff before a trip to the UK last month which was handy as there was no WiFi. It's running 15.8.3.

adox

New IPad Mini announced available later this month. Also a slight drop in price of the regular ipad.

The Black Oil

Announced via press release, it seems. Don't think anyone has a review unit yet, so the videos seem to be reactions to specs. Maybe MKBHD will have his thoughts up next week.