[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Has the iPad Replaced Your Laptop?
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Ask HN: Has the iPad Replaced Your Laptop?
If we read online and on social media, people think iPads are
subpar and can never be a laptop replacement. However, I see more
people use iPads with keyboards than laptops in real life. Has the
iPad replaced your laptop?
Author : carlycue
Score : 14 points
Date : 2022-11-13 21:22 UTC (1 hours ago)
| desro wrote:
| I love my M1 iPad Pro. Being able to hold the web in your hands
| at tablet size is great. It has completely changed my workflow as
| a semi-pro photographer: Lightroom and Affinity are amazingly
| performant, and this iPad has Thunderbolt I/O. Lumafusion for
| video is also incredible, and I can't wait to get my hands on
| DaVinci Resolve.
|
| The biggest thing I miss, and it's a dealbreaker for a lot of my
| work, is the lack of a shell. I would be over the moon if they
| released Terminal.app for iPad, even if just in a persistent
| sandbox environment with no real access to the system. I just
| want to be able to manipulate local files with that toolbox.
| Obviously, full homebrew support would be key.
|
| There is just still no "app" that can (ever, probably) replace
| the utility of a shell.
| willswire wrote:
| Have you tried iSH shell on the App Store? It's a containerized
| alpine environment that you can grant file access to.
|
| https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ish-shell/id1436902243
| Woeps wrote:
| Nope, I really tried to have one replace my desktop. But in the
| end I went for a laptop instead.
| t-3 wrote:
| I've never even seen an iPad in real life. I do most of my
| reading and web-browsing on an eink tablet though.
| dakiol wrote:
| I don't see how it could. On my M1 pro mbp 16 inch with 32 GB mem
| and 512 GB I'm running at the moment:
|
| - 4 VMs (Ubuntu vis Vagrant and VMware)
|
| - two instances of Chrome, each with around 100 tabs
|
| - safari
|
| - two instances of Pycharm
|
| - VLC playing a movie in the background
|
| - 3 PDFs
|
| - iTerm with 7 tabs
|
| Everything is smooth and noise-less. The 16 inch screen is just
| perfect. Can't imagine running all of that on an iPad.
| noodlesUK wrote:
| I had a second gen iPad and it never got very much use. I decided
| to give it another shot last year and bought an iPad Pro and it's
| been an amazing piece of tech. Probably my favourite piece of
| tech I've bought in the past 3 years.
|
| It has completely replaced my laptop for personal use. I still
| use a laptop for work, but having an ipad that I use pretty much
| exclusively for fun is a huge positive change for me. It has an
| amazing screen and a great set of speakers. With a good keyboard
| case (I like the Logitech detachable one) it's probably pretty
| close to a laptop replacement for anyone who doesn't need pro
| software.
|
| My favourite part is using it as a video call system though. I
| live far from my extended family and travel often. I use it to
| make video calls for hours most days. A pair of iPads is easy
| enough for most people to reliably use without trouble (though
| the particularly elderly might not like the touchscreen).
|
| I don't think they are laptop replacements for people who go on
| HN, but for people who just want to send emails etc it's a great
| device, and way easier to use. I would encourage you to try one
| out as a second tier device even so.
| [deleted]
| smoldesu wrote:
| It might be fine for replacing _some_ of the things I do, but
| iPadOS is still a hamstrung mess. Without a package manager,
| local shell, Docker support, VM support or a reasonable way to
| install my own software, daily-driving an iPad would be
| impossible for me.
|
| Maybe if Apple unlocks the iPad bootloader the situation would
| change somewhat, but these days Chromebooks get the upper hand
| from a productivity standpoint (for my workload).
| jerkstate wrote:
| no, I used an iPad as a main computer for non-work for about 5
| years, but couldn't really create - couldn't write code (besides
| pythonista, which is pretty good), editing videos wasn't as full
| featured, although photo editing with Affinity was almost as good
| as on desktop. Recently got the M2 Air which is much better for
| creating stuff.
|
| Biggest advantage versus desktop is that some apps are nearly as
| good and way cheaper. $5 for affinity photo vs. $50 on the
| desktop? great deal!
| PaulHoule wrote:
| When I used to go to Hackathons or similar events I would go with
| a cheap android tablet and cheap bluetooth keyboard, mouse, and
| kickstand. If I was doing throwaway development I'd just spin up
| one or more cloud servers and connect with RDP or ssh.
| TheLoafOfBread wrote:
| I have Samsung Galaxy Book in ARM version for testing Windows ARM
| apps and I will take it every time over iPad or any Android
| tablet simply because it has a keyboard and the LCD is attached
| to the keyboard, so I can type on my knees, in the bed or on the
| plane.
|
| When I want to browse web and read stuff, yeah tablet is good
| enough for it.
| HellDunkel wrote:
| I don't have any use for a laptop and don't like carring one with
| me. I also don't carry the ipad around but i like using procreate
| on it. Best software experience i ever had.
| lakomen wrote:
| I have recently bought a Samsung Dex docking station. I wish it
| wasn't such a unusable consumer only product. I wish I'd have all
| in one pocket computer with complete access without spyware,
| essentially GNU/Linux that I could use like a communications
| device but also a fully-featured work computer I can just carry
| around in my pocket and when sitting on a dock use like a real
| computer.
| Raed667 wrote:
| The day I can run Firefox with proper extensions is the day I buy
| an ipad. Until then the macbook air is fine.
| paulcole wrote:
| Yes. I have a laptop at work and don't have one for home use
| anymore. The iPad Pro does everything I need to at home: TikTok,
| websites, email, videos, etc.
| mdmglr wrote:
| In my family the iPhone has replaced all other computing devices.
| I'm the only one with a laptop.
| WheelsAtLarge wrote:
| It has not been a replacement for me. But I use my computer's
| keyboard a lot. If I mostly consumed content and sent out a few
| emails then the ipad would be a great fit. I think I use my phone
| more than my ipad. It's simply because it's way easier to type
| out a message if I need to send one.
| lmedinas wrote:
| to me it kinda replaced, for example, social media and web
| surfing there is no need to use a laptop. My family mostly use
| the iPad but due to the poor multi-tasking and single user
| account we still use our macbook m1.
| mvuijlst wrote:
| No. Got a recent one a month or two ago -- it's not even charged
| anymore. Wildly overrated device, horrible OS.
| jshzglr wrote:
| Thanks for telling us why.
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(page generated 2022-11-13 23:01 UTC)