Final Cut Pro, Logic and Xcode were the ‘pro apps’ of the Mac era, but the pro apps of the iPad are tools like Procreate. Though iPad has moved towards the Mac over time, it's unlikely to replace it. Traditionally, Apple hasn’t really provided a whole lot of dedicated APIs a high-end illustration app could take advantage of; perhaps that is one of the axes of progression Apple could double down on, and maybe a new first-party AI-enhanced, layered, pro drawing app would make sense for dogfooding?
@stroughtonsmith Speaking as someone that uses Procreate professionally, Procreate is an extremely streamlined painting app, and would not benefit from more features. There’s a reason people use it over more capable apps like Affinity Photo for iPad.
The problem remains iPad OS’s clunky app-centric way of handling files. It’s painful to move images between applications, arrange large numbers of artworks, have an automated backup system, etc. It was a fundamental mis-design they are stuck in.
@john@stroughtonsmith The file management on iPadOS is my biggest problem with the OS. I have iCloud sync turned on because I also have a Mac and an iPhone and I want my files everywhere. This means hat iCloud constantly breaks things by trying to sync while I am in the middle of editing a file and that crashes the app. I've found myself working from iPad Local storage and then having to move the file when ready to sync just to fix this. This shouldn't be this hard!
@amonduin@stroughtonsmith Absolutely. I think it was Apple’s biggest blunder, betting on an app-centric way of doing things. It just doesn’t work when you’re creating stuff. It’s a complete mess.
The other axis Apple could tackle, easily at this point, is the ‘I want Mac features sometimes but iPad most of the time’ crowd. A hypervisor-based VM on iPadOS to run macOS when you really need it.
This would end the 14 year angst of iPad not being a 'real computer’ and let us move forward into new territory. All of that drama around the product gone, in an instant.
Every iPad chip since the M1 has supported Apple's hypervisor. Internal OS builds include virtualization frameworks. It's time
@stroughtonsmith Oh yeah, I didn’t read “internal”, my bad! Still, I think it would be a bummer if third-party apps couldn’t use the hypervisor at all.
@mako@stroughtonsmith For who though? I don't want Apple to fix my issues with iPad by giving me the option to run macOS in a VM, that doesn't actually fix the problems. (I also think I would strongly dislike macOS on iPad generally)
What I need fixed is Apple's broken file management and iCloud sync system which holds me back more than anything else from using the iPad more.
Give us app sandboxing groups for developer Apps so a few apps from the same dev can talk to each other.
@mako@stroughtonsmith I want them to fix the long hanging fruit on iPadOS not give up on it and bring macOS to iPad.
macOS on iPad would also be a big disincentive to software devs who currently build iPad versions.
"Oh, we don't make an iPad version, just get the free macOS VM and install our Mac version"
@amonduin@mako there is such an experiential difference between using an iPad app and using a Mac app in an emulator that any developer that actually thinks that's OK to ship probably wouldn't be making an iPad app you want to use in the first place. I don't think 14 years into iPad's lifecycle that that's a genuine problem anymore
@stroughtonsmith@mako A fullscreen VM on an iPad with a mouse and keyboard could easily get to the point where some devs wouldn't see the point in shipping a dedicated iPad version (unless the VM was limited to only be available with a mouse and keyboard installed)
The big devs already neglect the iPad versions (though I think that has a lot to do with the way Apple ruined the pricing structure incentives for Apps on iPadOS) and I don't want them to put even fewer resources into the platform.
@stroughtonsmith I also think we need to put the drama in context. This isn't an issue in the real world most of the time.
From my perspective the drama is only present in a small corner of the internet inhabited by macOS nerds (of which I am one)... it's hardly drama in the real world. Everyone I know who uses an iPad that isn't also a long time Apple/Mac enthusiast (who reads forums) like's their iPad as is.
@stroughtonsmith The App Store monetization obsession has destroyed any option for the iPad to become a real developer platform as it would require Apple to allow it to run virtualized OSs (Linux, Docker etc.) and sideloaded binaries (Homebrew, real IDEs, etc.) which Apple could not control.
@stroughtonsmith@viticci I’d be curious how they would handle file synchronization between the 2 OSes? Maybe just rely on iCloud Drive sync to move between them?
Or is it possible for Finder/Files to see a single shared file system between the virtualized OS and iPadOS?
@stroughtonsmith a Mac mode on iPad Pro would be great. Less so in classic "mobile operation", but when you plug it into an usb-c display and add a wireless mouse and keyboard, that would be amazing! 😄
@stroughtonsmith I would like a more capable desktop version of zoom for the iPad, and I am not sure what’s holding it back. iOS limitations, or the parent company simply not caring?
@stroughtonsmith they’ll announce a couple of neat features and updates for their “Pro” apps and leave them unattended for two or three years. Then the cycle will start once again
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