The iPad Awkwardly Turns 10 (daringfireball.net) 52
John Gruber: Ten years ago today, Steve Jobs introduced the iPad on stage at the Yerba Buena theater in San Francisco. [...] Ten years later, though, I don't think the iPad has come close to living up to its potential. [...] Software is where the iPad has gotten lost. iPadOS's "multitasking" model is far more capable than the iPhone's, yes, but somehow Apple has painted it into a corner in which it is far less consistent and coherent than the Mac's, while also being far less capable. iPad multitasking: more complex, less powerful. That's quite a combination.
Consider the basic task of putting two apps on screen at the same time, the basic definition of "multitasking" in the UI sense. To launch the first app, you tap its icon on the homescreen, just like on the iPhone, and just like on the iPad before split-screen multitasking. Tapping an icon to open an app is natural and intuitive. But to get a second app on the same screen, you cannot tap its icon. You must first slide up from the bottom of the screen to reveal the Dock. Then you must tap and hold on an app icon in the Dock. Then you drag the app icon out of the Dock to launch it in a way that it will become the second app splitting the display. But isn't dragging an icon out of the Dock the way that you remove apps from the Dock? Yes, it is -- when you do it from the homescreen.
So the way you launch an app in the Dock for split-screen mode is identical to the way you remove that app from the Dock. Oh, and apps that aren't in the Dock can't become the second app in split screen mode. What sense does that limitation make? On the iPhone you can only have one app on screen at a time. The screen is the app; the app is the screen. This is limiting but trivial to understand. [...] On iPad you can only have two apps on screen at the same time, and you must launch them in entirely different ways -- one of them intuitive (tap any app icon), one of them inscrutable (drag one of the handful of apps you've placed in your Dock). And if you don't quite drag the app from the Dock far enough to the side of the screen, it launches in "Slide Over", an entirely different shared-screen rather than split-screen mode. The whole concept is not merely inconsistent, it's incoherent. How would anyone ever figure out how to split-screen multitask on the iPad if they didn't already know how to do it?
[...] As things stand today, I get a phone call from my mom once a month or so because she's accidentally gotten Safari into split-screen mode when tapping links in Mail or Messages and can't get out. I like my iPad very much, and use it almost every day. But if I could go back to the pre-split-screen, pre-drag-and-drop interface I would. Which is to say, now that iPadOS has its own name, I wish I could install the iPhone's one-app-on-screen-at-a-time, no-drag-and-drop iOS on my iPad Pro. I'd do it in a heartbeat and be much happier for it. The iPad at 10 is, to me, a grave disappointment. Not because it's "bad", because it's not bad -- it's great even -- but because great though it is in so many ways, overall it has fallen so far short of the grand potential it showed on day one. To reach that potential, Apple needs to recognize they have made profound conceptual mistakes in the iPad user interface, mistakes that need to be scrapped and replaced, not polished and refined. I worry that iPadOS 13 suggests the opposite -- that Apple is steering the iPad full speed ahead down a blind alley. Further reading: The iPad's original software designer and program lead look back on the device's first 10 years.
Consider the basic task of putting two apps on screen at the same time, the basic definition of "multitasking" in the UI sense. To launch the first app, you tap its icon on the homescreen, just like on the iPhone, and just like on the iPad before split-screen multitasking. Tapping an icon to open an app is natural and intuitive. But to get a second app on the same screen, you cannot tap its icon. You must first slide up from the bottom of the screen to reveal the Dock. Then you must tap and hold on an app icon in the Dock. Then you drag the app icon out of the Dock to launch it in a way that it will become the second app splitting the display. But isn't dragging an icon out of the Dock the way that you remove apps from the Dock? Yes, it is -- when you do it from the homescreen.
So the way you launch an app in the Dock for split-screen mode is identical to the way you remove that app from the Dock. Oh, and apps that aren't in the Dock can't become the second app in split screen mode. What sense does that limitation make? On the iPhone you can only have one app on screen at a time. The screen is the app; the app is the screen. This is limiting but trivial to understand. [...] On iPad you can only have two apps on screen at the same time, and you must launch them in entirely different ways -- one of them intuitive (tap any app icon), one of them inscrutable (drag one of the handful of apps you've placed in your Dock). And if you don't quite drag the app from the Dock far enough to the side of the screen, it launches in "Slide Over", an entirely different shared-screen rather than split-screen mode. The whole concept is not merely inconsistent, it's incoherent. How would anyone ever figure out how to split-screen multitask on the iPad if they didn't already know how to do it?
[...] As things stand today, I get a phone call from my mom once a month or so because she's accidentally gotten Safari into split-screen mode when tapping links in Mail or Messages and can't get out. I like my iPad very much, and use it almost every day. But if I could go back to the pre-split-screen, pre-drag-and-drop interface I would. Which is to say, now that iPadOS has its own name, I wish I could install the iPhone's one-app-on-screen-at-a-time, no-drag-and-drop iOS on my iPad Pro. I'd do it in a heartbeat and be much happier for it. The iPad at 10 is, to me, a grave disappointment. Not because it's "bad", because it's not bad -- it's great even -- but because great though it is in so many ways, overall it has fallen so far short of the grand potential it showed on day one. To reach that potential, Apple needs to recognize they have made profound conceptual mistakes in the iPad user interface, mistakes that need to be scrapped and replaced, not polished and refined. I worry that iPadOS 13 suggests the opposite -- that Apple is steering the iPad full speed ahead down a blind alley. Further reading: The iPad's original software designer and program lead look back on the device's first 10 years.
iPad is fine (Score:5, Interesting)
It's just a glorified ereader to me these days. Some of the reasons for this are Apple's stubborn refusal to allow the builtin iPhone apps to live on iPad. Simple stuff like the weather app is missing. I can't sync my Apple Watch to the iPad, only to an iPhone which means I'm letting both my phone and watch run until they die then going with a different vendor. If they let me use the iPad and just sync to it when in proximity then I'd probably stick with the watch and/or upgrade to a new one at some point.
Apple notoriously refuses to work well with other vendors but often wont even work with themselves when talking about iphone and ipad. It's mind boggling. I just want to load up the weather app I am used to on my ipad, instead I have to download a third part app or visit a web page. Same with the stocks app.
This is simple stuff. I've lived without it for years but I'm coming to a point where I just don't care for excuses or even explanations. I want it to just work and it doesn't.
Re: (Score:3)
You forgot the calculator app. Apple calculator app on the iPhone is pretty good. The ones I can find on the app store for the iPad have advertising and all kinds of features that don't add to the apps capacaties as a calculator. I'd take the iPhone app for the iPad over any other app right away if it was possible.
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i42 is fantastic for a calculator. You can also do math in the search menu.
My real gripe is abandonware. I am on my third ssh and vnc apps since the first one I bought no longer runs, and the second just sucked. Subscription fatigue is real as well.
Also pisses me off that Bria is the only iPad interface for VOIP, again back to subscription fatigue.
Re:iPad is fine - Wait, it had potential? (Score:5, Interesting)
It was a phoneless iPhone. Well wait no, you couldn't actually hold it to your ear unless you had hands the size of Andre the Giant.
It was an iPod that you couldn't fit into your pocket.
It was a "laptop replacement" that didn't run a full laptop OS, so it couldn't do most of the things the device it was supposed to be replacing could do.
It was a portable game console for your kids? Well I guess, but a Gameboy (or DS or 3DS later) had better titles and better battery life. Fuck, the iPad couldn't even run Pokemon Go since it wasn't hooked into a cell phone network and GPS.
It was forcible obsoleted far faster than the laptops it was supposed to be a replacement for, too. There was nothing quite like getting one off the shelf at Best Buy during winter sales, brand new in the box, only to find out it was the model a year or two old and Apple was already not allowing it the newest version of iOS.
In short... it was the perfect example of an Apple product. Something only the cultists would want, and basically nonfunctional.
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The iPad 1 was quickly phased out for the iPad 2, which had the longest iOS-support life of them all, but yes, the Best Buy winter sales detail is especially spot on.
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I think one person knew what it was supposed to be, but he died.
I'm not one for saying, "if Steve were still around..." but in this one specific case, I think it's true. I think he saw what he wanted out of it, and as people did more with it, he would've updated his idea of what to do with it.
We'll never know for sure, but it's clear APPLE doesn't know what to do with it. I love my stupid iPad, but the multitasking is a ridiculous nightmare.
Pedantic Much? (Score:1)
I would say yes.
Co-opted Event (Score:5, Insightful)
iPad turns 10, guy uses event to air personal complaints about one feature.
Meanwhile my 10 year old neice can use this feature without a hitch. iPads have changed the way we interact with technology.
But sure, you make sure the event is about your personal complaints.
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understands a complicated piece of technology doesn't mean it's simple to use.
That is the problem though. Its a complicated piece of technology. When iPad was born it was a glorified e-reader or a giant iPhone take your pick. All you could really do was consume content, producing anything wasn't really supported. It was however simple to use. People complained that was a waste of all that hardware and wanted features like multitasking; not as in the OS can let an application do something while its not in focus but as in I want to interact with two things on the screen at once.
Fine
Re: (Score:2)
Multitasking? You keep using that word (Score:2)
The term you are looking for is bitasking, buh-bye! ~s
Re: Multitasking? You keep using that word (Score:1)
Apple has never had a multitasking OS that they developed themselves. The original Mac OS was a joke, not even doing cooperative multitasking well. Apple spent many millions trying to develop a robust preemptive multitasking OS before they gave up and let the NeXT team haul in a variant of unix.
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Apple has never had a multitasking OS that they developed themselves. The original Mac OS was a joke, not even doing cooperative multitasking well. Apple spent many millions trying to develop a robust preemptive multitasking OS before they gave up and let the NeXT team haul in a variant of unix.
HOW many OSes are, under the hood, to a greater or lesser extent, in reality just "a variant of unix" (either actually, or like Linux, a shameless copy)?
Take your pick:
https://www.google.com/search?... [google.com]
Re: Multitasking? You keep using that word (Score:1)
Windows NT most resoundedly is not.
Most of the rest basically are.
Multitasking on the iPad (Score:4, Interesting)
How would anyone ever figure out how to split-screen multitask on the iPad if they didn't already know how to do it?
I had a hard time looking up how to do it and then I forgot about it again because it's just too damn complicated.
I would like to see the iPad get the capabilities of the Mac, with a real file manager like the Finder and the possibility to edit one file with multiple apps.
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"I had a hard time looking up how to do it and then I forgot about it again because it's just too damn complicated."
this is coming from a company known for its user friendly and initiative software.
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"I had a hard time looking up how to do it and then I forgot about it again because it's just too damn complicated."
this is coming from a company known for its user friendly and initiative software.
Indeed, I also found that quite a disappointment.
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"I had a hard time looking up how to do it and then I forgot about it again because it's just too damn complicated."
this is coming from a company known for its user friendly and initiative software.
Known for??? LOL no,
That advertises itself as having user-friendly and intuitive software, but have never offered either.
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I hate the multitasking, but Files finally lets you edit the same file with different apps. Doesn’t work perfectly and miserably “streamlined” for accessing file servers, but does free up data.
I loved mine, but the inflexibility drove me away (Score:4, Insightful)
I had an iPad 1 and 3. I used a keyboard case with both, and found it very useful and convenient.
What drove me away more than anything was the lack of mouse support. Without mouse support, it was really awkward to use it as an RDP client. I didn't need "desktop" application performance, I have many remote machines for that, but I do need to interact with their mouse-centric UIs to be effective with them. A mouse would have also made more intensive text generation/editing a lot easier as well as enabling drawing or other apps I dabbled in work better (I mean like line-drawing, not illustration which the pen seems to solve).
I also felt the need for better storage interfacing, as in USB thumb drive. I had plenty of internal storage, it wasn't expansion, it was just loading movies or other large-scale content a total hassle and slow.
I was never quite sure what the driving reason for denying mouse usage was. I always figured there was some kind of 4-D chess reason, like Jobs or the product team was worried a mouse would corrupt the touch interface. I figured they could have enabled a mouse API that wouldn't have supported "touch only" interfaces so that apps could individually support a BT mouse for RDP or whatever. I never quite bought the explanation it would "ruin Mac sales" or something along those lines, since it couldn't run Mac apps or didn't have the computing ability of an actual computer.
When my iPad 3 hit the end of the line performance-wise, I bought an ultrabook which I don't use much differently than the iPad, although I use it less frequently but can use it more intensively, although I seldom do, preferring a full-blown desktop experience with a bigger screen, etc.
IMHO, an iPad with a mouse would have had a huge ripple effect in corporate environments. When iPads first came out, you saw a ton of executive types making a run at not using a laptop and using an iPad. Maybe much of that was style/trend based, but with a mouse those guys would have been using RDP for corporate apps, possibly driving more VDI in places that otherwise never adopted it. I feel like Apple crippled iPad adoption for weird and esoteric reasons I just don't understand.
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The thing is that Apple wants you to buy a Mac AND an iPad, so they must minimize the overlap between both.
That being said since iOS 13 there is mouse support (of a sort) and support for USB drives as well as SMB. Nothing of this works very well though, it's buggy, incomplete and barely usable.
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Funny how you can use a BT mouse or a USB mouse just using a USB OTG adapter, on about any Android device, for 10 years now. Add a USB or BT keyboard, or USB mass storage, or even a USB floppy drive. And you can have your movies on a microSD card to put in the device.
You can use a mouse with the iPad (Score:5, Informative)
What drove me away more than anything was the lack of mouse support.
Hey Rosanne Rosandana, with iOS 13 you can use a mouse with the iPad [9to5mac.com].
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What drove me away more than anything was the lack of mouse support.
Hey Rosanne Rosandana, with iOS 13 you can use a mouse with the iPad [9to5mac.com].
It just goes to show you... if it's not one thing, it's another.
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Yeah, now, but not when my iPad 3 hit the skids and I wanted a replacement.
I'm not real sure I'd go back at this point.
Re: I loved mine, but the inflexibility drove me a (Score:1)
I have mouse support on every single Android device I own. My bluetooth mouse (a Microsoft brand one) "just works" (tm) right out of the box, even on a fairly generic phone. With an OTG adapter plugged into my tablet or phone I can connect a mouse and keyboard on the same hub.
Apple is ideology-bound to not allow mouse pointers on their mobile devices.
Re: what did you expect? (Score:1)
Quantity, my dear AC, not quality.
well (Score:3)
I remember my ipad (Score:3)
It was rather lame.
iOS at the time (v7 I think) was incredibly locked down. You could barely do anything at all on your ipad. For example, I spent $50 on an SD Card dongle from Apple, but I wasn't able to access my RAW photos from my DSLR so I could upload them. I thought at first this was a limitation of the FTP app I paid for (it was a few dollars, meh), but I couldn't get a refund for it.
You were forced to use iTunes to transfer files from the ipad to your computer and back, and even then you couldn't do this like an android device or any other normal storage device and you certainly couldn't transer just any kind of file. This locked down file system also prevented you from downloading a variety of different things from the internet.
All in all, I did not know when I bought the ipad, that it was going to be so difficult and tedious to use. Maybe iOS has grown up since then, but I'm not willing to find out. I truly respect Apple's stance on privacy, and the fact that the ipad is rock solid in its construction, and the battery life is fairly amazing. But iOS was just so unbelievably horrible to use that it negated whatever was good about the ipad.
Comment removed (Score:3, Interesting)
Will last forever (Score:2)
My iPad 1 Awkwardly shows the weather, works still OK.
Re: (Score:2)
... except that it's been about 4 years now since it last got security patches. I hope that you have that thing isolated on it's own network if you're still using it.
It's mostly a portable TV (Score:3, Insightful)
What do you mean by... (Score:2)
Now if you have complaints about certain things you can certainly name them but there's noway anything "awkwardly" turn 10.
Re: What do you mean by... (Score:1)
The Galaxy Tab is also ten years old. But it doesn't have a zealous fan base, just lots of satisfied users.
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The iPad also has a lot of satisfied users. There are probably just as many dissatisfied users of Galaxy Tabs as iPad users but they don't tend to shitpost about their experiences. Apple is held to a higher standard than other manufacturers (rightly so since they charge premium prices), plus we have many more opportunities to complain about Apple products. There probably won't ever be a "tablet X is ten years old" story about any Android tablet in which I can whine about how my tablet X was rubbish.
Any good uses for the OG iPad? (Score:2)
I've still got one kicking around, but since you can't download any apps for the most part, I can't find much use for it..anyone got any clever uses for them or is it time to recycle it?
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I don't know, but can it stop a bullet? Make it double as a kevlar vest, perhaps?
Will subway doors re-open if you jam one of these at the last moment?
Can it double as a wifi hotspot for the home or bathroom.
I think there was a /. article about using one as a convenient bathroom e-reader but that would require costly magazine subscriptions if you actually read them for the articles
There. That's all I have.
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Kid's Entertainment Device (Score:4, Insightful)
The iPad won't replace a traditional console for older kids/adults and it won't replace a PC for getting actual work done.
Wish it were just an iPhone with a big screen (Score:2)
I love my iPad, but I would be happier with it if it were just an iPhone with a big screen. As in had the capability to make phone calls, receive text messages and do the other stuff an iPhone can do. And had a decent camera... It has the hardware, but it is crippled.
It is sleek, but it is kind of a dead end.
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I love my iPad, but I would be happier with it if it were just an iPhone with a big screen. As in had the capability to make phone calls, receive text messages and do the other stuff an iPhone can do. And had a decent camera... It has the hardware, but it is crippled.
It is sleek, but it is kind of a dead end.
What do you have? An iPad 1st Generation?
For reasonably-recent iPads, your wish list "score" is as follows:
Make phone calls (using WiFi) : Check!
https://support.apple.com/en-u... [apple.com]
Receive (and send) text Messages (WiFi or Cellular) : Check!
https://support.apple.com/guid... [apple.com]
Has a Decent Camera (Depends on definition of "decent", now doesn't it?) : Check!
https://everymac.com/systems/a... [everymac.com]
I admit that the Camera is about 2 or 3 generations behind equivalent-year flagship smartphones; but the most recent couple of
Dragging your disk to the trash (Score:3)
Remember in MacOS when you had to drag your disk to the trash to eject it. Anything else dragged there deleted it, but your disks with all your hard work on it, you dragged to the trash to eject. That skeeved me out every time.
So it's not like Apple is the paragon of consistency.
In Android, multitasking apps on screen is much more intuitive. Open an app, long press the task switch button, then app you had open goes to the top and the bottom is the task switcher list. Want an app not in the recents? Press back and you can just open tap whatever from the apps menu.
Or you can go directly to the task switcher and press the little "top/bottom" icon on the recent app you want, which will put the app on the top half. Then choose whatever app from the recents for the bottom or hit back and do the menu thing.
To switch back to single, you literally just drag the divider between the two up or down to make one of the apps full screen again (same way as iOS IIRC).
I find myself using this feature pretty frequently. Like when I'm reading a book or watching something and following a group text or using a browser (mobile firefox with ublock installed!) to refer to something. Even though several apps pop up a warning "may not work in split screen mode." The only thing I've found that doesn't work are full screen games (makes sense, and why would I do this anyway except to try and make the multitask feature fail on purpose, which I did).
Disagree (Score:1)
Steve Jobs would fire the entire iOS UX team (Score:2)
If he were still alive I have no doubt the entire UX team would have been fired by now. The OP is just one example of the problems with iOS, but it hits the high points: inconsistent/incoherent behavior, non-intuitiveness, inconvenience.
My $1100 iPhone has a habit of turning on the flashlight just from me holding it or pulling it out of my pocket. I can't make it present a lock screen that ONLY offers the option to unlock without notifications, flashlight, camera, etc. The control center on one iPhone is ac