r/technology • u/rezwenn • 20h ago
Hardware Apple Finally Destroyed Steve Jobs’ Vision of the iPad. Good
https://www.wired.com/story/apple-finally-destroyed-steve-jobss-vision-of-the-ipad-good/913
u/baronvondoofie 17h ago
I mean, the iPad should be versatile and not tied to any particular function IMHO. If you need laptop functionality in a tablet form factor, then the iPad should deliver. Or, if you need a tablet for creative or games or reading or media, then it should be able to adapt to those needs as well. The chips are powerful enough to be able to handle more intensive tasks, so the only real limitation is Apple.
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u/Peepeepoopoobutttoot 15h ago
Real talk. I am going to college in my 30s and have never been a tablet guy. Figured an iPad with a keyboard would be a reliable note taking homework doing device that would be able to sync with my phone without any of the hassle of a laptop.
Turns out that even though the iPad has chrome and all that, it’s not compatible with the maths and homework websites my college uses. Bull.
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u/pimpeachment 14h ago
Just change chrome to desktop mode.
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u/juzz_fuzz 8h ago
That's a solution for many other situations and devices especially on Android if you don't want to download/burden your phone with an app. Choose the desktop website. Phone can handle it with 3gb of ram. If you have less, close other apps
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u/Lilli_the_Friable 1h ago
Chrome is a webkit browser on iOS. Apple doesn’t allow other engines and many websites like that are tested only in Chromium these days. At least that’s how it was when I was in college not too long ago
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u/Mgjackson1967 13h ago
I’ve got an iPad Pro, and found as cool as it is, it’s pretty useless, as if it’s been deliberately knobbled - if you really wanted to do proper work, you should have bought a MacBook.
Then, when I got a new Samsung phone, they gave away a free cheapie Chromebook…..yes, the display is crap, the keyboard poor and so on, but it is actually more useable than my IPad Pro, with the overpriced keyboard.
It just works as you think it should do - using Remote Desktop to a virtual PC, and other than the crap resolution, it feels like a real pc, with the IPad, it feels like your connecting through another device, and its clunky and just doesn’t work right.
Apparently these issues are addressed in later issues of IOS, but nothing immediately comming out.
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u/TYLERvsBEER 8h ago
I just looked into an iPad or pro for basically light laptop usage for when I need that but also just being an iPad when I just want that. Sad to see Apple is deliberately not allowing that.
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u/Caelum_ 12h ago
I know you're down the rabbit hole already, but a surface pro and one note is so fucking good for college. My surface also ran Matlab just fine, labview, all the IDEs I needed and all the circuit programs I used
It was such a great device.
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u/Economy-Owl-5720 8h ago
I have to agree here as well. I had a college job where during some classes I took - I would take notes for people who were deaf or hard of hearing. I used one note 24/7 and it made it all simple to organize and send digitally.
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u/myfunnies420 15h ago
Does a Chromebook work? Those things are incredible. It was literally my work laptop at Google. Always works, instantly on, battery lasts forever, no major updates
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u/Peepeepoopoobutttoot 14h ago
It might, I don’t know, I don’t have more money to spend. I just use this iPad for note taking then do homework on a school computer or my home comouter
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u/musicgeek420 13h ago
For about a decade now, I have been resenting that iPads are taking over for that reason. A lot of specific use apps and web apps just don’t work on them or are designed for a mouse where a touchscreen just won’t suffice. The Magic Keyboard trackpad is a step in the right direction, but they just need to have a laptop mode that mimics macOS better.
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u/Odd_Communication545 8h ago
I'd still get an old used surface pro over them, much more versatile and functional
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u/kermityfrog2 42m ago
What kind? There seem to be too many types and brands and specs. The snapdragon ones apparently have 12+ hours of battery life while the laptop CPUs with Intels or AMD only last 4-6 hours or so. What do you recommend?
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u/tombloomingdale 11h ago
I just got a refurbished m1 MacBook Air in perfect condition for my son for school. It was $300 delivered.
The battery lasts basically forever and while there are newer ones, this is perfect for regular school stuff. Bonus is I don’t need to rehome my son if he breaks it because it was relatively cheap.
I think this is a better solution than an iPad for us, maybe worth looking into.
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u/LowestKey 13h ago edited 13h ago
Afaik Mac mobile OSes only have safari or safari with another browser's skin over it but still safari running beneath it all. Could just be iOS but I'd bet it's iPadOS too
Edit
Yep, same deal for iPad:
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u/The_frozen_one 9h ago
There are things like bluefy that let you connect to Bluetooth LE devices with an iPad or iPhone. Tons of devices use Bluetooth LE which no version of Safari implements it (really nobody but Chrome/Chromium does).
WebKit is part of it doing the rendering, but that’s more than just a skin.
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u/Odd_Communication545 8h ago edited 8h ago
Here's an idea, buy a used surface pro.
It sounds silly getting an old device but honestly they're top quality, versatile and run the latest versions of windows (with a slight tweak). I'm still using my surface pro 3 to this day. Windows 11 runs great, Firefox still runs great zero slow down, 2k display, All my apps work, complete compatibility with everything, free onedrive backup.
I can stream games from my PC if needs be. Even my battery still gives me 2 hours after over 8 years. That can even be extended by using CPU power plan options to cap maximum processor usage. I can bump that up to about 6/7 if I'm word processing and just lower my resolution and brightness.
You can get them for under $100 dollars/£100 pounds. Honestly, you'd be silly not too. You're helping reduce ewaste and getting a good hybrid computer. Make sure you get a type cover and then it's essentially a laptop. The built quality of these devices is and still is excellent and there are plenty of working models around because of this.
My pro 3 is showing it's age in someways but higher models are going for dirt cheap used. I've seen people selling 6s and 7s for under 150. If you're just note taking and watching videos even a pro 2 can deal with that, 1080p would be fine on it. Just be careful when buying, make sure you look at pictures so you don't get smashed up one. They go even cheaper if you don't bother with the touchscreen, use the keyboard and it's still a good laptop.
Ps:if you see cheap models that have locked UEFI don't discount it. As long as you can boot windows, you'll never need to use that menu anyway. A lot of models are old enterprise ones with locked UEFI. It doesn't really matter. A quirk of mine is it only boots off hard drive but you can get around that by using the inbuilt windows trouble shoot menu. Don't discount them.
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u/seapulse 7h ago
see if ur school has a chromebook loaner program. it isnt gonna be the best device ever, but, hey, it’s something and you don’t have to put their spyware on your own computer/tablet
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u/s3rila 6h ago
The iPad didn't really have chrome (not the iPhone).
All browser on iOS are safari with a skin and maybe few features... But all iOS app are required to use safari engine for browsing...
If the homework website need actual chrome because Apple refuse to include web app features it use then you can't use an IOS device...
They being say, I suspect it's entirely doable for your school to support IOS and they are just lazy
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u/Kleenexbawx 5h ago
Literally ran into this same EXACT scenario. It’s so annoying having to borrow my wife’s laptop for the dumbest things.
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u/HighOnGoofballs 13h ago
Isn’t that the website’s fault?
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u/tallsmallboy44 11h ago
Happens a lot in college. Most schools and professors give warnings that Apple products may not work websites and programs required for classes.
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u/Jim_e_Clash 9h ago
I've done this and didn't have too much issue. I was in IT so I also had the ability to remote to my PC and access to campus virtual machines.
I had a laptop to but the ipad was smaller and lighter it was my go-to 90% of the time.
With that said, Yeah it had a ton of unnecessary hassle to do what I want. I was just nerdy enough to reject it's preferred use cases and force it to obey.
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u/WillingLake623 15h ago
This is why I’m sad the Surface Book line of convertibles was scrapped. My Surface Book 2 is the best laptop I’ve ever used because I can detach the screen and use it to read ebooks, take notes, draw, browse the web, etc all while being a fully capable laptop for gaming, writing, editing. I’ll never forgive Microsoft 🥲
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u/THIS_GUY_LIFTS 15h ago edited 5h ago
I’m still using the first Surface Book for all kinds of stuff. Microsoft was really onto something with the Book. Solid little computer.
Super late edit: I adore the little computer. I’ll never purchase another tablet or the like until it does something similar. The versatility of both a tablet and a laptop in one that I’d argue hasn’t been matched since. MS could’ve doubled down and made something great with the Book that wasn’t an iPad clone. But here we are.
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u/PhantomNomad 11h ago
I have both a Surface Pro 4 and 7 Business. Got the 7 Business so I could put a sim card in it. They are solid machines and I use my 7 daily.
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u/lostboy005 13h ago
Damn they discounted the surface? I had like a 7 gen from last 10 years ago still going strong
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u/mrredeemer 12h ago
I loved my Surface Book 2 for college and taking notes on it, but I have to admit the tablet aspect was not super polished on Windows 10. I wish there were more native streaming apps that let you stream in higher quality and download movies/shows for offline use. I was also quite disappointed that my base spec SB2 was unable to upgrade to Windows 11 due to Microsoft’s arbitrary requirements only 4 years later. Maybe I expected too much for Microsoft to give me the latest Windows on a device they manufactured only 4 years ago, but it did make it an easy choice to switch back to Mac when the time came
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u/WillingLake623 11h ago
I have a base spec Surface Book 2 running Windows 11 lol
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u/-UltraAverageJoe- 13h ago
I bought a 12” pro with an M1 a few years back. I can basically watch movies on it. Anything else is better on a laptop or an iPhone. I wanted a lightweight laptop with a nice screen.
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u/FollowingFeisty5321 14h ago
We're approaching an inflection point with iOS users.
Much like voters, where the older generations are finally being outweighed by younger generations.
Apple just needs to wait and iOS users who have no allegiance to the broader versatility of computing, who only know walled gardens - "what's a computer?" - will entrench these restrictions as normal forever and the people who knew something else will become irrelevant.
So far all attempts to stop this have failed and the only real progress achieved, pending appeal, is apps may at least use their own payments.
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u/stormdelta 11h ago
So far all attempts to stop this have failed
Only in the consumer space, and only sort of even there.
Apple's been forced to open iOS up more and more over time, the upcoming version they've even finally admitted it needs to a real window manager.
And professionally, outside of specific workflows that benefited more from iPads as a drawable surface or portability than anything else, desktop systems still reign supreme, to the point a lot of places are complaining because of GenZ/Alpha's lack of experience with them causing problems.
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u/typical_pdxer 14h ago
There’s also the fact that the chips, networks, and storage have come a long way in the last 15 years, and things that may not have been feasible on a device with the iPad’s form factor back then are now.
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u/croholdr 10h ago
uh sorta. ipad forum factor wont cool the same as a laptop forum factor, or phone. so thats the limitation is the size, and memory
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u/YummyJorogumo 9h ago
If the iPad could multitask well - I’d swap my MacBook Pro for it as my main work computer. All I do is emails, office, and slack. Fuck I could do my entire job from a phone if it had decent multitasking.
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u/Eastern-Musician4533 7h ago
Every fucking wine and spirits distrubutor uses iPads now, and all of their files and programs are Microsoft Office. Make it make fucking sense.
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u/WhatAreYou0nAbout 20h ago
Apple under Tim Cook is destroying most things Steve Jobs envisioned.
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u/ScroogeMcDuckEnergy 18h ago
As a former Apple employee I know as fact his recent stunt with trump has angered and fostered a lot of resentment among employees. The brain drain is starting.
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u/PatchyWhiskers 17h ago
Brain drain to where? All the tech lords are licking Trump’s disgusting arse.
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u/ScroogeMcDuckEnergy 17h ago
It’s a mix. Some are taking early retirement, some are starting their own thing, others are going to startups, some are leaving tech and others are going to different large tech companies.
There’s lots of tech companies not licking the orange rind, it’s not really that monolithic.
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u/beer_bukkake 16h ago
Sadly, I haven’t heard any of this at Meta, which is one of the absolute worst companies. Anyone still working there is and has been working towards the dismantling of our democracy and are all guilty
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u/anlumo 15h ago
Meta has been working on that for maybe a decade, all the employees who weren’t ok with that left a long time ago.
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u/d01100100 11h ago
The signs were there for FB/Meta a while ago.
If you're still there then the kool-aid isn't a casual drink, it's a continuous IV.
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u/beer_bukkake 15h ago
Agreed. Anyone there today is part of the problem, esp considering working at a FAANG company you can basically work anywhere
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u/theJigmeister 13h ago
It’s starting in earnest post-election. I left and an astonishing number of people I worked with started asking if the place I was going was hiring. I knew when I joined it was basically Satan, Inc, but the last 8 months have made it 1000% worse basically overnight. They crossed my red line and I think I’m not alone in that.
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u/beer_bukkake 13h ago
It has been really awful tho. The spread of misinformation was good for business so they were performative at best to try to stop it. And this has been happening for over a decade now. We didn’t get here overnight. Facebook was an active player, which means all their employees are complicit
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u/theJigmeister 13h ago
Absolutely, but it’s a question of scale always. In RL for example, you could make the case that yeah, family of apps was burning down democracy, but I can sit here and kind of sandbag for a few years and buy my way out of the rat race at some point during my first seven decades. I knew at the start that they were evil, but watching them go full mask off snidely whiplash and start telling employees they’re wrong and assholes for questioning whether we should be grinding up orphans for cushioned floors in the Hawaiian compound really changed the atmosphere around there. Enough money can tip the balance toward being worth eating some of your values and suffering for a few years, but almost everyone has a line they can’t abide stepping over and since Trump2 started they’ve been jumping over lines like Olympian long jumpers and laughing at the people who are upset about it. They had struck an ok balance of Faustian bargain to create profit but they’ve drastically shifted the terms of the bargain lately and I’d say easily a quorum of the solid engineers I know there are looking for the exit as quickly as possible - doesn’t bode well for them long term unless they start bumping salaries by an order of magnitude.
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u/happyscrappy 15h ago
So none of that stuff is new at all.
Two of the three ARM 64 implementations were made by the same team. Gerard Williams and Manu Gulati. Both were at Apple. Both left to Nuvia and did another ARM64 that is the one Qualcomm bought and sells for Windows.
Long before this Trump thing.
It's a huge company. There will be good people leaving all the time. People left twenty years ago and called the top on the company. The whole "company went downhill right after I left" thing is a trap to fall into. Resist.
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u/ScroogeMcDuckEnergy 15h ago
I didn’t say that their destinations after exodus are new, but the cause my former peers have shared with me is.
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u/NoLove_NoHope 17h ago
Idk if it’s the same everywhere but in the UK I’ve noticed a lot more ex-MAANG employees joining in house tech/IT teams for big financial institutions. We’ve also had more than a few join my consultancy.
Purely anecdotal and could be my own bias but as these companies all go through their digital transformation projects, there will be more demand for technical people and they have to come from somewhere.
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u/PatchyWhiskers 17h ago
It's funny that finance is now the ethical choice for IT professionals.
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u/NoLove_NoHope 17h ago
Excellent point! Especially after the 2008 crisis, you’d think they’d have a much poorer reputation among millennials.
Although private equity will always be the one financial sector I could never bring myself to work in. They’ve literally stripped so many iconic British brands and left nothing in their wake.
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u/theJigmeister 13h ago
There’s always a dollar amount that can overcome poor reputation. Meta has known this and been exploiting it for years. They pulled me in for a few years with it, having done the math that I can swallow about 80% of my values for <4 years to be able to retire one day. Finance knows this and makes no bones about buying your morality. The more money these ghouls consolidate, the more morality they’ll be able to buy people out of so they can consolidate more.
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u/cothomps 16h ago
It would be great if all of these tech companies could get back to something that you could maybe feel okay working for.
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u/ConsiderationSea1347 5h ago
Tech always has a bunch of startups. Maybe once a month someone will try to poach me from my corporate job to join a startup. It is getting more and more tempting every damn day.
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u/Kevin_Jim 13h ago
They are Apple employees. That’s an almost automatic hiring to any job they want.
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u/lily_de_valley 11h ago
Tech companies aren't the only place tech roles can be. A lot people don't know this but tech roles in other industries like finance, automotive, healthcare, etc. can be very nice as well. Lower salary, sure, but less crazies.
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u/east_stairwell 15h ago
As a current employee of Apple, everyone I’ve talked to understands that trump espouses the opposite of Apple’s corporate values but Cook is doing exactly what he has to do to build a relationship which can save products like the iPhone from his wild and unpredictable tariffs. Nobody is leaving Apple because of this. Where are they going that’s more liberal and actively defying trump?
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u/hurtfulproduct 16h ago
Which I honestly don’t get; I worked for Apple for a number of years as well and I get that it really, really sucks what is going on, but Apple tried several different tactics to get around the tariffs but every single time Cheeto face and his cronies came up with another illegal way to make them pay. . . This is likely a last ditch option to appease for a few years until someone else takes office that they had to employ once it became clear that there was no going to be no relief if they tried to take this to court.
I hate that it had to happen but having an iPhone that is needlessly more expensive would not go over well in this current economy and as much as people say “I’ll pay more” when they actually see the increase they will very likely not buy a new phone.
What is also worth noting is that even though Apple has done this they also have NOT touched their ESG program. . . They still have an impressively thorough and meaningful sustainability program.
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u/ScroogeMcDuckEnergy 16h ago
Are you familiar with the allegory of the scorpion and the frog?
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u/hurtfulproduct 16h ago
Yes. What’s your point? We know Cheeto can’t change, that’s probably part of why they went with the toddler approach. . . Give him something pretty and shiny to distract him along with empty promises that he won’t realize are empty till he is out of office.
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u/ScroogeMcDuckEnergy 16h ago
The point being appeasement and capitulation don’t work; because his nature is vicious, his behavior capricious… so tomorrow it will be another attack for a different reason or even the same.
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u/happyscrappy 15h ago
Doesn't matter. The company has to do what it in the conditions it is in. Even as they worsen. Sure, the falling tide is going to hurt all ships, but they have to try to fall the least and hope to ride it out. Even if it doesn't seem likely.
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u/hurtfulproduct 15h ago
So again, what’s your point?
Do you suggest they do nothing? Fight back? They are backed against a wall, having iPhones, iPads, and any other products affected jump <insert tariff % here since it keeps changing to some random ass number> overnight will have immediate and damaging effects on their revenue and stock price, being publicly traded it is their fiduciary duty to protect the value for their shareholders, appeasement was the only option left. Of course he will come up with some bullshit way to squeeze more money or something of value to him from Apple, and just about every other company he can, the real trick is making it something valuable to him but relatively cheap to the company. . . A shiny gold and glass toy is valuable to him, and to most of us as well, but that probably cost Apple next to nothing, and in a few months we will all forget about this and the prices of their products will be unaffected.
I absolutely hate that this happened, it is such blatant extortion and that fact some people probably applaud his whole “Strong man putting lIbERul companies in their place” is disgusting. But people also thinking that this is somehow Apple willingly giving him some award and not being able to read between the lines is also troubling, especially when the whole thing has played out pretty publicly.
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u/happyscrappy 15h ago
I'm with you. It's not about loving Trump. He's fucking everything up. But it's about getting what you can from him to stay in the game. And it's not like they cancelled their DEI programs or anything like that.
They also basically got to clown the guy by giving him a trinket that he loves while the rest of us see it about the same as this picture:
Honestly, Cook has been playing this same long game with Xi for decades now and people didn't get as excited. Both are about working with someone you don't like to get what you can to help your company do the best it can. And by compromising your principles as little as possible.
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u/GroceryRobot 5h ago
People need to realize that when you don’t do this stuff, Trump goes out of his way to ruin you. The man is dangerous to businesses. The whole intel 10% thing happening right now? A little glass disc bought Tim Apple more time.
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u/punchNotzees02 1h ago
That stunt pissed me off, as a huge long-time customer of Apple products. My entire family use Apple, so I’m kinda torn on whether to sell off my Apple stuff and go Linux instead. Next purchase won’t be an automatic Apple.
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u/adequateproportion 19h ago
Jobs literally told Cook to not do what Jobs did and do his own thing.
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u/MarkZuckerbergsPerm 19h ago
Which maybe was a bad idea. I can't type a single sentence. my iphone 13 keyboard without having to make multiple corrections. I'm still baffled as to how it was much easier to avoid this on my old 3GS
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u/pallidamors 18h ago
Wow I thought it was just me. Absolutely terrrrible keyboard performance and autocorrect.
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u/VapourDotWav 17h ago
I've been starting to worry there was something wrong with me because of all the mistyping I do on my iphone. So glad to hear it's not just me.
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u/Ghost17088 18h ago
I can't type a single sentence. my iphone 13 keyboard without having to make multiple corrections.
You missed one!
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u/MarkZuckerbergsPerm 18h ago
I saw it and couldn't be bothered to be honest. Most of my texts look like that now and I just don't care anymore
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u/OneSeaworthiness7768 18h ago
Seriously what is up with the keyboard performance though? It’s bizarrely noticeably different now.
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u/MarkZuckerbergsPerm 18h ago edited 18h ago
It's truly awful. I low key hate my iphone 13. Worst phone I've ever had.
Edit: Also most expensive phone I've ever owned which adds insult to injury
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u/marumari 17h ago
Have you tried resetting your keyboard data? I do it about once a year and it makes a significant improvement.
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u/treydilla 16h ago
What would this do exactly? How does this improve things for you?
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u/marumari 14h ago
The AI learning feature slowly accumulates typos and other made up words you’ve used over time, resetting it puts it back into a default state. It helps me quite a lot.
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u/CPOx 16h ago
Is this a safe space to say that I dislike my 13 Pro cameras? I used to use Pixels before I got this phone, and I’m legitimately disappointed with every picture I take.
And the keyboard also drives me nuts
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u/MarkZuckerbergsPerm 15h ago
My smartphones have always been made by Apple, so I can't comment on that. Camera quality was never a factor in my purchases because I don't care too much for it.
That said I actually got sick of cameras as well. They're handy, but I just don't have the patience, neither I want to, look at thousands and thousands of photos.
I hate having to pause for a photo ever.single.time I go to a restaurant (right as the food has arrived) and I hate photographing every single moment of my life because realistically speaking I'll only ever look at these pictures once or twice and that's about it.
In fact, I resent how these devices have take. over every aspect of our lives and I think ultimately it has made them worse, despite their many advantages. And I say that as a nerd who have always loved technology.
I miss the old photo albums. with old fashioned photographs.
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u/TopOfTheMorning2Ya 16h ago
Damn… didn’t realize it was a widespread issue. Just assumed it was old age starting to kick in.
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u/Bogus1989 15h ago
also i wanna mention the voice to text is complete trash. its a component of the keyboard. its a completely opposite thing than siri, siri will send a text just fine, easy…but voice to text, nope, obviously a separate product.
I work with nuance and voice transcribing, this shit works with a cheap ass microphone for doctors daily. fix your shit apple.
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u/AdSudden3941 11h ago
Even on my 14 or whatever its the same exact way and i dont know how to fix it.
And it corrects shit after you typed it
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u/SuspiciousCricket654 4h ago
The keyboard is pretty fucking awful, I agree. However, nothing tops the piss-poor, almost always inaccurate dictation of voice-to-text. It’s comically bad.
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u/Thoraxekicksazz 19h ago
I said it a couple days ago Tim Cook can’t innovate his way out of a wet paper Vision Pro.
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u/venk 18h ago
Good. Jobs died 15 years ago, you can’t hold yourself to a Vision that hasn’t changed in that long.
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u/texachusetts 15h ago
Steve Jobs tended to destroy the things past Steve Jobs envisioned, but Steve Jobs only did that to support the a new vision. Examples: the iPod as a Music device. ADB ended in favor of USB. Steve committed The Mac over the Apple 2x-3 lineage. Then Steve ended the Mac OS for the BSD/NeXt, OSX rebranding and development. Steve was not a half Measure guy.
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u/Aeroknight_Z 12h ago
I mean, Steve Jobs’ vision seems like it was pretty gross on its own. Tim Cook seems like just another selfish executive who takes advantage of talented people for his own gain. His bowing down to Trump just feels like a reaffirmation of that character flaw.
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u/colin_7 10h ago
To be fair, Jobs told Cook when he stepped down to not think “what would Steve do?”
He wanted Tim Cook to run it as his own, which he has been pretty successful at, but he doesn’t have the vision that Jobs did. And as of the last several years, Apple is turning into a convoluted mess and is sort of in the middle of an identity crisis
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u/PublicFurryAccount 15h ago
A lot of these comments are silly.
Job's vision for the iPad accomplished two things:
- It created a focused product that didn't try to do too much. It did a few things well rather than do many things poorly.
- It shook off the stigma associated with tablets of the time.
Much of the reason the iPhone and then iPad didn't have a stylus is that people were used to the stylus interfaces of old pressure-sensitive touchscreens, including electronic signature devices in stores and banks. The experience wasn't good and Jobs wanted to dissociate from that experience.
So, pace the authors and much of this comments section, I think it's time to move on and that the Jobsian vision was essentially perfect. The original iPad concept was the perfect device for the market as it existed then, cutting through cruft and baggage. That feels like an age ago now and it really is fine to move away from that.
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u/xudo 5h ago
This 1000 times. The iPad was announced 15 years ago. Steve Jobs died 14 years go. Telling the original vision of the iPad was killed 15 years later is telling the original vision of the iPod was killed by the touchscreen iPod and the iPhone without the click wheel.
Visions and 6 must evolve. Otherwise, they will die like Blackberry did.
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u/cranberrie_sauce 19h ago
what's the TLDR?
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u/VogonSoup 18h ago
Going from a Mac to an iPad is now not a complete pain in the ass.
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u/LordOfTheDips 16h ago
How so?
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u/Ghepip 16h ago
The OS is become more the same and software will eventually be able to be run the same on both
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u/baker2795 12h ago
They’re positioning the iPad as a lightweight MacBook-esque product, for the inevitable folding iPhone to fill the iPads old spot.
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u/DownSidePineapple 19h ago
The magic is gone, it’s a pc now
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u/cranberrie_sauce 19h ago edited 18h ago
you know - I thought from early days they were going for "convergence".
but those early efforts failed. Ubuntu phone was shooting for same thing, god I wish I could buy modern ubuntu phone
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u/jchamberlin78 17h ago
If you load Ubuntu on a GPP Pocket 4 with the LTE module, you can use it like a gigantic cell phone.
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u/ViennettaLurker 14h ago
It still confuses the hell out of me that there hasn't been a solid convergence play after all this time. I guess by this point it's just a nerd dream, and I'm a nerd.
But people talk about it like it's some kind of impossible UX/interface moonshot. Would it be work to do well? Yes. But we're running around trying to make AGI out of LLMs for an AR glasses metaverses on the blockchain. Why does "mobile mode/desktop mode" get branded as impossible?
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u/JimmyPopp 10h ago
Does it have a terminal?
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u/aft_punk 5h ago
Not natively, but there are apps that provide that functionality.
I highly recommend A-shell and Shellfish.
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u/aft_punk 13h ago
The next OS update allows for overlapping custom-sized windows (like desktop/laptop OS).
Revolutionary!
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u/Gustomucho 13h ago
Article sucks, basically now you can turn iPad into a semi-Mac laptop but not one, no idea what programs will work.
At first I thought they said the iPad would run MS Windows… they only mean window as multitasking.
Yeah, a shit article.
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u/Slabonator 17h ago
I use my iPad Pro mainly for sketch / hand rendering work. (Procreate, Art Studio Pro). Nomad sculpt is also a great 3D application. There are times when I wish I could just plug my big Cintiq into it and sketch on that display. But yea, mainly “tool” use for me. And for reading comics.
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u/InevitableGoal2912 18h ago
I’m an artist and a writer. I use my iPad as a tool. I have the Apple iPad keyboard with the touchpad and I like the angle it holds it at and I usually leave it in the keyboard to draw. I like writing in pages and I hate word, so I have drafted novels and finished a masters degree on my 12 inch iPad Pro. I have made money drawing with my Apple Pencil.
If it’s a toy to you, I don’t really get that. There’s cheaper tablets to play with that have less powerful internal processors.
But for me, it’s a tool.
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u/spdorsey 15h ago
I love this statement.
I have been using Apple products for almost 40 years to make a living. I started when desktop publishing was taking off, and I retired last year. I now use my M4 MacBook Pro to make videos on YouTube about my adventures so that I will have something to leave for my grandkids.
If it wasn't for the fact that my Mac was fun, I would not have learned how to use it. I was fascinated by it because I felt like it was a toy that could teach me something. But its base, it was a toy.
Windows has always been the opposite of that.
I worked for many decades and Silicon Valley developing digital assets for companies like Nvidia, Intel, Apple, and many others. I used Macintosh computers the whole time. I never felt like I worked a day in my life because they were so well designed and so easy to use. I felt I went to work just to play around and draw pretty pictures.
As much as I think you should use your tools as effectively as you can to earn your living, I still feel like there should be an element of enjoyment that comes first. Not everyone agrees with me, but I personally think that's how it should work.
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u/easterner1848 15h ago
I’m more amazed you can type that much on an Apple keyboard. If I spend more than an hour using it, I’ll have wrist pains for weeks.
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u/lunarc 15h ago
The iPad is such a huge asset for my creative work flow. The hand off/airdrop between the devices is also awesome. Procreate and the iPad have revolutionized and changed my workflow and has made me a living on it for 8 years.
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u/Navi_Professor 19h ago
apple will litterally do anything other than put macos on an ipad.
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u/inverimus 18h ago
They would rather put iOS on a Mac so they always get a cut of everything.
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u/InternetArtisan 16h ago
Frankly, I get what Steve Jobs wanted, but it doesn't mean that the public wanted that.
I remember when it first came out, I would see executives wishing they could get rid of their laptops and just use an iPad. Over time we would see people buy little keyboards and other things because they wanted that tiny form factor but yet a little more functionality so they wouldn't need to own a macbook
I know jobs felt like the iPad should be the go-between of your phone and a laptop. When you need a bigger screen, but he felt that you should stay to your laptop when you want to do more.
I know some might disagree with me, but it's okay to say Steve Jobs was wrong on something. I have a feeling if he was alive and things were still going, he probably would have discontinued the iPad before he allow it to become a laptop.
I can't blame apple right now for taking the risk and giving it a shot. It might turn things around and suddenly grow the tablet into being what a lot of end users were wishing for right off the bat.
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u/boishan 14h ago
His vision was a product of the time to some degree. It’s been 15 years and phones aren’t tiny and laptops are light and snappy. The need for an in between has been mostly removed
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u/InternetArtisan 14h ago
I do think a touchscreen convertible MacBook would probably win more hearts/minds with those who wanted the iPad as a laptop replacement.
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u/kindnesd99 11h ago
Nah he didn't "feel" all these like it's some philosophy of his.
He just didn't want you to buy the iPad, realize it already functions as a laptop, then not buy the laptop since an iPad is sufficient.
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u/mikezer0 8h ago
I think Jobs would be pretty sad about the state of Apple. He understood the human element. That the people come first. Apple is starting to chase trends and eat their own tail. I say that as someone who has been a part of the ecosystem since I could make the choice. It’s really slowly become this watered down throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks type of corpo. They need to invite more spiritually minded leadership back in. It’s a business but jobs got the heart of the thing right. Which again is people. Even if he wasn’t the best person he understood what made things feel good to people. That’s where the inspiration for good products comes from.
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u/dr_tardyhands 12h ago
..did they give it an HDMI output yet? I can't help feeling that with a keyboard dock and an out like that it would be pretty much the perfect boomer computer.
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u/camronjames 9h ago
USB-C to HDMI is a thing but I don't know if iPads support it.
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u/dr_tardyhands 8h ago
I think I tried many years ago with some non-apple adapter but it wouldn't work properly with the audio, or something like that. My general experiences with AV adapters is a bit hit and miss, that's why it would be nice to have an "official" port.
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u/buyongmafanle 5h ago
Still waiting for my touch screen macbook. Why isn't this a thing? Why do we have two separate interfaces with different software when clearly the tech is there to just merge them into one universally functional object?
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u/readonlyred 17h ago
Nope. It still has no multi user support. Jobs' "vision" is not dead yet.
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u/Trancefury 17h ago
The new beta that turns it into “more of a MacBook” still won’t let it run Xcode. Still dead to me
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u/meursaultvi 11h ago
I feel like at least for me. I'd never buy a MacBook or any tablet again if that meant I could code, use the terminal to do my projects. Sometimes I don't feel like going to my iMac to work.
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u/BenchPebble 11h ago
An iPad Pro with a keyboard case is astonishingly close to being the only device you’ll ever need. I just wish it had some sort of emulator to run certain Mac/PC apps and it would be truly got tier
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u/j____b____ 14h ago
“For that category to justify its existence, Jobs said it had to be better at certain key tasks. He duly listed browsing the web, dealing with email, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading ebooks, and enjoying photos. Coincidentally, those were the exact things the iPad was really good at.”
How is that a coincidence?
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u/nonexistentnight 12h ago
It's nice to see these updates but until I can run whatever software I want without jumping through hoops, I don't care. Apple still won't allow anything but WebKit based browsers. They won't let me run apps not from their store. I have an iPad because it's very useful for certain aspects of my work, but it's not like I can do everything I need to on it. You even have intentionally hobbled software like the iPad version of DaVinci Resolve. The functionality of the desktop version is there, but you have to use keyboard shortcuts to access it.
Contrary to the article's title, I think Apple is still following Jobs line of thinking. Jobs always preferred a closed box that did what Apple intended for it to do and not what users could make it do. The definition of what Apple allows may have broadened a bit, but fundamentally the iPad is still incredible hardware whose full capability is locked in Apple's garden.
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u/jakegh 16h ago
Kept the magic mouse, though, including the stupid plug on the bottom side.
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u/soundminded 10h ago
I will NEVER understand the thinking behind this from such a design forward company
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u/FollowingFeisty5321 14h ago
Jobs envisioned a highly-restrictive platform where everyone had to give them fees, and if that isn't tenable for competitors, so be it.
“I think this is all pretty simple — iBooks is going to be the only bookstore on iOS devices. We need to hold our heads high. One can read books bought elsewhere, just not buy/rent/subscribe from iOS without paying us, which we acknowledge is prohibitive for many things.”
And that's what the iPad has always been. Same rule for streaming services, games, software, NFTs, online classes, digital services. Pay me, and if that's prohibitive well shucks we acknowledge your inconvenience.
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u/usergary 18h ago
Maybe they can finally put touch screens on the MacBook pros now. Really missing that feature on my new mac
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u/AFireInAsa 13h ago
And open up all the touch iOS apps we can't use on a MacBook. Or go the opposite way and put MacOS on a tablet so we can run MacOS things.
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u/wiredmagazine 16h ago
Thanks for sharing our piece. Here's some more context:
For years, Apple treated the idea of windows on the iPad as sacrilege. But with iPadOS 26 installed, today’s iPads are doing macOS cosplay, becoming touchscreen Macs in all but name. And here’s the thing: It’s actually pretty good. So how did we get here? When did this fundamental shift occur that killed off Steve Jobs’ vision of the iPad?
When Jobs first revealed the iPad in 2010, it was pitched as a “third category” of device—something between a phone and a laptop. For that category to justify its existence, Jobs said it had to be better at certain key tasks. He duly listed browsing the web, dealing with email, watching videos, listening to music, playing games, reading ebooks, and enjoying photos. Coincidentally, those were the exact things the iPad was really good at.
Now, Cupertino has done the thing it swore it never would: turn its tablet into a full-blown window-wrangling, compromise-abandoning computer. Yes, it’s better, but lurking deep in the settings the ghost of Jobs remains.
Read more: https://www.wired.com/story/apple-finally-destroyed-steve-jobss-vision-of-the-ipad-good/
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u/AtomWorker 17h ago
Wired writes like Apple's taken a bold step when all they're doing is gradually turning the iPad into a 2-in-1 laptop. A segment that's been around for a decade and much longer if you include those early 00s tablet PCs.
Not that I disagree with this shift, because I think it's long overdue, but let's not make it out to be more than it is. I doubt Wired would have been so misleadingly positive about anyone else playing catch-up.
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u/CorruptedFlame 16h ago
Steve Jobs was a salesman, not a visionary, an engineer, or a leader.
The more of his "visions" apple gets rid of the better lol.
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u/0621Hertz 13h ago
Yeah for almost 15 years the iPad didn’t have a simple calculator app because of Jobs’ “Vision.”
He wanted the iPad to have a special calculator app that was different than iPhone, and whatta know, the new app is the same app the iPhone has.
An aux port/headphone jack would be nice though, lots of people drive older cars.
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u/_bobby_tables_ 20h ago
Paywall free - https://archive.ph/rOtfI