Hacker News Reader

Comment by gshakir | Hacker News Reader

It is in direct competition to the 'Surface Pro'.

Except it runs iOS and not a full desktop operating system. Why would a "pro" user choose this over a surface pro/MBP/ubuntu certified system?

It is not desktop, so that makes sense. If it suits your workflow, why not? I can see it replacing wacoms for many.

"Many"? Who? It won't work for web design, because it doesn't handle a file system. It's a more expensive option than a Cintiq or a Surface Pro and doesn't work with the existing install base of Adobe CC products (or the tons of third-party software that works with them), and any other art tools that come out will be in the exact same boat.

I think you're projecting, and severely.

Because those systems have no good touch enabled software.

A lot of artists use Surface Pros.

Until now, Surface Pro had no competition in this specific niche, except some Android devices that are likely inferior in hardware and app support. Now it does. Every app for iPad is designed for touch from the start, including the Photoshop port etc., meaning the touch experience for artistry will be better; the question is whether the inability to switch to a trackpad afterward for more precise editing and more complex functionality will outweigh this.

Photoshop port for iOS? Where? All I can see are toy-touch-up apps using the "Photoshop" name-brand. But now way a Photoshop port.

I happily pay more for well designed products that do less instead of crap products that do everything.

An approach I should incorporate into writing software, thanks!

Exactly. Most "pros" will continue to prefer desktop OSes, where you get the full Office, the full Photoshop, the full AutoCAD, your IDE, your command line... Except very specialized markets with tailored apps I don't see many people switching to the iPad Pro for work.

I own a Surface Pro 3 and I will be buying an iPad pro. The Surface Pro 3 for Visual Studio, and the iPad Pro for music production. The markets are completely different.

That's interesting to me. What does the iPad Pro give you for music production that a Mac with Logic (or your DAW of choice, whichever) doesn't do better? Even if you want touch controls, I've found a regular iPad to be plenty big enough for Logic Remote/TouchOSC/Lemur, and it talks to a much smarter, much more featureful system.

Portability. I have the Mac with Logic but even sitting in bed the iPad is an easier tool to sketch out ideas.

Fair enough. I don't see it replacing my MBP for noodling, but I also don't mess with that stuff in bed. =)

As it is a mobile OS (iOS) rather than a desktop OS (e.g., OSX), it seems more comparable to the Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Android) than the Surface Pro 3 (desktop Windows 8.1/10).

Later edit. It's iOS for fuck sake. It's ridiculous to compare iOS with full Windows. A keyboard is not that useful in a TOUCH based OS.

Care to explain, why do you have multitasking in quotes? You think iOS is some version of DOS?

It's literally not a general purpose computer, you can't compile and execute code on it. DOS at least came with an assembler-debugger and a linker.

This is flatly false. There are numerous programming environments available on iOS, and it has the JavaScript environment with the most advanced available JIT built in.

Wrong. https://www.bignerdranch.com/blog/javascriptcore-example/ JavaScriptCore is what Apple uses for built in JS evaluation, and V8 can't be implemented due to lack of execution of code from user-writable memory. JSC most definitely does not have the "most advanced available JIT."

Depends on the benchmark. It's certainly competitive. For example:

http://arewefastyet.com/#machine=29

Right, it's competitive... But being competitive and "most advanced", to me, are two different things. Not knocking Safari's performance, the battery life you get from it kicks butt. Still, different.

(Also, wow. Comex replied to me. Very cool.)

I mean, there's definitely a good argument that V8 is most advanced, but, for example, JSC is the only one that has the LLVM 'fourth tier', and it shows on asm.js benchmarks, where it mostly beats V8 (loses to Firefox, but that has asm.js-specific code while the others don't):

http://arewefastyet.com/#machine=29&view=breakdown&suite=asm...

So I think the question of "most advanced" is basically subjective.

Don't get me wrong! I would strongly prefer if iOS allowed any JIT to be used. I just think calling the one that can be used "most advanced" is not wrong per se.

Well said. Thanks for the insight.

How many of iPad users even know what "compile" means? Why not forget that world does not spin around developers once in a while?

Because its called the iPad Pro?

And the only Pro users are going to be developers/programmers, right?

How about my doctor while he visits patients, or my dentist to show me my X-rays easily, or the automative tech that plugs in an OBDII module and instantly sees information on the large screen...

Those people are professionals, and that is what this is geared towards, not just developers.

It'd be nice if they remembered us. We seem to be the only creative types not being targeted here. And yes, I'd actually consider it for a few purposes..

No, don't ship the SDK by default. Make it so that it only runs locally-compiled binaries. That's okay. But I'd like the ability to use this for real work that I do. Everybody else gets to work on it, after all.

> the ability to use this for [programming]

Install Parallels Access on your iPad Pro and your desktop compile engine (iMac? Mac Pro? Mac Mini? MacBook?).

Actually I don't think the iPad Pro (or any iOS device) is geared towards programmers.

You can use XCode on any Mac and compile and upload apps to your iPad just fine. No need for a $99 developer account anymore too.

There are plenty of programming apps in the app store too if you just want like a Python, Javascript, etc. shell to mess around in too.

but you can't compile code on the device itself which is kind of a big deal

What version of DOS was this? I seem to remember MASM being a rather expensive piece of software which didn't ship with DOS.

It came with DEBUG for an assembler. I can't back up the linker statement.

Can I open a game on iOS and let it play? Say I want to idle in Clicker Heroes while I browse the net.

Can it do that? Without jail-breaking it?

Or play YouTube without having the app open.

- How is it gimped?

- Why do you have multitasking in quotes?

You're going to need to work a bit more on your comments here, you can't just expect a full Anti-Apple thread to do well with zero sources or information.

> Later edit.

You completely re-write your comment and downvote me? Fantastic.

Parent can't actually downvote you (just as you can't downvote this post), FYI.

> Later edit. It's iOS for fuck sake. It's ridiculous to compare iOS with full Windows. A keyboard is not that useful in a TOUCH based OS.

I've found a keyboard really useful with my Samsung Galaxy Note Pro 12.2 (Android). I don't see why it wouldn't be with iOS.

Heck, I find the keyboard on my Windows (originally 8, then 8.1, now 10), touch-enabled laptop quite useful too. The fact that an OS -- and the screen you use with it -- supports touch interaction doesn't suddenly mean that the device can't be used with a keyboard for the kind of things where keyboard interaction is useful.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com