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Comment by kartickv | Hacker News Reader

I agree with the post you responded to. I have a 13-inch iPad "Pro" that I'm unhappy with since it doesn't do what it's promised to do. Can I build an iOS app? An Android app? Upload 100GB of data to Google Drive? Play movies stored on my external hard disc? Download Youtube videos for local playback, as some Mac apps can do? And so on.

As far as I'm concerned the "big iPhone" idea is a failure. I don't want a tablet that doesn't have the full power of a PC OS like macOS or Windows. That doesn't preclude touch. The OS and apps could and should be updated to support touch. And Apple has the market power to pull that off.

I want an OS with the full power of a PC OS + touch. You can get there by taking a mobile OS and making it more powerful, or by taking a PC OS and adding touch to the OS and apps. Yes, both options require a lot of work, but Microsoft is further ahead in having shipped it for years rather than denying the problem, as Apple does.

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> [Can I] Upload 100GB of data to Google Drive?

Yes…is there something preventing you from doing so?

> Play movies stored on my external hard disc?

Well, you could if your hard disc supported a format that iOS could understand, such as a lightning cable, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi.

> Download Youtube videos for local playback, as some Mac apps can do?

There are apps that let you do this.

> Can I build an iOS app? An Android app?

No, unfortunately you can't do this yet. This is one of the things that iPad cannot do yet and I'm sure Apple is working on.

> The OS and apps could and should be updated to support touch.

This is an awful lot of work for developers…especially on Apple's platforms, where bolt-on solutions are rare and most apps try to make full use of the medium they have.

> I want an OS with the full power of a PC OS + touch. You can get there by taking a mobile OS and making it more powerful, or by taking a PC OS and adding touch to the OS and apps.

Yes, we all do–and Apple is doing this from the "taking a mobile OS and making it more powerful" rather than "taking a PC OS and adding touch to the OS and apps" as Microsoft is doing. My argument is that this is the better way to do things, and the market seems to largely agree.

> Yes…is there something preventing you from doing so?

Full multitasking, which is required for the hours or days it takes for such a long upload, and ability to connect an external hard disc.

> if your hard disc supported a format that iOS could understand, such as a lightning cable, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi.

Which is to say, hardly any of them.

> There are apps that let you do this.

Show me some that still work. I looked but couldn't find.

For the hard drive, I think you can use the USB dongle to connect a hard drive. But you are right in that the multitasking probably doesn’t allow for multi day upload. Haven’t tried it yet though.

> Download Youtube videos for local playback, as some Mac apps can do?

That just doesn't work because of business decisions on google's end.

Well, it's not an iOS limitation at that point.

If a device can't do what users want, they won't buy it, no matter whom you consider to be at fault.

Happy owner of an iPad Pro here. I don't know who promised you that you could build an Android app on an iPad but I'm pretty sure it wasn't Apple and they're the ones who should know. As for building an iOS app, you can write most of the code for one and then transfer it to a MacBook or iMac for the final build and packaging (go check out the Swift Playgrounds app for details).

It's not a question of "who promised" but that the device isn't capable enough for my needs.

If I have to transfer the code to a Mac, I'd rather develop on the Mac. I don't need an iPad. Besides, Playgrounds is not a substitute for the full Xcode.

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