Using the iPad Pro as my main computer
hicksdesign.co.uk
hicksdesign.co.uk
I also repeatedly say that I’m waiting the day when the iPad Pro actually gets some Pro software - where is Logic ‘Pro’, my daily driver that keeps me locked to MacOS as much as xCode does.
xCode and Logic Pro are the reasons I have a Mac at all.
For instance, I'd much rather have great ways to develop web applications on an iPad Pro.
Web development is mainly hampered for me by the lack of a basic shared file system - Coda, however, is phenomenal. I've been able to do a lot on the go with Coda alone.
I'm looking forward to the release of the full Photoshop on the iPad Pro - once we get that, Logic, and some semblance of Xcode I can start taking a serious look at it again.
If you do music production, hennythabizness has some good videos on youtube about how me makes all his music on ipad. Jonathan Morrison did a couple of great features on him:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=dItCj676GmA
This second link is a more in depth video on how henny and ken lewis made a beat. I really want the song they made....
I've put it down as a goal for Feb to April https://about.gitlab.com/company/okrs/fy20-q1/#ceo-popular-n...
What do people think? Is it acceptable to have to program in a browser with a Web IDE?
I didn't realize the problem of also needed a simulator. Let me think about this.
Codea is great for making games using just an iPad, using Lua. (However, you'll need Xcode on a Mac to submit your app to the App Store.)
Reason? Browsers on iOS are crippled: no dev tools, no view as desktop, and no alternatives to Webkit. Another reason is no mouse support. Essentially you'd be using it as a very expensive thin client.
What is intriguing about using Android is that you can actually install Ubuntu on your Android device:
I know what I'm in for (lots of zooming and panning). For some sites, it's the only way to reach certain features that the site didn't include in their mobile version.
The degree to which this is true is pretty egregious. It has been since the beginning. How is it that Apple can keep browsers on iOS this locked down, while there was some sort of anti-trust ruling against Microsoft favoring their own browser on Windows?
Visit the affected site in Safari.
Tap and hold the Refresh button in the URL bar.
Tap Request Desktop Site.
The website will then reload as its desktop version.
It has view as desktop, it doesn't have alternatives to webkit.
You can force it to always allow zooming, block App Store links, spoof other user agents (Firefox, Chrome, IE, Opera, Googlebot, etc), download and upload files, and do all sorts of other stuff that Safari doesn't support.
User interface is admittedly more crowded so it's not my daily driver, but it's handy to keep around.
Get them to 90% of the market share. Get them to cripple other companies by withholding (or threatening to withhold) OEM-priced licenses if they work with a competitor. Get them to drop billions on a broken web browser to undercut their competitors (they lost money on IE in order to cut into Netscape). Then we can go after Apple for their browser (and other) policies.
This is where Microsoft blew it. Instead of taking over all the business desktops in the world, they should've left it just at a huge fraction, but got their customers into their own tightly controlled walled garden.
Get them to cripple other companies by withholding (or threatening to withhold) OEM-priced licenses if they work with a competitor.
I'm reminded of how they'll not let you publish your app if it uses a different browser engine.
BeOS was going to be sold by Compaq. MS told Compaq that they'd have to pay the higher, direct-to-customer, cost for Windows licenses if they also sold BeOS, as opposed to the OEM license cost. Compaq nixed the deal with Be, because they couldn't afford the hit to their profit margin (PC margins were slim then, though they got tighter in the future).
MS spent the money to develop IE, and then a billion dollars marketing it. And they gave it away for free. Why? Because Netscape offered the potential (though still in its infancy) for web apps that would reduce/eliminate the market for native applications, which MS relied on. Not because MS sold applications (they did, and do, of course), but because they sold the OS that most native apps ran on.
Apple may eat up a lot of profits (30% cut) and restrict a lot of options (can't use third party browser engines, limits on use of embedded languages and side loading applications). But they aren't pulling off half the shit MS did, and have nowhere the influence to do it if they wanted to (w.r.t. market share).
I'd love to see an open-source project that helped you get set up with Xcode on your own device (or your favorite cloud Mac host... I wonder if you can make Travis work for this, honestly) with your own developer key, so you can build non-App-Store permitted apps for your own small number of iOS devices and not run into the private distribution limit.
Windows was a monopoly. Back then Windows was 96%, Mac 4% and the rest OSes negligible. OS X is hardly 40% of the market (and no, you can't have a "monopoly" on your own platform, as in "but Apple sells 100% of iOS devices").
But even the near 100% of Windows wasn't the actual problem, even with MS bundling the browser. What got MS in trouble with antitrust laws was both having the monopoly AND abusing it by forcing vendors (Dell and co) into special deals.
You see this happening with sites and web apps not intended for mobile use already. Once WebKit is no longer the only option on iOS, Chrome will take over entirely.
The MacStories folks write about this here:
https://www.macstories.net/ios/my-markdown-writing-and-colla...
Got me through a rough period of rsi, and the 120 hz screen was a joy. I didn't do all my work on it, but it let me heavily reduce my computer usage.
Now that I've fixed the rsi and got a better mouse, I'm going to go back to a mac for most stuff. All the little frictions in safari on ios are starting to annoy me: it's hard to manage webapps for my business there.
But I'm going to keep using the ipad pro. I have a few drawing/video recording workflows where it is the main device, and it is a good admin device when I'm not at the computer.
Will also be getting a better computer monitor and computer. The ipad's screen, 120 hz refresh rate, and fast, fanless performance have spoiled me. Those factors are part of why I kept using the ipad even though it was worse at some tasks.
(It's also better at others, to be clear)
Just to be definitive, I suggested the kinesis Advantage2. It should help with your non-mouse hand. There are plenty of reviews of people who claim it saved their careers from RSI.
Good luck! I’ve not had any rsi pain since switching to the advantage plus a trackball. I hope it works similarly for you!
* A sit stand desk. I do stand at it, but it helped the most because I could lower my desk. Most off the shelf desks were too high for me and it hurt my arms
* Raised the monitor to proper height with books. It's also asjustable, as proper monitor height differs when sitting and when standing
* Investigated which keyboard shortcuts strained my left hand and remapped them. This may be very relevant for you....
* Trigger point massage therapy. This was essential, and the most helpful. Also tried regular massage. It's helpful, but forceful trigger point massage is one of the most effective things I've found. Can be hard to find a good practitioner. The trigger point therapy workbook can also be good for some self therapy. Deep tissue massage is a good place to start looking if you can't find a trigger point person.
* popsocket on my phone. Helps reduce pinky strain. Good phone positioning too, and trying to raise it up for neck positioning.
* physio. I used a physio who's worked with sports teams and does MAT among other things
* I switched to a handshoe mouse. Mice had caused me rsi for years: switching back to one at an external monitor is what precipitated the recent bout. The handshoe is large and comfortable, and you move your shoulder and not your wrist - it basically forces you to. I now have no mouse rsi. Also, I stopped using the scroll wheel, even on the handshoe. Note: if you can't get one or can't afford one, focus on moving the mouse with your shoulder and not your wrist
* I remembered that seven years ago I had typed a million words (really) on a cheap logitech keyboard, the mk320. I saw one in a store, bought it, and instantly found it more comfortable than any fancy ergonomic or mechanical keyboard I had tried. Can't tell you why, but it works.
* a foam roller has been helpful for my back
* the armaid has been extremely helpful for working out forearm tension
So basically a mix of better tooling, more attention to workspace and posture, and a heck of a lot of physical therapy. Had to do a lot of massage at first, but am in maintenance now.
If anyone has small signs of rsi, don't ignore them: they can expand quite a bit, and quickly. I lost a few months work.
I'm glad it happened though. I had low grade rsi for years that I couldn't fix, using a laptop and trackpad. Now, I still can't use that well, but I can use an external monitor pain free.
One final tip: in my experience, things that work show progress fairly quickly. Like, 1-2 attempts. They won't cure it that quick, but you'll usually notice some sort of positive sign.
I say this because there are all manner of treatments that don't really do anything or may not do anything for your particular case. People can end up doing 5-10 sessions of something to no avail and at considerable cost.
With shoots that happen on location, mobility becomes important and the ability to show clients a quick preview of the shoot right after it happens makes mobile devices ideal for many photography usecases.
Now Adobe has launched a preview of the 'full' Photoshop and Lightroom CC on the iPad Pro (https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/15/17969754/adobe-photoshop...) and this makes the entire workflow very smooth.
Even as a 'prosumer' photographer, I've started using my iPad to download and do quick ratings and edits on a flight back from a shoot rather than waiting for days till I get back to my desktop or carrying a heavy Macbook/Air around to a location. The real killer here was Adobe's ability to store raw images in the cloud and sync edits made on different clients.
The uses for the iPad on shoots I totally get is if you're Mike Kelley and you need to check that flash fills could be composed into a final image for architecture stuff.
I kept on the lookout for an Android tablet for light work on-the-go but the Surface-Go hits the mark much better. I would also be interested in a similarly size/weight laptop but they tend to be much lower quality and performance at that size. The MacBook/Air is close, more expensive and I don't like the keyboard at all.
* Surface Go: You can do pretty much anything on this device. There's no software limitations, but it may just take a while as the performance is just slow.
* iPad Pro: It's really speedy. Everything is smooth and quick, however there's too many things that iOS just can't do. Apple makes a lot of complex things easy to do, but they also manage to make some very easy things very difficult.
That said, I now have all Apple stuff, even though I’m not a Apple fanboy: I just want my stuff to work and spent my free time with my wife and kids.
This sums up that I have a Macbook Pro, Ipad Pro, and an iPhone. The Macbook Pro is imho, one of the worst products they ever made. Poor battery time, crappy keyboard, no escape key, the only nice thing about it is the screen.
My iPad Pro, on the other hand... is a work of art. An incredibly good battery time (btw, battery time is also not just living on the battery, but also: working on it without a electricity socket).
So it’s safe to assume that the Ipad’s are wayyy more energy friendly then the MBP’s.
What I don’t understand about Apple is that even though the iPad’s are great machines: we need people to build software for them. So, traditional PCs (where we can connect 2-3 monitors to, etc) are still essential. I think Cooke forgot about that. Jobs, nomatter what - still kept developers in mind.
I love my iPad, and am for regular browsing not using my overpriced MBP anymore. But to replace it? To get real work done? To have a “norton commander” like interface? I think it’s still along road to go to replace the traditional desktops. And btw, the Apple iMac’s are objectively good products, that’ll last a long time for a reasonable price.
It’s painful to see Lenovo releasing these frequent up-to-date great hardware laptops, and Apple, with all their billions in the bank, doing a minimalistic effort on even upgrading the Mac Mini, Mac Pro, etc.
Is it arrogance? Focus? Steve more awknoledging the coders, even in his own way?
Either way, with many Chinese developers introducing new hard and software features (foldable phones, wireless charging) and Apple always being late to the game (but then executing it well). I wonder what their strategy is there for the moment. I know no-one of my family is going to put +1000$ for a new phone.
To me, the biggest key Apple has is MacOS which is superior to any OS out there, in consistency and user-friendlyness for any end-user. Oh: and everything looks pretty and intuitive too. Even for my mom.
I hope they step up their game and make things more dev friendly, otherwise it’ll be a open game, and really soon.
I'm back to Linux and OpenBSD workstations and phasing Macs out again. My iPad Pro 12" is a busted, glitchy POS and so have my last 3 iPhones. So have my last two MBPs.
Never again. I'll remain on iOS phones until there is a viable (secure) alternative.
Use case is typical Rails dev work, react front end, databases, docker etc.
I was worried going from a 12 core Mac Pro, to the dual core MBA, but so far I haven’t noticed any difference except for those things that are faster now.
The keyboard isn’t as good as the 2015 MBP, but is far better than the previous butterfly. I don’t mind typing on it at all.
Great battery life too.
I think the new MBA might actually be the first decent apple laptop for devs in a few years.
The keyboard is crap. Battery life is great. And besides the screen, the speakers and trackpad are also great, and the SSD is top notch as far as laptop SSDs go.
That being said, outside of digital art, it's pretty clunky. The lack of a mouse pointer and proper multitasking makes it less than ideal for business uses.
But when I'm drawing on it though, man, I feel like Tom Cruise in Minority Report
- Lack of a permanent “desktop mode” setting in the browser (the engine can handle it, it’s just the defaults that suck)
- Lack of an official CLI (there are a few stabs at that, some quite creative, but all third-party). There is no lack of excellent SSH/mosh/VNC/RDP apps, which for me is enough.
- Lack of a way to background _anything_ (you can run a local web server in Pythonista and some editors, but it’s always a pain)
- Lack of a filesystem (apps like WorkingCopy mostly fixed that for doing git and use external editors, and iCloud Drive sort of nearly works as advertised, but sandboxing breaks things across apps)
That said, I manage to do quite a lot of sysadmining/writing/prototyping on an iPad, and it is still my “most personal” computer, but if I did front-end development, I’d be severely annoyed.
(I carry a Surface Pro 4 for work and love it, but I keep corporate work and pro bono/personal stuff apart)
Also, on a personal note, the music production ecosystem on iOS is nothing short of amazing, so if you have creative hobbies, the iPad is a pretty solid choice for leveraging technology without the hassles of a regular computer.
I think this is a good excuse to be productive on that platform though.
I'm now on a Dell XPS 13, but the Surface Pro 4 I once had did definitely have plenty of bugs. I ended up getting my device swapped at least twice as it often would not wake up after being put to sleep.
https://www.engadget.com/2016/05/19/purism-introduces-privac...
Otherwise, I'm holding out for Purism's Librem tablets.
It would also be a huge win for schools with large iPad deployments.
You can't? I'm pretty sure that this is possible.
Still no real mouse support is annoying..
Not having a mouse may be cumbersome sometimes, but I’m starting to really get used to the touchscreen to the point that I almost find myself trying to touch my MBP’s screen.
iPad Pro also supports the Smart Keyboard (which in itself is great to type on) as well as regular USB keyboards (with the Lightning/USB-C to USB adapter). I was able to use my Pok3r keyboard just fine.
For shell access, definitely check out Blink. Even using VI isn’t bad as you can remap your `~ key to ESC. Most of my work is done remotely anyway.
The only downsides are the occasional apps that don’t support full iPad screen scaling - so they appear like iPhone apps.
The limitations of a tablet form factor force UI designers to be thoughtful, and the limitations of iOS force app developers to all converge on the same solutions.
I want my hardware and OS to just get out of my way so I can get my work done. Chromebooks and iPads get this right in my opinion. I feel like Android still gives me too much freedom, and I invariably always break something because I am an irresponsible child when I get bored.
When I'm working, I want to think about my work, not about my OS or hardware.
Of course that’s still just a dream. But it is a beautiful dream for me.
For those times when I really need to, I can always split screen.
For me it's basically pornography: a beautiful fantasy that I love pretending is real but is actually completely unrealistic (at least in my case). The idea of ditching my laptop and traveling the city with a thin client, not caring if it breaks or gets corrupted because all the data is sitting somewhere up in the cloud, backed up and taken care of. No fans, no worries of processor power or RAM, incredibly flexible form factor, instant-on and everything full screen by default, notifications that just work and work in a unified and consistent way. No distractions, just zen working in a park with a fountain and a chocolate croissant.
Problem is I do web development and app development, neither of which are terribly feasible on a tablet. A man can dream though. A man can dream.
You could even install ubuntu on an android tablet.
If what you want is the form factor and speedyness of solid state everything, you could get a tablet that isn't an ipad. Lenovo makes some that would be trivial to swap out for Ubuntu or whatever https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/tablets/c/TABLETS
Metacomment: Dude is a gifted, working illustrator--and is colorblind!