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Comment by reacharavindh | Hacker News Reader

The part that makes ipadOS feels like a toy is Apple’s iron grip in “App Store only” app delivery. The thing has so much power, but to do anything useful, you gotta play by Apple’s rules. All that dream of quirky, useful, innovative ipadOS leveraging apps would show up if they relinquished that software control and let indie or otherwise apps get there without the Apple Tax both in money and rules.

Would the iPad still be that days long, cohesive device is another story.. it Apple cannot have their cake and eat it too.

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Audio apps on the iPad show that this isn’t the case. The iPad has an incredible amount of amazing audio apps that simply don’t exist and/or are much cheaper than on other platforms. Some of that is due to the great audio performance from day one but a lot of it can be chalked up to the lack of piracy. There are a seemingly endless number of synths, effects, sequencers, etc. in the App Store. It’s a relative ghost town in the Android world. Both Mac and Windows are better environments for DAW work but the plug ins are uniformly (usually much) more expensive.

The console approach to software distribution is good for developers and in this case leads to better software for consumers.

The iPad's Audio Unit applications unfortunately pale in comparison to even simple desktop plugins. You won't find any Vital or Serum-killers on the App Store, and you definitely won't find software like full-fat Spectrasonics or the U-He instruments. The iPad can do some audio work, but once you stop using it as a digital 8-track or a MIDI machine, you are instantly outclassed by even a $300 Windows laptop running Reaper or Pro Tools.

The iPad excels in performance. Like I said, if you're using a DAW a regular computer is better. The fact remains that audio apps for the iPad are plentiful and cheap. The App Store only approach has made the iPad a more attractive target than Android by a mile. The iPad apps are also screaming deals.

Your comment summarizes the people's inability to appreciate the iPad on its own terms. "You can't run Pro Tools!" is such a silly complaint. Moog, Waldorf, Arturia, Roland, Akai, Eventide, etc etc etc they are all on the App Store and work very well by touch. There are of course a ton of indie apps as well. No, they may not be as "powerful" as some of the ones you mentioned but they are designed to work in a different way than the computer plugins do. And they are priced much much cheaper. Use a computer for computer workflows, use the iPad for things that it does better.

This is a cop-out argument, though. I own an iPad, I know that it handles virtual MIDI and recording fine. So does my smartphone! It does not have world-class plugins for synthesis, recording or even performance if we're being honest with ourselves. Without velocity sensitivity or aftertouch, it's already less expressive than a $200 keyboard.

> Use a computer for computer workflows, use the iPad for things that it does better.

The iPad is a computer. I could be using the iPad for both but Apple won't let me, so now I have another cruddy MIDI controller that doesn't run Bitwig.

I have no idea what your argument is. Sounds like you bought the wrong device. You yourself admit it can use the same input and controllers as a regular computer but it adds a different interface and way of using it. It offers different types of programs with different kinds of interfaces than regular computers do. If the iPad were just a Mac, which if you’re being honest with yourself is what you actually want, then the current programs would not have been made for it. We would be stuck with what we already have. The MacBook Air already exists. If you want to use Bitwig get the right machine.

Again, your inability to appreciate how the iPad is different and offers a different way of working in no way invalidates what has been created. The combination of a touch first interface and console software distribution has created a unique system. Why people want the iPad to be a Mac or an Android tablet is beyond me.

I disagree. Don’t get me wrong, I want Apple to open up devices like the iPad. But I can think of few apps that would transform the iPad from “toy” to “serious” that are blocked by the policy. That transformation is largely blocked by the OS UI.

Well they removed the virtualization framework and prohibit apps from using JIT, so you can't just have a "macOS" app (or Ubuntu, Windows etc).

They ban apps from downloading and executing code except for educational purposes - in fact very recently this has manifested in banning apps that use AI to build and publish apps - but it has always prevented VSCode and the like, at best you can have something SSH'd into something else. This also affects software that is extendable through plugins and addons.

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