Back at My Machine
One day iPad, one day…
It has been seven years since the iPad was unleashed upon the world. It’s both an instant in the grand scheme of time, and an eternity in the world of technology.
While the machine gets sort of a bad rap in the press these days (because it started out of the gates so quickly, and sales have slowly diminished over time) — which is ridiculous, it’s not only one of the most successful technology products ever, it’s one of the most successful businesses ever, period. It’s what-have-you-done-for-me-lately in the form of glass, aluminum, batteries, and circuit boards. But it’s actually my favorite device.
Yes, you read that right. While I certainly use the iPhone far more than the iPad, I enjoy the iPad more. It’s just perfect for what I actually like doing — reading, writing, needlessly getting distracted on Twitter, and such. In fact, I like using it so much that I find myself very annoyed these days.
Again, we’re seven years into the device’s life, but I still cannot use it for everything I want to do in computing. And I really, really want to.
Now, I know there are people who do. And that’s great. I’m envious. But I’m both practical and honest: the Mac is still better for a handful of things I do. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with that — certainly not in Apple’s eyes: just buy both! — but I’m getting sick of carrying around two machines (well, three, if you count the iPhone).
I want one. One computing machine to rule them all.
I found myself thinking about this the other day when I was trying to edit my newsletter from the iPad. It was more or less impossible, even though it’s all just done through a website. There are just little JavaScript things here and there that can’t be done. And, again, to be honest, the workflow still isn’t ideal on the iPad when you’re juggling a bunch of windows/apps.
Now, you might say: “yeah, but you were brought up using a traditional computer, so you’re just used to doing things that way.” And this is true. But I have tried — many times — to go iPad-only. (This post was written almost five years ago!) I’ve tried to re-wire my brain. It’s tedious for a handful of things. And if kids these days are doing such things, they’re possibly at a disadvantage. For many things, it would just be easier to grab a Mac.¹
I wish this weren’t the case. And I didn’t think it would be as we approach a decade with the iPad in existence. But much like the sales of the iPad itself, a lot of the “problems” with using an iPad for day-to-day computing were solved in those early days. We got up to probably 90% of use cases covered. Then things slowed to a crawl…
Part of this is undoubtedly due to developers, who may not be prioritizing development of their apps and services for tablets. But again, the iPad has a fantastic web browser. Things should just work. But if they have overlays, pop-ups, or other such JavaScript, they often just don’t.
And even when developers build native apps to try to get around these mobile Safari limitations, things aren’t perfect. Medium itself is a great example of this. You can do roughly 90% of what you can do on a traditional computer (on the web) via the native app. There are reasons for this, of course. Reasons and trade-offs that make sense on a case-by-case basis. But they’re annoyingly holding us back.
While the remaining 10% of issues may not sound like a lot. It’s enough to keep me carrying around two devices. To publish my newsletter. To format my posts on Medium. To do a handful of work-related things. I know I’m not alone here. That remaining 10% really matters.
This is especially frustrating to me because I see glimpses of the computing future I could have. Tonight, for example, I brought only my iPad to a cafe to write this. I didn’t have to bring a big bag to lug my laptop. I just grabbed the iPad and walked out the door. The writing experience with the external keyboard cover for the iPad Pro is fantastic. No distractions.
But when I publish this post, I’ll still do so when I get home. From my laptop.² I could publish from this iPad, but it would be missing some little formatting tweaks I like to make. And editing in general would be slower. We’re 90% of the way there. But the 10% matters.
¹ Assuming they know how to use one, of course.
² Hello from home! From my MacBook!
