Apple’s M4 iPad Pro offers stellar, high-performance hardware handicapped by iPadOS
Apple’s new iPad Pro 13‑inch (M4) with new Magic Keyboard
Apple’s new iPad Pro 2024 ships with an absolutely beautiful Tandem OLED display and powerful new M4 processor. It’s super thin and noticeably lighter than earlier iPads, but it cries out for a better iPadOS operating system.
The new iPad Pro is fast, with the latest M4 chip, and it has a new OLED display that’s more colorful than prior screens. It’s the thinnest product Apple has ever launched.
But it still runs the same iPad software, and that’s starting to feel dated… It’s time Apple makes this more than just an iPad. The software, called iPadOS, needs to catch up to the hardware.
My guess is Apple has something big planned for next month’s Worldwide Developers Conference, and I hope it addresses this. I probably won’t get my wish, but I’d love to see the iPad Pro act just like a Mac. Plop it into the keyboard and it turns into a touchscreen MacBook. Lift it off and use it like a regular iPad. It has a newer processor than Apple’s MacBooks, so this should be possible if it’s something Apple wants. Regardless, we need better multitasking.
MacDailyNews Take: Sounds familiar:
Here’s an idea: Apple could sell iPad Pros as they do now, and for those wanting a “Mac,” Apple could sell them the macOS-powered display-less keyboard/trackpad/cpu/RAM/SSD/battery base unit. Attach your iPad for the display and off you go, you Mac-headed truck driver! Plus, you get to use the iPad’s battery, too, extending battery life to provide a truly all-day battery for portable Mac users. Detach the display and you get your iOS-powered iPad back, same as always.
Too outside the box? We’d love to be able to take our iPad Pro, mate it with this theoretical Mac base unit, and turn it into a portable Mac. Right now, we carry iPad Pros and MacBooks in our backpacks. Guess what’s redundant? Right, the displays. We don’t need to carry two screens on the road. The iPad Pro’s screen would do just fine, thanks.
Buy the Mac base on its own (for those who already have iPad Pros) or buy it as part of a package (get a new iPad Pro at a nice discount when you buy it with the Mac base). Imagine if Apple had unveiled this headless MacBook that you use with your iPad at their iPad event last fall. How many more iPad Pro sales would such a product have generated? Enough to return iPad to unit sales growth, we bet. And, how many more Macs would have been sold, too? – macDailyNews, January 7, 2017
Apple’s “Stage Manager” feature was supposed to make it easier to run multiple apps and switch between them, but it’s still too confusing and clunky. Apps should open in separate windows and minimize just like on a Mac. And, since the M-series processors also power Macs, we should be able to run Mac apps, too.
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MacDailyNews Take: Here’s hoping iPadOS 18 brings some useful improvements to the iPad experience which, btw, is not to replicate the Mac. If you want a portable Mac, get a MacBook Air or MacBook Pro. iPadOS just needs to grow up and let iPad users work more efficiently and powerfully, in iPad ways.
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