[Fwirt]

There are a number of interesting creative apps for iPad that can make full use of its capabilities. A good example is Nomad Sculpt. There's also CAD software, many DAWs. I haven't tested Numbers yet but I would assume its fairly well optimized.

This really reminds me of the 80/20 articles that made the frontpage yesterday. Just because a lot of HN users lament the fact that their 20% needs (can't run an LLM or compile large projects on an iPad) aren't met by an iPad doesn't mean that most people's needs can't be satisfied in a walled garden. The tablet form factor really is superior for a number of creative tasks where you can be both "hands on" with your work and "untethered". Nomad Sculpt in particular just feels like magic to me, with an Apple Pencil it's almost like being back in my high school pottery class without getting my hands dirty. And a lot of the time when you're doing creative work you're not necessarily doing a lot of tabbing back and forth, being able to float reference material over the top of your workspace is enough.

At this point Apple still recognizes that there is a large enough audience to keep selling MacBooks that are still general purpose computing devices to people who need them. Given their recent missteps in software, time will tell if they continue to recognize that need.

[bigyabai]

> There's also CAD software, many DAWs.

Assertions like this are what kill the iPad. Yes, DAWs "exist" but can only load the shitty AUs that Apple supports on the App Store. Professional plugins like Spectrasonics or U-He won't run on the iPad, only the Mac. CAD software "runs" but only supports the most basic parametric modeling. You're going to get your Macbook or Wintel machine to run your engineering workloads if that's your profession. Not because the iPad can't do these things, but because Apple recognizes that they can double their sales gimping good hardware. No such limitations exist on, say, the Surface lineup. It's wholly artificial.

I'm reminded of Damon Albarn's album The Fall - which he allegedly recorded on an iPad. It's far-and-away his least professional release, and there's no indication he ever returned to iOS for another album. Much like the iPad itself, The Fall is an enshrined gimmick fighting for recognition in a bibliography of genuinely important releases. Apple engineers aren't designing the next unibody Mac chassis on an iPad. They're not mixing, mastering and color-grading their advertisements on an iPad. God help them if they're shooting any footage with the dogshit 12MP camera they put on those things. iPads do nothing particularly well, which is acceptable for moseying around the web and playing Angry Birds but literally untenable in any industry with cutting-edge, creative or competitive software demands. Ask the pros.

[hahayup]

It's such a shame that the iPad has these limitations. It's such an incredible device–lightweight, very well designed, incredible screen, great speakers, etc. I really do feel that if Apple sold a MacBook in the style of a Surface Book: iPad tablet running MacOS which could dock to a keyboard and trackpad with a potential performance boost (graphics card, storage, whatever), that it would be my dream device.

[bigyabai]

All I want is to put Linux on it. I already own copies of Bitwig et. al, if the iPad Mini didn't lock me into a terrible operating system then I might want to own one. But I'm not spending $300 for the "privilege" of dealing with iPadOS.

[Fwirt]

I think the fundamental barrier is that I have yet to see a system where mouse and touch can coexist as first-class input methods. Either your UI is optimized for touch with large input buttons and heavy reliance on gestures, or mouse with small input buttons that require precision to interact with and keyboard shortcuts for efficiency. The cognitive, not to mention physical burden of transitioning between a pointing device and a touchscreen means that users will favor one over the other. And if your UI has to target both audiences, then you're going to have to figure out how to seamlessly transition your UI or provide 2 parallel workflows, and at that point you might as well just segment your product.

It's easy to blame "Apple greedy" but optimizing either device to support an alternate input method degrades both. Apple is (supposed to be) all about a "polished" experience so this doesn't mesh with their design ethos. Any time I have seen a desktop environment get optimized for touch, people complain about it degrading the desktop experience. MacOS isn't even there yet and people are already complaining.

There are plenty of good AUs on the App Store (to name a few: DM10, Sonobus, the recent AudioKit modeled synths), but yes the selection of AUs on desktop is far greater. Most AU developers aren't going to pay the developer fee and go through the effort of developing, again, an entirely separate user interface, not to mention go through the app store approval process, to target a smaller market. It's a matter of familiarity. Just because your workflow depends on products that don't exist on iPad, doesn't mean that someone else's workflow isn't entirely productive without it. The entire industry is built on path dependence, so it's no wonder that software that has codebases that span decades and depend on backwards compatibility, i.e. the music production and CAD software, are not finding a lot of competition in the mobile space. Apple isn't designing their next unibody Mac chassis on the iPad, but that doesn't mean that a small business that makes 3D printed widgets isn't going to be happy using Onshape.

To be clear: I don't think an iPad is a _substitute_ for a desktop machine in most professional workflows. Partially due to path-dependence, and partially due to the greater information density that a desktop environment affords. But there are some workflows where the iPad feels like a much more _natural_ interface for the task at hand, and then that task can be transferred to the desktop machine for the parts where it isn't.

[mort96]

I would not want to use CAD software or a DAW without a proper mouse and keyboard, and maybe a 3D mouse too. An interface made for touch really isn't suitable. Even connecting a mouse to an iPad is a pretty shitty experience, since all the UI elements are too big and you have to wait around for animations to finish all the time.

[WillAdams]

Shapr3D is an interesting 3D design tool which has some CAD capabilities and an interface optimized for use with a stylus --- Moment of Inspiration was similarly oriented (I really ought to try it).

[scarface_74]

How is connecting a blue tooth mouse to an iPad any different than connecting to a computer? Especially with iPad OS 26?

[monkmartinez]

That is just one very simple part, connecting the mouse. Literally everything else sucks on iOS. File management, hidden menus, running multiple apps, system management... and the list goes on. Need to convert a STEP file to something else on the iPad? Download 15 apps to see which one works, then try to find the converted file in the abomination of a file system? iOS is hot garbage.

[NetMageSCW]

iPadOS works differently from macOS and if you aren’t willing to learn that, you will think it is bad. The problem isn’t the OS.

[mort96]

What if you've learned how to work around many of iPadOS's limitations and still think those limitations are bad?

Downloading 15 different paid or free-with-in-app-purchases or free-with-ads apps to see which one actually does what it's supposed to do is one of those workarounds. I've learned how to do it and done it a bunch of times and I don't really like it. I much prefer the macOS/Windows/Linux workflow where there's typically some established, community run and trustworthy FOSS software to do whatever conversion you need.

[CompoundEyes]

I work with Logic Pro X often. I bought an iPad Pro M4 and the Logic version for it is really compelling. Touch faders and the UI are well thought out. The problem is they want me to subscribe to use it. I wish I could just outright purchase it for $300.

[1123581321]

They should charge less if offering one-time. $300 only beats $50/year after 6-7 years, depending on the discount value you would assign to a present value calculation. In software it's more typical to calibrate that around 2-3 years. I like the design as well.

[NetMageSCW]

Logic Pro for Mac is $200.

[wintermutestwin]

>The problem is they want me to subscribe to use it.

WTH?? This is the first I am hearing this nonsense. Yet another reason why I won't get an iPad even though I am all in on Apple's ecosystem. It seems that Apple sees iPad users as the bottom feeders ripe for exploitation.

[serbuvlad]

Yes but there is simply no reason to have two devices. There are a large number of Windows tablet-laptop combo machines that work perfectly well and prove touch apps work perfectly well on a desktop OS.

Yeah, that took a long time for MS to get to not suck after Windows 8, but touch and tablet interactions on Windows 10 and Windows 11 work perfectly well.

[Fwirt]

Having owned at least 3 such devices, I have to disagree. It "works", but desktop apps expect desktop interactions, and touchscreen functionality feels cobbled together at best. There are a handful of apps developed specifically for touchscreen PCs that work well, everything else is a toss-up. On the other hand, apps developed for a tablet OS support touch as a first class interaction, and have OS support for hardware keyboard and (usually) mouse input if you so choose. Not to mention that the vast majority of combo machines I have used are too heavy to use as a tablet for any reasonable amount of time, or have an incredibly clunky transition method. I have yet to see a platform where touch and mouse can both coexist as first-class input methods. Even the cognitive load of transitioning is an irritation.