Two Weeks and an iPad as my Only Computer
For two weeks, I used a 10.5 inch iPad Pro as my only computer. The experience left me wondering about the future of the iPad’s app-centric model.
My MacBook Pro was finally sent for the now customary topcase repair reserved for particularly bad cases of butterfly keyboard failure. At the authorised Apple repair centre, I was told that I would be without my primary computer for several weeks. In that time, I decided to follow some prominent tech’ personalities online and use my 10.5 inch iPad Pro as my sole working machine.
I work as a university lecturer. One side of my work consists of teaching preparation, marking papers through the University’s online platform and responding to student emails. The other side of my work involves performing research: transcribing manuscripts, writing up findings and the like. With the MacBook repair taking place in the midst of a busy semester, during two weeks of a busy, funded research project, and with deadlines for two books looming large, this would prove a suitable testing ground for the iPad-only lifestyle.
A note on my setup: I had previously tried and discounted the iPad Smart Keyboard, as well as the Logitech ‘Keys to Go’, while on archive trips. As such, I returned to my old set up with one new addition: the iPad, the Smart Cover, the Magic Keyboard 2 and, taking advantage of ‘mouse support’ on iPadOS, a Microsoft bluetooth mouse that I purchased cheaply from Amazon. I transferred my files to Dropbox before sending my MacBook for repair and was seemingly ready to go.
So let’s start with the good aspects of using the iPad. It’s incredibly light. Even with the paraphernalia of the mouse, keyboard and pencil, my bag was noticeably lighter each day. It really is, as John Siracusa memorably noted of the iPhone, a ‘naked robotic core’, turning into whatever one needs it to be: a notepad in seminars and meetings, a word processor, an e-reader. The list goes on. At my desk at home, I could use a lightning to HDMI adapter to connect the iPad to an external display. This modular computing works nicely.
The introduction of ‘mouse support’ in iPad OS is welcome. Text entry and editing is one of the biggest parts of my job and selecting it with one’s finger — especially when the iPad is connected to an external display — is a pain. Using a mouse while at the desk is a luxury that was high on my wishlist of iOS 13 developments.
Notwithstanding the new mouse support, I quickly ran into problems around the cursor. Ken Kocienda’s recent work Creative Selection underlined how difficult it was for programmers in the early days of the GUI to implement a consistent and predictable insertion point for text editing. I couldn’t help reflecting on Kocienda’s psuedo-memoir while watching the insertion point on my iPad doing all sorts of odd things: Microsoft Word was incapable of selecting letters in the middle of a word. Other times, Word would highlight text but the highlighting GUI would go awry and colour random parts of the screen. At one stage, Apple’s own Pages word processor was moving the insertion point in the opposite direction to my instructions entered on the keyboard. Other times, keystokes were missed.
Then there’s multitasking. I think my use of the 10.5 inch iPad Pro meant that multitasking was always going to be suboptimal. However, I think there are problems with its implementation, more generally. For example, trying to move a slideover app with a mouse is remarkably difficult. Removing the panel to off the right side of the screen would frequently place it into split view. Similarly, moving an app from the dock into multitasking was inconsistent — I would frequently drag an icon and it would not appear as an app.
File support also proved painful. Despite moving my files to Dropbox, the lack of a cached verison on the device proved problematic. In particular, Apple’s Files app doesn’t play nice with Dropbox. I’d frequently select a file, only for it to be ‘waiting to download’ and proving unable to give a preview of the file. I started using the Dropbox app as my main home for viewing files, instead. And while Apple has encouraged developers to implement the DocumentPicker UI into its apps, large devs like Microsoft refuse and continue to use their own version (which seems to make it deliberately make it difficult to access files in a file hierarchy). Moreover, moving a file from one place to another in Files involves duplicating them, forcing the user to delete the original each time.
I love the idea of using the iPad as my only machine. I’d even consiered getting a 12.9 inch version to really try the iPad-only lifestyle. Unfortunately, I can’t escape one conclusion: The app model that has helped iOS thrive pulls it back from being a consistent experience.
Features that are run by the core OS in Windows and MacOS — cursor support, keyboards, etc — are mostly outsourced app by app on the iPad. This is brilliant in one respect because it means each app only ships with what it needs: it means apps are smaller, leaner, which is good for downloads and for developers’ workloads. Unfortunately, however, it also means that experiences are chronically inconsistent on iPadOS.
Yes, Apple could get devs onboard by pushing different APIs to ensure parity across apps across a number of feature sets. They have already started this with the Files picker and the recently released Apple Pencil kit API. This is a start. Nevertheless, Apple will struggle to get developers onboard: especially the bigger boys. Look at Microsoft: no Document Picker UI, no use of the PencilKit API and the Redmond-based company have not even implemented multi window support, yet. Google had this same problem with Android: when the company wanted parity, they pushed developers and developers often responded with a resounding, inactive, silence.
Apple frequently promotes the iPad as the future of personal computing. Its vision is compelling: lightweight, always connected, flexible. Unfortunately, its execution is flawed. The app model affects the effectiveness of one’s workflow: lack of consistency adds cognitive load to the user and, rather than receding into the background, the technology between you and your work becomes glaringly obvious. Sometimes that’s a nice feeling: I found myself looking at the iPad and liking it. Unfortunately, that didn’t mean I felt powerful with it. Indeed, at times, I felt that the iPad was deliberately stymying my work. I can’t help agreeing with Nilay Patel from The Verge: one’s personal computer should work with the user, to empower them, not work against them.
After two weeks, I felt that I had been looking at a flawed version of the future. One where the lesson of the past four decades of personal computing — about boring details being supported at OS level — had been forgotten and a litany of developers had been forced to reinvent perfectly good wheels. I wonder how long it will take for the finer detials of MacOS to be reproduced in iPadOS?
