Odyssey of a summer with iPadOS, autumn with MacBook Pro and university discounts
Reading Time: 11-16 minutes
When I saw Apple announce iPadOS 13, I was ‘neutrally’ excited: every iOS update arrives with some hidden novelty or you really understand it only when you try it, so I didn’t want to get amazed ahead of time.
To tell the truth, I had “given up” on iPad updates for a few years. In 2017 I bought the 9.7” iPad Pro because I needed it for university: with the Apple Pencil and OneNote I took notes very easily and didn’t need anything else, actually.
I didn’t expect the iPad to be the replacement for my MacBook. Or rather, I would have liked it to be. But too many years have passed, too many updates have arrived that never radically changed the iPad’s approach to mobile computing.
After Apple’s announcement, I immediately wanted to try the most interesting novelty of iPadOS 13: Safari.
After all, we can say as much as we want that we have workflows with dozens of applications intersecting actions with each other, but the good old web browser serves us 90% of the time. To go on Facebook, to avoid downloading new apps and use the web counterpart, and to use the cursed/blessed Google suite, which works only online. Oh God, actually, if you install the Google Docs Offline extension for Chrome or Brave, you can also edit files offline, provided that the document has been loaded online first and that you don’t close the window, otherwise the data is not kept in memory, to be uploaded once you go online.
In short, Google Docs on iPad is a real blessing. Because the suite of native apps is unusable, at least for now. But the real question is: can it replace the browsing experience of a computer or, even specifically, of a MacBook? Or better: can it replace the overall experience of a MacBook? Or even more simply: can it replace a MacBook?
To answer this question, I literally took months to write this article.
July 2019
In the beginning, during the last two weeks of preparation for Campus Party 2019 (CPIT3), I realized I needed the apps on MacBook that I also had on iPad. I had already installed iPadOS 13 beta, so I gave the MacBook Pro to my girlfriend (so as not to have the temptation to reuse it) and installed a few more apps that would also help me not to use the iPhone too much.
I chose Elevate, to do tests every day even from iPad, then I put the Mickey Mouse app - because yes, I read Mickey Mouse and I’m not ashamed of it - then I put TV Time to keep track of TV series I would watch mostly on Netflix or downloading them from Telegram channels, and then I fleshed out the entire Office suite with OneNote, PowerPoint, Word and Excel. I put the notification center directly in the main homescreen and put the Things 3 widget for to-dos, the Fantastical widget for the calendar and the CoinStats widget to keep an eye on the trend of my cryptocurrencies. I organized everything in folders so as to have a single homescreen page and filled the dock with icons until no more would fit.
I wanted everything at hand.
For Campus Party I basically used Airmail to send and receive emails - which I then sent to Things if I had to deepen something and therefore inserted it as an activity to do at a later time - and Pipedrive, which is the CRM I use to manage relationships with communities. Safari was always present.
I didn’t struggle to learn the most common gestures to exploit multitasking: split screen and Slide Over were already present on iOS 12, but on iPadOS 13 Slide Over became like iPhone multitasking. Putting apps in Slide Over means putting them in a logically different multitasking space: when you swipe up with 3 or 4 fingers (as on Mac) to see all apps in multitasking (like a Mission Control combined with App Exposé), apps that have been inserted in the slide over are not seen, unless there is a window of that app also as a window in a split screen.
The multitasking screen therefore becomes more similar to a desktop management, than a list of background apps. Clicking on a specific split screen puts in the foreground (front) both the apps that are in the split screen, and the most recent app that had been used, from Slide Over, with that split screen. In short, it always tries to maintain the configuration. And this is a good thing if you come from primary use with the iPhone (like many natives of Generation Z), because the concept of multitasking on iPhone is not as evolved as that of concurrent windows on desktop computers. On the iPhone, an app is either in the background or running. There are no middle grounds. There are only exceptions for music playback apps, which however work in the background anyway.
But for me, coming from macOS, Windows and even Linux computers, the concept of multitasking is one where you can manage dozens of windows simultaneously. In the specific case of those two weeks in July, I encountered no problems of any kind, but only because I wasn’t doing two things I generally do, and even with some frequency: programming and keeping my files in order.
September 2019
I write these paragraphs using Working Copy for iPad on a tiny table of a low-cost airline. If I had to take out the laptop, it would have been a bulky affair. And instead I’m comfortable, with the Smart Keyboard and headphones while listening to music. When I travel by train, so I can have a more or less functioning internet connection, I receive messages on Telegram, emails on Airmail: I look at the notification on the Apple Watch and open the app with Slide Over on iPad, and then verify throw it out. By now it comes naturally to me. Obviously, every device must fall into a precise strategy of our use of technology, otherwise it is not used intelligently and therefore effectively. The iPad can be a computer replacement, but in many cases it is an excellent additional device. After weeks, nay, months of decisions, I decided that an iPad would not replace a laptop, in my case.
I thought about it a lot: I involved friends, colleagues, my girlfriend, and even a clerk at the Vienna Apple Store to understand their considerations regarding this topic which, for me, is of vital importance.
It might seem like a trivial matter, but for me and people who, like me, work with computers, the choice of the next gadget is as critical as that of the car for a taxi driver: if I have to use it for at least 8 hours a day, it must be the most comfortable, versatile and useful gadget I can afford.
And so, for almost a month, I periodically checked Apple’s website to check the features of the iPad Pro 12.9” with 512 GB of storage and the latest MacBook Pro 13” model with 256 GB of storage. I watched unboxings from colleagues, video reviews and reviews of the MacBook, ‘Life without MacBook with iPad’ videos in Italian and English, and I was almost convinced that the iPad Pro was for me. I was ready to make the switch: also because that iPad configuration costs about €1,500, while the MacBook one costs about €1,800. But then I opened this site, started programming more, started working on different projects and many TV series restarted: these causes seem unrelated, but they are.
Just begun! #100DaysOfSwiftUI Day 1! pic.twitter.com/dCGBb6em2s
— Giacomo Barbieri (@ijaack94) October 16, 2019
October 2019
Programming more, I realized that the tactile feedback of the Smart Keyboard would not match that of the MacBook keyboard, which I adore instead: that clicking sound that is as if it confirmed your predilection for writing and supported you in writing, giving a rhythm to the keystrokes. I had no problems writing texts with the iPad, but programming is different: it relies much more on keyboard shortcuts and checking that everything works by compiling the code. On iPad, to compile code you have to download an app that supports some programming languages but needs the internet to compile code. I very often program when I am on a plane and train because I am calm that no one disturbs me, so not being able to compile destabilizes me a bit.
Starting to work as a consultant for different companies and having to keep track of work hours performed - and especially having to continually sort files for reimbursements, for documentation I’m working on in folders that are maybe first on the desktop, then move to the Documents folder and finally archived on Keybase, Google Drive or Dropbox, I realized that I am not able, to date, to set up a workflow that allows me to manage this continuous reorganization simply using the iPad and the Files application.
Finally, many TV series started, and this is the most controversial part. Let me provide some context: watching TV series for me is equivalent to taking time for myself, so it is an integral part of my relaxation period at the end of a workday or on the weekend. Having to work to verify watch TV series is not acceptable to me. Usually, I watch TV series and movies via two platforms: Netflix and Stremio.
On Netflix, I watch TV series on Safari with the MacBook and on the app with the iPad. On the iPad I can download episodes offline, something I cannot do on the MacBook. Stremio, on the other hand, is only on MacBook and has many of the series I follow (simultaneously with the United States). I cannot download episodes from Stremio because they are streaming via torrent, but on iPad, since Stremio isn’t there, I would have to search for them all manually. I did this for a long time, during my life, since eMule existed, and I don’t want to do it anymore: I really lost so much, too much time looking for things that in the end I didn’t feel like watching anymore or for which I no longer had time because I had taken too long to find them.
Programming, File Organization, Streaming: these are the three variables that made me give up the idea of buying an iPad Pro. To these three variables, moreover, another was added which however was temporary: until October 17th, I had the possibility to buy a MacBook with university discounts (10% on the total, available all year round), getting a pair of Beats Studio3 headphones as a gift. Doing the math, I decided to make the final move: I took a 13” MacBook, with a 1.4 GHz quad-core i5 processor, 256 GB of storage and 16 GB of RAM, instead of 8: to definitively eliminate the only problem that really plagued my previous MacBook Pro: adding swap memory to RAM, which made the pc slow down a lot when I had many open windows. For those who don’t know, swap memory is a portion of internal memory (that of the 256 GB, to be clear) which is borrowed by the operating system when the RAM is not enough to maintain all the running apps. But since internal memory is much slower than RAM, the result is that the entire pc slows down.
... And not even the slightest slowdown. The 16 GB of RAM makes itself felt well. #MacBook
— Giacomo Barbieri (@ijaack94) October 25, 2019
P.S.: in a few days I'll tell you the story that started with me wanting to get the iPad Pro and sell the MacBook. pic.twitter.com/BQN41xlHwM
Now, if this problem had occurred once a week, even once a day, I wouldn’t have asked myself any of the questions I’ve asked myself so far in this article: but since it happened many times a day, this jeopardized the use of the pc in everyday operations.
I write these last lines right from that MacBook Pro I wanted: I am satisfied. I hope this computer can accompany me in my work and during my relaxation periods better than the previous one did, which was fantastic nonetheless. And who knows, maybe in 5 years, when I have to change this MacBook again with a new gadget, I’ll be able to write that I finally could replace it with an iPad Pro.
Giacomo Barbieri
Blogger with over 5 years of experience in blogs and newspapers,passionate about AI, 5G and blockchain. Never-ending learner of new technologies and approaches, I believe in the decentralized government and in the Internet of Money.