iPad Pro as a main working device?

Someone uses iPad Pro as a principal device to working? Most like programming stuff in your day-by-day?

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I havenā€™t but I know @jamiedumont has some good experience here - hopefully heā€™ll spot this and add some thoughts :blush:

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Cheers for the mention @AstonJ, happy to chime in. My post from the Elixir forum is still all pretty current ā€” thereā€™s a few things that have changed but it still largely comes down to ā€œhow comfortable are you using a terminal on a remote machine?ā€.

I havenā€™t worked this way for a while as I started some contract work for a C# shop and since been back on a Mac working with Swift, but when I last used an iPad the biggest limitation was still the browser. If youā€™re targeting the web and are looking to do front end work, youā€™ll find all browser debugging tools lacking compared to desktop counterparts. Anything truly backend and youā€™ll be fine.

For what itā€™s worth, I still really miss this point in my career. I was working almost 100% on backend and database coding and had my iPad connected to a truly monstrous server hosted by Hetzner. It felt very ā€œpureā€ and simple compared to all the IDEs and debugging tools Iā€™m forced to contend with now.

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Thanks for chiming in Jamie :smiley:

Have you (or thought about) leaving feedback for Apple about this? Iā€™ve found that theyā€™ve been pretty receptive (especially regarding bugs) and I would probably consider this a bit of a bug ā€¦but then again, maybe they just want people to buy Macs! :joy:

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I know the iPad technically has ā€œdesktop Safariā€ but I donā€™t see Apple adding devtools for the same reason that applications like Xcode and Final Cut are still absent. Itā€™s the UI that needs addressing and if Apple donā€™t think thereā€™s enough of a market for the above two (when people are asking for it year after year) then browser devtools have no chance! :sweat_smile:

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You never know - they might think it could be a great selling point for iPad Pros :nerd:

Must admit with the M1 in the new iPad Pros I was hoping they could run a version of macOS as well - maybe one day?

Btw if you fancied suggesting it to them, if you hit space bar and CMD on a Mac , and type ā€˜feedbackā€™ it should open the feedback assistant and you should be able to contact the devs directly that way (if you do that, let us know here - maybe someone else will spot it and do the same tooā€¦)

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Then just hook up a, say, bluetooth mouse and keyboard and let them enable the full dev experience. They donā€™t do that because they want to sale expensive macbooks and such for people who otherwise might not get them.

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I pondered it several times but the release of the M1 MacBook Airs really made this point moot for me.

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M1s are really expensive. :slight_smile:

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And iPad Pros arenā€™t? :smiley:

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The basic models arenā€™t too badā€¦ but if you want half-decent specs you are probably going to need to add at least 50% to your budget!

At least with the Mac Mini you can swap out the HD and upgrade memory (at least afaik - is that still possible with M1 minis?)

MBAā€™s are probably more than enough for dev stuff mind - I loved my 11" MBA! :sunglasses:

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I am seriously pondering buying a maxed out M1 MacBook Air ā€“ 512GB SSD with 16GB RAM and 8 GPU cores ā€“ and hold on to it until it falls apart. :smiley:

It adds up to about 1900 EUR. Iā€™ll very likely buy it though, itā€™s a solid investment that will pay many times over.

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Just 512GB SSD? Iā€™d say go for at last 1TB?

2TB SSD + 16GB Ram M1 MBA is Ā£2,049 hereā€¦

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Well I donā€™t know but I donā€™t plan to make that machine the center of my digital life. Itā€™s something to use on the bed or when Iā€™m on the move (which I almost never am btw).

Havenā€™t decided yet though.

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I would definitely get at least 1TB then Dimi :smiley:

If itā€™s anything like what my 11" MBA wasā€¦ then I think youā€™ll love it! I just to take it to bed with me every night as it was just so portable and light. The MBP Iā€™ve got while better than previous gens, is still pretty hefty so Iā€™ll only take it to bed now if I really need to finish something (but thatā€™s probably not a bad thing as we need a break from these devices too!! :joy: )

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Thatā€™s what I got earlier this year, and Iā€™m happy with it. I do move around a lot so the light weight and extended battery life are important attributes.

I also appreciate the Apple ecosystem perks: unlocking the laptop(s) with my Watch, using AirDrop between systems, the fingerprint reader integration ā€“ not individually huge but definitely useful.

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I am still on a Win7 x86 desktop machine :slight_smile:

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New MBAs coming out this year apparently:

The new MacBook Air would likely feature a faster iteration of Appleā€™s custom M1 chip for ultra-fast performance in a lightweight design. The current base model MacBook Air with the M1 chip already outperforms a maxed-out Intel-based 16-inch MacBook Pro in benchmarks.

source: Top Stories: iPhone 14 With In-Screen Touch ID, iOS 15 Beta 2, Apple Warns Leakers, and More - MacRumors

If they allow up to 32GB of RAM I might consider one to replace my 16" MBPā€¦

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Thatā€™s a bit of a marketing talk IMO and doesnā€™t say anything of consequence. The only thing thatā€™s a bit more concrete that Iā€™ve read was that the next M1 will have a better GPU performance and the CPU is going to remain unchanged. But weā€™ll see.

In any case, I am not in a hurry so maybe waiting for the second wave is the smart choice.

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