This is not an article like the ones that have been proliferating lately, singing about the possibilities of the latest iPad Pro as a replacement for portable PC / Mac or some desktop Mac with low requirements. In reverse, in the following lines I will explain why it is still too early for that change, even for a home user without great needs.
To put you in the situation, I will tell you that the last 30 years of my life have been devoted to computer science in various fields. I have been an administrator of UNIX, Mac, Novell and Microsoft networks, in mixed environments; I have provided training on various programs and platforms; I developed in FileMaker and repaired PCs, printers and other hardware; I came to perform forensic analysis of equipment with judicial projection.
But this is nearing completion. Fortunately, as far as I'm concerned.
And this is what I'm going to need in a short time, as long as the grim reaper doesn't get in the way and win, as he usually does:
I'll need light office automation skills. Being able to write small articles, keep uncomplicated spreadsheets, minimally retouch photos or make a small presentation video, scan and print online, access the Internet for household chores (banking, income, household receipt management), do backup copies and access various external storage devices, both yours and others. Finally, of course, cinematic entertainment and reading my books (although for this reason my ebook reader will continue to be the main tool).
The new 12,9-inch iPad Pro LTE with 512GB of storage immediately caught my eye. I thought I could combine it with a good cover, the bluetooth keyboard and mouse that already accompany my Mac mini and these two adapters that I looked for on Amazon and that I review below:
Hub USB C FLYLAND, adattatore hub di tipo C con VGA 1080P, jack audio da 3,5 mm, HDMI 4K, Ethernet RJ45, 4 porte USB 3.0/2.0, porta USB-C PD, hub (39,99 €)
This adapter has several purposes: to give wired internet to the iPad while I keep it at home next to my RJ45 Gigabit ethernet point, with its superior speed which will allow it to stream services such as Netflix or Amazon Video at the highest quality; WIFI and LTE connectivity will be left for times when I have to take it elsewhere and need wireless connectivity. Plus, it gives me the ability to plug in the many USB sticks and memory cards that flood our digital lives. Thus, I will be able to connect it to my 27 "external monitor with VGA or HDMI input and be able to continue working on a desktop inversely proportional to my visual acuity or watch decent-sized movies and series).
Primewire USB 3.0 Hub Type A Super Speed Slim 4 Ports Active - Incl. 1x Power Supply with Connector Cable DC 5V 2A 5,5mm x 2,1mm - 4 Port Hub Power Adapter (20,85 €)
The second adapter is meant to be able to access the contents of those nice external hard drives that some of us still trust (besides the cloud) to make our backup copies. Since the iPad and the first adapter do not offer enough power in this case, we need a self-powered USB HUB.
And what was I supposed to gain from all this change?
I switch from my current 2014 mac mini, with its 16 Gb of RAM and its 1,12 Tb SSD hard drive (a fusion done in Mac OS Catalina with the original mac mini's 128 Gb Nve SSD and an SSD drive from 1). original 1Tb HD), with a device that meets my needs and provides me with mobility and connectivity when I move. Also, the iPad Pro's LTE should give me the option to switch cellphone as well if needed. In short, reducing the devices with which I connect to the world from three to two.
The iPad Pro already has rudimentary multitasking, centralized access (File, or File, as you prefer) to the different repositories where each application saves its documents, access to external drives in various formats, except NTFS, and adequate power and speed.
The applications that I use right now on my first generation iPhone SE allow me, with the logical obstacles of its 4-inch screen, to get out of trouble and manage myself in the quick administrative procedures of everyday. On the downside, I can connect it to an external monitor, keyboard, and USB or BT mouse with the necessary adapters.
Those same apps work even better on an iPad Pro, faster and without having to start practically another learning curve, forgetting the desktop environment to dedicate my already waning intellectual capacity to having fun and learning what really matters to me, which it's not operating systems, networking concepts or just about everything my professional life has been in the last thirty years.
And why didn't you, dear?
For three main reasons.
Because, when you connect the iPad Pro to an external monitor, it mirrors the screen but, unlike the "closed screen" function of the macbook, the iPad screen is still on, unnecessarily consuming and, even worse, distracting attention from the main screen. The ability to choose between mirroring or extending the screen, as well as the 'closed screen' feature is also a must on the iPad Pro if Apple really wants it to be the next non-PC (or whatever you want to call it).
Why, if they bring me a NTFS formatted device, I can't read it. This will happen; most people don't know what the hell NTFS, APFS, FAT32 or exFAT is… And they don't need to know; nor dreaming of recording something on it without first formatting it and losing the information that was in it. Try to explain it to them and you can tell me their faces.
Because it doesn't have a TimeMachine implemented that allows us to generate a backup copy on an external device, from which we can recover information in case of loss for any reason. And no, not everyone is willing to pay Apple's asking price for 500GB of cloud storage.
All these disabilities or limitations are not hardware, a priori, but operating system, our still recent iPadOS. If Apple adds these features, how much will sales of the entry-level macbook air or mac mini go down? And if it doesn't add them, how many of us will keep our equipment for as long as possible and buy replacement equipment that is much cheaper and not necessarily from Apple?
In that calculation, and not in another, I think it will be that in a reasonable period of time (no more than a couple of years), with the new processors and the iPadOS evolutions, we will be able to enter an Apple ecosystem more suitable for the different needs of users who still love the Apple brand.
ALL RIGHT
Antonio Diego Duarte
