iPad Pro has been my primary work computer for over two years. Despite its shortcomings, I have managed to turn into a productivity machine, but the gulf between the iPad and the Apple Macs is still quite vast. However, that is all set to change with the new iPadOS, a version of iOS dedicated to the iPad. It has many improvements that make it easy to banish the laptop to the drawer of forgotten devices. Hopefully, this will bring an end to a debate that has flared up in the Apple enthusiast community again and again.
When Apple launched the iPad, ten years ago, I was beyond excited. The iPadOS brings me that kind of joy. I am waiting for the official version to be released — I can’t afford to mess up my daily machine with very early beta software. But two recent great write-ups about the iPadOS by Shawn Blanc and MacStories’ Federico Viticci have me excited, and I am waiting in anticipation of the day when the OS makes it way into my 12.9 inch iPad Pro.
There are functionalities such as multiwindow and file management that the Mac figured out decades ago; in bringing them to iPadOS, however, Apple isn’t simply copying and pasting the same features from one platform to another: instead, they’ve taken those features’ underlying concepts and fundamentally rethought them for the iPad’s touch nature and iOS foundation. [Federico Viticci]
However, as someone who works almost entirely from the iPad, I definitely come into contact with the frustrating edges of iOS’s limitations — especially as it relates to specific issues such as file management and photo management, and also as it relates to smaller issues with all the little interactions that occur with the device throughout the day. Which is why I’m feeling so optimistic about the future of the iPad. [Shawn Blanc]
I agree with Shawn. I think the killer feature is the ability of the new OS to recognize USB-C card readers and external hard drives. That will give me an ability to download my photos directly from SD cards on my Leica SL camera to the iPad. And if Adobe releases the iPad version of Photoshop soon enough, then my dependence on desktop computing would decline drastically.