Wednesday, January 31, 2018

What I Wish the iPad Would Gain From the Mac

Ryan Christoffel:

Sierra's tab expansion is relevant here because the iPad should realistically be able to follow suit. The chance of windowing on iOS may be practically nonexistent, but there's nothing about current iOS paradigms that would prevent tabs from becoming a systemwide feature. If we assume that iOS will eventually allow viewing two instances of the same app at once, then using tabs to power that system would make the most sense due to the groundwork that's already been laid in Safari on iOS.

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Whether you would continue calling it an iPad or not, an iOS-powered laptop would be a fascinating product. The laptop form factor is tried and true, providing a more rugged, durable feel than the current iPad Pro and Smart Keyboard combo. The device's keyboard could be backlit and provide larger keys[…] Would the device have a trackpad?

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Outside of cloud storage management, background privileges for apps could enable a host of helpful utilities and automation. Clipboard management, for example, should be just as easy on the iPad Pro as it is on a Mac, where an app like Copied can instantly, invisibly log everything you copy across the system. Wouldn't it be great if an app like Workflow could become more Hazel-like, triggering workflows automatically in the background based on pre-set rules?

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Despite their lack of proper multi-user support, iPads are often shared devices in a household. If that isn't reason enough, how about this: multi-user support already exists on the iPad, but it's exclusive to education customers. Just bring it to everyone, Apple.

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