The iPad: A Platform Holding Back Potential

It's no secret that Apple has invested heavily in research and development, with over $20 billion spent annually on these efforts. However, this investment doesn't seem to be translating into meaningful improvements for users of the iPad. Despite its impressive specs, including the M1 iPad Pro's powerful CPU cores and ample memory, the device still struggles to deliver basic functionality that's taken for granted on other operating systems.

One glaring example is file transfer. Even with the M1 chip, which provides a significant boost in processing power, transferring large files remains a frustrating experience. The lack of progress bars and the tendency for transfers to "wig out" leave users feeling like they're stuck in the Dark Ages. It's not just a minor inconvenience; it's a fundamental limitation that makes the iPad feel like a stripped-down version of its desktop counterparts.

Another area where the iPad falls short is in multitasking. While Apple has made significant strides in this area, there are still some notable quirks. For example, users can have three apps open at once on the screen, with two in split-screen and one in slide-over mode. However, adding an app to slide-over requires a convoluted process: opening the app, returning to the previous app, dragging up the dock, and then manually dragging the new app into slide-over. It's a workaround that was also designed by an Apple engineer, highlighting the platform's limitations.

The iPad Pro's Thunderbolt port is another area where Apple has failed to deliver on its promises. Despite being capable of supporting fast charging and high-speed data transfer, the device still only duplicates the screen when connected to an external monitor. Why would anyone want two identical screens? The answer, it seems, is that Apple doesn't see the iPad Pro as a desktop replacement, at least not yet.

The lack of basic features on the iPad is also evident in its app selection. While the desktop versions of popular apps like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are robust and powerful, the mobile versions remain limited. The "magic wand" feature, which is available on desktop but not on the iPad, is just one example of this. Raw file support and image sharpening are also absent from the iPad's offerings.

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of the iPad's limitations is that Apple's decision-making process seems opaque to users. In the wake of Epic Games' lawsuit, which highlighted the issue of side-loading apps outside of the App Store, it's clear that Apple has a vested interest in maintaining control over its platform. The company's stance on this issue is not only confusing but also unfair to users who want access to a wider range of apps.

As we approach WWDC 2021, rumors suggest that Apple will announce some new features for the iPad OS. However, based on past developments, it's difficult to get excited about these updates. A possible addition of widget customization, which would allow users to arrange widgets on the home screen however they like, is a tantalizing prospect. However, this seems like a token gesture, and it's unlikely that Apple will address the deeper issues plaguing the platform.

Finally, there's the issue of charging speeds. While the 65W version of Anker's Nano 2 Wall Charger can charge laptops via USB-C, the device itself is still stuck in the slow lane. With its gallium nitride technology and compact design, this charger is a standout product that deserves more attention from Apple.

In conclusion, the iPad Pro feels like a platform that's holding back its potential. Despite its impressive specs, it struggles to deliver basic functionality that's taken for granted on other operating systems. As we look forward to WWDC 2021 and the possible announcements about new features for the iPad OS, one thing is clear: Apple needs to take a closer look at what users want from their devices and make some meaningful changes to the platform.

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**About the Author**

Lana is a tech enthusiast who's passionate about exploring the full potential of Apple devices. She's been using iPads since 2010 and has written extensively on the topic of iOS, iPadOS, and Mac OS X. When she's not writing or filming videos, Lana enjoys editing video on her trusty old iPad, which has become a professional-grade machine in its own right.

**About the Sponsor**

Anchor is an innovative company that specializes in creating high-quality charging solutions for Apple devices. Their Nano 2 Wall Chargers are designed to provide fast and efficient charging speeds, with the latest gallium nitride technology allowing them to generate less heat and fit into compact spaces. Whether you're looking for a charger for your iPad Pro or your iPhone, Anchor has got you covered.

**Related Videos**

* "Editing on an iPad: A Guide"

* "The iPad as a Professional Computer: A Review"

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ennobody does it quite like apple they've taken this super powerful m1 chip from the latest macbooks and put it in the brand new 2021 ipad pro along with more ram more storage freekin thunderbolt and arguably the most advanced display on a mobile device period i am really happy about this direction because the thing is everyone including us knows at this point that the ipad pro is not just a computer it's a computer for legitimate pros so if that's the case why does apple keep treating it like a toy for children to watch youtube and play cut the rope there's still no file copy progress bar you can't sideload apps it deserves better and this is okay yeah hi hi i'm riley uh linus needs a little break so i'm going to tell you about our sponsor anchor the anchor nano 2 uses the latest 2nd gen gallium nitride technology which allows charging up to 65 watts in a small compact frame learn more at the link in the video description or at the end of the video i'm sorry i lost my composure it's just that the saga of the ipad pro has been a bit of a wild ride for me i went from being excited about the future of truly pro tablets to disappointed about apple's premature it's a computer messaging when spoiler it wasn't yet then back to excited about the computer-like features of ipad os the magic keyboard learning about the workflows of real professional ipad os users they're out there we even edited the last video about the ipad pro on the ipad pro and according to mark it was pretty good but having just crested a high point i find myself conflicted about the latest iteration on the one hand apple has upgraded almost every aspect of this machine it's a hair thicker than last year sure but the m1 so sees eight cpu cores eight gpu cores 16 neural engine cores paired with up to 16 gigs of ram and two terabytes of storage makes it by far the most powerful tablet ever because no that thing doesn't count now most people won't actually end up with that top spec because paying 2100 us dollars for a tablet is actually illegal in many jurisdictions fbi open up but hey if you're the sort of person who buys a new car when you run out of gas then i guess you're above the law anyway so apple's got you covered now in terms of performance in geekbench the m1 absolutely embarrasses its predecessor but in real world situations like lumafusion and premier rush rendering it only boasts a modest improvement in procreate for example you can work with three or four more layers but that's it and it seems like the reason for this is that most ipad apps haven't been updated yet to be able to make proper use of the new horsepower including not being able to use more than 5 gigabytes of ram i'm sure the situation will improve soon procreate is apparently already planning to add the ability to work with 3d models but for now you might find yourself in a bit of a driving a formula one to work type situation it's also enabled apple to take the game-changing edition of usb-c on previous ipad pros and kick it up a notch thanks to its support for thunderbolt and usb4 this port's bandwidth went from 10 to 40 gigabit per second allowing the new ipad pro to connect more displays drives and accessories and even power apple's 6k pro display xdr though i suspect that most of the people accessorizing their ipad with a 5 000 monitor treat our high quality lttstore.com water bottles as single use the camera and lidar sensor module on the back is pretty much the same as before but this ipad pro has a new 12 megapixel ultra wide front-facing camera whose true purpose is to enable center stage this feature is super cool it allows the camera to zoom in and follow you around in your video calls and can help keep multiple people in the frame at once even if they're the sort that tends to kind of drift off that's really cool even if it reminds me of the facebook portal which was less cool like i know apple is probably stealing my data even though they say they don't but for some reason it's more comforting imagining tim apple watching me through the ipad camera than the zuck oh linus i love your passion but i will never answer your emails finally there's the most forward-facing upgrade the new liquid retina xdr display that is 10 whole syllables to say every single time but it's worth it it's got 10 000 mini leds split into over 2500 dimming zones a 1 million to 1 contrast ratio and a whopping 1 000 nits of sustained brightness 1600 peak now mini led displays aren't capable of the infinite contrast and perfect blacks of an oled display so there is some visible blooming in certain scenarios such as viewing white text on a black background but when viewing hdr content the difference between this ipad pro and the 2020 model is obvious enough that even people who don't get sweaty thinking about hybrid log gamma are gonna notice the xdr display is also great for creators whether you prefer the moving pictures or the still kind the m1 ipad pro now has both the horsepower and the display to craft content with rich colors and deep contrast it's just too bad that this fabulous screen is attached to a tablet that starts at eleven hundred dollars before you add the 350 keyboard accessory ah yes here comes the tone shift in this video because the thing is no matter how many times apple calls this thing a computer after five generations of ipad pros now they've made it abundantly clear through their actions that they don't actually want it to be as good as your computer in some of our previous ipad videos we've opted to look on the bright side of ipad os deficiencies especially in the context of mac os or windows users who are trying to switch because the thing is i get it ipads aren't for those people they're for ipad users and fair enough once you master ipad os multitasking get used to the system's quirks and learn how to use some of these surprisingly robust apps that are specifically designed for the ipad it can be a capable and super portable daily driver but the weird thing is apple must know that those people exist and yet they outright refuse to add functionality to ipad os to make their lives just a little bit better i mean we're talking about stuff here that's just basic on other operating systems connecting to servers and transferring large files is still heinously bad there's no progress bar and the m1 ipad pro has more cpu cores and more memory which helps it go faster but unless you check in on the file transfer later you will never know if it actually completed or if it wigged out and like i don't want to out anyone but i saw some ipad enthusiast content creators that were praising the new ipad pro because it was able to complete file transfers in the background without failing that's not a feature that's the bare minimum and ipad os multitasking has come a long way but there's still some weird quirks you know like you can have three apps active on a screen at once that's great two in split screen and one in slide over but in order to add an app to slide over you have to go to the home screen open the app go back to the app you were using before drag up the dock then drag the app from the recent app section up to slide over for context this way of opening a windowed app was also designed by an apple engineer the ipad team should hire them any monitors that you might connect to the fancy new thunderbolt port they will still only duplicate the ipad screen they won't extend it why would you want two of the same thing onto two screens at the same time and as for the app situation the truth is desktop versions are still more functional lumafusion procreate they're great but what if you like photoshop apple and adobe have been beating the full photoshop on the ipad drum for years but according to apple's own timepiece it is now 2021 and they're still working on that adding basic desktop features like the magic wand raw file support and sharpening and don't get me started on the fact that ipad os unlike mac os windows and android doesn't allow the side loading of apps outside of the app store an issue that's received more attention in the wake of epic's lawsuit just let them win apple i would definitely give this thing a higher score if i could just download on it the worst part of all of this is that apple spends almost 20 billion dollars a year on research and development let that number soak into your mind and then think knowing that the only possible conclusion to draw is that when an apple product doesn't have some basic functionality like tracking your rollerblading workout on the apple watch it's because they just don't want it to so coming back to the ipad pro then if it's hard to use as a computer it's because apple wants it that way they've added a few things here and there to appease the more computer minded among us but they've also refused to do these obvious things that would take it from a usable computer to a great one and this inner struggle over the identity of the ipad was on full display during the epic trial where craig federighi testified that ios was designed to be simple and safe enough for infants okay i guess that's fair but then why market the ipad pro as a computer replacement for professionals when it's running software designed for babies in your own words now we're currently filming this video two days before wwdc 2021 where apple is expected to announce some new features for the ipad os and maybe they'll add a file transfer progress bar and support for extended displays and full fat ports of desktop apps and support for third-party app stores while they're at it but so far the rumors point to more along the lines of allowing you to arrange widgets on the home screen however you like though that would be an improvement sadly enough speaking of improving improve your charging speeds with our sponsor anchor anker's nano 2 wall chargers can charge this ipad up to 80 faster than the stock 20 watt charger and can charge an iphone up to three times faster than its stock charger does it even include a charger anymore it uses the latest gallium nitride technology allowing it to both charge faster and generate less heat and is up to 58 smaller than other foldable wall bricks there are three different versions 30 watt 45 watt and 65 watt and is also compatible with samsung's super fast charging so why wait go check it out the 65 watt version is capable of charging most laptops that can be charged via usbc and it's like this big we're gonna have it linked down below if you guys enjoyed this video you might enjoy our previous video editing an ipad video on the ipad because we learned a lot about how this thing really is a professional computer even if apple refuses to make it one and i am not going to put up with uh hi i'm lana i'm linusnobody does it quite like apple they've taken this super powerful m1 chip from the latest macbooks and put it in the brand new 2021 ipad pro along with more ram more storage freekin thunderbolt and arguably the most advanced display on a mobile device period i am really happy about this direction because the thing is everyone including us knows at this point that the ipad pro is not just a computer it's a computer for legitimate pros so if that's the case why does apple keep treating it like a toy for children to watch youtube and play cut the rope there's still no file copy progress bar you can't sideload apps it deserves better and this is okay yeah hi hi i'm riley uh linus needs a little break so i'm going to tell you about our sponsor anchor the anchor nano 2 uses the latest 2nd gen gallium nitride technology which allows charging up to 65 watts in a small compact frame learn more at the link in the video description or at the end of the video i'm sorry i lost my composure it's just that the saga of the ipad pro has been a bit of a wild ride for me i went from being excited about the future of truly pro tablets to disappointed about apple's premature it's a computer messaging when spoiler it wasn't yet then back to excited about the computer-like features of ipad os the magic keyboard learning about the workflows of real professional ipad os users they're out there we even edited the last video about the ipad pro on the ipad pro and according to mark it was pretty good but having just crested a high point i find myself conflicted about the latest iteration on the one hand apple has upgraded almost every aspect of this machine it's a hair thicker than last year sure but the m1 so sees eight cpu cores eight gpu cores 16 neural engine cores paired with up to 16 gigs of ram and two terabytes of storage makes it by far the most powerful tablet ever because no that thing doesn't count now most people won't actually end up with that top spec because paying 2100 us dollars for a tablet is actually illegal in many jurisdictions fbi open up but hey if you're the sort of person who buys a new car when you run out of gas then i guess you're above the law anyway so apple's got you covered now in terms of performance in geekbench the m1 absolutely embarrasses its predecessor but in real world situations like lumafusion and premier rush rendering it only boasts a modest improvement in procreate for example you can work with three or four more layers but that's it and it seems like the reason for this is that most ipad apps haven't been updated yet to be able to make proper use of the new horsepower including not being able to use more than 5 gigabytes of ram i'm sure the situation will improve soon procreate is apparently already planning to add the ability to work with 3d models but for now you might find yourself in a bit of a driving a formula one to work type situation it's also enabled apple to take the game-changing edition of usb-c on previous ipad pros and kick it up a notch thanks to its support for thunderbolt and usb4 this port's bandwidth went from 10 to 40 gigabit per second allowing the new ipad pro to connect more displays drives and accessories and even power apple's 6k pro display xdr though i suspect that most of the people accessorizing their ipad with a 5 000 monitor treat our high quality lttstore.com water bottles as single use the camera and lidar sensor module on the back is pretty much the same as before but this ipad pro has a new 12 megapixel ultra wide front-facing camera whose true purpose is to enable center stage this feature is super cool it allows the camera to zoom in and follow you around in your video calls and can help keep multiple people in the frame at once even if they're the sort that tends to kind of drift off that's really cool even if it reminds me of the facebook portal which was less cool like i know apple is probably stealing my data even though they say they don't but for some reason it's more comforting imagining tim apple watching me through the ipad camera than the zuck oh linus i love your passion but i will never answer your emails finally there's the most forward-facing upgrade the new liquid retina xdr display that is 10 whole syllables to say every single time but it's worth it it's got 10 000 mini leds split into over 2500 dimming zones a 1 million to 1 contrast ratio and a whopping 1 000 nits of sustained brightness 1600 peak now mini led displays aren't capable of the infinite contrast and perfect blacks of an oled display so there is some visible blooming in certain scenarios such as viewing white text on a black background but when viewing hdr content the difference between this ipad pro and the 2020 model is obvious enough that even people who don't get sweaty thinking about hybrid log gamma are gonna notice the xdr display is also great for creators whether you prefer the moving pictures or the still kind the m1 ipad pro now has both the horsepower and the display to craft content with rich colors and deep contrast it's just too bad that this fabulous screen is attached to a tablet that starts at eleven hundred dollars before you add the 350 keyboard accessory ah yes here comes the tone shift in this video because the thing is no matter how many times apple calls this thing a computer after five generations of ipad pros now they've made it abundantly clear through their actions that they don't actually want it to be as good as your computer in some of our previous ipad videos we've opted to look on the bright side of ipad os deficiencies especially in the context of mac os or windows users who are trying to switch because the thing is i get it ipads aren't for those people they're for ipad users and fair enough once you master ipad os multitasking get used to the system's quirks and learn how to use some of these surprisingly robust apps that are specifically designed for the ipad it can be a capable and super portable daily driver but the weird thing is apple must know that those people exist and yet they outright refuse to add functionality to ipad os to make their lives just a little bit better i mean we're talking about stuff here that's just basic on other operating systems connecting to servers and transferring large files is still heinously bad there's no progress bar and the m1 ipad pro has more cpu cores and more memory which helps it go faster but unless you check in on the file transfer later you will never know if it actually completed or if it wigged out and like i don't want to out anyone but i saw some ipad enthusiast content creators that were praising the new ipad pro because it was able to complete file transfers in the background without failing that's not a feature that's the bare minimum and ipad os multitasking has come a long way but there's still some weird quirks you know like you can have three apps active on a screen at once that's great two in split screen and one in slide over but in order to add an app to slide over you have to go to the home screen open the app go back to the app you were using before drag up the dock then drag the app from the recent app section up to slide over for context this way of opening a windowed app was also designed by an apple engineer the ipad team should hire them any monitors that you might connect to the fancy new thunderbolt port they will still only duplicate the ipad screen they won't extend it why would you want two of the same thing onto two screens at the same time and as for the app situation the truth is desktop versions are still more functional lumafusion procreate they're great but what if you like photoshop apple and adobe have been beating the full photoshop on the ipad drum for years but according to apple's own timepiece it is now 2021 and they're still working on that adding basic desktop features like the magic wand raw file support and sharpening and don't get me started on the fact that ipad os unlike mac os windows and android doesn't allow the side loading of apps outside of the app store an issue that's received more attention in the wake of epic's lawsuit just let them win apple i would definitely give this thing a higher score if i could just download on it the worst part of all of this is that apple spends almost 20 billion dollars a year on research and development let that number soak into your mind and then think knowing that the only possible conclusion to draw is that when an apple product doesn't have some basic functionality like tracking your rollerblading workout on the apple watch it's because they just don't want it to so coming back to the ipad pro then if it's hard to use as a computer it's because apple wants it that way they've added a few things here and there to appease the more computer minded among us but they've also refused to do these obvious things that would take it from a usable computer to a great one and this inner struggle over the identity of the ipad was on full display during the epic trial where craig federighi testified that ios was designed to be simple and safe enough for infants okay i guess that's fair but then why market the ipad pro as a computer replacement for professionals when it's running software designed for babies in your own words now we're currently filming this video two days before wwdc 2021 where apple is expected to announce some new features for the ipad os and maybe they'll add a file transfer progress bar and support for extended displays and full fat ports of desktop apps and support for third-party app stores while they're at it but so far the rumors point to more along the lines of allowing you to arrange widgets on the home screen however you like though that would be an improvement sadly enough speaking of improving improve your charging speeds with our sponsor anchor anker's nano 2 wall chargers can charge this ipad up to 80 faster than the stock 20 watt charger and can charge an iphone up to three times faster than its stock charger does it even include a charger anymore it uses the latest gallium nitride technology allowing it to both charge faster and generate less heat and is up to 58 smaller than other foldable wall bricks there are three different versions 30 watt 45 watt and 65 watt and is also compatible with samsung's super fast charging so why wait go check it out the 65 watt version is capable of charging most laptops that can be charged via usbc and it's like this big we're gonna have it linked down below if you guys enjoyed this video you might enjoy our previous video editing an ipad video on the ipad because we learned a lot about how this thing really is a professional computer even if apple refuses to make it one and i am not going to put up with uh hi i'm lana i'm linus\n"