iPad as a laptop replacement

[chmania]

Uh... yes, MacBooks can run Linux. Asahi Linux on Apple Silicon/ARM machines and whatever on Intel/x86 machines.

Oh, just one on M chip MacBooks. But none on any iOS, iPadOS devices, M chip or otherwise.
The Intel (and AMD) MacBooks are made that way, so Linux (or BSD) would have a hard time running on them. These Macs don't have drivers, and no Linux (or BSD) creators are not that interested on turning Macs to Linux boxes, as there are thousands of so-called Windows computers around, even tablets around.

 

[bondr006]

There is, at least for me the one shortfall with a tablet, no Desktop and no Finder. That is, no temporary storage space to download to, to create new folders, to sort out screen shots ect, ect.
I only ever have two folders on my MBP Desktop but I daily use that space to organise the contents of multiple Finder windows, folders and apps. Without that "workspace" I find it very difficult to organise my data.

Actually, you have both on the iPad. You have the Files App which is essentially Finder for your iPad. It has become pretty robust and feature packed since they first introduced it, albeit still not as many features as Finder....but getting there. You can create and set up as many folders and subfolders (photo's, documents, .pdf's, etc.) as you want in the Files app. After you have your file system set up the way you want you can create as many shortcuts to them as you want on the iPad home screen/desktop.

You can also save any file to the Files app directly from whatever app you created it in, just by clicking the Share button/Save to Files/Browse to Folder You Want to Save In.

Add a shortcut to the Home Screen on iPhone or iPad

You can add shortcuts to the Home Screen.

support.apple.com

How to Use Files App to Manage Files on Your iPhone/iPad

The Files app brings flexibility to dealing with files and documents to iOS. Here's everything you need to know about the Files app.

www.lifewire.com

Modify files, folders, and downloads in Files on iPad

In Files on iPad, modify files stored in iCloud Drive and on iPad, USB drives, SD cards, file servers, and other cloud storage providers.

support.apple.com

Here are some screen shots of my Files app. The only shortcut I have setup on my iPad home screen to the Files app, is one I named Finder. Even used the Finder icon for the shortcut.

And some videos I made about the Files app. iPad OS 15 but mostly still relevant.

 

[bondr006]

Do you carry your magic trackpad around or do you leave it at the desk? I just wish it was cheaper. I think it would be great as a desk device but on the go, a mouse is still far more portable.

Just at the desk. When I'm out it is in the LCT, and I use its trackpad.

 

[bondr006]

Why not create a folder structure under Files (or some other file mgr app - I use Filebrowser Pro)?

I also like Filebrowser Pro. Been using it for years. I have to admit that the Files App has come a long way also. It is a lot more functional than when it was introduced. You can also access all the files on your PC with it, just like FB and FB Pro. These phones and iPads have so much more functionality than I could have ever dreamed of back in the day when I was using my Dell Axim hand held. I even like that all the Apple devices interact with each other, plus iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Win PC's talk and communicate with each other just fine. Almost like SciFi stuff I used to watch as a kid in the 60's and 70's.

 

[sparksd]

I also like Filebrowser Pro. Been using it for years. I have to admit that the Files App has come a long way also. It is a lot more functional than when it was introduced. You can also access all the files on your PC with it, just like FB and FB Pro. These phones and iPads have so much more functionality than I could have ever dreamed of back in the day when I was using my Dell Axim hand held. I even like that all the Apple devices interact with each other, plus iPhones and Win PC's talk and communicate with each other just fine. Almost like SciFi stuff I used to watch as a kid in the 60's and 70's.

What moved me away from Files was the problem a few years ago where it would corrupt files on transfers from exFAT storage. My long thread on that -

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/file-corruption-on-copy-to-external-storage.2235171/

I started using FB Pro then - it didn't have the issue - and have stuck with it. I like its additional capabilities like synch tasks, ability to merge, not copy over, folders, etc. And the devs are very responsive to queries and make regular updates with functional improvements. It's one of my most-used apps across my devices. I'll still use Files for transfers between apps but for nothing else - I still harbor ill feelings after being burned by file corruption.

 

[Beefbowl]

I think the thread on exFAT corruption is why I use APFS for all external SSDs, so I appreciate that heads-up!

I never personally ran into it but I figured it was safer to just dodge it completely.

I actually had a heavy Files session a couple weekends ago where I needed to open a bunch of compressed files on my NAS, crop one image in each file, recompress them and save the new files both to the local iPad storage and to an external SSD. I started doing this on a Macbook but the “and it has to be on the iPad as well” was just adding too much time because of how slow working with iPad storage is from a Mac and I switched over to doing the entire process on the iPad. It wasn’t anything that exactly taxed the power of the M2 (maybe the compression was faster?) but it’s the kind of annoying grunt work that I wouldn’t have even considered doing on a tablet previously.

 

[sparksd]

I think the thread on exFAT corruption is why I use APFS for all external SSDs, so I appreciate that heads-up!

I never personally ran into it but I figured it was safer to just dodge it completely.

I actually had a heavy Files session a couple weekends ago where I needed to open a bunch of compressed files on my NAS, crop one image in each file, recompress them and save the new files both to the local iPad storage and to an external SSD. I started doing this on a Macbook but the “and it has to be on the iPad as well” was just adding too much time because of how slow working with iPad storage is from a Mac and I switched over to doing the entire process on the iPad. It wasn’t anything that exactly taxed the power of the M2 (maybe the compression was faster?) but it’s the kind of annoying grunt work that I wouldn’t have even considered doing on a tablet previously.

I believe the exFAT issue has been fixed. APFS is definitely a preferred format for the iPad but not an option when using the same drives with Windows devices. And the majority of camera cards are formatted exFAT.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

I think it is time to revisit this thread.
I never wanted to replace my laptop entirely, the goal was to replace it when having to work a day or two mainly out of office (courts, clients, etc) with lot of movement involved.
It is almost there, but I have to confess the sometimes it can be a frustrating experience.
The first thing that can be better is file managent. For example I sync everything with onedrive, which works like charm, but for advanced search I must use the onedrive app although I have a local copy of my relevant folders on my ipad.
But the elephant in the room is the lack of a desktop class browser. Here my issue is the multipage embedded pdf‘s cannot be viewed wirh any ipad os browsers.
The issue is detailed here:

Why are multi-page PDF's only rendering o… - Apple Community

discussions.apple.com

So, for this reason I am obliged to use jumpdesktop and my mini’s desktop safari. Quite annoying to be honest.

 

[NastyMatt]

Do you have a URL example please?

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

Do you have a URL example please?

Related to?

 

[NastyMatt]

Related to?

Multi-page pdf’s

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

Multi-page pdf’s

I cannot post the link because it is a official website were I have to login with my attorney credentials, but I made a screenshot.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

The central part is a 4 pages pdf and I cannot scroll further than page 1, nor download the whole file.
Obviously this is not an issue on Mac.

 

[NastyMatt]

The central part is a 4 pages pdf and I cannot scroll further than page 1, nor download the whole file.
Obviously this is not an issue on Mac.

I need to see a specific URL with the issue - unfortunately not a lot I can do with a screen shot.

Not questioning your issue - just interested to see what is happening from a technical standpoint.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

I will try to find some public site with same issue and I'll post the url if successful.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

On the technical standpoint I found some interesting links as follows:

Embedded PDFs in Web page are not displayed anymore on iOS 17.4

It looks like the lastest version of iOS (17.4, as of this writing) prevents embedded PDFs, whatever the browser used. To be crystal-clear, I am not talking about PDFs opened in a new tab, but PDFs

stackoverflow.com

pdf in iframe only first page on iphone/ipad view

I have added embedded pdf but only first page is displayed in chrome and safari mobile. I need your help. < iframe src="soz.pdf" frameborder="0" id="myiframe" style...

stackoverflow.com

Make embedded PDF scrollable in iPad

For some reason the iPad safari browser does not handle embedded PDFs well. PDFs view fine on their own when launched standalone, but not with the object tag. The problem is that they don't scrol...

stackoverflow.com

Although I see myself as a techie, I think that this is a little bit over my head. At the end of the day I'm just a poor lawyer, not a programmer. 😁

 

[sparksd]

On the technical standpoint I found some interesting links as follows:

Embedded PDFs in Web page are not displayed anymore on iOS 17.4

It looks like the lastest version of iOS (17.4, as of this writing) prevents embedded PDFs, whatever the browser used. To be crystal-clear, I am not talking about PDFs opened in a new tab, but PDFs

stackoverflow.com

pdf in iframe only first page on iphone/ipad view

I have added embedded pdf but only first page is displayed in chrome and safari mobile. I need your help. < iframe src="soz.pdf" frameborder="0" id="myiframe" style...

stackoverflow.com

Make embedded PDF scrollable in iPad

For some reason the iPad safari browser does not handle embedded PDFs well. PDFs view fine on their own when launched standalone, but not with the object tag. The problem is that they don't scrol...

stackoverflow.com

Although I see myself as a techie, I think that this is a little bit over my head. At the end of the day I'm just a poor lawyer, not a programmer. 😁

There was a workaround noted here -

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75511392/pdf-in-iframe-only-first-page-on-iphone-ipad-view

See the note "can be opened by appending /default/connect.pdf". This does indeed work - I tried it.

 

[Silvestru Hosszu]

Wayback Machine

Here is a link.

 

[NastyMatt]

There was a workaround noted here -

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75511392/pdf-in-iframe-only-first-page-on-iphone-ipad-view

See the note "can be opened by appending /default/connect.pdf". This does indeed work - I tried it.

If I select the first link (without the append) I see both pages of the pdf! I assume I was not supposed to be able.

 

[sparksd]

If I select the first link (without the append) I see both pages of the pdf! I assume I was not supposed to be able.

Yeah, looks like I jumped the gun. I tried it on the Wayback Machine example above and it didn't work. And the root problem is not unique to Safari, it exists on other iOS browsers.

 

[Portavoz]

Going to weigh in here since there has been progress on my "stupid stuff my iPad just can't do" list that keeps me dragging my MacBook along when what I really want is one versatile device (like the iPad). Two key things in my "workflow" now solved.

1. In Spotify I like to create a playlist each month where I add tracks that were added in the last month from various other playlists that I follow. The problem is that the "date added" column I use to enable this whole thing is only present in the Mac version of Spotify, not the iPad version. It is present in the web version of Spotify but attempting to open that in the browser on iPad automatically opens the iPad Spotify app instead. Somehow this behavior has changed and I am now able to use the Spotify web player (without it opening the Spotify app) to create and add songs to my playlist.

2. I download podcasts from Mixcloud using a 3rd party website so that I can listen to them offline on in a podcast player I have on my iPhone. The problem is that Safari and other iPad based web browsers lack the "saved linked file as...." capability and my podcasts would download with nonsense cryptic alpha number file names and I couldn't tell what was what. I tried renaming the downloading file in Safari download manager after I click download to a friendly name but it would revert to nonsense file name when download finished. I recently discovered that iCab browser will let you rename a download in progress and retain that name when download is finished. So while no iPad browser supports the "save linked files as...." capability there is a workaround.

These are frustrating little nits because the Mac just sails through these tasks but iPad is getting better. In both of these cases no feature parity between Mac and iPad applications is the cause.

And speaking of feature parity: Now, if only the iPad version of Music app allowed you to manage your iTunes Music Library.....

 

[chmania]

Yeah, looks like I jumped the gun. I tried it on the Wayback Machine example above and it didn't work. And the root problem is not unique to Safari, it exists on other iOS browsers.

You mean, iOS, iPadOS just cannot work like macOS, the desktop OS.

 

[sparksd]

You mean, iOS, iPadOS just cannot work like macOS, the desktop OS.

I don't use or care about macOS.

 

[chmania]

I don't use or care about macOS.

Strange!
That's how the whole rigmarole started, with Mackintosh OS. iOS happened because of the need to get into the mobile phone market, where the money. iPadOS is just an iteration of that, might imitate the desktop experience, in a way.

 

[Mainsail]

iPadOS and iOS are touch first operating systems. MacOS is a windows based pointer first operating system. Tablets are touch first devices, and should have an operating system that is designed for this purpose. I don’t understand why someone would want to put MacOS on an iPad. I can see how certain iPad apps could be improved and made more capable. But, that’s another story.