every time they announce a new ipad i go through a yearly kinda thought process of confusion about what an ipad is even for. it isnt an actual computer, it doesnt have a proper file system, or a keyboard (just the shitty flappy fabric one), an e-reader is surely better for reading. it can take photos, but why?? watching movies on a plane maybe? annotating PDFs? procreate i guess? i think “portable digital art” is the only use case that can justify spending hundreds on something so useless????
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@jk I use mine for casual gaming and reading RSS feeds on the sofa because it’s comfier than my small phone screen (I don’t want a giant phone, I don’t wear 90s cargo pants anymore), especially as my eyesight degrades. But you
don’t need the fancy ones for this, ours are old & basic grade
@jk Procreate. E-book reader. Mostly because I do not want to carry an e-book reader AND an iPad. And comics, art-books and PDFs with complex layout just suck on e-readers. Web-browser that's not as cramped as a phone. Taking notes with a keyboard not as cramped as a phone. I think that's all the use cases I have for my iPad.
Oh, and using it at the plane, because unless you're a midget, the class for the plebs doesn't offer enough space for laptop use anymore.
@jk it’s roughly the size of a sheet of paper so works well for piano sheet music. I’m frustrated tho by the lack of sheet music apps that take digital archival seriously - many include their own digital storefront. And nobody has so far figured out how to make working with a stylus as easy or better than pencil/paper
@jk Hey I like that keyboard. 😞 But yes, I don’t think even Apple knows.
@jk Back in the day I used to use it as a controller.
I'd have the iPad on stage and the computer close to the mixer at the other end of the room. That moment passed though, so, yeah I agree it's useless to me now.
@t36s i tried to use a tablet as a MIDI controller/patch editor for a while and i just found the touch screen was horrible due to the lack of tactile feedback
@jk Yes, it was terrible, but I think back in them olden days of yore, people got a little caught up in the hype. I thought it was neat that you could do OSC. I still do not have a physical OSC controller.
@jk pretty good for creating and/or recording music too
(yeah, art and music is basically all I've ever used mine for. I watch videos on a cheap android tablet because I'm like "I spent too much on this ipad to have it just knocking around on tables and countertops")
@ItsTheManOnTheMoon surely id have to connect it to all my studio gear (which is much larger than it) with an insane tangle of dongles. and the screen is tiny and you can't e.g. edit the length of clips or interact with a mixer that has more than a few channels or buttons on each strip because fingers are a lot less precise than a mouse cursor?? maybe for recording a demo or two in garageband? or maybe toy type music apps like an OP-1 where you make a techno track on the train to work
@ItsTheManOnTheMoon actually "interactive sheet music that helps you learn" could be a good use-case, youd put the ipad on a music stand or something. maybe that makes sense. i coulda used that when i was 10 or 15 years old and it would have been really useful
@jk a device for letting kids watch YouTube and movies
@jk yeah we got one back in the few years when it was the cheapest way to get a screen drawing tablet, and imo that was the only time it ever really made any sense as a purchase. we personally really enjoy procreate and our workflow is built around it now, but for anyone for whom that isnt the case, there is a wide selection of much cheaper and just as good android drawing tablets now, and even cheaper screen display tablets for computers, so I really don't get the point of it even as a drawing tablet now beyond like, brand momentum and captured audience who built their workflow around procreate lol