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iOS 13 has been announced, the public beta just dropped , and yet I can’t resist expressing my disappointment. Sure, there are a lot of changes, but none of them are revolutionary. You think it’s normal to get a “real” Safari browser after 13 versions? I don’t. So yes, these changes are finally arriving, but they’re the bare minimum — nothing to write home about.
My biggest disappointment is the lack of mouse support. With a real Safari on the way, I’ll finally be able to use Google Sheets for work on iPad. But have you ever tried using a spreadsheet without a mouse? It’s painfully slow — you’re doing the same work as on a computer, but it takes you two or three times as long. It’s absurd.
That pretty much sums up working on an iPad for me: I waste more time getting things done, but for what pleasure? Sure, it’s a beautiful object to hold, but that’s not a goal in itself.
I don’t understand why Apple keeps refusing to treat mouse input as a first-class citizen.
By profession, I do a lot of development and of course use Excel — or spreadsheets in general — constantly. When I compare how long things take on the iPad, there’s no contest: nothing beats a computer for me.
On the other hand, I do move people onto an iPad — people who aren’t comfortable with a computer. In that specific scenario, I genuinely think the iPad can replace one. But power users will never truly be satisfied. Install Alfred, Keyboard Maestro, Antidote and you’ll understand what I mean.
The iPad is a great writing tool, but by design it’s incompatible with software like Antidote and that’s genuinely frustrating.
By controlling what software you can install on it, the iPad is also a prison. A safe prison, admittedly, since you don’t need an antivirus 🦠.
With the Mac, Apple takes a different approach and thank goodness — otherwise I’d simply leave the platform. That said, Apple does warn you when you launch software that didn’t come from the App Store. Why not do the same on iOS?
The WWDC announcement that excited me most was “Catalyst ”, which will let iOS apps run on Mac. That and the portability of Shortcuts — for me, that’s the convergence between iOS and Mac OS I’d been waiting for; it was the only thing missing for me to use my Mac full-time!
It’s still a long way off, the day when the two platforms will be close enough that you can use a Mac or an iPad interchangeably for the same type of tasks. For now, I’m done with the iPad — it’s a beautiful machine, but it drives me crazy having to think about which device to bring depending on the work I need to do.
Goodbye iPad 💔.
