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Any time Apple launches a new iPad people talk.
Tech enthusiasts, such as ourselves, but also regular folks.

For the more demanding among us, this just isn’t a viable reality.
Apple just has that brand appeal, people take notice.
Not just out-and-out Apple fans, either.
Regardless of differences, Apple is the ARM benchmark, so it’s the one everyone will compare to.

For the more demanding among us, this just isn’t a viable reality.
But I’m not interested in the hardware so much today.
And, ultimately, why I don’t bother anymore.
This new iPad Pro is fantastic.

The Surface Pro X is an ARM-powered Windows tablet, but can’t touch the popularity of the iPad. Which is a shame.
Very happy with it.
Except its also not a MacBook Air.
All this power and this 3 legged OS.

Stage Manager is a weak simulacrum of a window manager.
The penny dropped when I invested in a cellular 12.9-inch iPad Pro back in 2019.
But I also tried to use it instead of a laptop.

After all, it was pretty huge, why would I want to carry an iPadanda laptop.
A lot of the time it wasn’t too bad.
But it’s that “3 legged OS” phrase that really sticks.

It sums up iPadOS perfectly for the more demanding users among us.
I can already feel the wrath of the Apple fans bearing down upon me.
I’m not denying thatsomecould certainly make do with an iPad instead of a laptop.
The problem with iPadOS, to me, is that it feels intentionally limited.
Why doesn’t Apple have a touchscreen Mac?
Apple wants you to buy both a laptop and an iPad, right?

After all, it is, still, very much a hardware-first company.
My time trying to replace a laptop with an iPad was just frustrating.
Windows 11 doesn’t exactly help matters, being pretty awful to use on a tablet compared to iPadOS.

But that’s the thing.
TheSurface Prois a full PC inside a tablet.
The iPad Pro is an iPad.

Even if it’s less powerful (for now).
Why on earth isn’t it more popular?
We can probably lay that blame squarely at Microsoft’s door.

I guess we’ll soon find out with the bigMicrosoft event going down on May 20.










