Renewed debate: iPad versus laptop

I mean, despite the gap between a Mac and an iPad (Pro in particular) is reducing, a computer remain a much more flexible device. You'll be free to use the storage as you want, 3th part apps from any sources, multiple monitors, maybe not more app but more "powerful" App.

At the end, just make a checklist of what you need and which device do it better. You'll get the answer by yourself 🙂

Personally, I think that having both is great (and I have) but if I need to decide to have only one of them (+ the iPhone of course 😝), well my decision is to keep the Mac 🙂

Doing things on ANY iPad is a different workflow than on a Mac and STILL no real access to the iOS Files system.

The new Files App is not what everyone thought it was going to be.

It’s a step in the right direction, but the Files app isn’t there, yet!

If she is used to the Mac OS and a full blown Mac, then going to an iPad ONLY scenario is going to be a WHOLE new experience in the way iOS forces/makes a user conform to iOS’s workflow.

I bet she would be happier with either the new 12 inch screen MacBook or the new 13 inch screen MacBook Pro.

F J Poblam wrote:

FWIW, as per repairing the current one, the old MBP is in the Certified Apple Repair shop awaiting look-see (current queue is 4 days, already paid the preliminary required ~$62 for initial diagnosis). I suspect DOA. Have two Time Machine backups 2 days before going south, one on-site and one in the safe deposit box off-site. And have *my* brand spanking new MBP as *my* mid-2010 MBP also went south this year on an ate-up graphics card. But we find I fetch my MBP off the shelf about once a week (maybe) for backups...or a little other fiddling. So the iPad versus laptop debate is all about what *she* will ultimately use full-time.

Sure. I'm just thinking that if it can be fixed, it wouldn't be too expensive. At least in the US you would be able to set it up from scratch with a new 120 to 128 GB SSD for $50 or 240 to 256 GB for $75. That wouldn't be ideal, but it would be enough to run High Sierra and maintain a backup. I don't know where you live, but if you lived near an Apple Store, they would have likely diagnosed the problem for free, even if it was an aftermarket SSD. I'm certainly no expert, but I think I could have probably been able to tell you if it was just the SSD or a more expensive problem by just looking it over. If your wife's machine had the right firmware updates (some are automatic with OS updates), it should be able to run Internet Recovery. Then you'd know if it was just the SSD or perhaps the underlying hardware has bit the dust. A bootable clone would have been even better.

The tools needed to swap the internal hard drive are minimal - just a #00 Phillips and T6 Torx screwdriver. I don't know why they say the difficulty is "Moderate" because the only thing that's remotely difficult is avoiding damaging the hard drive ribbon "cable". Don't worry if you've got a 15" or 17" as the process is identical.

MacBook Pro 13" Unibody Mid 2010 Hard Drive Replacement - iFixit

One of the more useful machines I have around is a 2007 MacBook. I don't normally need to use it, but once I had an external hard drive that just wouldn't reformat the way I wanted (from APFS to HFS+).

There is an EXIF app that integrates with iOS Photos app or any other image editing app.

It’s called View Exif. I use this one.

ViewExif by Skyjos Co., Ltd.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/viewexif/id945320815?mt=8

There are, also, Photo folder organisation apps, like Photo Manager Pro 5.

Photo Manager Pro 5 by Skyjos Co., Ltd.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-manager-pro-5/id1076480192?mt=8

Also, Photo-Sort HD.

Photo-Sort by Romain HENRY

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/photo-sort/id349041242?mt=8

For Office apps, it's either a Microsoft 365 monthly subscription or Apple’s Pages, Numbers and Keynote for iOS.

OR plenty a really good word processing and spreadsheet apps for iOS.

But, once again, learning curves are involved.

iOS is NOT Mac OS!

Hope she had some sort of backup. I prefer a clone, but Time Machine works.

I don't want to do everything through the cloud. I don't want to use a "smart keyboard" all the time. There are also many things that I need to do with a regular computer, including mounting external hard drives, USB flash drives, etc. Sometimes I want a bigger screen. I know my iPhone 7 has roughly the same computing power as my mid-2012 MBP, but it serves a certain purpose. I guess there are certain setups where people are using tablets in a special networked environment, but sometimes I just want to be able to type on a normal keyboard and use a mouse.

Get a new SSD. I just upgraded from a 7200 RPM hard drive (which was needed after a crash) in my mid-2012 MBP and I'm wondering where this has been all my life. I'm hardly a power user and still only have 4 GB in my rig, but this is making every little annoying thing (slow startup/quit/booting/shutdown, beachballs, stalling) go away.

I knew she wouldn't accept an iPad in place of a full blown computer.

In addition, learning a new way to work on an iPad using a tablet OS is a daunting experience and learning curve for anyone that has never used an iPad as a laptop replacement.

I have been using iPads, since its 2010 introduction, as a much cheaper alternatives to much more expensive and capable MacBooks/MacBook Pros.

So, I have had 8 years to get used to how iOS works for any type of real work and have learned to work within and around the limitations of iOS.

Going from Mac OS to iOS is pretty much a paradigm shift in work habits and workflows.

Plus, all newer iPads STILL ONLY have limited multitasking capabilities.

Nothing like on a full computer running a fully realised computer OS.

I still see an iPad, EVEN an iPad Pro, as STILL more of a companion device.

F J Poblam wrote:

Santa Fe, NM, 62 mi from an authentic Apple Store. Certified Apple tech is four blocks away and knows me by name after lo these many years since 2004. Love to “support the locals”. Thanks for the info.

Cool. Would love to visit some day, although I understand the locals sometimes wonder about the oddball tourists.

So driving to Albuquerque is kind of inconvenient? I do understand trying to help out a trusted local business. I have about a dozen Apple Stores within 25 miles of where I live, so I kind of fall back on that. However, sometimes there are people posting here from parts of Montana that are 600 miles away from the closest Apple store, or in countries where they don't exist (yet).

I know that a lot of people knock Best Buy. However, they're ubiquitous and have enough of a selection. If you know what you want, you don't have to actually seek advice from an "associate" (other than asking for a part that's in the backroom).

If you get it back with a diagnosis that it's just the SSD, I'm pretty sure that members of this forum could walk you through drive installation and how to do a clean install of Lion. It's not really all that difficult. Kind of fun too. I could physically replace a hard drive on my wife's Lenovo notebook, but I don't know the first thing about cloning or restoring in Windows.

It shouldn't be too difficult to recover from a crashed SSD. New ones are actually quite reasonably priced these days in a competitive marketplace. Even if she gets a new one, why not fix the current one?

F J Poblam wrote:

Sounds like fun. Yep I knock Best Buy but we bought my iPad Mini 4 there sans “associate”. Associates are their downfall. (Plus in our city, the suckers who—proof available—given a recent sale plus known street address, yield a soon thereafter burglary of that very item and nothing else. 👹) Locals here welcome oddball $turistas$. A truly mellow city. Been here 34 years since it was half this size and I switched from IBM mainframe to Windows to MacOS. So after a week I guess we’ll follow the overwhelming majority opinion here and go with a laptop (hers, new SSD, remaining to be seen, or new MBP like mine—Happy wife, happy life). But I must say I agree with 👉-1F3FE;MichelPM👈-1F3FE; that there are some sorts of workarounds or strong alternatives to many or even most laptop stuff on an iPad. Just not a dongle to read a danged thumb drive gracefully.

I bought an iPad Mini 4 at BB too. An old Mini 2 got rather messed up last August. I checked prices and saw the Mini 4 (only 128 GB these days) was on sale at BB for $299. That was just an insane price. All I had to say was that I wanted one, what color, and it was pulled from the behind the locked case and walked over to the cashier. However, I've also gotten the hard sell from a BB employee who was less knowledgable than I was. Actually someone trying to tell me my wife didn't need a Core i5 notebook but would done fine with a Pentium.

My understanding about tourists in Santa Fe is that many are seeking some sort of life-altering New Age spiritual experience. But of course their money is good. I thought I also saw Santa Fe on an episode of Cops.

F J Poblam wrote:

The new age spiritual experience is Arthur Firstenberg suing you because your iPhone emits enough EM radiation to make him feel like barfing in the apartment nextdoor. You got your Mini4 same as I did from BB: walk in, say what, check out. Our last oversell (attempt) was Monster Cables for a Boston Acoustics radio.

You might imagine how he’d feel living nextdoor to our homefull of two each iPads, iPhones, and one and a half (¡!) MBPs.

Actually - my last sour experience BB was when I wanted something (that Core i5 notebook) and the "associate" was trying to downsell me to a $350 computer. Said something about "doing you a favor". He eventually told me they didn't have any in stock, and we ended up going to another BB to get it. It was actually a $500 non-business (not a ThinkPad) class Lenovo on sale. Eventually it became unusable with any number of issues including all the junk that my wife installed on it. In the end she started using my 2007 MacBook because it actually worked when needed.

I frankly haven't worried too much about a Windows setup as long as I had an IT guy to take care of any issues. The first thing they might do is prevent the user from installing certain applications that will bog it down.

As far as you machine goes, if there's not underlying problem with the machine other than the drive, it's still a fine machine. A Core 2 Duo might be a little bit dated though, but still fine as a backup machine. The one thing I have heard is that it might be a good idea to actually use an SSD periodically. Some people have found that they weren't used for over a year and the data seemed to be messed up.