As I have a Iphone, Ipad and a Mac at home I am very tempted to buy a laptop just for the Sparkle purpose to use when we are traveling. Not for making website but for maintenance. But as we now have travel restrictions there is no need to buy one now.
As an iPhone/iPad developer I can tell you that going from MacOS to iOS is not trivial. However, if Sparkle had been originally developed for iOS, then going to MacOS would have been fairly easy.
But would probably be dead 
Text (we’re closed, hours update, etc) can be changed quickly and easily on the go with an app like Textastic (iPad and iPhone). https://www.textasticapp.com
What’s the most challenging aspect of preparing an iPadOS app? Is it reimagining the UI?
I noticed that the Serif folks had to really solve a lot of UI problems with respect to translating how tools and menu items are accessed in their Affinity suite of apps.
I"m not sure I understand the quesion, but I can say honestly the most difficult part is getting an app approved by the app store review team. Draconian to say the least.
The purpose of the App Store is not to distribute software but to distribute software that is at least moderately protected from the bad actors that plague Windows and Android repositories. It’s why we spend more for Apple products.
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Maybe the iPads with the new M processors will get us just a bit closer to it? Hopefully the new iPadOS will bring the necessary changes too.
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I love Sparkle and it’s the only app now missing from the toolbox on the iPad Pro. I will be getting my new iPad Pro with M1 this Friday (as I suspect many of you will as well) and I would really love to see Sparkle on it.
Seriously. I’ll pay the full price again. Just release it already.
To reiterate:
What hasn’t changed in 2021 is the questionable viability of iPad software, the software market is still very uncertain.
It depends on who you ask. I’ve been using an iPad Pro as a laptop replacement for almost a year now. There were two limitations. One, hardware - mainly the lack of thunderbolt and storage capacity. Second, lack of software or having to contend with half-backed “lite” version of macOS equivalent. Apple has fully addressed the hardware problem now and software is catching up. Some apps have improved considerably since the launch of iPadOS, which itself has improved.
Also, the display on the new iPad Pro 12.9 is even better and, if Apple’s claims are true, capable of supporting even the most demanding content creators with a visual fidelity that will be hard to rival on any desktop or laptop on the market today. In my opinion, that alone makes the new iPad a hard to beat value and will push more people toward the iPadOS platform.
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This has been the promise for 10 years now.
If I could replace my Mac with an iPad Pro I would without hesitation. I think it’s the best content creation and consumption platform ever, or has the potential (for 10 years as Duncan wrote). My workflow is 50% iPad only, 40% SideCar (iPad + Mac), and 10% Mac only.
With Big Sur being written and optimized for the M1 chip, I’m hoping Apple follows with iPadOS being rewritten and optimized for the M1.
But to me, until Apple puts their own Pro Apps on the iPad, it’s not a Pro device.
I do all my commercial illustration work (and communication about such) on an iPad Pro. ClipStudio Paint gives the lie to the idea that a “real” program can’t run on an iPad, because it’s now identical to its desktop version – but superior because of the advantage being to draw with the Apple Pencil.
I willingly pay an open-ended annual subscription for CSP on the iPad, unlike the one-time-payment for the desktop version – about $120CDN a year, versus something like $150 for the one-off. There’s also a lower-end version available for much less.
Of course, all the kids who are comparing it with doodle apps scream in the reviews about how unfair it is to make them pay for something. Maybe the developer should frame the subscription as “BOX of GEMS!” and they wouldn’t mind. For me, I figure that’s a tiny sum to exchange for a tool that makes my professional work possible (and, admittedly, better).
Pretty much the only thing I use my desktop for these days is updating my website with Sparkle. It’d be nice to have everything on one device, but… I get it.
I have wanted this since I have been using SPARKLE. I love my iPad and I use it every day but the more I use it the more I realize it isn’t a Mac. The touchscreen is nifty but…… I bought a Apple air! BAM:fire:
problem solved for me:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: far more productive and it makes cool sounds.
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Just to be clear we like the idea of Sparkle on the iPad as well. But in practice an iPad that has reasonable hardware for Sparkle (so 12.9" and the trackpad+keyboard) is not cheaper than a Mac, and while it does add the 120Hz screen and the pencil input, it takes away a comfortable and advanced multitasking environment (which is leaps and bounds better on Mac than on iPad), plus an ecosystem of pro apps and workflows to integrate.
From a strictly technical point of view I have mentioned previously what hampers the development of an app like Sparkle in this thread, so I’ll refer you to it:
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I’ll support Duncan on this call. As much as I take my iPad Pro everywhere to access email, LinkedIn, Safari, and my OmniFocus to-do list (and to carry along hundreds of pages of sheet music), I can’t imagine using it in place of my MacBook.
Keynote presentations (including coaching classes I create) would take at least triple the time.
Building Numbers models is harder on the iPad.
I’ve been learning Apple Motion, and Apple hasn’t made it available on the iPad – and I can’t imagine that it would run well.
I use OmniGraffle for diagramming, and I know there’s an iPad version, but I’ve never been able to build anything as quickly on it. But that might be a training issue.
If I write programs, AppleScript and Xojo aren’t available on the iPad.
I haven’t tried editing movies with iMovie on the iPad, so I can’t assess it.
Maybe there’s an image editing app on the iPad as good as Logoist; but, I just haven’t gone looking for it.
Software I use to pair tournaments is only available on the Mac.
The database I program isn’t available on the iPad (okay, it’s not available for the latest version of the Mac either, but they’re working on that).
If I end up having to use Spotfire or Power BI for my job, I’m going to have to use Parallels to run Windows on my Mac, and that isn’t an iPad option.
In summary, for casual users (content consumers), I think the iPad is suitable Mac replacement. But for those of us using Macs professionally, I suspect that the population of iPad-only developers isn’t large enough to justify converting Sparkle.
Yep the more I think about it on a practical level I don’t think it is something I would enjoy trying to use, an iOS Sparkle app on an iPad. I don’t see creating a 1200 device would be a practical or comfortable practice. You probably could slide the left-hand side UI chrome out of the way, but you would need to constantly display the right-hand chrome so the actual 1200 device would be shrunk down to about 60% to see it in the space remaining.
The right-hand UI chrome would be far longer to operate it because the sections would need to be bigger and spaced out more for fingers (I know we would be using the pencil but iOS is mostly for fingers) having you constantly needing to slide the panel to get to what you need.
If anything if we were able to just edit (text boxes, images and no access to font-styles) a Sparkle project on iOS then that could open the door for a lot more clients who swear by using Windows, but loves iPad…
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I was thinking the same thing last night about Windows users … that’s the demographic that would have to be the target. Can you convince enough Windows users – who otherwise can’t use Sparkle – but who own an iPad to purchase an iPad version of Sparkle. And is that number large enough to pay for an iOS version? Recognize also that the MacOS version may not get any improvements while work is being done on the iPad version.
I won’t install Sparkle on my iPad 6.
Before I buy an iPad Pro 12” I buy an MacBook Air M1 instead.
I have for the price for an iPad Pro 12” a Mac mini M1 with dual 4K screens.
I will go to Windows, and will be against that sparkle is available for windows.
I see Apple is used for design and art and windows is just … boring 