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.
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:
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…
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
problem solved for me:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: far more productive and it makes cool sounds.