I think I’ll go get me one of the new iPad Air 13” models when they arrive next week.

It’s been a cycle or two since Apple made big strides in iPads. I think the last stunning advance was the introduction of the iPad Pro, with its big 12-inch display and laptop class processors.In the last cycle, they brought the M1 to the iPad Air and the M2 to the iPad Pro. These weren’t quite as giant leaps, but have started making the other iPads approach that laptop replacement.

The inclusion of the same processors in the tablets means now it isn’t the hardware holding it back. Fundamentally the difference between the tablet and laptop hardware is that the former has the touch screen and the latter has a keyboard and trackpad instead. The ports and battery aren’t to be dismissed, of course, but from a core system standpoint, the integrated processing, RAM, and storage don’t make much distinction between the platforms.

It’s the OS that makes the real divide. OK, and the ports, too.

In addition to this goofy blog and a few similar bits I write in English, I mostly use my computers to make software. I tinker a little in 3D modeling and rendering, but as much as I’d like to be, I’m not that artistic.

The writing bits easily translate to the tablet. I’m making this blog entry using a Bluetooth keyboard in a browser on my iPad. For that, it doesn’t even matter which generation of tablet unless you figure in screen size. For other writing, I’ll use Notes or Pages or some similar software that syncs to the cloud. For all of that, it’s an easy transition to the bigger screen and keyboard on my desktop or laptop, especially using the cloud-backed or other synchronization tools.

The software creating is still hampered by the choices made in iOS. Clearly, since it works in MacOS on Apple processors, it should be possible to use the same software creation tools on tablets. It’s the sandboxing or other isolations put in place in iOS that prevents the necessary cross-app interactions from working. Not even Apple’s own XCode works, which seems like a serious oversight, which I think is unfortunately being made on purpose. It’s probably the case that the necessary permission or system changes that would allow XCode to work would also allow Java and PHP and other things to work.

The one argument I’ve heard is that the screen size isn’t conducive to on-tablet efforts. I think this is hogwash, and is probably coming from a strong camp of people who have never worked with small displays.

Yes, I’m a dinosaur. I started in the days of all-text, 80 column by 25 row displays, with no windowing, often no menus, and only keystrokes. Even today, though, I manage my remote systems via SSH and text-only tools like Vim, although I usually have a lot more characters on the screen.

I get the preference might be to have more screen space than a tablet allows, but that should be my choice, not Apple’s, yeah?

On the iPads with Apple silicon, driving external displays is possible. This should mitigate the screen size argument. The same hardware that a MacBook can use to drive an external display is in the iPad, isn’t it? Once connected to a USB-C monitor, the monitor can even charge the iPad. Tack on the Bluetooth keyboard, or maybe a USB keyboard via the monitor, and all the display on both screens is available.

The same arguments are made for some of the 3D software I tinker with, like blender.org. Because of the screen size, they don’t want to port the software to iOS. I suspect there’s a bit in the permissions for accessing external resources when building models and scenes, but those could probably be worked out more easily, as they parallel what some of the other creation tools need to access.

I think the next significant move Apple needs to make is to merge iOS and MacOS. Maybe not always having just one OS moving forward, but maybe just that. Maybe more appropriate would be to blend the touch features, and whatever other things iPad offers that MacBook doesn’t (like LIDAR on the iPad Pro), into MacOS, and then allow iPads to have MacOS installed on them.

In the Apple event, they shared the new Magic Keyboard, which blurs that hardware line even more. It lets people take what I think are the better parts of an iPad (touch screen) and still work with a full screen and tactile keys.

I get there are things that don’t translate the other way, too. It’d be hard to pick up a MacBook and use it to game with on-screen controls or leverage the accelerometer. The LIDAR on the iPad Pro isn’t on any MacBook, either.

I also agree with the sandboxing for more casual users. Even those hard-core creators that are composing music or editing films and leveraging the other editors probably aren’t thinking of blurring the lines of their tablets and laptops or desktops, because the cloud makes that line disappear. They probably aren’t worried about the sandboxes, because the permissions for their media have been allowed or figured out. They probably don’t worry about directory structures, storage volumes, or external utilities in the same way a software creator has to.

I think the new larger screen on the iPad Air is great. The M2 chip is plenty for a start. The iPad Pro with its new M4 option is a great higher-end system. I can do almost everything I need to, outside of software creation, on my tablet. But I can’t leave it at that.

The 13-inch displays on those, paired with a keyboard and external monitor, make it almost as awesome an offering as a MacBook. The MacBook has greater processor and RAM options, and more ports. It’s the OS that keeps me using a MacBook (or other computers).

I’d like to see that line blur more. Make that cross-over OS, or change the bits as necessary to let the tablet run MacOS.