There are two things that seem to be true about the plethora of articles written from people who say that they can’t get work done on an iPad Pro. First, they are Mac users. Second, they don’t seem to understand how iPad multi-tasking works. Or, they are grumpy that multi-tasking is different from their Mac.
I don’t consider myself a content-creator but more of a thought worker. However, at times I like to work in multiple apps simultaneously. Multi-tasking in an iPad has never been an issue for me. I’ve taken the time to learn the system and practice it. Those Mac users who complain about the iPad not being the same as the Mac are like Americans traveling to a foreign nation and complaining that not everyone speaks English.
I wanted to quickly address two misconceptions.
You can only multi-task with a maximum of three apps on your desktop
This really isn’t true. You can have two apps side-by-side, but you can have a third “app stack” with as many apps as you’d like. And you can quickly see or flip through the stack.
Say for instance that you have Safari and Microsoft Word open at the same time. And you have three news article apps that you want to work with. You can place those three news apps in a stack on top of your other windows. Then you use the little bar at the bottom to flip through them. Easy peasy.
Does it take a little bit of preparation to get your iPad desktop ready for work? Yes, but it’s no more than the work people need to do in a Mac by carefully placing their windows where they want to see them.
Some Mac users may protest that they don’t like the apps at the bottom of the stack to be out of sight and that they want a piece of the window visible. But that causes just as many problems as it solves. In my experience, have only a tiny corner available causes me to pick the wrong window often. And even if you have a 16” MacBook Pro screen, you can’t really get that many apps visible at once.
With an iPad app stack, you can quickly swipe up to see all the apps in the stack and go directly to the app you need. You never pick the wrong app.
I wanted to quickly address two misconceptions.
You can only multi-task with a maximum of three apps on your desktop
This really isn’t true. You can have two apps side-by-side, but you can have a third “app stack” with as many apps as you’d like. And you can quickly see or flip through the stack.
Say for instance that you have Safari and Microsoft Word open at the same time. And you have three news article apps that you want to work with. You can place those three news apps in a stack on top of your other windows. Then you use the little bar at the bottom to flip through them. Easy peasy.
Does it take a little bit of preparation to get your iPad desktop ready for work? Yes, but it’s no more than the work people need to do in a Mac by carefully placing their windows where they want to see them.
Some Mac users may protest that they don’t like the apps at the bottom of the stack to be out of sight and that they want a piece of the window visible. But that causes just as many problems as it solves. In my experience, have only a tiny corner available causes me to pick the wrong window often. And even if you have a 16” MacBook Pro screen, you can’t really get that many apps visible at once.
With an iPad app stack, you can quickly swipe up to see all the apps in the stack and go directly to the app you need. You never pick the wrong app.
The smaller window to the right is a “stack”. It can hold multiple apps which can be swiped through.
Swipe up from the bottom of the stack to see what’s in it.
You can’t scroll in background apps on iPadI read an article by one Mac user who said that he prefers his Mac because he can scroll apps in the back ground without bringing it to the foreground. I wasn’t sure why he thought that was special because you can do the same thing in the iPad.
Let’s say that you are reading an article in the foreground from an app in the app stack. You can still scroll in Microsoft Word which is in the background. Even if the app stack is on top. Plus, it’ll stay on top of Word even while you scroll.
Learn the language
If you are on a vacation to a foreign country, you may not need to learn the language. But don’t complain to the locals that they don’t speak English. However, if you decide to take a job there and live in that country, it would behoove you to become fluent.
Most people don’t need a Mac any more. Especially if they want a device just for home use. But they get a barrage of news articles from content creators telling them that they do. Which leads to a great deal of confusion.
It’s time for this behavior from the big tech web sites to stop. Do racing enthusiasts from Car & Driver tell people not to buy anything lesser than a BMW M3 or Audi R8 because you can’t hot lap the brakes? Do gardening enthusiasts tell their friends not to buy a house with less than 1 acre because they won’t have enough land? Of course not! Most people don’t have their extreme needs.
And most people don’t need a Mac. Content creators are like glorified cooks. They take ingredients from a plethora of sources and put it all together. Normal people don’t ever approach this level of cutting and pasting. They just want to check their e-mail or read the news. And even if it’s for work. Most people only use one or two apps at a time. Work that is not content creation tends to be very specific. You don’t need a Mac for that.
Let’s say that you are reading an article in the foreground from an app in the app stack. You can still scroll in Microsoft Word which is in the background. Even if the app stack is on top. Plus, it’ll stay on top of Word even while you scroll.
Learn the language
If you are on a vacation to a foreign country, you may not need to learn the language. But don’t complain to the locals that they don’t speak English. However, if you decide to take a job there and live in that country, it would behoove you to become fluent.
Most people don’t need a Mac any more. Especially if they want a device just for home use. But they get a barrage of news articles from content creators telling them that they do. Which leads to a great deal of confusion.
It’s time for this behavior from the big tech web sites to stop. Do racing enthusiasts from Car & Driver tell people not to buy anything lesser than a BMW M3 or Audi R8 because you can’t hot lap the brakes? Do gardening enthusiasts tell their friends not to buy a house with less than 1 acre because they won’t have enough land? Of course not! Most people don’t have their extreme needs.
And most people don’t need a Mac. Content creators are like glorified cooks. They take ingredients from a plethora of sources and put it all together. Normal people don’t ever approach this level of cutting and pasting. They just want to check their e-mail or read the news. And even if it’s for work. Most people only use one or two apps at a time. Work that is not content creation tends to be very specific. You don’t need a Mac for that.
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