MacBook Air Diary: iPadOS improvements haven’t tempted me back

1 week ago 1

MacBook Air Diary iPadOS improvements haven't tempted me back | Close–up of MBA

I wrote a year ago that I hardly use an iPad any more. With one small exception, that remains the case – but iPadOS 26 did have me revisit the question.

That’s because this transforms the device so much that, for the first time, I considered it impossible to argue that the iPad isn’t now a (proper) computer …

Why I (almost) stopped using my iPads

I said there were five reasons, four of which were that Apple Silicon MacBooks effectively closed the gap between the two device types, and for me the MacBook won out.

The instant on/off nature of an iPad has essentially been replicated by the Mac. Mobile hotspot on the iPhone is now super–quick and reliable. MacBooks are way lighter than they used to be. Battery life is now close enough that the difference isn’t significant for my usage.

The fifth reason was that Viture One XR glasses effectively replaced my iPad mini as a personal entertainment device. The small exception I mentioned is because Libby isn’t supported by Kindle in the UK, I did end up holding onto that as a dedicated ebook reader for books borrowed from the library.

iPadOS 26 is a massive improvement

I said last year that my 12.9–inch iPad Pro still sits in a drawer. That isn’t quite true any more – but only on a technicality! It is currently serving as a piece of home decor …

I grew up with a typewriter before home computers were a thing, and I’ve never lost my love of the devices. Sure, it would be wildly impractical to actually use one these days, but it’s why the Qwerkywriter appealed so much. I even considered getting a typewriter as a piece of home decor, and the iPad with Qwerkywriter is currently serving in that role.

But yeah, that’s not qualitatively different to sitting in a drawer.

However, iPadOS 26 transforms the device. For me, the single biggest difference is proper windowing.

The iPad started as a single-tasking device: one full-screen app at a time. Later, Slide Over and Split View made it possible to work with more than one app at a time, but it was pretty clunky and unintuitive. Stage Manager further improved usability, but for me it was still a poor substitute for the window flexibility you get on a Mac.

But now the iPad works pretty much exactly like a Mac in this respect. You can open multiple apps, then position, size, and overlay each window as you like. There appears to be an upper limit of 12 apps on-screen at any one time, but it’s rare I have more Mac windows actually open, so that seems reasonable enough to me.

Logitech also partly addressed an ergonomic issue: the slightly cramped feel of the Magic Keyboard, being positioned so close to the screen. The new Flip Folio has an interesting design that lets you completely detach the keyboard to position it as you like. (I don’t know why Logitech says it’s only for M–series iPads – it works just fine with my 2018 model.)

A couple of my colleagues tried it out, and I did too. I do like that flexible positioning, but you lose the ability to use it on your lap, and for me the loss of the Magic Keyboard trackpad was too big a sacrifice.

But the MacBook Air was the clincher

Perhaps if I hadn’t already gone the MacBook Air route, I might have been persuaded by the newly–unleashed capabilities of the iPad, but it’s come just too late for me.

Given that I’ve now fully–adopted the MBA as my primary mobile computing device, putting enough of my apps on it to stand in for my MacBook Pro on most occasions, there’s no going back. While the iPad now gets much closer to the usability of a Mac, the Mac still wins out for a number of reasons:

More powerful apps
More usable on my lap (the iPad with Magic Keyboard feels less balanced)
All the utilities on which I’ve come to rely
Overall comfort and familiarity with the UI
Lighter than the 12.9–inch iPad with Magic Keyboard

So I remain glad that Apple has finally allowed the iPad software to match the capabilities of the hardware, I’ve always been a Mac–first guy, and the addition of an Apple Silicon MacBook Air means I’m now firmly Mac first and second.