Listening to episode 433 of the Accidental Tech Podcast (ATP), John had an excellent point about actually not knowing what would make iPadOS great for power users. Thinking about what would make an iPad a tool for real work, I came across two main things.
- The ability to run Python
- The ability to record a podcast either live or over the web
As someone who programs regularly, having the ability to get a complete programming environment would be great to better accomplish “real work,” i.e., what I do during the day. Specifically, getting an Anaconda installation to perform some initial data analysis would be great.
Another thing that would help is the ability to record a podcast. As someone who has a new podcast (shout out to loopandpoint.com!), not having to carry a laptop to each recording session would be excellent.
While I think there are ways to accomplish these things currently, they aren’t native to the iPad. For instance, I’m sure it’s possible to connect an iPad to some cloud environment where one program; there’s a degree of abstraction that’s not optimal for me.
Overall, the iPad is an excellent mobile form factor; however, the software continues to hold it back from becoming my only device. As the software continues to develop, it’ll only become a better option for a portable workflow.