Apple’s iPad Pro Marketing Failure — They don’t even try
Discussing Apple’s recent iPad marketing on his website Tedium, Ernie Smith discusses what’s wrong with Apple’s marketing to creatives in 2024, particularly the marketing of the iPad to creatives. He and I had had a conversation on Mastodon the day before and he mentions me in the context of this point:
I am not convinced that Apple is doing a great job targeting users like him with their marketing—there was a scene in Tuesday’s keynote where an iPad was being used to manage a video shoot that struck me as particularly off-key—but I will not deny that they’re out there and they exist. I think the real problem is that Apple has not done a particularly good job of closing the gap between iPad users, many of whom did not grow up with traditional computing experiences, and Mac users, who did and have largely been left out of the touchscreen revolution for what feel like purely business reasons.
Currently Apple’s iPad playlist on YouTube has 4 videos. Let me say that again. Apple’s YouTube playlist for iPad has FOUR videos and one of those is for the “all-new iPad Mini” from two years ago.
THAT. IS. RIDICULOUS.
Apple, make an effort to demonstrate how an iPad can be a useful computer.
Nature’s Oldest Mandolin: The Poetic Science of How Cicadas Sing – The Marginalian
“The use of music,” Richard Powers wrote, “is to remind us how short a time we have a body” — a truth nowhere more bittersweet than in the creature whose body is the oldest unchanged musical instrument on Earth: a tiny mandolin silent for most of its existence, then sonorous with a fleeting symphony of life before the final silence.
An important step forward for the Palestinians.
UNGA votes in favour of expanding Palestine’s rights | Al Jazeera Newsfeed - YouTube
With overwhelming support, Palestine has been granted expanded rights and privileges in its status at the UN. 143 nations voted in favour, with 9 against and 25 abstentions. Although upgraded, the new status does not allow Palestine to vote with the same rights as full member states.
Doc Rock on the May 7th episode of MacBreak Weekly is the first podcaster I’ve heard to clearly call-out the ridiculous iPad hot takes so common these days, especially in regard to the iPad Pro.
“It’s funny when a lot of the conversation around the pro or the not pro is always about productivity. The people don’t talk about what type of productivity you’re doing, right? If you’re doing everything in notion or Evernote or something of that nature, then again, maybe it doesn’t matter, right?
But if your productivity is based around SketchUp or they showed, not Blender, they showed ZBrush, some other things like that, those all count. Those all count and they do actually tax pretty hard. If you’re a logic person and you’re running pretty heavy logic action, which a lot, as an ex DJ, I would tell you, a lot of music people use iPads.
What happens, the general tech person in our circle and the general YouTuber, also my circle, they always talk about it like the way it matches them. People forget about Bechtel, who’s doing civil engineering and their iPads are running really high level tests. People forget about all the restaurants, which is why you want 128 gigabyte model, because all they do is use them for retail.
And they run one app and one app only. “People forget about education, healthcare, occupational therapies, all of the things that you use an iPad for other than you who just use it to watch Netflix. And I get that and knock yourself out player.
But like, don’t be like Apple doesn’t have the knowledge of who they’re selling to when they make these devices. And it cracked me up every time because people always have these weird hot takes. And one of the ones was, why put the M4 in this first?”
Exploring how others use and view the iPad
Buckle in, this is a longer post based on a couple of very interesting iPad-related conversations I’ve had recently. It begins with an email from Justin Harter, who is a graphic designer, teacher and writer. We had an enjoyable exchange largely focused on our workflows for image processing and file management on iPad. I had a look at his blog and knew immediately that I wanted to mention some of his recent iPad posts.
Right off he caught my attention with a post that expresses something I rarely see from fellow tech enthusiasts: A concern for the environment. Why is this so rare? I appreciate that he is writing about it and that his environmental ethics are a part of his decision making in regards to his consumption of technology.
Mehdi Hasan on the Majority Report last week on the media presentation of the student protests as violent:
They get attacked by pro-Israel counter protesters on Sunday and Wednesday night. Jewish professors like David Myers, distinguished history professor at UCLA, Dov Waxman, chair of Israel studies at UCLA, are coming out and saying it’s the counter-protesters, it’s people shouting stuff in Hebrew, right, attacking us viciously.
That happens and the New York Times is “well, we’re not sure who did it”, CNN are like “well, both sides attacked each other.” Are you joking? It’s on camera.
World’s top climate scientists expect global heating to blast past 1.5C target | The Guardian
Hundreds of the world’s leading climate scientists expect global temperatures to rise to at least 2.5C (4.5F) above preindustrial levels this century, blasting past internationally agreed targets and causing catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet, an exclusive Guardian survey has revealed.
Almost 80% of the respondents, all from the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), foresee at least 2.5C of global heating, while almost half anticipate at least 3C (5.4F). Only 6% thought the internationally agreed 1.5C (2.7F) limit would be met.
Many of the scientists envisage a “semi-dystopian” future, with famines, conflicts and mass migration, driven by heatwaves, wildfires, floods and storms of an intensity and frequency far beyond those that have already struck.
Numerous experts said they had been left feeling hopeless, infuriated and scared by the failure of governments to act despite the clear scientific evidence provided.
“I think we are headed for major societal disruption within the next five years,” said Gretta Pecl, at the University of Tasmania. “ Authorities will be overwhelmed by extreme event after extreme event, food production will be disrupted. I could not feel greater despair over the future.”
Not surprising. We continue to move in the wrong direction.
Record-breaking increase in CO2 levels in world’s atmosphere | The Guardian
The largest ever recorded leap in the amount of carbon dioxide laden in the world’s atmosphere has just occurred, according to researchers who monitor the relentless accumulation of the primary gas that is heating the planet.
The global average concentration of carbon dioxide in March this year was 4.7 parts per million (or ppm) higher than it it was in March last year, which is a record-breaking increase in CO2 levels over a 12-month period.
Student Journalists Face Storm of Campus Protest Disinformation | WIRED
As campus protests reached new peaks last week, student newspapers like the Columbia Spectator at Columbia University were not only tasked with covering their peers but also the false and alarming narratives being spun up about and around them…
“I think the way that people saw the protest was completely different from how we observed it on campus. It wasn’t as rowdy as had been depicted. It was actually quite peaceful,” says Katrina Ventura, a student at Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism.
The US is propping up gas while the world moves to renewable energy - The Verge
“The decline of power sector emissions is now inevitable. 2023 was likely the pivot point – a major turning point in the history of energy. But the pace … depends on how fast the renewables revolution continues.”
It’s a transition that could be happening much faster if not for the US, which is already the world’s biggest gas producer, using record amounts of gas last year. Without the US, Ember finds, electricity generation from gas would have fallen globally in 2023.
Why is Jason Snell so confused about the iPad use case?
In the latest Upgrade Jason Snell’s just a broken record repeating his own nonsense at this point. His big storyline is the M4 iPad Pro is too expensive, too powerful for iPadOS. He wants to know what its use case is, who is it for?
But, now, wait, wait, wait. Wait. Thirteen months ago, Jason, along with every other podcaster/pundit, was asking the same question about the M2 iPad Pro. And, at that time, the big question, the demand being made over and over was: “Apple, where are your Pro apps for iPad? Where is Final Cut Pro? Where is Logic Pro? Where is Xcode?
Hey tech guy, just because some devices aren’t built around your needs doesn’t mean they are not useful to others: Jordyn Zimmerman a young, nonspeaking autistic woman uses the iPad to speak to those around her. It’s proven to be an invaluable part of her daily life and an essential tool through her education and now as an advocate for disability rights.
Jamie Wax sat down with Zimmerman in her first broadcast television interview to discuss the struggles she faced growing up, the way that a communication app on an iPad changed her life and her ability to connect with others.
A few thoughts on Apple's
While most are focused on the new iPad hardware I’ll start with what I consider the more important bits.
The importance of first and third party creative apps for professionals was highlighted by Apple and I think it’s worth a special call out as a counterpoint to the common narrative of the iPad is “Sure, the hardware is powerful but what can I do with it? It’s only good for consumption not creating.” An unfortunate story that won’t go away regardless of the many examples of real world uses by professionals creating a broad range of content.
The next month of iPad punditry is going to be unbearable. 🙄🧐🤔😵💫
Not a surprise that I disagree with much of what Jason Snell wrote in his iPad article today. In his ongoing wishcasting for the iPad to run a virtual Mac he writes:
If Apple were to accept that at the top of the iPad product line, the iPad literally transforms into a Mac, that choice would also take a lot of the pressure off of iPadOS.
I know I’m a broken record at this point, after years of investment, why would Apple back off of improving iPadOS each year? One after the other these guys just keep saying put macOS on the iPad and call it a day. Sounds like a great idea.
Does Files in iPadOS really need to keep slowly trudging toward life as an ersatz Finder? And more to the point, does anyone who has used Files over the past five and half years really believe it’ll ever get there? And should it even try, or is that stuffing way too much functionality into a much more basic, iPad-like file manager?
This one really gets me. Why do these folks keep insisting that the Files app is so basic? I did a fairly extensive comparison of the Files App on iPadOS 16 with the Mac Finder and I have to ask why they keep referring it as a basic app. Not only do I think it will get there but I think it’s pretty much there right now. Is it an exact, feature-for-feature replacement? No. But when put side-by-side with the Finder, Files does almost everything that a normal user would do and does so in a way that is very similar, nearly identical to the Finder. Go ahead, click the link and look at the side by sides.
I used a Mac from System 7.6 to the OS X Public Beta and all the way to the current version of macOS and I have no problems organizing, accessing, copying, moving files with the Files app. I’m not jumping through hoops or using work-around, it works like the Finder. And as I point out in the post above it also does a few things the Finder does not, which is to say, in some ways it’s actually more capable than the Finder.
Romney Admits Push to Ban TikTok Is Aimed at Censoring News Out of Gaza | Common Dreams
A discussion between U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Sen. Mitt Romney over the weekend included what one critic called an “incredible mask-off moment,” with the two officials speaking openly about the U.S. government’s long-term attempts to provide public relations work for Israel in defense of its policies in the occupied Palestinian territories—and its push to ban TikTok in order to shut down Americans' access to unfiltered news about the Israeli assault on Gaza.
The wealthy 10% of the over-developed nations are wondering where they’ll fly to for their next vacation.
Brazil battles nature as ‘largest ever’ floods submerge whole cities - YouTube
At least 83 people are dead after days of heavy rain in southern Brazil and more than a hundred are missing.
Another 122 thousand people have been displaced by floods, which have destroyed roads and bridges in several cities, triggered landslides and caused a dam to partially collapse.
Khürt Williams over at Island in the Net has a wonderful and ongoing series of bird photography posts. He doesn’t just stop at sharing a photo with the name of the bird. Each post is well written description of the bird as it exists in the ecosystem. Well done Khürt!