The computer I really want from Apple...

With the release of the new ultra-thin OLED M4-based iPad Pro’s, a lot of talk has spun up (again) about the ‘amazing hardware! 😃’ being ‘let down by the iPadOS software 😏’. As a an ex-believer in the future of computing being tablet-based (and an original iPad Pro owner), I have long given up hope that I would ever truly be satisfied with an iPad as my only computer…

You’d think that as a photographer, an iPad Pro would be an AMAZING computer for me—unfortunately, like many other professionals and so called “power-users”, this just isn’t the case.

For example, as good as it is, Lightroom (on iPad) lacks features I regularly use in Lightroom Classic, such as the ability to stitch panoramas, and (manually) geo-tag photos. However the bigger issue is that it just isn’t designed to deal with production workflows such as tethering, exporting multiple files at once, or opening several images into Photoshop as layers for compositing.

Until recently, I never wanted Apple to “merge” iPadOS with macOS. I thought it would be impossible to have a desktop-class OS have large enough buttons to be touch-able while also retaining the information density I am used to. I felt like a focused touch-first OS was the way to go.

However when I saw that the “thinnest Apple device EVER” M4 iPad Pro with the new Magic Keyboard is about as thin and light as a 13” MacBook Air… Well it got my gears turning.

Now that both iPad Pro and macOS both run on Apple Silicon, many have suggested that Apple “just” give us an “escape hatch” of a Mac app, such that when us power-users run into problems, we could just launch the Mac app and get it done!

I feel like we are thinking about this backwards and Apple should reconsider adding touch-screen support to MacOS…

Here’s how I think it should work.

Consider a “MacBook Studio”—effectively, an iPad Pro permanently attached to a keyboard base that can completely flip around to be a solid tablet. Yes, then the keyboard would be facing out, but a magnetic folio accessory could easily cover and protect the keyboard when in tablet mode or cover and protect the whole closed (like a laptop) device. Like the current iPad folio accessory, it could also create tilted angles for the device to stand up or angled up as an easel for drawing. In addition to functioning like a laptop and straight tablet you could open it like an A-frame for airplane movie watching, for example. With the keyboard completely flipped behind the screen it would also be a far more elegant laptop-as-a-second-screen, connected to an external display and using an external keyboard & mouse.

Pencil Pro support would obviously be included, just like on the new iPads. But because MacBook is in the name, it could include an array of ports (AND A MF’ING SD CARD SLOT, please).

You may be thinking, “Isn’t just use a Microsoft Surface? Why not just use one of those?”. Uhhh… No. I really don’t want to use Windows. Moreover it is not a good tablet.

You know where all the good tablet apps are? iPadOS.

The software key to such an Apple device is that the tablet-part of this computer would be an iPadOS overlay to macOS. Many apps (mail, messages, notes, etc.) could “grow” menu bars and stop-lights when in Mac mode. They would need to build a shared storage model so data is accessible to both macOS and iPadOS at the same time (rebuild Finder in SwiftUI?). Classic desktop apps not built to morph between iPad-mode and Mac-mode would be less functional when using the device like a tablet, but Apple could build software features into macOS to make them largely functional, such as an iPad-like software keyboard for text entry, using a Pencil to touch smaller buttons and being able to pinch-to-zoom and scroll inside of document windows (like in Photoshop).

I can hear people argue that “Apple would never allow apps from two different OS’s to run in one environment!”, well… macOS can already run iPad apps, obviously. Also look at visionOS—by allowing a Mac to be projected into that environment, I think they already recognize that their iOS-based operating systems just aren’t enough for many, many users.

Personally, I feel like this hypothetical device solves nearly all the complaints people have about the iPad Pro. By being a Mac that also runs iPad apps, you have the full flexibility of macOS while also running best-in-class tablet apps. But here’s the other side of the coin, they could still sell iPadOS-only iPads—for all those who like the simplicity of the original concept of an iPad.

A “MacBook Studio” is my dream device… and I would buy this computer SO FAST if Apple went down this road!

Thank you for dreaming along with me.