iPad "Surface" -- er, "Pro"

Posted by MadaboutDana
Sep 10, 2015 at 12:18 PM

I agree with Ken: you can’t compare the iPad Pro and the Surface in any really meaningful way, because they do such very different things. There’s a big overlap, of course, but having watched young filmmakers use the iPad as a platform for remote-controlling multiple iPhone and GoPro cameras, I think iOS has achieved a level of mobile integration that’s miles away from where the Surface is currently at. The iPad Pro is another step in this super mobile platform direction: it’s an entirely new mobile environment, really. Plus the Apple Pencil really is astonishingly good, and once the next generation of 3D Touch is added (as in the new iPhones), it’ll lift the iPad line to new heights.

I’m amused and fascinated by the differences in Apple’s and Microsoft’s philosophies. Apple’s MacBook and iPad Pro are very comparable in certain ways; they probably even weigh about the same once you add on the Smart Keyboard, but they’re based on very different software models. Microsoft has gone for the fully integrated approach: it’s bold, I applaud their courage, but it hasn’t really caught on yet. Hey, maybe it will. In certain respects, I’m platform-agnostic. On the other hand, having moved to Mac, I don’t find myself missing Windows. At all, unfortunately.

Which reminds me: has anybody else watched the demo of uMark, shown as part of the iPad Pro write-up on the main Apple website? It’s absolutely amazing, even though it’s still in beta. It demonstrates, perhaps better than any other single app, just how large the gulf is between the Surface philosophy and the iPad philosophy.