All the little things that add up to make iPadOS productivity a problem

Rumor has it that a new iPad Pro is imminent, which means Apple is about to make another big pitch for the iPad as a productivity and content creation device.

But while we’ve found in our iPadOS reviews that Apple has done a wonderful job with the overall changes to the operating system aimed at making it user-friendly for actual work, there are still a bunch of little or “no,” glitches. you can “t do that” limitations that sabotage Apple’s intentions.

Because of this, it makes sense to prevent this upcoming marketing push with a few key caveats, especially since Apple likely won’t be announcing a major iPadOS software update alongside the new hardware in March. Significant new operating system changes are unlikely to be discussed until the company’s developer conference in June, and these updates likely won’t reach the public until September or October.

Most of these problems are tiny, but they add up. IPads aren’t going to be a real laptop replacement for everyone until most of these issues are resolved.

Webcams and multitasking

It won’t take you long in today’s computer use cases to notice this one: iPad’s front camera turns off when you swipe away from the app that’s using it, Zoom included. Critics have raised this question time and time again when reviewing recent iPads – including us. But 12 iPadOS updates later, that’s still a problem.

Granted, some apps will show your camera view in a small picture-in-picture window compared to other apps when you change spaces. But you don’t always want to see that – onscreen real estate is very expensive on iPads – and not all apps do.

When third-party apps don’t support picture-in-picture view, Apple needs to find a way to get them to do so. But even better: allow users to enable per-app background video capture in settings.

A lot of people spend a lot of time on video calls these days, for obvious reasons. It would be great if Apple’s flagship, consumer and dedicated computing product did it right.

Managing audio sources

Obviously, the iPad supports background audio. Apps like Apple Music or Spotify can play in the background, as can some (but not all) video apps. The problem is, it’s too easy for the currently active app to silence the background one, as two audio sources usually can’t be played at the same time.

So, for example, if you are watching a Twitch stream in the background but an autoplaying video with audio appears on a webpage, your Twitch stream will stop. You will need to stop the web video and then return to the Twitch app to restart it. And sometimes there are websites or apps that support your audio even though they seemingly don’t make any audio right now.

At a minimum, the iPad should either not stop the first audio source when this happens, or at least resume playing whatever was playing in the background once the new audio source starts. But the ideal situation would be a panel to manage multiple audio sources at a time per application, including their levels.

External monitors

When Apple first announced that the iPad Pro would be able to work with external monitors via USB-C as part of an overview of the Pro as a robust productivity and content creation device, many users expected something very different from what they got.

Yes, you can connect your iPad Pro to an external USB-C monitor. But usually it just mirrors the iPad screen. It doesn’t give you more space for apps, or even adopt the aspect ratio of the screen you’re sending the image to.

There are a very small number of iPad apps, like iMovie, that allow you to use the external monitor a little differently. But the vast majority don’t, making support for external monitors virtually unnecessary on the Apple tablet.

The limits of the USB-C port

Lightning’s switch to USB-C in recent iPads is welcome, although it means some people have had to buy new cables. The ecosystem of USB-C accessories – such as external storage devices, monitors, music production tools, etc. – is quite robust compared to what we offer on Lightning.

So, we’re not hitting USB-C here. We hit the number of USB-C ports. The iPad Pro only has one, and too often it doesn’t work well with external USB-C hubs that you might normally use with a Mac. Users complain of constant disconnections and inconsistent behavior. Some hubs just don’t work.

If Apple can’t count on other companies like CalDigit to do this well, and if it really has to insist on not adding at least one additional port, then it needs to free up its own USB-C docking station which is guaranteed to work properly with the iPad.

The fact that Apple removed the headphone jack from recent iPads certainly didn’t help. Some of the advertising around the iPad Pro has centered around music production, but good luck producing music when you can’t easily connect both an instrument and headphones at the same time.

You’ll need a dongle, which is expensive and complicated, and a lot of them don’t work well.

Support for professional applications

A computer is only as good as the applications it can run, of course. And while the iPad has many great apps for content consumption, productivity, and creativity, popular app users in some business contexts face a big gap between iPadOS and macOS or Windows.

And it’s not just third parties. Apple’s own Final Cut, Logic and Xcode are not available on the iPad. There aren’t a ton of great options from other companies either. Yes, Adobe has been working on fairly robust versions of Photoshop and Illustrator for the iPad, but we haven’t heard a word on Premiere, for example.

And many widely used business applications from other companies are also not available. There is no Maya, no Blender, no Unity, no Visual Studio. There is an AutoCAD application, but it is not very functional compared to the desktop version.

If Apple is to continue calling the iPad a device for professional content creators, it must convince these third parties to release more functional iPad apps. And at least as importantly, he has to adapt his own software to the device.

How likely are we to see these changes?

For years, Apple has moved away from the idea of ​​more ports, large feature sets, etc., especially on mobile devices like the iPad. So in the past we wouldn’t have expected most of these things to actually happen.

However, the world of Apple devices looks noticeably different following reliable reports that new MacBook Pro laptops later this year will include SD cards or HDMI ports. Apple seems to be changing course to better court high-end customers and some professional customers. Well, at least as far as the Mac is concerned.

The company at has moved aggressively in other ways on the iPad front as well, at least in terms of software – though perhaps not as fast as everyone would like. It seems plausible to us that multitasking issues (like those with webcams and audio sources) can be resolved in the future. And at this point, never ever tell the iPad versions of Logic or Final Cut.

We’re less optimistic about the idea of ​​a multi-port iPad Pro, and there’s little Apple can do to attract third parties to build more robust apps for the platform.

Apple is expected to announce a new iPad Pro before the end of March, so we’ll have a clue as to what’s to come soon enough.

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