Not Using the iPad

Many people seem to use their iPad (and iPhone) as a device only for "preliminary processing", leaving the real work for their "real computer". These people still feel as if they are missing something when they are on their iPad — as if they are doing everything in only the most basic of ways. And this group of people, in which you may find yourself included, is not at all wrong, nor alone.

You probably want to use your iPad more than only once, maybe twice a day. You probably feel as if you should, and could, be using it more than you do. But for some reason, a reason you can't quite pinpoint, you don't. And instead, every time something comes up, no matter how small, even if it's just checking RSS or Twitter, you reach for your Mac instead of your iPad. We can do just about everything on our iPad, but there is almost an element of fakeness to everything, and it seems faster on our Macs. Sometimes it is, and sometimes it isn't. But even when it isn't we still prefer our Macs.

But why is this? Why do so many people share this feeling about their iPad? And what, exactly, even is this feeling?

Simplicity

Well, in a word, it's simplicity. We feel like iOS is dumbed-down. We don't feel fully empowered. And, again, sometimes this is true, and sometimes it is not. But regardless, we prefer to see everything on our Mac. We want the speed, the processing power, the full keyboard. The ability to quickly switch between applications. The ability to, when browsing RSS or Twitter, quickly pop open a tab with a link we want to read in the background. We certainly can do that on our iPads — but it's much faster on our Mac. Our Macs run the way that we have grown used to working — and enjoy working. Our iPads do almost just as much, but they do it differently. More simply.

It doesn't matter what we want to do, we turn to our Mac because it is the most powerful tool for the job. And why not use the most powerful tool for the job (even though, sometimes, it's not even the best)? Why intentionally limit how we can work by using an iPad when a Mac is just as easily accessible?

Now, this, of course, does not apply to everyone. There are plenty of "power users" who have been using their iPad as their primary or, in some cases, only computer for quite some time now. But there seem to be far more geeks that share the mentality explained above.

In The Mac Lies the Solution

Slowly but surely the Mac is becoming more and more like iOS. This is not only making OS X simpler (in some ways for the better, in other ways for the worse) but, by comparison, it is making iOS devices more powerful. As, and indeed when, the gap between iOS and the Mac is filled by iOS progressing and the Mac becoming even simpler, and as workflows on the two different devices are no longer that different, I think we will all be using iOS just as often as OS X. As usual, this conundrum will only change with time.