In a CNET post, Scott Stein says the iPad is almost a Mac now, but it’s time to finish the job. And I agree.
I’ve said multiple times that I’d love to be able to run Apple World Today on my iPad. It has several advantages over my Mac: cellular capability, a gorgeous OLED display, a touchscreen, and Apple Pencil support. However, it doesn’t run macOS — and iPadOS 26, as much of an improvement, as it was, still can’t take the place of macOS in my daily workflow. Apparently, Scott agrees.
From his post: Most iPads and Macs share the same M-series hardware and work with similar-feeling keyboards and trackpads. There’s absolutely no reason I can see why an iPad couldn’t also be a Mac, other than Apple deciding the software should be functionally different. (As for a Mac being an iPad, well, you’d need a touchscreen for that, and you’d need Pencil support, so it would be more complicated.)
Getting all the Mac and iPad apps to be truly cross-compatible across an OS that would recognize both wouldn’t be easy, but Apple can do it. Mac apps had to transition from Intel to ARM-based hardware, and before that from PowerPC to Intel. This time, at least, the hardware is the same…but the goals of the apps are different.
I agree. Do you?
If Apple were to release iPadOS versions of its Pixelmator Pro and Screenshot apps, that might make me move from macOS to iPadOS.
But for now, I’ll be eagerly awaiting the rumored M6 MacBook Pro with an OLED display, touch screen, and cellular support.
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