Apple’s new iPad Pro spot asks ’what’s a computer?’
- nov
- 16
'What's a computer?' shows that laptops aren't the only answer and may not even be the best answer for everyone.
I love it. This is iPad. It's not a laptop replacement, whatever that means, but it's a laptop alternative that an incredibly diverse array of people will find more mobile, more flexible, and more accessible than any laptop.
It's the combination of ludicrously powerful Apple silicon with dazzling beautiful ProMotion display and the approachable but increasingly sophisticated capabilities of iOS that let iPad Pro be more things to more people.
"What's a Computer?" features a day-in-the-life of a young lady who picks her iPad Pro up off the floor in the morning and doesn't stop until she puts it back down at night. It travels with her in her backpack. It pops out the Smart Keyboard for her to type with in an alley, on a counter, and in the yard. It becomes a canvas for her Apple Pencil drawings and slides. And it lets her game as she busses around town.
It's exactly what an iPad Pro commercial needs to be — a window into what we can accomplish with a computing appliance that can not only lasts all day but can come with us almost everywhere, for almost everything, throughout the day.
I still switch back and forth between my Mac and iPad Pro, partly because I'm old and the trackpad and multiwindow paradigm is muscle memory for me now, and partly because Apple doesn't yet completely support the workflows I need for things like multi-header podcasting on iOS.
But I'm increasingly taking iPad Pro with me when I go out because it's already ready, always connected, and has the fastest time-to-use of any computing device I've ever owned. (iPhone notwithstanding.)
I do wish Apple would better address having and taking an Apple Pencil along for the ride — the new sleeve just doesn't do it for me — but other than that, when you add in the new camera capabilities, iPad Pro really starts to show that laptops aren't the only answer and certainly aren't even the best answer for everyone.
More like this, please.