I think Cory is a bit harsh. I've had every version of the iPad since my first iPad (3G) in April 2010, and it continues to be useful as a mid-way point (car) between my iMac (truck) and iPhone (bicycle). In fact, I had an iPad four years before I bought my first iPhone. While…
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Sunday Paper - The iPad is not the best at everything, The Rural Creative Class, 10000 Steps
Riccardo MoriMy habits and preferences betray my somewhat long history with computers and technology. I didn’t grow up with smartphones and tablets. My first home computer was a Commodore VIC-20. I was 27 when I first used a mobile phone. Despite what some people may think, I’m not averse to change and my brain is still flexible enough to pick up new habits or change old ones. What happens when you get older, though, is you tend to consider more often whether changing a habit or rethinking a workflow is actually worth it. And what I’ve always said about the iPad in this regard is this: if I’m faster, more efficient, more productive with a Mac (or, in certain fringe cases, with an iPhone), why should I learn a more convoluted path to be able to do the same thing — but more slowly and less efficiently — on an iPad?
Riccardo hits the nail on the head. I've been an iPad user since the first iteration in 2010. While I love using my current iPad Pro, the hyperbole that the iPad is the only computer most people need bothers me. I perform too many computing tasks which, although possible on the iPad, are inefficient. While…
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If Apple allowed multiple users on iOS, then my partner could set up the iPad with a second account when the child wants to use the device, and not have to worry. There are several ways Apple could do this.
The first is to allow nominative user accounts. The advantage to this is that you could set restrictions that are appropriate to the child's age for each account. And if you could do this for multiple children, then you would be comfortable that each child using the device would not be able to use it in ways that you don't approve or intend.
The other option would be to create a general guest account, such as on the Mac, which has a set of default settings that you could adjust. This account would not be nominative, though Apple would have to allow you to set an Apple ID for the iTunes Store and App Store. The problem with this is signing into apps that provide content, such as Netflix; there would need to be a way for those apps to use the credentials signed into the main user account.
Finally, there could be a Children account by default in iOS that you could create, or activate, which retains all your login details for apps, yet limits the activity that users can perform. Again, Netflix is a good example of this. It allows you to set up profiles for different users, each of which retains their own settings, watch list, etc., and each profile can have a maturity level. In addition, there's a default Children profile (called "Kids" in the U.S. Netflix) that you can use at any time, so kids only see appropriate content.
Multiple accounts imply separate storage, memory and sandboxed account spaces and application state context for each user profile. Is the current storage limits on current iPads and the current sandboxing environment, etc. conducive to multiple accounts? iOS shutdowns and saves the current state of apps that are no longer in "active" context. How will this…
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