Apple IOS is so frustrating!

[Progresjon]

So, a few weeks ago I bought my first ever apple product, an ipad mini. Love the photography related apps. But most everything else is a frustrating nightmare! The filemanagment for even something like an epub makes me want to pull my hair out. How is this so popular? Thought maybe it could do more than photography apps… but everything is so much menudiving and then it probably is defined by apple what I am allowd to do and not.
I am used to android, linux and windows. Had an workrelated foray into macs in the mid 00s.
I did some research before buying, and it seemed like the only decent spec small tablet.
But, but, but…

How do you guys use this thing without going bonkers??

 

[lucien]

Have you been to the app store yet. They have Genres for all kinds of apps including free ones. Spend some time online and go through what they have in order to suite your needs. It does read epub, and here's the kicker "Siri" can read the book to you. There are also Audio books if your feeling lazy. Ton's of stuff out there. Google and youtube are your friends. What pisses me off is their music management/playback system.

Good luck,

 

[Progresjon]

Have tried several epub readers, but have yet to find one that reads files in batches and manually one by one. have a folder of several years worth of red epubs I love to reread from time to time. But no way am I going tom manually put each file into an app. Why can not the apps just read the files on the device? Have not found one single app so far that does this. They have plenty for «buy your book here» but none for already owned books.

And the viritual keyboard, do not get me started, trying several others. How can it be such a difference??

Hahaha, well, I will find the thing it does well eventually and hopefully that will be it saving grace.

 

[Grinsaround]

So, a few weeks ago I bought my first ever apple product, an ipad mini. Love the photography related apps. But most everything else is a frustrating nightmare! The filemanagment for even something like an epub makes me want to pull my hair out. How is this so popular? Thought maybe it could do more than photography apps… but everything is so much menudiving and then it probably is defined by apple what I am allowd to do and not.
I am used to android, linux and windows. Had an workrelated foray into macs in the mid 00s.
I did some research before buying, and it seemed like the only decent spec small tablet.
But, but, but…

How do you guys use this thing without going bonkers??

“Use” is the operative word. I have an iPad mini as well. I use it for one thing - browsing the internet, email, and the occasional app for controlling something on my TV or stereo. From the couch. Anything that requires real work, business applications, or file management, I use a REAL computer instead of a glorified remote. Used to be you could connect to USB and at least copy pictures directly if you wanted but now not so much. That was just gone one day. I can’t see anyone using it for their only device my any means.

 

[Toddster]

I recently switched from the Windows and Android world to all Apple. I too find file management on IOS very frustrating. My understanding is that it has to do with security; an App only has access to a memory location for that App. I use VLC Media Player to show short videos to a class I teach. The only way I have found to get the files to play in VLC is to attach the tablet to my Mac and copy the files to VLC. Once the files are there everything works fine with VLC being able to play them. No other App can see them though. It is VERY frustrating that the files can be on the tablet and not usable by anything other than the App they were copied to. It is even MORE frustrating that if I move files to the tablet in a more traditional way I can see them in the file manager but they can't be opened by any 3rd party Apps.

I do think Apple is updating the IOS file system in IOS 16. Hopefully we will see more flexibility and a file system that is actually usable.

 

[fredlong]

I think MapleRead will open books from the Files App.

Or just sell the thing if it's that much trouble and pick up a nicely specced Android tablet from Samsung. I think there's some decent photo and graphics apps for those now.

 

[fredlong]

It is even MORE frustrating that if I move files to the tablet in a more traditional way I can see them in the file manager but they can't be opened by any 3rd party Apps.

Many file types will open in many apps directly from the Files app. I just opened an ePub file into the Books app directly from Files. The downside is it copied the file into Books.

 

[Progresjon]

I recently switched from the Windows and Android world to all Apple. I too find file management on IOS very frustrating. My understanding is that it has to do with security; an App only has access to a memory location for that App. I use VLC Media Player to show short videos to a class I teach. The only way I have found to get the files to play in VLC is to attach the tablet to my Mac and copy the files to VLC. Once the files are there everything works fine with VLC being able to play them. No other App can see them though. It is VERY frustrating that the files can be on the tablet and not usable by anything other than the App they were copied to. It is even MORE frustrating that if I move files to the tablet in a more traditional way I can see them in the file manager but they can't be opened by any 3rd party Apps.

I do think Apple is updating the IOS file system in IOS 16. Hopefully we will see more flexibility and a file system that is actually usable.

Thank you for sharing, everybody and their mother seems to praise this shit to high heavens. Haha, but the cons are som very there. Not saying tha the other ones does not, just that there is less purpusly not giving us option to get things to work.

I think MapleRead will open books from the Files App.

Or just sell the thing if it's that much trouble and pick up a nicely specced Android tablet from Samsung. I think there's some decent photo and graphics apps for those now.

SERIOUSLY considering it!

Many file types will open in many apps directly from the Files app. I just opened an ePub file into the Books app directly from Files. The downside is it copied the file into Books.

One file at a time yeah, that works (mostly),but I have a folder. And well. No luck.

 

[wt21]

There’s a major paradigm shift. Apple products are not file-first, they are app first. If you try to drive especially iOS from a file management paradigm, you will go bonkers.

I switched from windows in 2007 and it took some getting used to. Now I can’t use windows without a struggle.

 

[Progresjon]

There’s a major paradigm shift. Apple products are not file-first, the6 are app first. If you try to drive especially iOS from a file management paradigm, you will go bonkers.

I switched from windows in 2007 and it too some getting used to. Now I can’t use windows without a struggle.

This makes so much sense! All of a sudden I get more of my/the problem. Thanks. And this just go me one step closer to selling. Will give it some time with this new mindset of app first and see if that makes it better for me. Somehow this was really helpful, something clicked in place in a way. Thanks again.

 

[WhidbeyLVR]

I love using my iPad for web browsing, but I have given up trying to use it for photo processing. iOS/iPadOS is app-centric. The apps prefer to create, own, and closely guard their objects. They yield to import/export very unwillingly; you have to "share" objects to a short list of recipient types. The Files app is a weak afterthought.

I prefer the workbench approach, where I have a variety of great tools which can be used on any given project. If my hammer refused accept my birdhouse project from my saw, and yield it to my screwdriver and paint brush, I would throw the #@!&! hammer in the trash!

 

[bdbits]

It is not the fault of the app developers; Apple has specifically forced devs to go this way. I do not think they have a choice.

I could not find the exact quote, but somebody once compared iOS and Android like this, and I think it applies to other non-iOSen as well... Android OS is like a house in the countryside. You can pretty much do whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want, but you are responsible for protecting and taking care of your property. iOS is like a house in the city. There are bars on the windows, the door is always locked, and the houses all look the same. You are generally safe if you stay inside but if something fails, you will have to send for help.

It's not a perfect metaphor, but it is not that far off either.

 

[MoonMind]

Interesting thread for me - because I'm in the same boat: Since I'll be doing an extensive project with an Apple-only partner, I got myself an iPad Air (M1 model, everything but inexpensive) and have run into some issues, mostly because of choices Apple made. I know why I'm putting myself through this, but so far, I have some trouble enjoying the ride - I hoped I might, but up until now, I certainly don't. The faint idea of going all-in as already evaporated - instead, a new max'ed out Windows laptop (that I can convert to an absolutely ridiculously awesome GNU/Linux machine once it's served its time as a laptop for work) seems way more attractive than even the new M2 Macbook Air or Pro ... at a considerably lower price.

However, I'm still willing to learn and maybe be happier about a tool that I'll have to use no matter what for a considerable period of time ...

Looking forward to gaining more insights, will share thoughts and questions some time in July (busy, busy ...).

N.B. I *have* found some interesting apps and tools already, but I'm nowhere near what I want to be able to do, so ... Keep the suggestions coming

M.

 

[William Lewis]

Used Apple in the past. Earlier version of OS X on PPC weren't too bad but as time as progressed, they get more and more into the "lock you in" mindset as does Microsoft. The transition to Intel started things downhill and I'm glad I'm not around for the switch to ARM.

For the next two weeks, I'm giving Darktable a try. If that can replace Capture One for me then all I have to do is find a way to get the game Warframe to play on Linux or FreeBSD and I'll nuke Windows like I did OS X back when. Or, perhaps, a small dual boot partition with Windows 10 and only Steam on it.

 

[Kevin]

Interesting thread, usually I see only the pro-Apple type posts touting iPads over their Android counterparts.

Is there no stock 'file explorer' equivalent at all?

 

[fredlong]

Interesting thread, usually I see only the pro-Apple type posts touting iPads over their Android counterparts.

Is there no stock 'file explorer' equivalent at all?

There’s not a file explorer because there is no file system. I’ve been using an iPad Pro for almost everything including all my photo work for about five years. It’s not perfect and there are some frustrating aspects but it’s been doing everything I need.

 

[John King]

I use a Lenovo Tab 11.

Decent screen and network card, USB-C, 256GB RAM (8 GB system RAM), plus takes up to a 1TB microSD card. Huge battery (does a 14 hour day of relatively constant use on less than 50% of the battery charge), fast charging.

Easy to hold, due to battery "tube" on one side, and stand/hanging handle. Robust. Not crammed with Google bloatware.

Connects to my phones, other tablets, PCs and network printers.

Not the cheapest, but Lenovo have a good track record of updating our older devices. And almost everything is cheaper to buy than Apple stuff.

 

[bdbits]

I had a Lenovo 7-inch (I think) tablet a few years ago. I liked it very much, my wife used it the most until the screen got a crack (our fault) and while it actually still runs, the crack is pretty bad albeit near a corner. I never got around to replacing it.

For the next two weeks, I'm giving Darktable a try. If that can replace Capture One for me then all I have to do is find a way to get the game Warframe to play on Linux or FreeBSD and I'll nuke Windows like I did OS X back when. Or, perhaps, a small dual boot partition with Windows 10 and only Steam on it.

I for one will be very interested in how this works out for you. I used Linux at home, and Unix at work, some years ago, and have been contemplating a return. Replacing Capture One would be very difficult for me though, after using it since version 6 or 7. Darktable does look interesting, another one I've run across is Digikam, and both also run on Windows and Mac.

 

[MoonMind]

I don't get the "There's no file explorer" thing ... I just used an app called Files to tranfer my music collection from the cloud (pCloud) to the iPad, and while it didn't work marvellously, it *did* work, and as well as on Android. This needs a little more explanation.

What *was* a pain is the VLC's search function only works in its own folder - that's true! And there's the fact that no other app (so far) seems to be able to access that folder, but I've not tried a lot of them ...

N.B. I'll try to report some stuff tomorrow and start asking more precise questions then as well - busy day ahead.

M.

 

[lucien]

I had a Lenovo 7-inch (I think) tablet a few years ago. I liked it very much, my wife used it the most until the screen got a crack (our fault) and while it actually still runs, the crack is pretty bad albeit near a corner. I never got around to replacing it.


I for one will be very interested in how this works out for you. I used Linux at home, and Unix at work, some years ago, and have been contemplating a return. Replacing Capture One would be very difficult for me though, after using it since version 6 or 7. Darktable does look interesting, another one I've run across is Digikam, and both also run on Windows and Mac.

why don't you just dual boot the system like a 70-30 split or something?