Convergence in Cupertino. I'm not in the market for a new computer, but I think at this point I'd choose to pay less for a Surface and get more than what the iPad Pro offers.

That was my reaction! Although you can't run Ulysses on a Surface, and I'm really beginning to find Ulysses and iPad Air (with the Microsoft Universal Mobile Keyboard) a great writing instrument.

A decision depends greatly on both your specific hardware and software needs, but if you are looking at Windows-based devices like the Surface, you may want to have a look at HP's Spectre x360. It has been getting great reviews, and is a good alternative to the Surface if you are not primarily making a decision based on size. It is on my short list for a replacement laptop, and I have been a loyal Thinkpad owner for the past nine years. Worth considering IMHO.

Good luck,

--Ken

I agree with Ken: you can't compare the iPad Pro and the Surface in any really meaningful way, because they do such very different things. There's a big overlap, of course, but having watched young filmmakers use the iPad as a platform for remote-controlling multiple iPhone and GoPro cameras, I think iOS has achieved a level of mobile integration that's miles away from where the Surface is currently at. The iPad Pro is another step in this super mobile platform direction: it's an entirely new mobile environment, really. Plus the Apple Pencil really is astonishingly good, and once the next generation of 3D Touch is added (as in the new iPhones), it'll lift the iPad line to new heights.

I'm amused and fascinated by the differences in Apple's and Microsoft's philosophies. Apple's MacBook and iPad Pro are very comparable in certain ways; they probably even weigh about the same once you add on the Smart Keyboard, but they're based on very different software models. Microsoft has gone for the fully integrated approach: it's bold, I applaud their courage, but it hasn't really caught on yet. Hey, maybe it will. In certain respects, I'm platform-agnostic. On the other hand, having moved to Mac, I don't find myself missing Windows. At all, unfortunately.

Which reminds me: has anybody else watched the demo of uMark, shown as part of the iPad Pro write-up on the main Apple website? It's absolutely amazing, even though it's still in beta. It demonstrates, perhaps better than any other single app, just how large the gulf is between the Surface philosophy and the iPad philosophy.

Sorry, my error: uMake (uMark is a watermarking app!). More details here: https://www.umake.xyz

UMake looks great - finally a reason to replace my iPad 2 ;-)
But I don't see why that should not be possible on a Windows tablet with decent processing power. The Lenovo x201/x220/x230 notebook/tablet combos should be powerful enough. If only someone developed such an app for Windows.

Yeah, but that's just it, innit? People **don't** develop apps like that for Windows, just for iOS. And in view of the enormous power of the iPad Air 2 and iPad Pro, with their extraordinarily smooth gesture/stylus input, you can see why.

Not that I particularly want to knock Windows here – I've spent a happy hour or two playing with Surfaces (the pleb one and the Pro), and they're very nice. But when it comes to simple, unencumbered graphical power, gimme an iPad any time.

A simple list of the top iOS graphics apps shows you why the iPad is so popular with artists. It supports a whole bunch of very powerful apps (e.g. Pixelmator) that are the equivalent of desktop apps but stripped down for convenient mobile use. Windows attempts to do that, but falls into the "which interface?" trap. Just to take a simple example, there are two versions of OneNote: one is the graphical one for mobile use, the other is the desktop one. Is it surprising that the iOS version of OneNote is actually better than either of them (although it lacks folding, sadly)? With Windows, you're always having to ask yourself that question - am I now working in mobile or desktop mode? I think it's more of an obstacle than Microsoft ever realised it would be, and largely explains why there are relatively few Windows mobile apps (although their cunning decision to release free software for migrating iOS apps to Windows may help solve this problem). Certainly it's a question I find myself asking whenever I start playing on a Surface.

Not so much "Am I a Mac? Or a PC?" but "Am I a mobile Windows user? Or a desktop Windows user? And which does this machine do best? Rats, I'm not sure..."

MadaboutDana wrote:

A simple list of the top iOS graphics apps shows you why the iPad is so
popular with artists. It supports a whole bunch of very powerful apps
(e.g. Pixelmator) that are the equivalent of desktop apps but stripped
down for convenient mobile use.

Speaking from the artist and graphic design community, I can tell you that while most working artists might use an iPad for rough conceptual work or showing ideas to clients, very few regard the iPad as a serious creation tool. You are more likely to see a digital artists with a MacBook Pro and a small Wacom tablet as their portable setup than any of them using the iOS graphics apps. A graphic design community forum that I'm a member of is cautiously optimistic about the iPad Pro, but most seem pretty skeptical that it will be any less of a frustrating toy than the rest of the iPads.

Interesting. And I'd certainly agree that iPads haven't really made it beyond the drafting/conceptualisation stage for the serious artist/draftsperson. Which, while a useful stage in its own right, isn't exactly ground-breaking.

But I'm firmly convinced that the iPad Pro is Apple's next big step in this direction... ;-)

If you get a chance – as a professional – to play with the Apple Pencil on an iPad Pro, perhaps you would let us know your thoughts? That would be really interesting!

Bill,

I dunno. I have a bunch of "painting" apps on my iPad. But to do serious work (i.e., doing a few simple scribbles as illustrations - I am a writer, not an illustrator), I go back to my Thinkpad x201 tablet as e.g. Autodesk Sketchbook Pro is faster and more precise to paint with on Windows than on my iPad 2; I do use the pen of the Thinkpad and have a Wacom pen on the iPad. The rest of the painting apps keep frustrating me.

That may be me, my frustration level is much lower when trying to get ink on a screen than when writing :-) But OTOH, the graphics artists I know see the iPad as a toy or a scribbling tool, not a serious illustrator's tool.

Franz

Ah, Zoe was faster :-)

I should like the iPad Pro - together with the appropriate software - to be an effective handwriting-to-text machine; if it turns out to be such a machine, it may also give handwriting-recognition software developers a welcome boost. Whether the Pro turns out to have the screen resolution and discrimination and response-snappiness to be so, remains to be seen. The introduction of the Apple Pencil and the design of its sharp tip are positive signs.

A speculative view of the pencil as a manuscript-annotation device, from author David Hewson: http://davidhewson.com/2015/09/apples-pencil-will-it-be-worth-the-wait/

And an interesting article on the professional comic artists' take: http://money.cnn.com/2015/09/10/technology/apple-pencil-stylus/index.html