YouTube Deep Summary

(upbeat music) - So when iPadOS 26 got unveiled at WDC this year, it looked like a game changer. And I wasn't the only one saying that. Many, many people had the same feeling watching all this new stuff. It felt like everybody on the internet who was waiting for years for Apple to just do the thing, just watched Apple finally do the thing. They just made the iPad a computer. But, you know, this is Apple we're talking about here and there's no way they would just turn the iPad into a Mac, right? They still need to sell Macs. Obviously there's gotta be some kind of catch, right? So I did what any logical tech reviewer would do. I installed iPadOS 26 beta as soon as it was available on my iPad. And then I took my MacBook Pro that I've used daily out of my backpack. So I've been living with the iPad in its place for the past three weeks or so now to be able to give you a real answer. So first things first. I already loved my iPad before this update. Like full disclosure, it was one of my favorite pieces of tech, and I'll also admit that I didn't use it that much because when you also have a MacBook Pro readily available to do any work tasks and stuff that I need to get done outside of the studio, this just kind of became like a glorified media machine. Like lots of YouTube video watching, lots of web browsing, some occasional email or Slack. And then once in a while, I'll have some fun with image editing or playing a game or two. But again, if I have my laptop with me, which I almost always do, then this extremely powerful iPad often went underused. So I would consider this update a success if I can stop carrying my MacBook Pro with me. Except for editing. I know I'm probably always gonna need that for editing just based on my workflow. But for everything else, I wanted to see if the iPad could do it. So that's what I did and I was actually pretty excited to try this. Now the thing is I feel like many YouTubers have taken on this exact challenge before with previous versions of iPadOS over the past few years. They've probably used the same title of this video before. "Can this iPad be a laptop?" "Can the iPad be my full-time productivity machine as a student?" "Can it be my only computer?" "What is a computer?" Each one of those videos details the walls that you run into when you try to do computer-like things on the system that is iPadOS. With this latest update, some of those walls are now gone, some of those walls are definitely still there. So here's an example. The thing you've probably heard the most about is this new window management menu bar and all this stuff. And it is awesome, or at least it's dramatically better than before. It breaks down the wall of multitasking with several windows open, easier than ever. Literally any app you open on the iPad, you can drag the corner to resize the window to whatever size you want and then you can just go crazy opening a bunch of overlapping windows, moving them around, going back and forth and multitasking to your heart's content. It's never been quicker or easier to get into this multi window state, which feels very Mac-like. And then there's plenty of tricks to managing the windows once you're there. Like you can flick a window to each side to take up half the screen. That's super useful. You can double tap the top of any app for it to go back to full screen. And then at any time, you can swipe down to see the menu bar for an app, which looks exactly like it would on a Mac and includes the Stoplight window controls in the corner to maximize or minimize or close something on the spot. And also, I gotta be honest, I don't know that there's a difference between minimizing and closing an app on the iPad. 'Cause when I close an app, it just goes away. If I minimize an app, it just goes away. But the minimizing version feels very Mac-like. So hey, give the people what they want. But I think the most important thing to remember here is this multi window mode is just that. It's a mode that you can easily flip on and off with a single touch in the Control Center. So I found this super useful. When it's off, you know, apps open full screen every time like they always did, the handle at the bottom corner is gone and you can pull down from anywhere at the top to get notifications or Control Center and swipe across the bottom to flip between recent apps. This is the iPad we've all always been used to and it still works exactly like that. But if you go to Control Center and go into windowed apps mode with one click, suddenly that resizing anchor appears, use it wherever you want. Also swiping down from the middle now brings up the menu bar instead of notifications, unless you swipe down again or swipe down from the far left. And multitasking remembers groups of windows and even window sizes as you're working. It's very powerful, even more than Stage Manager was. You can now have up to eight windows open at the same time instead of four. But you know, it's also a little different from a Mac. For example, I noticed just as you're resizing windows, some apps respond instantly as you're dragging your finger. So you can just drag them to size and move on really quick. But some apps don't respond quite in real time as you're dragging your finger. They kind of go in stages. So you might have to resize a few times to get it exactly the way you want it. But then of course, you know, on a Mac, there is no window limit as far as I know, that you could easily reach anyway. So you can go way crazier. There's more spaces for multitasking and way more, probably more RAM and just more flexibility in general. But the ceiling for multitasking on an iPad is higher than ever before. By the way, I was curious how this would look on an iPad Mini or if they would like restrict any of this multi window stuff or having a ton of stuff open at once. But nope, you can go just as crazy with tiny floating windows all over the iPad Mini's display. You can knock yourself out. It's way less useful here because there's way less pixels but confirmed, they still let you do it. Anyway, as I continued to use the iPad through these weeks, it would continue to be mostly pain-free. Lots of using it like the usual like full screen, then occasional blitzes of multitasking once in a while. And here and there, there would be one computer-like task that I'd have to really think through and then it would be a little bit slower and kind of a pain, but then I could figure it out. I could basically eventually get it done. Like I got sent a PDF on Slack that I had to sign and send back. Okay, on a computer that's pretty easy. But here, let's see, open it. Okay, Open in browser, Share, More, okay, Markup. Then I sign it and then I save it to the iPad again and then go back to Slack and attach it. Okay, success, like there's no wall there. You can definitely still do the thing. It just takes a little bit of extra thinking, a little more friction and some final management stuff. But that's scattered throughout the days. And all of this made me realize, you know, with the apps that I use and the workflows that I've built, the question isn't actually, "Can I replace my laptop with an iPad?" Because yes, I can. The question really became "Do I want to?" Because sometimes yeah, I do, but also sometimes I don't want to. Like there's many, many moments of the iPad being better and more enjoyable to use than any laptop. It's this awesome touchscreen-first device. You know, you have one app full screen at a time. To me, that just means like, I can't get distracted by Discord or Twitter or just other windows I have open. So I can just lock in on one or two things at a time. The iPad's display is beautiful, it's super thin, and this thing is a pound lighter than my laptop, so my backpack feels lighter just carrying the iPad around. It sounds subtle, but it really felt great. And this stuff makes me want to use the iPad all the time for as much as I can. But every once in a while, like I said, I'd run up against that little wonky thing or this tiny limitation here or there. Like on the iPad, I can't have two audio sources playing at the same time. So I can't have music playing in the background while I also watch a YouTube video while researching something. I can only do one at a time. Dang. Or when I'm trying to work without a table on a couch or something. The iPad's keyboard case, it's good. It's better than it's ever been. There's a real cursor now, it's fantastic. But compared to a laptop, like this thing is still really top heavy and kind of clunky and weird to use and there's less metal, more silicon and rubber and it's just harder to open and close. Dang. Also, the Files app, the new Files app is great. Way better than ever before. You can plug in external storage and sort through things easily, import/export, view information about your files, connect to servers, the whole thing. But it can sometimes be just a little confusing where files actually are. Like when I AirDrop photos and media to the iPad and it doesn't go into the Downloads folder like it would on a Mac. Just slightly off. Dang. So look, I couldn't be more clear. I love the iPad's display and how good it looks and how good it sounds and how thin and sleek and fun it is to use this touchscreen everywhere. And it's more capable than ever with this new software. That's a fact. But the iPad's strength is actually its versatility. So my take is I still don't think the iPad was designed to replace a laptop for most people most of the time. But I do think it is capable of becoming almost an entire laptop with the right accessories. But then look at what you've created, like adding a mouse and a keyboard, a display, the Folio case, like the whole thing you're carrying around is suddenly basically the same thickness and weight as a laptop again. So you might as well just get the laptop. But the iPad can also be a great media machine. It's a really nice lean-back experience instead of the typical lean-forward experience, if that makes sense? It also happens to have cameras on the back so you can take photos and videos with it. It also has cellular, which a lot of computers don't. It also happens to have an awesome stylus support. So it can be your handwritten notepad or it can be an artist's canvas. All of these things that computers and laptops typically don't have. So that's the point. It's just more versatile than a single laptop would be. So if you're trying to answer the question, you know, should you get an iPad instead of a laptop? Well, then I'm gonna just stop you right there. If all you need is a computer, then no, I think you just get the computer. It's designed to be better just as that. Better balance, better hinge, better keyboard. That's what it's made for. But if you want something that can be most of a computer, but also do all these other things, then just like, think of the top five things you're gonna do on this machine and think, would you rather do those five things on a tablet or on a computer? And then there's your answer. So no doubt the ceiling has been raised for what an iPad is capable of as a computer, but it's still an iPad, (upbeat music) which is pretty sweet too. Thanks for watching. Also, if you wanna check out the rest of my iOS 26 coverage and all the other stuff that's new with that, check out my iOS 26 video. It'll be right here. It's all the Liquid Glass and the new features and stuff. Catch you guys in the next one. Peace. (upbeat music continues)