Click to read Part 2 The Challenge
The list of development projects that I’ve completed in mainstream programming languages and stacks is a short one. I’ve decided to start yet another attempt at a project. This time is on hard mode.
My main laptop has served me well for the better part of a decade. Its time to retire it, along with an obsolete iPad. Instead of jumping on Apple’s newest MacBook Pro lineup with the next generation of M1 pro and max CPUs, announced October 18th, I let my impulsiveness get the better of me -again- and sprung for the 12.9" iPad Pro with 2TB storage. This is intended to replace both my outgoing iPad Air 2 and my 2014 MacBook Pro 13".
It should be a given, but the M1 available in this new iPad if far superior to the mid 2014 dual core i7. Configuring it with 2TB storage also rewarded me with 16GB ram. While the aspect ratio is different on the iPad as compared to the Retina display on the old MacBook, I do not lose much in the way of total screen real estate. For typing, I’ve purchased the Magic Keyboard for iPad. I dont really use a mouse with laptops, so the track pad that is built into this keyboard/stand/protection case is perfect. It also recognizes gestures!
Back to performance. I had to benchmark and do a comparison. This was really just to reinforce my bias that the thousands of dollars I just spent were “worth it.” Below are numbers from Primate Labs’ Geekbench. I managed to benchmark my iPad Air 2, my old MacBook, the new iPad Pro, and my desktop. This gives a good range of comparison.
This isn’t a review of the iPad pro. I intend to document my progress using the iPad as a replacement for my laptop. At least as it relates to programming and data science related projects. The above benchmarks indicate that I should have no performance issues during my exploits. I also have a desktop that can serve as a fallback if my little experiment doesn’t work. In the worst case, I’ve reduced my personal device collection by combining the utility of my laptop an tablet into a single, very powerful tablet.
So far Im impressed. The Magic Keyboard is a must have addition to any iPad Pro. You can hunt others reviews of it. My only complain is that the dark/black version that I purchased shows a lot of finger prints. Matte tempered glass screen protectors and vinyl “skins” for the keyboard are in the mail as I write.
I live is a large city and pre-COVID I did move around alot and found myself away form home working. At the time I was in graduate school and always had something that needed doing for school. My old laptop served me well. However, I realized that anything I was working on that really needed “horsepower” from a computer needed way more than any laptop could provide. In addition, if said process also ran for a long time, it sucked having to sacrifice and entire portable machine to let it run. If I ran it on my desktop, I couldn’t relax by playing a game while it was working. More so, if I had a long running process and was out and about with my laptop, I could just close it and let the battery meltdown while it churned in my backpack.
The lesson in all of that was that any process that needed power had to be sent off to some remote server instance somewhere to run and complete without consuming any of my personal computers.
The only other stuff I did was surf the internet or watch lecture videos. Possibly chat with peers for project teams. Check my fitness apps and maybe make some travel reservations. I might stream video if I was travelling. Finally, email. All of those do not require more than a mobile device. Whats left is coding, building my development workflow pipelines, compiling and testing code.
This is the challenge.
Can I successfully work through a programming project entirely on this iPad?
