Apple M1 in iPad now... How close are we to the grand conjunction?

Man those M1 iMacs are gorgeous… but we just got two new Macs recently.

The idea of future integration of apps on multiple platforms is really promising, hopefully Ableton and others are working on it.

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It would be a huge business blunder not to.

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Outside of hardware manufacturers, the chipset hardly matters these days for software devs. 99.9% of code is high level and doesn’t care.

The bigger cost is going to be ui/ux issues. Click regions are bigger for touch devices and precision of input is reduced.

I won’t expect to see Mac->iOS app conversion. You’ll see the other way. So many people make apps and games for iOS and getting that to run on Mac with zero effort is the win here.

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Best reply here, this is what it will look like. I suspect a lot of native programs will work on every Apple device in future, be it on the device or in the cloud. A shared chip for all devices makes tighter integration of the ecosystem easier. Wouldn’t be surprised if we saw Logic make the leap to cross platform.

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yes i’m aware of the what’s in the current product line… i’m just assuming that if the M1 is in ipad pro it means the next chip in the line… the Mx or whatever it is going to be called… will be in the next round of desktops/laptops and will differentiate it from the iPad Pro M1 by having more power, ram etc. also, the Mac Pro is still intel. i think it’ll be a while yet until that product is moved to apple silicon. … though they probably have one running on apple silicon in a lab somewhere.

apple said it would be 2 years to do entire product line.
(of course, and then they will start from the beginning again :wink: )

its never been an issue to have code that works on both iOS and macOS, as you say its all about the ux/ui. - thats not changed, and likely never will - they are two very different use-cases.

I’ve no doubt that Logic can be made to run on a iPad , but whats the point?
the iPad Pro, even with a keyboard + mouse, is still a very small screen compared to many laptops.

I think one day, Apple might start doing touch laptops with removeable keyboards if they see a market for it … but Id guess that will be based on adding touch to macOS rather than iOS becoming macOS.
but who knows, still seems a long way off … (though, that new iMac is mighty slim :wink: )

These new iPad pro’s have a thunderbolt port and according to apple can even support an external 6K display. Add to that a bluetooth keyboard and mouse and it becomes a desktop.

Plus, the 1TB and 2TB versions have 16GB of ram. So in fact there are no hardware limitations to run Big Sur and some DAW on them.

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A MacBook Pro with touch screen like those on the iPad would be amazing.

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…don’t know how long it will take til ableton is ready for touch touch…
…but i know, bitwig is already ready for a while to be touch touched within a windows device…

all third party plugin developers will have their take on the new processing arcitechture…

besides most do pretty fine already anyways, via rosetta2…

end of this year it’s ALL business as usual again, only bigger better faster stronger…again.

full daw options via touch touch?
i’m not sure, if i’ll like it that much…
but i defenitly gonna have a brandnew m1x mbp 14" this autumn…
the best fastest strongest cpu power to go, i’ve ever had…

That’s what I thought when I saw the new iMacs. Looks like a huge iPad. Don’t like them designwise…

Yeah me too

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Or “but let’s start with the software binaries”

It’s often the case the argument is, Apple Silicon now allows for say, Mac apps on iPad. Or the other angle which is, this pushes the possibility for Macs to have a touch screen. But what about an iPad that runs MacOS? Even if it was a dual boot thing, there’s no reason Apple couldn’t do it. Or even something much more elegant, literally a swipe feature to move between MacOS and iPadOS. It’s not convergence - but the iPad is essentially a screen, you could put any OS on it - particularly the ones that Apple makes. And as the iPad starts to become more mature in terms of peripherals, why can’t I use my iPad like a Mac if I need to? Things like file management on an iPad are just lame. But Apple do seem much more dogmatic about bringing touch to the Mac - I really don’t expect that arriving anytime soon. But I could see Apple Pencil support, further ‘touchbar’ style experiments, expanded trackpad designs. And anything that basically pushes where the borderline is between the two platforms without fully converging the two.

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I would really like ableton on iPad. editing midi and drawing automation curves with the apple pan seem to me a perfect match. And besides that you can plug in a mouse and a keyboard and have the conventional workflow. I think having the choice which input method you prefer would be awesome not only for DAWs but in general for all kinds of apps. No matter if apple brings Mac OS to the iPad or Mac Apps to the iPad or they don’t do anything like that I really hope companies like Ableton and such realism the potential.

This is close and it seems to me that we need MAC OS, additional 2-3 ports and maybe 3.5 jack back (or some kind of mini-jack). The processor is powerful enough to work with all DAWs and plugins. This device could turn pro for me in 2-3 days if it had everything I needed in it. But today, without MAC OS, I cannot consider it as a professional device. I’m Waiting for next level.
But m1 on macbooks or Imac is my next station for sure.

Everybody thinks they just want X software on their iPad until you give it to them. A pointer-based user interface is fundamentally different than a touchscreen-based UI. Ableton on an iPad would be a nightmare user experience unless they fundamentally redesign the UI. And then everyone would complain that it’s not actually Ableton anymore.

I get that some people just want an Apple Surface. And maybe that’s not totally unrealistic. But the Microsoft Surface comes with a lot of compromises that Apple hasn’t been willing to make, yet. And I think they’re right—so far.

What I’d love to see is an OS with two “skins”—one for touch, and one for a keyboard and mouse. When there’s a keyboard and mouse attached, it automatically switches to that skin. When there’s not, it switches to the touch skin. It wouldn’t surprise me to find out that Apple is already planning something like this, but it’s going to take time to develop a solid set of design conventions and get third-party software on board.

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Everyone does want X or Y on iPads. But when they get an iPad and find tools that utterly amazing that aren’t available on the Mac platform, they usually are mindblown. I can’t say I’d ever want ableton or logic on an iPad tho.

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Only thing I’d want to see adapted to iPad from Ableton is Session View. Having the full-fledged power of clips with AUv3 hosting and full sync options would be beyond amazing (and Operator, Wavetable, etc.).

Or just use pen or touch mode in abelton with an iPad as the side loader or whatever it’s called to use iPad as another screen and use your Apple Pencil with it. That’s what I do and it’s great for sample editing and sequencing

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