Is it me,or Safari,or are iPads really a nightmare to use on forums?

[vk6zgo]

My wife has an iPad which she seldom uses, as she finds it doesn't work well with her Facebook games.
As my laptop is faulty at the moment, I borrowed it.

Everything seems difficult to do, but especially, answering postings on this, & other forums.

Things which are simple with Windows on a PC are incredibly arduous.
For instance, quoting just part of a posting, & deleting the rest.

The thing will only delete backwards, so you have to start at the end, & work back.
 
Sometimes it sort of works, then you find that somewhere along the line, you have Inadvertently imbedded or something along those lines in your text (or it scatters random words throughout).

The "keyboard" can't do square brackets, either, so if  you accidentally delete one of those, you need to go hunting for one you can steal from somewhere else in the original posting.

Another fun thing is that, when you tap the touchscreen, sometimes you get no result whatever, & need to do it several (or six) times.

Aaarrrrggggh!!!


Sent from my wife's iPad, using "hunt, peck, n' grind teeth".

[cdev]

There is a certain style of writing which I attribute to tablets. I have one but I, like you, just HATE trying to write anything long in it.

[Rerouter]

I've used chrome browser on android many times on my tablet, and it worked fine

[glarsson]

The "keyboard" can't do square brackets, either, so if  you accidentally delete one of those, you need to go hunting for one you can steal from somewhere else in the original posting.

With the standard Apple iOS iPad keyboard: Touch the .?123 key then touch the #+= key. The square brackets are then where q and w (or 1 and 2) used to be.

[Ampera]

I don't have a problem using my Shield Tab with the forum. I just use the regular theme because SMF4Mobile looks like a tire yard on bonfire night.

[vk6zgo]

The "keyboard" can't do square brackets, either, so if  you accidentally delete one of those, you need to go hunting for one you can steal from somewhere else in the original posting.

With the standard Apple iOS iPad keyboard: Touch the .?123 key then touch the #+= key. The square brackets are then where q and w (or 1 and 2) used to be.

Thanks for that!

I looked all over on the 'Net for that information, but  I must have been asking the wrong question.

[glarsson]

The iOS keyboard has even more characters. A long press on many keys will show a popup with similar characters. The a key, for example, shows a popup with eight (on the US keyboard) versions of a like ä, å, á and æ. The - key gives medium and long dash and centered dot. Many characters to be found ...

[tooki]

My wife has an iPad which she seldom uses, as she finds it doesn't work well with her Facebook games.
As my laptop is faulty at the moment, I borrowed it.

Everything seems difficult to do, but especially, answering postings on this, & other forums.

Things which are simple with Windows on a PC are incredibly arduous.
For instance, quoting just part of a posting, & deleting the rest.

The thing will only delete backwards, so you have to start at the end, & work back.
 
Sometimes it sort of works, then you find that somewhere along the line, you have Inadvertently imbedded or something along those lines in your text (or it scatters random words throughout).

The "keyboard" can't do square brackets, either, so if  you accidentally delete one of those, you need to go hunting for one you can steal from somewhere else in the original posting.

Another fun thing is that, when you tap the touchscreen, sometimes you get no result whatever, & need to do it several (or six) times.

Aaarrrrggggh!!!


Sent from my wife's iPad, using "hunt, peck, n' grind teeth".

It's forum software's theme's JavaScript and whatnot. I run into the occasional weird issue here that I don't on other forums. (And some websites are far worse... instagram and Tumblr, I'm talking to you!) In the end, it boils down to the webmaster of a site not having performed enough testing on mobile, resulting in scripts that bog down a mobile CPU and cause weird behavior. Or scripts that aren't designed to work with touch inputs.

On the eevblog forums, the thing that acts up on iPad for me is selecting text in the compose screen: it will often just lose its place. Oddly, zooming in on the large text field helps a lot. (If you see the selection handles being drawn weird at normal size, zoom until they look right; then it should also behave right.) Also, you must first tap once to enter (put focus in) the text field BEFORE you attempt to select text within it.

[FlyingHacker]

Text selection in IOS is pure trash. It is especially arduous inside a scrolling text edit box.

[Alex Eisenhut]

To use modern parlance, tablets are for "consuming content". Fancy way of saying watching youtube in bed on weekends.

[IanMacdonald]

To use modern parlance, tablets are for "consuming content". Fancy way of saying watching youtube in bed on weekends.

It's unfortunate but true that IT progresses from one silly fad to another. Windows 8's 'tiles' was another. Tablets are one such. Websites in which the page is nothing but one huge photo that keeps sliding across are another.

[brucehoult]

To use modern parlance, tablets are for "consuming content". Fancy way of saying watching youtube in bed on weekends.

Except more content is now being created on tablets (and phones) than on PCs.

There are things you can't do on tablets. Most of the people who use tablets have never known and will never know how to do those things on a PC anyway.

[Mr. Scram]

Except more content is now being created on tablets (and phones) than on PCs.

There are things you can't do on tablets. Most of the people who use tablets have never known and will never know how to do those things on a PC anyway.

More content created on tablets? Says who? Does the quantity match the quality?

[brucehoult]

Except more content is now being created on tablets (and phones) than on PCs.

There are things you can't do on tablets. Most of the people who use tablets have never known and will never know how to do those things on a PC anyway.

More content created on tablets? Says who? Does the quantity match the quality?

On mobile. Tablets and phones.

Ask Benedict Evans, analyst at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz:

http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2017/7/13/creation-and-consumption

[Mr. Scram]

On mobile. Tablets and phones.

Ask Benedict Evans, analyst at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz:

http://ben-evans.com/benedictevans/2017/7/13/creation-and-consumption

That's a nice write-up, but can hardly called hard research. Look around you. Look at your desk. Your phone. The application on your screen. The graphics on pretty any product in your house. The video's you watch on Youtube. Were they designed and made on a mobile device, or a more 'traditional' computer?

There obviously is a demand for devices that provide the leisure and portability of a tablet, but the ease of the tools that go with a traditional computer. I think Microsoft has successfully claimed that market with their Surface Pro line.

[CatalinaWOW]

I find myself in a similar situation to the OP.  I am tech support for my wifes iPad, and occasionally use it for my own purposes.  I find it extremely trying to do much beyond looking at YouTube and Facebook.  But a large part of it is unfamiliarity with the Apple OS and approach to things.  As I have used it more I have found some of the tricks and shortcuts that are already ingrained in Windows and to a lesser extent Linux environments.  It is becoming easier to use.

I can't really make an honest comparison of the two since my level of expertise is so different.  I find that many strident advocates of one or the other share my handicap, but are unwilling to admit it.

[Mr. Scram]

find myself in a similar situation to the OP.  I am tech support for my wifes iPad, and occasionally use it for my own purposes.  I find it extremely trying to do much beyond looking at YouTube and Facebook.  But a large part of it is unfamiliarity with the Apple OS and approach to things.  As I have used it more I have found some of the tricks and shortcuts that are already ingrained in Windows and to a lesser extent Linux environments.  It is becoming easier to use.

I can't really make an honest comparison of the two since my level of expertise is so different.  I find that many strident advocates of one or the other share my handicap, but are unwilling to admit it.

This is undoubtedly the truth. Research has shown that people tend to value the system they have experience with quite a bit more than others, unreasonably so. You will find that the rare people that have extensive experience with two or more ecosystems might have preferences, but generally admit that all have their merits and that the differences are not quite that big.

Which obviously is the case too. It would be silly to claim that the other systems are rubbish if a significant portion of the world is happy using them.

[brucehoult]

find myself in a similar situation to the OP.  I am tech support for my wifes iPad, and occasionally use it for my own purposes.  I find it extremely trying to do much beyond looking at YouTube and Facebook.  But a large part of it is unfamiliarity with the Apple OS and approach to things.  As I have used it more I have found some of the tricks and shortcuts that are already ingrained in Windows and to a lesser extent Linux environments.  It is becoming easier to use.

I can't really make an honest comparison of the two since my level of expertise is so different.  I find that many strident advocates of one or the other share my handicap, but are unwilling to admit it.

This is undoubtedly the truth. Research has shown that people tend to value the system they have experience with quite a bit more than others, unreasonably so. You will find that the rare people that have extensive experience with two or more ecosystems might have preferences, but generally admit that all have their merits and that the differences are not quite that big.

Which obviously is the case too. It would be silly to claim that the other systems are rubbish if a significant portion of the world is happy using them.

I've been programming computers since around 1980. I'm comfortable with a number of operating systems (but most *nix/shell based), and programming languages (mostly C based), and assembly languages ranging from PDP11 and VAX to Z80, 6502, 6809, 68000, PowerPC, ARM, Thumb, Aarch64, RISC-V. I've even forced myself to become competent at AMD64 this year (it's way better than I remember 286 being).

I find tablets restricting compared to a good Linux or OSX machine. (I also, for what it's worth find MS Windows extremely restricting, very slightly ameliorated by putting cygwin on it.)

There are maybe a few million people like me.

There are another few million people who make professional videos, use Photoshop etc.

There are several billion people who can get things done on a modern iOS or Android mobile device who are utterly lost on a traditional PC.

*ANY* photo or video they shoot or document they create on a mobile device is content that would never have been created without it.

The sheer discrepancy in numbers mean that more photos and more minutes of video are being created by the billions of mobile device users than by the millions of traditional PC content creators.

You can argue that it's of lower quality, but it *exists* and it is *theirs*.

[bd139]

I'm quite happy switching back and forth between iOS and something a little more flexible (OSX).

I've got to be honest and say that at least 90% of my personal needs are well met by iOS. It does take getting used to but that's only because it's different. With iOS 11 it'll have a proper filesystem on board as well which will make it less different.

You know the killer feature for me? I'll be sitting there at the Mac reading something and go for a poo. Open safari, switch tabs, scroll down, pick a tab off the mac and carry on reading. Same with email, notes, calendars, the lot. If I take a photo on my iPhone it'll be there on the mac when I get home. This has worked flawlessly for me.

I know Windows has this as well, but it is a complete piece of shit and doesn't work (I have a windows laptop and a couple of test windows phones as well).

As for Linux, there isn't anything like it.

I'm happy paying for just this feature.

As for the original question, I switch back and forth between iOS/OSX and have no problems with Safari. If you jump off a windows or Linux box it'll be difficult until you get used to it. This is more "who moved my cheese" than "it's a piece of crap". I wanted to smash the damn thing for 2 weeks until I realised I expected the device to meet ME at the party, not meet the device half way there. 

[Mr. Scram]

I've been programming computers since around 1980. I'm comfortable with a number of operating systems (but most *nix/shell based), and programming languages (mostly C based), and assembly languages ranging from PDP11 and VAX to Z80, 6502, 6809, 68000, PowerPC, ARM, Thumb, Aarch64, RISC-V. I've even forced myself to become competent at AMD64 this year (it's way better than I remember 286 being).

I find tablets restricting compared to a good Linux or OSX machine. (I also, for what it's worth find MS Windows extremely restricting, very slightly ameliorated by putting cygwin on it.)

There are maybe a few million people like me.

There are another few million people who make professional videos, use Photoshop etc.

There are several billion people who can get things done on a modern iOS or Android mobile device who are utterly lost on a traditional PC.

*ANY* photo or video they shoot or document they create on a mobile device is content that would never have been created without it.

The sheer discrepancy in numbers mean that more photos and more minutes of video are being created by the billions of mobile device users than by the millions of traditional PC content creators.

You can argue that it's of lower quality, but it *exists* and it is *theirs*.

Pictures and videos? Sure. Chairs, artwork, code, houses, cities, you name it. Those too? As always, statistics can skew the perception, but if you look around you, most of the things you see and touch are made on non mobile systems and platforms. People might edit videos together on their iPad, but generally move to a more mature platform when they get more serious.

[Kjelt]

I use the ipad a lot but hate it when I have to write long posts. Esp. Selecting and deleting part if quotes are sometimes a big PITA.
In short : Ipad is wonderfull for passive consuming awfull when actively contributing.

[glarsson]

Pictures and videos? Sure. Chairs, artwork, code, houses, cities, you name it. Those too? As always, statistics can skew the perception, but if you look around you, most of the things you see and touch are made on non mobile systems and platforms. People might edit videos together on their iPad, but generally move to a more mature platform when they get more serious.

The number of people designing cities and houses are quite small compared to everyone else. Mobile devices were never designed to replace every single stationary computer, but for many people they can do just that. Just as every household does not have a landline phone or a three ton lathe in the basement, not every household needs a stationary phone or stationary computer.

[CatalinaWOW]

Part of the argument here is defining content.  Huge numbers of people take pictures and video, and generate short messages - call them tweets and double tweets.  Since pictures are large, videos are huge and the numbers are large this activity will dominate content defined by megabytes or message count.

If you raise the bar slightly on definition of content to blogs and traditional emails and letters and I suspect that phones and pads and tablets fade very significantly.

Raising the bar again to creating applications, writing large articles, books and papers, and editing, compositing and other video manipulation and pads and tablets probably fade to the just barely detectable level.

All this is largely independent of OS.  And it really is a case of the appropriate tool for the job.  Kind of like moving from pocket knives and screwdrivers up to power tools and then up to large CNC machines.  Most of the "work" in the world is done with low end tools, but virtually all of the really significant work is done with industrial level equipment. 

Users of desktop and laptop computers and users of industrial manufacturing equipment shouldn't feel threatened by the huge numbers of dilettante users.

[Mr. Scram]

The number of people designing cities and houses are quite small compared to everyone else. Mobile devices were never designed to replace every single stationary computer, but for many people they can do just that. Just as every household does not have a landline phone or a three ton lathe in the basement, not every household needs a stationary phone or stationary computer.

The point of my previous post was that the whole world is designed on that 'quite small' number of computers. Without getting into a numbers discussion, our world is designed on more traditional systems. As you confirm, mobile devices are for suited for content consumption. Not everyone has the need for content creation. Regardless of the Facebook pictures of Joe the plumber and Janice the receptionist.

If we go by quantity, Lego is by far the largest tire manufacturer in the world

[glarsson]

As you confirm, mobile devices are for suited for content consumption.

No. I did not confirm that. There are substantial range of contents that can be created on a mobile device.

Some decades ago you needed big video cameras and room-sized installations to produce a television program.
Today all that is needed is a small handheld video camera and som editing software on a small mobile computer.
The trend is clear.