“What’s a computer?” I’m a nerd. I collect and restore old iBooks and MacBooks for fun. I built a PC (who hasn’t in 2020?). I own a lot of computers. But there is no computer I love nearly as much as the iPad. And I have had a lot of iPads. I waited in line for the first iPad in 2010, thinking it would be an ideal MacBook replacement, and it fell noticeably short. Beyond not having a physical keyboard accessory that was easy to transport, the original iPad simply lacked the available software and processing power of the Mac and was ultimately not sufficient at the time as a full-on ‘computer.’ I didn’t give up. Becoming particularly enamored with the idea of turning an iPad into a laptop replacement, I tried again, souping up an iPad Mini 1 st generation with a keyboard case (a ClamCase—remember those?!). Again, the iPad was not enough. I tried again, this time with the iPad 5 th generation. I loved this iPad. I managed to get most of my work done during a summer internship wit
It’s time for another transition. For Apple, this is the fourth major transition in its product history, beginning with the shift from Motorola’s 68000 chipset to IBM PowerPC processors in the 90s, to the major overhaul of Mac OS X from legacy Mac OS 9, and most recently with transition from PowerPC to Intel. This isn’t Apple’s first rodeo, albeit it could get messy, especially for consumers who likely aren’t familiar with the differences between Intel, AMD, and ARM processors (although the RISC instruction set is only a small piece of the Apple SoC story). While there has been much chatter from the pundits exclaiming the glory of the Apple SoC, the rest of the world remains unfamiliar with how important this transition is not only for Apple, but for the entire industry. It is my feeling that the benefits of using Apple’s integrated System on a Chip (SoC) far outweigh translation limitations when porting over apps from Intel, and it feels like Apple really softened the blow with mac