iPad Pro 12.9 2020

[Jan Anne]

What should I say ? Being an intense iPad Pro and LrC, Ps user and having everything intertwined through Adobe’s Cloud. iPad Pro for doing LrC, Ps editing in stand-alone, iPad Pro as second screen, iPad Pro as slide show tool.

Nice setup indeed!!!

I use a similar setup for work with a Windows 10 laptop for the “lean forward“ activities and the iPad Pro for things like Microsoft Teams or Skype video calls, either standalone or as a sidekick of the laptop.

Is that Lacie drive by any chance a Thunderbolt 3 SSD? If so does it also work with the iPad?

[MFloyd]

Nice setup indeed!!!

I use a similar setup for work with a Windows 10 laptop for the “lean forward“ activities and the iPad Pro for things like Microsoft Teams or Skype video calls, either standalone or as a sidekick of the laptop.

Is that Lacie drive by any chance a Thunderbolt 3 SSD? If so does it also work with the iPad?

Thx  . No, it’s a rugged 5 TO HDD, which is used to store images, and with a USB-C connection. The only memory devices I link to the iPad are memory keys with some entertainment media content, when I’m traveling. Everything which is eventually stored on the iPad is backed up.

[CS]

You can connect a keyboard to an iPad and there are Lr and Ps versions for the iPad which are included in the basic Photography subscription.

I happen to have all of the above but I don't use them because I have now decided that I hate iOS with a passion and so I prefer to take my little 13" MacBookPro everywhere with me instead! The MBP is not much bigger than the iPad but it does so much more.

I do use the iPad Pro for a few things: mainly to yell at Alexa to turn on the Espresso machine and to turn lights on and off; and I do use the iPad as a Timer or Alarm Clock.
I also use it as a giant viewfinder to drive a camera by remote (which was my main reason for buying the iPad) — but I don't use it for too much else.

Excellent Espresso however!

None of the AMUG folks I know are happy about the upcoming move to make MacOS more like iOS. However, Apple has no problem ignoring us. One might call it a  standoff, except that Apple will proceed in spite of our posing opinions, so it's not really a standoff, it's a done deal as far as they're concerned.

The only wars where our side enjoys any victories worth mentioning is the one with the always ready to take control Alexa. Yes, we have the wall plugs that offer Alexa compatibility, but they remain in their unopened packages. Considering Alexa's history of unrequested vocal interruptions, including breaking silences for no apparent reason, there's no way she gets control of the lights, much less our beloved Espresso machine!

Tim Cook could use a double Espresso,  with a shot of Sambuca, which might wake him to our displeasure.You get Alexa to swing that one, and I'll install the wall plugs for her. 

Meanwhile, Alexa does a good job of getting my calls to "add wine to the shopping list!" over to our iPhones. 

[Ann]

Alexa lives downstairs so I yell "Good Morning" to her over the bannisters from the top of the stairs when I first get up.

Alexa responds by reporting the Weather Forecast (so that I then know what to wear!); and turns on the Espresso machine so that it is ready to brew a good strong cup when I come downstairs.

The Espresso is excellent: come over and try it — once Covid allows us all to travel again.
 

[Jan Anne]

The MBP is not much bigger than the iPad but it does so much more.

This is a good point Ann, the iPad Pro 12.9 with the new Magic Keyboard weighs the same as the MacBook Air and costs a lot more.

So if one is looking for a laptop replacement than the iPad Pro surely isn’t on the same level of value for money yet.

Personally I was looking for an rugged hybrid solution between the iPhone and the MBP for work, hobbies and pleasure and don’t need things like keyboards, external screens, printing, etc for which a Mac or MacBook is a better solution.

[Anthony]

For now I seem to be able to do everything I need to process RAW files with Affinity Photo on the iPad Pro which costed me a whopping €10.95, it seems extremely powerful and versatile without any recurring cost

I believe that Affinity on the iPad uses the Apple raw conversion engine, although it is, of course, a much more capable program than Apple Photos.

Unfortunately this means that it is unsuitable for me, as the Apple raw convertor does not recognise Fuji compressed raw files which is what I use.

[Jan Anne]

I’m also using Darkroom which is a simple RAW editor but covers most of the basics, it is however fully integrated with iPhoto which is nice for sharing the end result across devices but not the place where I want to manage all My RAW files. One thing which does work better though is that you can save edits in the RAW file like Capture NX used to do and these are still editable after saving, in iPhoto you can even rollback all the changes and return to the original RAW.

With Affinity Photo I somehow can’t return to my previous changes after a save, all the controls return to zero as shown in the image in the first post. This is not ideal if you want to correct something but the other benefits of Affinity outweigh this minor inconvenience which might just be my unfamiliarity with the app.

Darkroom has a free trial period btw after one can choose for a one time purchase or a monthly subscription.

[Jan Anne]

I think its common knowledge by now but please be aware that the USB-C cables provided by Apple for all their devices are for charging only, there are data wires connected for the USB (PD) power negotiations but they are USB 2.0 spec only. So they can be used in an emergency but the speeds are limited to around 50MB/s whereas the iPad Pro is capable of the mentioned 335MB/s for importing files or photos.

So always use the USB-C cables which come with the storage devices which can be used for both data and power with the latter usually limited to 3A / 60W (20Vx3A) unless its specifically mentioned that the cable supports 5A or 100W (20Vx5A) for which the certified cables have an onboard chip to allow the charger to use amps above the default 3A limit. These fatter 5A cables are only needed btw for the 15 or 16” MBP as all 13” models and iPads stay well below the 60W limit of the 3A cables and are a lot more expensive as the chips and official certifications aren’t cheap.

[Anthony]

I think its common knowledge by now but please be aware that the USB-C cables provided by Apple for all their devices are for charging only, there are data wires connected for the USB (PD) power negotiations but they are USB 2.0 spec only. So they can be used in an emergency but the speeds are limited to around 50MB/s whereas the iPad Pro is capable of the mentioned 335MB/s for importing files or photos.

So always use the USB-C cables which come with the storage devices which can be used for both data and power with the latter usually limited to 3A / 60W (20Vx3A) unless its specifically mentioned that the cable supports 5A or 100W (20Vx5A) for which the certified cables have an onboard chip to allow the charger to use amps above the default 3A limit. These fatter 5A cables are only needed btw for the 15 or 16” MBP as all 13” models and iPads stay well below the 60W limit of the 3A cables and are a lot more expensive as the chips and official certifications aren’t cheap.

I did not know this. Thank you for the information.

[Eddie Draaisma]

Is that Lacie drive by any chance a Thunderbolt 3 SSD? If so does it also work with the iPad?

Jan, my LaCie D2 backup drives (with 2 TB3 and 1 USB-C 3.1 ports) do not work with the iPad Pro through their Thunderbolt 3 ports; they do work through their single USB-C 3.1 port.
Also, my (Thunderbolt 3) Blackjet TX-1CXQ CFexpress/XQD cardreader does not work with the iPad Pro. The iPad Pro throws the message "Thunderbolt accessories are not supported".

[Jan Anne]

Thanks for the confirmation Eddie, exactly the kind of information I was looking for

I was hoping that the incompatibility with Thunderbolt 3 port was due to uncertified chipsets used in the cheap Chinese cases but when the same issue occurs with big name drives from LaCie then its pretty clear that the promised backwards compatibility with USB isn’t implemented as initially promissed.

The new USB 4 standard does promise backwards compatibility with older iterations of USB and Thunderbolt 3 protocols so hopefully somewhere next year I can upgrade the USB 3.2 case to version 4 and get both compatibility with the iPad Pro and the full speed of the 3400MB/s NVMe drive on the MBP.

[Jan Anne]

Exactly one year later we finally have the USB4 NVMe SSD case which combines the 40Gbps speed of Thunderbolt 3 with backwards compatibility to USB3.x devices

I bought the updated tool-free version of the Acasis USB4 case on the local Amazon site:
https://www.amazon.com/Enclosure-Compatible-Thunderbolt-Interface-Solid-State/dp/B08XBHD1WN/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=acasis+nvme+usb+4&qid=1625926925&sr=8-3

The Acasis USB4 NVMe case uses an original Intel chipset so is fully compatible with all Apple devices using a USB-C port like Mac(Books), iPad Pro, iPad Air 4, etc as long as the power draw of the used NVMe SSD is below the max power of the used host device (usually between 7.5-15W). The WD SSD’s are some of the most power efficient on the market and Acasis also mentions the SN750 as the go to drive for Apple devices using the M1 CPU.

I moved my WD SN750 Black 2TB SSD to the Acasis case and bought a slower but even more power efficient WD Blue 2TB NVMe drive for the slower Asus case as an offsite backup drive. A full 1.2TB copy took half an hour or so which is very manageable when visiting the offsite backup location and should be a matter of minutes when only the updates are copied over with Superduper.

On the 2017 MBP15 the data transfer speeds went up from 900MB/s with the 10Gb/s Asus case to a blistering 2250-2400MB/s in the 40Gb/s USB4 case as can be seen in the screenshot of the Blackmagicdesign Disk Speed Test app. These speeds are btw faster than the internal SSD of the MBP which measured between 1600 and 1800MB/s, the used app is btw free to download in the Apple store so one can easily check the speed of their own Mac using the same tool for a fair apple to apple comparison (pun intended haha).

With the iPad Pro 2020 everything worked flawlessly but I did not notice a speed bump, some online tests of iOS 15 beta on the newer 2021 M1 models do report however that the transfer speeds doubled from 500MB/s to around 1000MB/s so hopefully we will also see some improvements here for the older iPad USB3.2 models like the 2020 Pro or Air 4.

[Jan Anne]

Small update on the WB Blue SN550 NVMe drive as it appears that Western Digital has quietly changed the memory chip which cuts the sustained transfer speeds in half when the faster 12GB SLC buffer is full.

Reviewers reported a speed of only 390MB/s testing a drive made in July whereas the original did 849MB/s, the 1.2TB disk replication example mentioned in the post above did 700MB/s so it seems I’ve bought one of the last of the original designs made last May.

WD promised that from now on they will mention model revisions so consumers know wether the model they are buying is the same (or not) as the ones being tested on the tech review sites.

Needles to say I can’t endorse this drive anymore, as for WD I’m the middle as other premium companies have done the same thing in the past as well like Samsung with the 970 EVO Plus and Crucial with the P2 drives. Best advice would be to buy these kind of drives at places with a good return policy and test them properly on arrival.

[Wally]

Question for the experts:
I am looking for a solution to travel light without my MBP 16 while still being able to do daily backups to the HD and external SSD/Nvme. (I typically backup on the laptop and 2 external drives, also not reformatting the XQD/CFE cards until my return).
Since I am not totally familiar with the iPad Air/Pro specifications: I understand I could use any USB-C connection to move/copy .Nef files from a card reader to the iPad and then onto an external drive. This will work only on the Pro models but not with the Air, right? Are there any further limitations imposed by the iOS version?
(Given the main purpose for backup and only limited editing on the road, I am considering older models with smaller storage like 64GB).
Thanks!

[Jan Anne]

The newer Air models now also have a USB-C interface so should work the same as the Pro models.