Okay, so I've been working on a research project in my workplace and I decided to purchase an M4 iPad Pro. I thought the iPad Pro will provide flexibility and mobility (which is true), and I still couldn't believe that this iPad has the newest generation of silicon out there compared to the Mac. I like how light it is compared to bringing my chunkier Macbook Pro. However, what bogged me down in this journey of looking for a portable yet a productivity powerhouse is completely ruined by its software. Specially... the Stage Manager.

The idea is great, but it's been two years since they introduced this feature on iPadOS and it's still finicky and full of bugs. Like buttons and tabs become displace whenever you adjust the window, or switching active windows is difficult and confusing using the magic keyboard. Why Apple can't just make the same gestures or keyboard shortcuts similar to a Mac to make the experience more seamless? Why do they have to make things complicated.

And one last thing that I really hate about using an iPad for productivity, is its watered-down version of MS Office Apps. Why can't we have the full version of these apps running on a very powerful chip? I've been wasting time for 30 minutes figuring out how to adjust the columns and tables I inserted inside MS Word, and how to properly switch between two MS Word document windows... not between MS Word and Safari and other apps with CMD Tab.

Or maybe, it's just a big learning curve. I don't know. Perhaps, the iPad Pro with M4 chip is just an absurdly powerful device only for media consumption but not for productivity. I guess I will just start bringing my Macbook Pro again tomorrow and sell this iPad. Anyhow, I am just ranting about my experience and maybe y'all can share some tips on how to make Stage Manager work. Thanks!