Help learning to use Mac OS and iOS

[Still-learning]

Hello everyone, I’m new to macOS and pretty new to ios.! is there an article or articles comparing and contrasting max os and ios?

 

[Raz0rEdge]

They are not related to each other. macOS is meant for desktops and optimized for keyboard/mouse use while iOS is meant for mobile devices optimized for touch screens.

For macOS, start with something like this: New to Mac - Official Apple Support
For iOS, start with something like this: New to iPhone - Official Apple Support

As you encounter issues, please come back here and post a question and we will do our best to guide you through it.

 

[ferrarr]

Also, today is the Keynote. Rumoredto be an iPadOS for iPad models, and different to iOS.

 

[Raz0rEdge]

Correct me if I'm wrong Bob, but I believe iPad OS is based on iOS but optimized for the larger screen and allows for better multi-tasking? So what you learn from iOS should translate to iPad OS as well.

 

[Still-learning]

They are not related to each other. macOS is meant for desktops and optimized for keyboard/mouse use while iOS is meant for mobile devices optimized for touch screens.

For macOS, start with something like this: New to Mac - Official Apple Support
For iOS, start with something like this: New to iPhone - Official Apple Support

As you encounter issues, please come back here and post a question and we will do our best to guide you through it.

One aspect of life for me (69 year old ) is I love learning, but this has frequently placed me in a position of being a neophyte. "jack of all trades, master of none" sort of thing. this Macworld is new to me and delightful; I'd really tired of MS. so I started with an iPod years ago (loved it), then later I bought an iPad mini 2 from apple refurbished (love it), then I finally broke down and got a smart phone, I phone 7. went from that to an iPhone 8+. love them. all this time I dreamed of owning a proper Mac so finally I bought a 2017 MacBook air from apple refurbished. From this last step I've been reminded how little I know about computers and software .

so this question is evidence of that relative ignorance. acknowledging now the difference in OS would it have been "better, easier, etc." to buy an iPad Pro for a bit more, plus then the cost of the keyboard. this mac aire 17 model at apple refurb was discounted lower than their usual MacBook Air price AND I don't need Retina display nor a touch opener button. "opener button" really? oh well, don't know the tech name.

anyway, if it'd be better overall the sell this MacBook model and get an iPad Pro, it will be costly in the face of a pretty limited budget, but I plan to have and use this for as long as apple supports it. I no longer use the iPad mini 2, but I use the iPhone a lot. 'I also have an Apple Watch 3, still a different OS, no? BTW, the main purpose for the Mac vs iPad Pro initially was I wanted a good keyboard. I'm doing some writing

I apologize in advance for the basic nature of this question. I'll bet I'm not the first to encounter this quandary. in fact it may be the basis for long "which is better" threads, but then see, I don't know yet. Thanks, Rick

 

[ferrarr]

Correct me if I'm wrong Bob, but I believe iPad OS is based on iOS but optimized for the larger screen and allows for better multi-tasking? So what you learn from iOS should translate to iPad OS as well.

Yes, that's correct, but I wasn't sure how close they would be, since they had to give it a new identifier name?

 

[ferrarr]

I have an iPad Pro 1st gen and I love it. I purchased the original Apple Pencil and a Logitech Create case with keyboard, which are both still working perfectly. I've had them since Feb/Mar 2016. I do also have a Mac Mini for when I need a computer.

 

[MacInWin]

@Still-learning, welcome to the forum. For your main purpose, if it is writing, the MBAir is the better machine. The options for word processors are, to me, better on the MBA than on the iPad. For example, Microsoft Word on the MBA is closer to full-featured than the version for the iPad, mostly because it's built for keyboard and mouse inputs, whereas the iPad version is designed around an on-screen keyboard and touch controls. When I am composing, I don't want to take my hands off the keys to tap on the screen. It's just unnatural to do that, to me. So I have a 2015 MacBook Pro for my writing, although the MBA would have been fine, too. I just picked the MBP for the ports it has built into it. That MBA you have can take a variety of docks to give you the ports you might want for printers/external drives/monitors, etc.

I have an iPad mini I use for portable net surfing, reading, music, etc. Good small size, easily portable, does what I need. I don't need an iPad Pro and the size makes it somewhat less than useful to me. It's a personal thing. If I were still a road warrior (I'm retired from that now), I might find a way to get my work on an iPad Pro, but frankly, I'm used to keyboards so I'd probably still take the MBP with me.

So, my personal recommendation is to keep the MBA, forget about the iPad Pro and be happy with what you have.

And let me recommend the Apple.com website for documentation on how things work. If you go to the Support page you can type in just about anything and find the Apple documentation on how to do whatever it is. Too many people don't know about it, or don't use it.

 

[badshoehabit]

"...acknowledging now the difference in OS would it have been "better, easier, etc." to buy an iPad Pro for a bit more, plus then the cost of the keyboard."

You will soon get used to it and in a couple of weeks wonder why you ever posed the question. The biggest difference for me between MS and Mac was that delete only works backwards!

 

[MacInWin]

Sue, try Fn+Delete to delete forward.

 

[Still-learning]

Thanks everybody and thanks for the welcome. the basic issue has been discovering the difference between the two OS & why some third party apps (Readdle Calendar, Duckduckgo) that don't have both OS programming developed aren't available for both.. I have so much to learn it's exciting while at the same time boggling. that's ok though.
I'm going to keep the MBA. now that I understand, I'll just have to find other apps/programs that will run on both and sync, e.g. google calendar. I'm satisfied to keep on learning. I'll go to the two threads mentioned above and seta spell. questions that arise I will compile into a group so as not to be here every day with another. thanks for the tip on delete. wondered about that.

 

[MacInWin]

@Still-learning, some history might help. The OS for the MBA, called macOS, is based on a variant of *nix, which is a generic version of a product developed by AT&T called Unix. And that software was built for keyboard input, mouse manipulation and what you would generally think of as a "computer" for the desktop. (Actually, it goes back to before that, but we'll leave ancient history out. ) The OS for the iPad, of all sizes, is currently called iOS, although in a few days the iPad version will be called iPadOS to differentiate it from the iOS on an iPhone. That iOS was designed for a limited input, originally for the iPhone, where you have a touch screen, no real keyboard, no mouse, no external devices, etc. Although still based at its core on *nix, it was significantly shaved down to fit into an iPhone and support the particular components in that device. Also bear in mind that the CPU in the Mac is an Intel chip, a descendent of the Pentium chip, with the same basic internal architecture and instruction set. But the CPU in an iPhone or iPad is an Arm chip, developed by Apple, with an entirely different architecture and instruction set. So an application developed for the Mac cannot run in the iPhone because the low level computer instructions are different. Even the OS cannot run in the other system. iOS won't run in a Mac and macOS cannot be installed to an iPad.

OK, so the app developers come along and want to make, let's say, a word processor for the iPad. To squeeze it into the limited storage space of the smallest device, they started taking out components. So no keyboard support, no real mouse support, no external devices support, remove some features and tricks that not everyone uses. Then compile for the iOS instruction set and test to see what got broken in the process. Lather, rinse, repeat until the product is sort of usable. The result is that the iOS version is a bare-bones essential system, just barely useful at all. As the devices mature and have more storage space, more work memory, etc, the developers can put things back in. So a keyboard is added to the iOS version of Word, for example, because now you can attach a real keyboard to an iPad Pro. But it's still not identically featured as the Mac version of Word because of the differences in the hardware between the two.

All that means is that to make an app that can be synced between a Mac (or a PC) and the iPhone/iPad is a non-trivial adventure, one that a lot of developers have simply avoided. Microsoft took a long time before the first version of Office products came out for iOS, and when it did, it was a skeleton. Adobe tried Photoshop, again with a hugely reduced edit tool set. Even Apple struggled with Pages, Numbers and Keynote, their version of Word, Excel and Powerpoint. Slowly it's gotten better, but there are still differences.

I'm not sure what the market for the iPad Pro is, to be honest. As a road warrior, I wanted a true portable, not a tablet. The "saving" of space is negated by needing to have a keyboard to go with the iPad for any serious text input, so why not just carry an MBA, or MBP? The flat, tiny keyboard on an iPad is simply not conducive to touch typing, at least for my hands. I guess it is that I have just never seen any business value of the tablet for work, so it turns into a personal preference. He wants a tablet? Great, he can have it. She wants a portable? Sure, whatever makes her happy.

But you don't have to go with third party to get some of what you mentioned. You said google calendar. Well, Calendar on the Mac will sync to Calendar on the iPhone and iPad through iCloud. And it works pretty well. You can also use iCloud or just about any cloud sync service to share documents. My wife and I use Dropbox to share documents we both work on. iCloud will also sync Mail, Photos, Contacts, Reminders, Safari-saved passwords, Notes, and Keychain logins. So before you lash out with cash to get something from a third-party, give the Apple tools a try.

 

[pm-r]

Sue, try Fn+Delete to delete forward.

Or the Forward-Delete if using the Apple compatible Extended keyboard.


- Patrick
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