Watch: 2017 12.9" iPad Pro vs. 12" MacBook

Good video! I just don't understand why Apple, years after the iPad introduction, refuse to consider input/output with external drives. It's almost like Steve Job's ghost still hovers over their planning meetings. Apple journalists try hard to make the case that the iPad Pro can or almost can take over the functions of a laptop. But they keep running into functional shortfalls that can be historically traced to Jobs's insistence on a different role for the iPad. The Apple Pencil was a big breakthrough. IOS 11 might be the next. Go all the way Apple and connect with external storage. 

I store my data as encrypted .dmg files on dropbox. When will I be able to open/mount these on an iPad?
iPad needs to support the mac OS file system inorder to become an equal to the laptop.

My 2 cents...

The only thing keeping me from getting one as a MacBook replacement is the lack of dual screen (extended desktop). I simply rely on that too much for work. The day that is solved is the day I get an iPad Pro. 

When I can code on my iPad as easily as I can code on my MacBook I won't be needing my MacBook on the go 90% of the times

can the ipad run the desktop version of Logic Pro X or Ableton Live? no
can the ipad run Audio Hijack? no
can i plug in my korg microkey into the ipad (even with the efn' dongle that lets you supposedly charge and connect something usb)? no
can i plug in my Zoom H6 and dump my field recordings into the ipad without a special this or that? no
likewise, can i take out the sd card on my Zoom device and just plug it in, rubberband the filesd dump them into a folder i create? no
i/o options onboard? no
file management? no
file management as elegant, as deep, and as flexible as i may need it to be, or may not need it to be...MY choice? no

dongle nickle and dime? yes
cloud dependant? yes
cloud dependant. so, for instance, when i am doing research in central America or southeast/central Asia, where the infastructure is dicey and i can't backup anything to solidstate devices (thumbdrives/sd)? fck yes

is the ipad a desktop replacement? maybe for apple desktop/laptops as they boldly keep on blurring the line between ios and macos...with desktop hardware becoming more so like the ios devices with increasingly less is more philosophy driven by some knighted guy and the yes board.

is the ipad a desktop replacement? not for a windows machine where you get bigger bang for the buck...except running the shtty operating system as its namesake.

so no.

apple, keep on burning people who actually ARE productive and have made great use of your quality products and operating system for countless years and instead keep on with the curated music, the shttyr and shttyr itunes ecosystem, the increasingly inaccessible physical i/o path and the social consciousness...hey, the multitude of consumers and the share holders will throw rose petals down that path