Rob Fahrni

Federico Viticci • MacStories

MacPad: How I Created the Hybrid Mac-iPad Laptop and Tablet That Apple Won’t Make

I may call it a monster in the title but this is a fantastic idea for a device in my opinion. I love that it has both iPad and macOS operating systems and both chipsets. It is after all just an iPad bolted onto a MacBook Pro bottom.

I can see a little cottage industry springing from this. I envision a top cover that fits the laptop perfectly and includes an intelligent dock, or tray, for the iPad to slide into. That intelligent dock would also provide a way to plug directly into the back of the MacBook complete with a hinge so you could close it and it would look just like a laptop from another manufacturer.

The dock would also need a way to provide power and a USB-C connection so Sidecar wouldn’t require a network connection to operate. When docked the docking system would autodetect it and fire up a session into the Mac and display it. I’m not sure how that would work, but it would be amazing.

When detached you could close the lid and use it in clamshell mode, hooking up a full size display, keyboard, and mouse.

This is the perfect device. ❤️

NetNewsWire Blog: “Our mission is to make the best RSS reader that we like making. We value stability, high performance, clarity, and lots of figurative air and space rather than a mélange of features.”

I love how Brent and the NNW team hold true to what they believe – and what they want – a feed reader to be.

If you haven’t checked out NNW you really should, it’s a great product.

MacRumors: ‘because it “opens the door for ‘Pro’ applications to come to ‌iPad‌."’

I picked that bit of a sentence from the article because it’s complete B.S. If folks want to bring Pro apps to the iPad they have the means to do it today on their Mac. Having Xcode on an iPad won’t magically make that any better. The Mac is the perfect tool for building Professional Mac and iOS apps.

Xcode on iPad would be fine. I can’t personally see using an iPad as my primary development machine. Mainly because I like using a bigger display for development. My 15in MacBook Pro display is about as small as I’d like to use.

If I could set the iPad on a stand of some sort, hook it up to my full size keyboard, mouse, and 24in display? That is something that may work.

We’re getting closer to that day, we’re just not quite there.