Apple's New School-Friendly iPad Won't Kill Chromebooks

The biggest selling point of the new iPads, which Apple hopes will re-endear it to secondary schools effectually the world, is that it can do everything kids would otherwise apply a upkeep laptop to accomplish, and much more.

While it's true the iPad is a cutting-border educational tool, it'south non a replacement for many of the wearisome merely practical features that educators and parents accept come to capeesh virtually cheap laptops.

At first glance, Cupertino'southward claims about the iPad appear to have merit. The refreshed ix.7-inch tablet has a four-core CPU, a 64-bit operating organization, two cameras, a maximum 128GB of storage, and a very high-resolution (2,048 past 1,536) touch on brandish. Those specs would indeed make a Chromebook or inexpensive Windows laptop blush—or plow beet cherry when it learns of the iPad'southward new $299 starting price for students and teachers.

A version of the Asus Chromebook Flip, one of the best Chromebooks you lot can buy, includes similar storage options just an junior brandish and costs $499. Meanwhile, a cheap Windows laptop like the Asus VivoBook W202 ($279) beats the iPad on toll but comes with a bottom-rung Intel Celeron processor and a painfully stodgy design.

Apple iPad (2018) with Pencil support

"With the A10 [processor], this iPad is at present more powerful than nigh PC laptops and virtually every Chromebook," Greg Joswiak, Apple's VP of Product Marketing, boasted at the iPad'due south unveiling at a public high schoolhouse in Chicago.

Apple isn't just boldly claiming more ability, though. The company also argues that the iPad tin can just do more, more often than not thanks to the fact that unlike its predecessor, information technology at present includes support for an optional stylus like the Apple Pencil. With it or a similar tertiary-political party digital pen, students tin annotate, sketch, take notes, or mark up a screenshot, in addition to tapping through iOS 11 with their fingers like they normally would on an iPhone.

Combine the Apple Pencil, the upgraded A10 processor, and the burgeoning support for augmented reality (AR) that Apple is continuously injecting into iOS, and you lot become some really cool applications. 1 instance that Apple showed off in Chicago is Froggipedia, which lets kids utilise the Pencil to skin back the layers of a virtual frog. It'south not exactly a substitute for a real autopsy, merely it'south a powerful complement, especially since expressionless frogs don't come with labels identifying their cranial fretfulness and other key bits or let you start over if you accidentally cut something y'all shouldn't.

Once the dissection is over and information technology's fourth dimension to write upward the report, the iPad can connect to a Bluetooth keyboard for easier typing. Detachable Windows tablets tin can do this too, but a decent 1 will cost around $one,000. Detachable Chromebooks designed for schools don't fifty-fifty exist, although promising new models similar the Acer Chromebook Tab 10 are forthcoming.

Where Is the Waterproofing? The Ports?

So it's clear that getting the iPad into the hands of students and teachers is an beauteous goal, and it's one Apple is hoping to accomplish with its customary education discounts. The public starting price of the new iPad is $329 for 32GB of storage, but that drops to $299 subsequently the education discount is applied. The Apple Pencil also gets a $ten cost cut, downwardly to $89.

The problem is that Apple is sending a single production to compete for schoolhouse districts' limited dollars against legions of $300 Chromebooks and Windows devices already in many classrooms today. They might not have back up for digital pens or AR, just many, including the VivoBook W202, offer compelling kid-friendly features the iPad lacks, including rugged safe bumpers and waterproofing.

Apple iPad Chicago event

Even worse, the iPad has no USB ports, HDMI outputs, or any other ports except for the Lightning connector. Uncomplicated tasks that are easily accomplished in Windows and macOS, such equally connecting to a networked printer or classroom projector, are therefore more than complicated and volition sometimes require expensive adapters.

Perhaps the iPad's nearly glaring omission is that it only supports iOS, a hobbled operating organisation with no cursor command and a requirement that third-party apps comply with Apple'due south strict rules. Both Chrome Bone and Microsoft'southward new education-focused Windows x South suffer from the latter trouble, but at least they allow students to plug in a mouse or use a touchpad when they need to. Dissecting frogs might be easier if you can touch on the screen, but typing and editing an English newspaper certainly isn't.

Searching for an ePad

Apple one time took a applied approach in the classroom, of which the relatively boring merely functional eMac is a prime number case. Apple eMac This CRT all-in-1 computer, introduced in 2002, was a version of the revolutionary new iMac designed expressly for the education market and initially not sold to the general public, which meant greater discounts and a more than tailored set of features.

Apple has since drifted abroad from this approach, and Chromebooks and Windows PCs have taken the eMac's place. The iPad is revolutionary and the newest member of its family is certaintly capable of widening a student's globe, merely it compromises on the practical features that schools like nigh cheap laptops. Until Apple sees fit to offering an ePad to fill the eMac'due south pigsty, competing systems running software from archrivals Google and Microsoft will be a amend selection for schools.