12 years ago today, at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Steve Jobs took to the stage and introduced us to a revolutionary new personal computer.
That computer was iPad, a magical sheet of aluminium and glass that could become all kinds of fantastic things, depending on which app you launched. Just like the original Macintosh from 1984, it kick started a change in our own perceptions of how a personal computer looks and most importantly, how it feels to use.
Over the last 12 years iPad has evolved from a media consumption device into a powerful computer, which many now feel is capable of replacing their Mac.
Every year Apple ship more improvements to iPadOS, closing the gap between the Mac and iPad. At this stage the only thing holding back iPad, is the lack of Pro level software.
Introducing Blocs for iPad 🎉
Today we are very excited to announce Blocs is coming to iPad. We made a little promo video to celebrate the evolution of Blocs and offer a glimpse into how Blocs works on iPad.
The Journey 🧭
The journey to bring Blocs to iPad started almost 4 years ago in 2018, when a brand new 3rd generation iPad Pro arrived at our office. Within days of using it, it was clear to us, iPad now had the potential to be the work computer of the future.
The only thing holding the device back was software, the hardware to do real work, was already there.
Due to the fact a large portion of the Blocs code base runs on web technologies, I was able to get a very basic prototype of Blocs V3 running on our iPad within a few weeks.
I’ve always thought the concept of creating websites with Blocs lent itself well to touch screen, but without actually trying it, I wasn't 100% sure it was going to feel right.
The moment I started to build a simple layout with Blocs using my fingers, I knew it was something very special. The experience was very intuitive, fun and kinda magical.
The easiest way to describe it would be to say “it felt very natural”.
Work to be done 🛠
Although my initial impressions of using Blocs on an iPad were very good, what was almost immediately clear was Blocs required some important changes in order to improve the overall experience. The file format needed to be upgraded to work on both Mac and iPad OS, the user interface required various tweaks and asset management needed more options.
Rather than bring Blocs out on iPad and have a different workflow to Blocs on the Mac, we began work on unifying the workflow of Blocs on both Mac and iPad OS.
By the end of 2019 we had updated the Blocs file format to work on both iPad and Mac, introduced support for projects to have embedded asset files and finally in 2020 made various tweaks to the user interface in Blocs V4 to prepare our users for what was coming next.
The missing pieces 🤷♂️
By early 2020 Blocs for iPad was shaping up well, however, there were various portions of the user interface that still felt very cumbersome on iPad. For example, back in early 2020 iPadOS didn't have support for pull-down (drop-down) menus, which Blocs uses a lot throughout its various settings and controls.
We also knew many Blocs users may still want a way to work with a mouse from time to time, which also wasn't possible on iPad yet.
Due to these setbacks, we put development on hold until we could make the app work the way we wanted it to. ☹️
But these setbacks were short lived, as good news was right around the corner. Apple introduced support for using a mouse with iPadOS 13.4 (24/03/2020) and then added support for pull-down (drop-down) menus in iPadOS 14 (16/09/2020).
By this point we had our heads down preparing Blocs V4 for release, so we had to wait a number of months before we could get development rolling again on Blocs for iPad. By mid 2021 it was time to get Blocs for iPad finished, with the aim of getting it into the hands of the Blocs community early 2022.
It’s almost time ⏰
So here we are, it’s the 27th of January 2022, 12 years to the day that iPad was introduced to the world and almost 4 years after our journey started to bring our powerful website builder Blocs to iPad.
It’s hard to put into words what it’s like using Blocs on iPad, it brings so much freedom, enabling you to build websites literally anywhere, anytime (even when you don’t have an internet connection) and it’s just so easy to pick up an iPad, launch Blocs and start exploring a creative idea you have, while you sip a coffee, in your favourite chair.
We think Blocs on iPad is going to be a fantastic addition to the workflow of those who already love using Blocs for Mac, to create amazing websites. But because Blocs on iPad brings almost the entire feature set of Blocs V4, we know many will use Blocs for the first time on an iPad and have everything they need to build an incredible website, right in the palm of their hands.
What’s next? 👀
Development and internal testing on Blocs for iPad is almost complete, we hope to invite Blocs V4 users to start helping beta test in the coming months.
If you would like to take part and get early access, you can sign up to our dedicated Blocs for iPad mailing list here.
If you want regular updates and insights into Blocs for iPad, we will be posting more in the coming weeks on our Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube channel, so give us a follow.
Finally, if you don’t own a version of Blocs for Mac and have never tried it, we have an unlimited free trial, no subscription, an amazing community and a very bright future on both the Mac and iPad. ⭐️
