Wolfram Cloud

For the week I tried this app, it has been unable to connect to Wolfram Cloud, reporting a helpful operation could not be completed error. This does not appear to be well tested software.

The inability to open files stored locally on device, or in other cloud storage services is insane. Whoever made that software decision should be summarily fired.

I have given bad reviews in the past to this app. Since the external keyboard issue was fixed I am now happy with it. I can actually use the app for useful work. I wish the interface were more like the standard front end notebook interface, e.g., you can not do 2-dimensional input, or use control characters for Greek letters, subscripts, superscripts, etc. Also, I wish it were easier to move data files between Wolfram Cloud and the iPad. Sometimes the latency from the server is pretty high. Otherwise, I can now see the possibility of ditching my laptop and just using my iPad Pro. Thank you to the Wolfram developers, this is great. Followup (November 26, 2022) There has been no attention paid to this app, as far as I can tell from the version I reviewed above. Perhaps, Wolfram believe the app has been superseded by Wolfram Online. It has not. Wolfram Online is buggy on mobile devices, like the iPad Pro, and it’s interface design is more Web 1.0 or whatever the current standard is. The app is actually better, but lacks so much versatility. Now that the iPad Pro has the M2 processor there is no reason for such poor performance, even in a client server model.

Contrary to early reviews, the latest version works fine, even on an iPhone. The keyboard interface takes a minute or two to learn to use, but once you get the hang of it, it’s fine.

I was hoping this app would give me a way to work on notebooks on the go - I don’t have a laptop and haven’t set up remote desktop yet. Unfortunately, this is little more than a glorified text editor with Mathematica style formatting. Graphics content rarely loads, or takes forever to do so. You can’t copy and paste without an external mouse. Editing frequently glitches and won’t accept input until I click on the cell many times. Keyboard shortcuts don’t seem to be supported, even with an external keyboard. It’s a shame that my iPad has the same processor as the latest macbook pro, but is only able to run this horribly restricted version of mathematica, especially considering that the desktop version is so good. To me, the app is literally unusable, besides minor text edits.

My use case is being a university student. I got this app in hopes that I could edit documents on iOS without needing to use my Desktop. In that aspect, yes you can create and edit .nb files from *the cloud*. Now the negative: Why can I not use documents I downloaded, and why can I only have access to a file for 60 days? I am using Mathematica (full version) via being a university student, yet I need to pay extra for the cloud which is essentially necessary to use the iOS version? Again, 2 stars because my complaint comes from the business practice of charging the university for licenses for students, *and* making students pay, essentially, so they can use it on mobile operating systems. Either allow importing and exporting of documents via local storage, or give people with a paid license of Mathematica the ability to access cloud files for until the license expires. Otherwise, this app is, essentially, restricted to quick documents you don’t want to save (ie for homework).

I like this app and it would be very handy, but it keeps logging me out every 30 minutes of inactivity, and then I need to do 2-factor. It’s super inconvenient.

Barely serves my purposes as a mechanical engineering undergrad student. My pain point is multitasking on iPad Pro. I doesn’t support it. Full screen all the time. The most you can do is have a slide over app on one side of the screen. The UI could use a refresh as well.

Cloud Mathematica on iOS would be incredibly convenient. If this app’s performance and usability problems were solved, it’s be amazing. In the mean time it’s only useful for the tiniest notebooks.

Use the web version that is more efficient and user-friendly.