Pretty impressive review from Serenity Caldwell at iMore.
My 9.7 iPad (2018) review: Drawn, written, edited, and produced with an iPad
Pretty impressive review from Serenity Caldwell at iMore.
iMore doesn’t deserve Caldwell; she’s terrific. I hope she eventually starts a channel of her own of some kind.
The divine Ms. Caldwell is simply the best new tech journalist to arrive in the last few years.
I am not immune to all the hoopla over using an electronic pencil with a device designed to work perfectly without ANY other device but your fingers. I am a heavy user of my current iPad, as I was with every model of iPad since the first model. I spend easily 3 or more hours a day with one in, or lose to my hands. It’s a great reference tool and great for knocking out quick replies to messages and emails. I even create a few things with it when I need to, but for me it’s about 99% consumption and 1% creation. I am completely with Steve Jobs on this. He NEVER believed in peripherals for the iPad… and neither do I. Want to add a keyboard to your iPad? Get a MacBook. It’s not much more money and far, far more versatile. Want a stylus like an Apple Pencil for your iPad? Get a tablet and stylus for your MacBook or Mac.
Why would I try to create something on an iPad with a cramped screen, extremely poor ergonomics a crappy, inferior smartphone operating system, extremely limited storage space and a limited number of peripherals when I can sit down in front of two 28” 4K monitors, driven by a powerful, pro-class processor with tons of RAM and storage space, and with the capacity to add literally dozens of highly productive peripherals? Why? Convenience? Sorry, I don’t call juggling a small slab of electronics plus a keyboard and a stylus in my lap a very productive work environment.
Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for this stuff and there are people who can do amazing things with it all, but it’s NOT me. A stylus in particular is completely useless for me. I was forced to change from my natural left hand to right handed righting twice when young. Today NOBODY, including doctors, can read my handwriting. As for drawing, I can neither draw a straight line or a circle, let alone illustrate anything. It’s clip art for me!
I LOVE my iPad. Either it or my iPhone is at my side nearly all my waking day, 7 days a week. I feel naked without one or the other… but they’re for consumption, not creation.
The only thing I want Apple to do is to make an iPad that runs MacOS, because iOS, other than in a smartphone, is, to me, the most limiting element. Compared to MacOS it is crude, dumbed down, inflexible and highly limiting, as are most of the Apps created for it.
“Don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for this stuff and there are people who can do amazing things with it all, but it’s NOT me”
You know, that’s all you could’ve written.
Well that was quite brilliant.
The problem with communications today is that it has been truncated to nothing but soundbites that make a statement with nothing to back it up. A statement is nothing without substantiation. That’s the major problem with things like Twitter.
Hey, at least he used paragraph breaks.
I think where the iPad shines for creating is when you’re doing something that is easier because of the touch UI, etc. To me, it makes little sense to try to get an iPad to mimic a laptop and vice versa. I do like that there’s some cross-over so if someone’s needs encompass both paradigms they can be productive, though. Also, of course, everyone will feel differently because we all have slightly different needs and work styles.
Obviously, your mileage will vary. I wrote a technical article on my iPad Pro this week using Ulysses and OmniGraffle as my main tools. Mail and calendar agony was split across all my devices. And a couple of hours of photo fun with Affinity. All told probably 8-10 hours of ‘creative’ stuff.
The are differences in the quality of experience between Mac and iPad for me. I’ve been using Notability for meeting notes on both but when I’m sitting with people the iPad doesn’t intrude into the physical space like my MacBook Pro. Laying the iPad flat is like removing a physical barrier between me and the other people. I have no numbers but the quality of the communication seems better.
When writing on the iPad I feel immersed in my work. I know that I can go full screen mode on Mac but I get distracted more easily. Again, no numbers but I feel more productive writing on my iPad.
Lastly photo editing and drawing on my iPad using touch and pencil just feels more natural to me.
I almost wish I could think of anything as immediately visceral and helpfully memorable as a good pen and paper pad for taking notes at a meeting. I draw sketches during meetings almost as much as I write.
I’ve owned a Wacom tablet of one kind or another for over a decade, and I’m very happy with iOS devices that allow me to scribble. Both are very helpful, but pen and paper still win for specific tasks.
While Ms. Caldwell’s presentation is nicely done, it’s not a review but another piece of marketing crap.
The iPad is not yet close to being a replacement for a computer.
and in education, Apple missed the point. It’s about budgets. nd $400 per student busts the budget.
Making presentations like the aforementioned is nice. But it’s only a small portion of what students are required to do.
You’re just a ray of sunshine on cloudy day.
I agree on the educational budgets—I don’t think the new iPad will move the needle enough for Apple. But not to worry, the market will speak and we’ll see.
As for “not yet close to being a replacement for a computer,” it really depends on _whom_. My mom doesn’t use a computer anymore at home, her iPad is her computer. So, for her, it is definitely a computer replacement.