good time to buy an iPad pro?

[back alley]

Do you mean the soft keyboard or the keyboard cover? I use the keyboard cover most of the time: it's an excellent, real keyboard for me.

G

the keyboard cover...i turn all thumbs with it.
works great when i can make it stay up.

 

[willie_901]

The iPad Pro has essentially replaced using a laptop for me. I find it far easier to read manuals and books with it than a laptop or desktop too.

My desktop system is now mostly dedicated to bookkeeping and image processing, my laptop mostly is set up for when I need to work with a camera in tethered operations, and my iPads do everything else. I have three

- mini 3 that I use for running the home entertainment system and putting together the grocery lists, managing recipes, etc.

- Pro 12.3 for writing, watching movies, drawing, etc.

- Pro 9.7 for everything with more portability. It fits into my camera bags.

The iPads integrate perfectly with my macOS, iPhone, Appletv, and Apple Watch systems. Everything shares all the data as appropriate to their function. It's a great, integrated system.

My favorite computers these days... 🙂

G

I've been thinking about Macbook Air vs iPad Pro. When using a keyboard with an iPad Pro can you scroll without reaching up and swiping the display?

My thinking is I find Macbook Air trackpad to be very convenient and I'm not sure swiping is an effective way to scroll. But maybe the difference is simple: one learns to use a finger instead a thumb.

By the way, I too use iOS just to control a home theatre system(s). Either a repurposed iPhone 6 or iPad 3 act as remotes for Viveza and Samsung TVs, DirectTV (remote control and streaming), Yamaha Home theatre receiver, Apple and Amazon TVs and occasionally stream via ChromeCast. Instead of juggling numerous OEM remotes I can just swipe between open Apps... and no more lost remote controls (thanks to Find My iPhone). WiFi connectivity means I can even be in different rooms or outdoors. I also use an original iPad with the audio, line-in Apple dock as a virtual FM radio to stream audio to an old-school stereo system in my office.

 

[Godfrey]

the keyboard cover...i turn all thumbs with it.
works great when i can make it stay up.

"make it stay up" ...? I don't know what you mean.

The keyboard in the cover is very thin and the key have a very short action, also if you're on the 9.7 inch version they are necessarily reduced in size and a little cramped. Just a bit of practice building the muscle coordination and control should solve the clumsiness. I've been typing on it for six or seven months at least now, and can type nearly as fast and consistently as I can on my full-size desktop keyboard now.

G

 

[Godfrey]

I've been thinking about Macbook Air vs iPad Pro. When using a keyboard with an iPad Pro can you scroll without reaching up and swiping the display?

My thinking is I find Macbook Air trackpad to be very convenient and I'm not sure swiping is an effective way to scroll. But maybe the difference is simple: one learns to use a finger instead a thumb. ...

It depends on what you're trying to scroll ... scrolling within an app's context is under the app's control and can be assigned to keyboard actions by the app designer, but the overall system operations are iOS touch-centric. Most apps are designed with the iOS touch-centric model in mind because not everyone has a hard keyboard, and frankly because most touch devices need a different model to work best. (Note that I don't think they've gotten every detail exactly right in either at this point in time, there's always more work to be done... 🙂)

If you use both macOS and iOS interchangeably as I do, there are some interesting moments when you might reach for a standard macOS keyboard shortcut on the iPad but it isn't supported and you have to use the screen and your finger. E.g.: sometimes and for some things it's easier to scroll by swiping the screen and other times I so want a page up/page down keyboard pair... And vice versa when you're working on the MacBook Air and you reach for the screen to do something but have to use the trackpad or keyboard instead. Over time, accommodation happens: I hardly notice them any more. There are definitely some things that the touch-screen model is more efficient/convenient for, and others where the keyboard/trackpad gesture model is more efficient/convenient. Those moments show the different nature of a touch pad/phone vs a keyboard-display centric computer coming into play. It's one of the things that points to why running a desktop OS on a touch device isn't the best way to conceive of a touch device UI, and melding the two is really quite difficult in several ways.

Fun stuff. I've gotten so comfortable with both working together now it's mostly 'best of all worlds' when I have them sitting on the desk side by side. 🙂

G

 

[back alley]

"make it stay up" ...? I don't know what you mean.

The keyboard in the cover is very thin and the key have a very short action, also if you're on the 9.7 inch version they are necessarily reduced in size and a little cramped. Just a bit of practice building the muscle coordination and control should solve the clumsiness. I've been typing on it for six or seven months at least now, and can type nearly as fast and consistently as I can on my full-size desktop keyboard now.

G

The keyboard works great...i like it.
I was having trouble getting the triangle to form to keep the screen up and then having trouble to get the cover part of it to cover the screen.
I seem to be managing fine this morning though.

 

[SolaresLarrave]

Looks like it's high time to start looking for a card reader to connect to the iPad I have. I would use it when I travel, mostly to download photographs, and then to read e-mail and stay connected or do other things while traveling. It's a lot smaller than my laptop and now that I got a spiffy leather case it's making me rethink its use.

Now... I must figure out the memory size. I think mine is small, so I'll have to travel with an additional portable drive. When it comes to that... do you operate editing programs from the drive or your iPad?

Thanks a BIG lot!

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Regarding the keyboard...I use the Apple bluetooth "Magic" keyboard, which is the same kind of keys as on the new MacBook Pros...along with this handy thing, the Canopy, that acts as both a protective sheath and a stand.

https://www.studioneat.com/products/canopy

Mostly, though, I use the Pencil.

 

[BillBingham2]

I'm waiting for a better camera on the larger of the two. I fondled the large one the other day and fell in lust.

Wait till the announcement and by refurb from Apple (no where else). Prices will drop odds are pretty quickly.

B2(;->

 

[Godfrey]

Looks like it's high time to start looking for a card reader to connect to the iPad I have. I would use it when I travel, mostly to download photographs, and then to read e-mail and stay connected or do other things while traveling. It's a lot smaller than my laptop and now that I got a spiffy leather case it's making me rethink its use.

Now... I must figure out the memory size. I think mine is small, so I'll have to travel with an additional portable drive. When it comes to that... do you operate editing programs from the drive or your iPad?

Thanks a BIG lot!

iPad apps always work from the internal storage. If your iPad is "small" (that is, 16G) the right thing to do is to sell it and buy one with more storage. I recommend the largest capacity if you want to do photography with it. 32G is a bit thin still, 64/128/256G are the way to go.

External drives that work with the iPad are always just accessory storage. They're all third party devices.

You can get the storage capacity by opening Settings and going to General > About.