My iPad Experiment

My iPad Air 2 along side with my old school iPad.

I have been hearing a lot about the idea of using an iPad as a replacement for a laptop. From what i have heard and read, there seems like there is a split between camps as far as those who believe that the iPad is a tool for creating content and those who think it is a toy for consuming stuff on the internet. Even as I wrote this, I found myself writing in terms of using a computer versus using an iPad. It occurred to me that this made it seem like I had a bias coming into this experiment.  So, why am I doing this? I want to see what the true limits are for this technology at this point and how I can work with it. Just like trying to learn a new language, something that I have some experience with, I think that the best way to learn something new is through immersion. So, for the month of July, I didn't touch my MacBook Pro and instead, I did everything I normally do over the course of a month using only iOS. There are a couple of exceptions to mention up front. I do have a Windows machine at my day job that I am required to use. The combination of some specific software that I have to use and the restrictions that the company that I work for has pertaining to using personal devices on the company network prevented me from extending this project further. I haven't used my work computer at home and I have only used it for work tasks. Ironically enough, my work computer weighs more than my MacBook does, so I really don’t feel motivated to take it home under normal conditions unless I have to. 

Hardware:

I listen to a lot of podcasts. I listen to a lot of podcasts about tech stuff. I listen to a lot of podcasts about Apple tech stuff. Generally, they all have been referring to things in terms of the iPad Pro. The information that they share is great, however, I do not have the latest and greatest in iPads. I would like one at some point, but I cannot cost justify replacing my iPad that is working great for one that would work faster and possibly could  do some more stuff. When I listen to the podcasts, I find myself experimenting around the subject that are talking about to see if my iPad is up to the task. For this experiment, I have been rocking an iPad Air 2, an iPad mini, 4th generation (the first with the Retina display) and an iPhone 7. It could be said that I am living the MultiPad lifestyle, frugal edition. I am only using the software keyboard on the devices. They all have cases, but there sole purpose is to protect them from drops, smacks and my kids. The only reason that I am using the most current iPhone is because it was recently replaced after my  iPhone 6s was damaged in a house fire. 

My MacBook, with another project in progress from a few months ago.

In contrast to what I use that runs iOS, my MacBook Pro is a 13 inch, late 2011. It is from before the retina display was introduced to the line up, so, the screen resolution is not like what my iPhone or my iPads display. Part of the reason why I wanted to try this is that my MacBook is 6 years old and I can envision a day when it will not run the latest version of MacOS. As far as I know, it will run High Sierra when it comes out, but I can see how more of the resources get used up on the most basic of tasks, with each OS update. When I get to that point, I will need to look at what I can seriously afford in comparison to what my real needs are in a computer. 

One thing to bring up on the software side of things, I am running iOS 10.3.3. This is important to keep in mind as I am talking about the tests over the month of July. I don't have a need in my professional life to get a beta account with Apple, so what I use is what is available to anyone out there. With iOS 11 likely coming out in the next few weeks, there are a lot of things that I will talk about here that will probably not be consistent with how iOS 11 will work. I have not see iOS 11, in person, yet, so it is important that I am only writing this from an iOS 10 frame of reference. 

Preplanning:

I knew heading into this project, I would need to think a lot about how I do things that I do on the Mac and make that translate to do it on the iPad. I did add a couple of apps to get me going and make my transition a little easier. I didn't add anything that I would not have under other circumstances, but, this was a push I needed to make the additions. One app I added was 1password. I needed a password manager and this is one one I have been hearing the most about. However, I did not give myself enough time to fully implement 1password, so I had to refer to my old, less secure, methodology. I did get it set up on all of my devices. I also looked to see if my bank had an updated app. They have one, but it is clunky and not terribly helpful. There are a couple of things that I need to contact my financial institution about. Besides the state of their app, I would like to know when, or if they will get Apple Pay. There were some additional apps that I could have bought to make my iPad configuration close to my MacBook. I could have bought an Office 365 subscription, but, I really don't use Word or Excel that much at home, unless I am doing a work project. That is a purchase that I will likely make in the future, but I determined that it was not mission critical for this experiment.

Initial impressions:

At first, I really had to force myself not to go to my MacBook as the month started. It has been my go to place to do this kind of work for several years. That urge only lasted for a couple of days. It was easier to go the iPad to do stuff after I turned the MacBook completely off. I have had my iPads for a while, so I knew how they worked, up to a point. It was really easy to get a rhythm and a process down for doing things, like balancing my bank account, or writing in my journal. Since everything is connected to iCloud or Dropbox, getting at my information was easy. Hardest part was getting used to the software keyboard on the iPad. I have pretty large hands and I learned how to touch type in school. Even working in landscape mode was difficult while typing on the iPad glass. I got used to it in time, but, I do plan on getting a keyboard cover for my iPad. 

What I really liked:

The first thing that really jumped out was that things loaded so fast. Once I got multitasking down, which was no small feat, I was able to use that for a lot of my stuff. I did not put Workflow on my iPad on purpose. I am not opposed to it, but, I didn't want to try to teach myself how to use it during this experiment. Something else I did was start to expand my use of Pages. I have it on my devices, but, my career path has always put me in front of Word and Excel. As I said earlier, I could have put Office 365 on my iPad, but, I really didn’t know how much I would need to access the documents that I have already written. New stuff that I wrote at home, wrote using Pages. As I used it more,I actually came to like how much simpler Pages is to use. I may end up sticking with it after the experiment is up. Even as I have been preparing this blog article to post, I have been learning some things about using Pages on the Mac that I would not have if I had not done this experiment. I still have a lot of learning to do to get Numbers down as well as I understand Excel, but I will get there. There wasn’t any need for spreadsheet work over July, I that was a part of the immersion process that I needed to get into.  

The biggest thing I stumbled across doing this experiment is that if pushed me to use my iPad in ways that I had not learned without the necessity. Initially, I didn't use my iPad in landscape mode nearly as much as I should have. Things like using the iPad in split screen mode did not seem to work as well as I would have thought after hearing about it as much as I have over the past several months. At one point in the month, I started to think that somehow, split screen was limited to the iPad Pro and I had just missed that fact for all of this time. Turns out, I just need to figure it out. While it doesn't work on everything, I have learned which apps I have that will do the true split screen and which ones do the 1/4 split. As my knowledge of what the limits of each of these apps is, the more flexibility I am finding in using the iPad as a replacement for my MacBook.

Something else that I really liked is something that didn't really jump out at me as I started to write this is the fact that my power supply for my iPhone and my iPad was one and the same. Packing around my iPad is easier than my MacBook, which was completely expected. But, I did not consider that I would need to take less around with me in my bag. As far as cables in my backpack goes, I have one iPad power block,  one lightning cable, a short USB to MicroUSB, for charging my headphones or my block speaker, and the proprietary cable for charging my Fitbit. I would like to reduce my cable count to reduce further, but that is something that will come over time. 

What bothered me about it:

One of the things that some of the apps that I needed to use was not available in split screen at all. That is not necessarily a fault of Apple’s, but, I think that using only the onboard keyboard prevented me from switching apps as easily as I do on my MacBook. I will need do some additional research to see if there is a website that lists which apps work in true split screen, 1/4 screen or not at all. 

Also, I have big hands and, while I have one of the smaller MacBook Pro models available on the market, trying to touch type on the iPad keyboard was a bigger challenge than I would have liked. When I start looking seriously at keyboard covers, I will need to visit some at the store before I purchase one. I have also noticed that I really started to fill up my iPad as I worked on this experiment. I have added about 10 new apps to my iPad and, even with iCloud and Dropbox in use, I am down to about 10 GB available on my 64 GB iPad. I will take a serious look at which apps I have on there that I really need. 

End results:

After the experiment, I have determined that I could use my iPad, which is the make and model that some people would describe as the one for “consumption” as a replacement for my MacBook. There are some things I need to do, mostly in the form of changing my personal workflows for completing tasks, but that is something that I am confident I can do through experimentation. It was not a seamless transition from one to the other, but I don't think that would have been a realistic expectation. I need to consider that I did not preplan enough. 

What is next?

At some point in the future,I will try this again. It will, most likely, be on the same iPad, but, there will be some changes to my process before I begin. On the hardware side, I will need to get a  new case with a built in keyboard. I have been doing some research in to this and they are getting harder to find since the iPad Air 2 model was discontinued. My field trip to the store will have to happen sooner than later. The other thing that will change is that I will probably not involve my iPad mini in the next test. While it was my first iPad and I still use it, the 16 GB of memory makes it really limited as far as what I can do with it. On the software side, iOS 11 will be out before I do this and I will spend some time in advance getting familiar with that before I take another stab at it. I am sure that it will be successful, but I am interested to see if it will be easier than the month of July went. As far as when I may repeat the experiment, I think that I will spend a couple of months working with iOS 11. I will not completely cut myself off from using my MacBook, but, I am going to look at things from the vantage point of teaching myself as I go.