iPad Users - Daily Drivers

1

hey MPU,

For those who use your iPad as your daily driver, I want to hear from you!

Background - Wife is back home for the next 4 months working remotely, so the office is off limits for me, because this 4-month stint requires her to be on camera the entire time. For the last few weeks, I have been using my iPad Pro to get things done during the daytime that are urgent, if not urgent, they wait till she finishes work. For the most part this is working fine.

Typically, my usage prior was just Obsidian, Omnifocus, browsing, entertainment. Quirks that I find so farā€¦ composing a campaign in MailChimpā€¦.takes forever on the iPad, because the app stinks.

An annoyance today that popped up, I opened up PDF Expert, wanted to export an image for MailChimp. Exported the image, uploaded to Mailchimp, but then realized that MailChimp on iPad doesnā€™t resize images for you like the Desktop version does. Decided too many steps, this can wait till later in the day.

I almost have to think of what I actually want to do on the iPad so that I can create a proper workflow. Example, okay, I am going to work with File ABC, need to make sure itā€™s in iCloud, or on my NAS, or I will access my Mac via Screens, etc.

Any tips or tricks on keeping things smooth that you have learned?

Side note - the temptation to buy a Macbook Pro is quite high, but I canā€™t justify that purchase based on 4 months. (unless they want to extend it). But currently have my eyes on upgrading my M1 Mini to the M4. RAM is constantly in the yellow per activity monitor. Also thought of upgrading the iPad Pro (i have gen3) but canā€™t justify the price for just mainly using it for what was described above. The battery is at a max of 79% per the stats

2

Get a bamboo screen for the office so you can walk behind her! One of these: https://www.amazon.com/room-divider-bamboo/s?k=room+divider+bamboo

Four months is a long time to lose a whole room and computer.

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3

All I can suggest is a few things to try. If the Mailchimp app isnā€™t working for you try using mailchimp.com in Safari. And there are online sites that will resize photos. Perhaps Adobeā€™s free Resizer would work for you.

If you need more power get an extension cord and leave your iPad plugged in, if you can. Or pay Apple $119 for a new battery. Get creative, think outside the ā€œwalled gardenā€ :wink:

Seriously iPad Safari, with Request Desktop Website selected (in Settings/Apps/Safari) works great on a lot of websites. It may even be better than Mac Safari on a couple.

Good luck.

4

My switch to the iPad as a full time computer was gradual so it was low stress. I just learned the differences over time so I never had any frustration.

Of course there are differences as you are finding out and itā€™s just a question of learning them and adjusting to the difference. That may not be all that helpful but I think itā€™s just a general aspect of using a different OS with apps that may function differently from what youā€™re used to.

My advice is to roll with it and accept the differences.

Editing to add: For photo resizing, I use Shortcuts all the time for that. Fantastic way to resize/convert images.

Hereā€™s a simple Shortcut that will accept a photo from Files or the Photos app or clipboard. Will prompt you to choose an image format, then image quality, then percentage of original file to optimize to. Then will prompt you to save the new file and then will also copy the image to your clipboard which you can paste into any app or into Files. You can edit to remove any of the steps you donā€™t want.

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5

Echo everything everyone here said.

  1. Bought a 10 foot Anker USB C cord for charging at a distance (i have the same ipad pro)
  2. Use the web versions (worse versions occasionally) to do things. Iā€™ve never used mailchimp, but I use wordpress.com online and itā€™s okay.
  3. Some workflows require a visit to another app, like Pixelmator for resizing.
  4. Accept that things will be harder to do on the ipad.

Itā€™s definitely more challenging being iPad only. I failed because my employer treats the iPad like a phone and locks it down for many essential things.

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6

I think the first takeaway so far in all of thisā€¦.is all the folders created in iCloud by some of these apps.

  • When I compare the iCloud folders to my Mac Mini vs the iPad for exampleā€¦on the Mac iCloud Drive, there are 2 folders called Documents (no matters how many times I try to merge them, a 2nd one keeps getting creating, not sure which app is triggering this)
  • For some reason, I have 2 folders for PDF Expert on the iPad, again not sure why this keeps happening.
  • Is there any easier way to download a folder from iCloud, it seems no matter how much I try tapping the cloud icon, it just opens the folder to all the contents. Maybe 1 in every 10 tries, it makes contact with the app and beings downloading.

Aside from that, got some work done when I made the mental split of what I needed to actually get done (and could) on the iPad and what can actually wait till later in the day when I am a desktop. For now, simple writing and reading will be iPad. Dealing with large excel sheets, audio edits, metadata, etc will be on the Mac Mini mainly due to ease of use and muscle memory. Start small with one area rather than big changes.

Still trying to hold off on buying a new iPad, I just get irritated when Spark or ChatGPT, or whatever app I am using hangs for a bit (about 2-3 seconds) and then starts working again.

Newer Mac Mini might happen later in the year, been keeping an eye on the RAM in activity monitor. Hasnā€™t hit red yet, but mainly in yellow once I start up my labor intensive tasks, and then changes up green or yellow depending on whatā€™s happening.

Thank you for the shortcuts! Until now, I never really had a ā€˜bigā€™ use for them. I may need to look into this more and assess my needs as I start to do more on here.

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7

I would say that the newer M series iPads with 8GB make a huge difference in multitasking. I use an M1 and M2 and I never wait for anything. Good deals might be had in the Apple refurb store.

Also, I donā€™t think you mentioned the size of iPad you are using. Personally, with the iPad as my only computer I would never want to use the 11". No more than Iā€™d want to use any computer with such a small screen. 13" should be the base for anyone using the iPad as their primary or only computer. An 11" if it usually going to be used with an external display.

Editing to note: Iā€™m not sure whatā€™s going on with your folders. But some apps will have the option to create both an iPad local storage folder and an iCloud folder. Textastic does this. I do have a shared base-level Documents folder that in iCloud that shows up for all devices. Not an app specific folder but just the default Documents folder for iCloud. Iā€™ve only ever had that one though.

8

One thing I would suggest is that you invest in an Apple Magic Keyboard to pair with your iPad Pro. I use a MacBook Pro as well as an iPad Pro and the latter stands in for the MacBook sometimes.

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9

I was looking at the M4 1TB option (maybe the 512 to save money). I currently have the 256 using only the half storage of itā€¦because I was in need of space and then ended up optimizing photos (which I hate doing) and keep my phone and mac as the place where originals should always be downloaded

As far as size goes, my current iPad Pro is a 12.9ā€. I will have to review the folders and see whatā€™s happening with that again.

I do have the Magic KeyBoard with the current iPad Pro. The annoyance is that once I upgrade will need a new pencil and keyboard which means more money. Itā€™s sitting in my cart right nowā€¦. M4, 1TB, standard glass, keyboard, pencil pro, apple careā€¦. about $2500 or $212/month. I feel like Apple has me in a ā€˜forever hardware subscriptionā€™

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11

Yeah, I bought an M2 iPad Pro when Best Buy had them on sale specifically so that I could continue using the various accessories I have designed for that device: Pencil, Magic Keyboard for iPad, 3rd party version of that, a magnetic stand.

The Affinity suite of apps are the most resource needy apps that I use and the M1/M2 handle them easily. If you do want to save money you could check the Apple refurb store for an M1 or M2 iPad.

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