Sure, although I think these sound like the same questions I was asking. What you can’t do is what doesn’t get done, no?
Whatever the question, I simply caution you to define some concrete measures of success and failure now, at the outset, rather than simply reflect on experiences ad hoc/post hoc. You are effectively conducting an autoethnographic design science study. Without pre-registering your expectations and assumptions, I don’t think you can obtain objective results.
One way to do this is by testing principles in the following form:
Principle (e.g., “Using the iPad Pro’s different form factors to think and work in flexible styles leads to more spontaneous productivity.”)
Affordance (e.g., “Because the iPad Pro hardware can be adapted to suit different contexts, it is easier to use the iPad Pro to do better work in more contexts than using my laptop.”)
Success condition (e.g., “At the end of the month, I find myself productively using the iPad Pro in more moments in the day than I was previously with my laptop.”)
The success condition tests the affordance, which evidences the principle. (This is a roughshod and simplified version of a framework I’ve been developing on the basis of Shirley Gregor and colleagues’ design theories and design principles.)
Obviously you’re not conducting a formal study, so this rigour probably seems silly, but I think we are all prone to finding the data — in this case, the experiences and stories — that fit our mood when it comes to gadgets and apps.
If you run into any trouble trying to do a certain thing on your iPad that you do on a Mac, of the “how do I open multiple windows on Stage Manager”, don’t hesitate to message me. I have invested countless hours teaching myself how to do something I used to do “the Mac way” the iPadOS way. I may be able to help you translate a macOS task to an efficient iPadOS method.
This goes for anybody on this forum. I’ve read so many articles and even watched a recent video posted on X that talked about how you can’t do a certain thing on an iPad (like put two windows next to each other or open additional instances of an application in a new window) where I do the thing every day. I’m happy to share what I know and none of it involves some crazy work flow where you need 37 shortcuts connected to a server that runs 24/7. I have zero tolerance for that stuff. A lot things people have trouble with on an iPad are trivial to do if you don’t fight the OS.
Just consider me the friendly, neighborhood "iPadOS as a Second Language"™ teacher.
I’m considering whether to upgrade my Mac or my iPad and tried a brief experiment using my existing iPad.
It worked better than I might have expected, but fell apart when I couldn’t export a PDF from Obsidian, a workflow I use often. (I was surprised how much did work in Obsdian!) The application isolation in iPadOS can make it harder to work on a document with more than one app.
For now the best workaround to export or print from an iPhone or iPad is to open the file in an iOS markdown editor with that capability (like 1Writer or iA Writer) and do it from there. You can also add your support to the feature request on the Obsidian Forum.
I was surprised how much did work in Obsdian!)
I’ve always been impressed that the mobile app has almost all the desktop app‘s features and works with most of the same plugins.
I’m able to pin my vault or its subfolders in the file explorers of 1Writer and iA Writer and open and save notes in them.
In 1Writer, I can pin folders (including my vault) and subfolders, but for some reason iA Writer doesn’t allow pinning subfolders of already pinned folders. (I use Obsidian Sync, and don’t know if it’s different if you use other syncing methods.)
A third question, from a different viewpoint (since it is available), would be to ask the executive assistant whether she experienced a lighter or different work load during the month.
I’m embarking on the same experiment. I have an iPad Pro M4 11” with 512 GB of storage. I plan to use it for everything except livestreaming (I use Ecamm Live, and it only works on macOS) and creating Keynote presentations.
The three apps I miss the most are Keyboard Maestro, TextExpander, and Raycast. I’m using the new TextExpander for mobile beta. It works surprisingly well, but has a ways to go.
I can’t wait to hear how this goes. Caveat on my post here, I haven’t read any of the responses yet, because I didn’t want to be swayed by people’s thoughts on my reply (so apologies if my post is duplicative).
I bet you will have a lot of success, especially based on what your use-case is. That, and you choosing the 13” — I think you have a good setup. Do you have/use an external monitor with it? I have been using my 11” more and more with an external monitor and I find it works pretty well…and kind of transforms the iPad from “casual” mode (again, I have an 11”) into a “get stuff done” mode.
Completely agree with this. I find I’m able to get more into a mode of getting work/tasks done when I hook my 11” up to the external monitor. I can certainly still get things done on the 11”, but my ability to have a few things going at once is more limited.
I think that’s kind of one of the beautiful things of the iPad (and is also true for the Mac)…I can have a “smaller” iPad for using around the house and getting light work done, but then can easily hook it up to my monitor and get more “traditional” with my work (multiple screens, more visible space, etc.).
@iPersuade While you certainly couldn’t do it for everything you learned, it would be an interesting post I’d definitely save if you put together a common list of some of the things you’ve learned with the “how to”. Just a (somewhat selfish of mine) thought!
It’s funny you would suggest that… These iPadOS threads of late started me thinking about doing something like this. I started scribbling some ideas down yesterday about topics, even. So, with your inspiration, I’ll get to work on it.
I have a question. I have all of my documents in iCloud. Could I consider iCloud backup a sufficient backup? I’m NOT talking about syncing—I know that is not a backup. But, can iCloud backup serve as a legitimate backup method?
How to back up your iPhone or iPad with iCloud
Connect your device to a Wi-Fi network.
Go to Settings > [your name], and tap iCloud.
Tap iCloud Backup.
Tap Back Up Now. Stay connected to your Wi-Fi network until the process ends. Under Back Up Now, the date and time of your last backup is shown.
I ask because if I go all in on the iPad, I would have course drop by BackBlaze as it would not be needed.
In addition to iCloud’s backup, is there a way to backup all of my files using an external drive? I’d feel better however if I had additional backups of my files in iCloud to an external drive.
As a widely embraced data backup strategy, the 3-2-1 Rule prescribes:
Maintain three copies of your data: This includes the original data and at least two copies.
Use two different types of media for storage: Store your data on two distinct forms of media to enhance redundancy.
Keep at least one copy off-site: To ensure data safety, have one backup copy stored in an off-site location, separate from your primary data and on-site backups.
I’ll brag just a little, I have been consistently meeting that standard, but will not if I switch completely to the iPad. But, if I can add an external backup from the iPad in addition to iCloud backup, I’m feel pretty comfortable.
Thanks, but in my ideal world, I would no longer have a Mac—just the iPad. Do you know if there is a way to backup the iPad to an external drive without a computer?
