Considering today’s anniversary of the iPad, I thought I’d cobble into a post some notes I’ve been keeping regarding my iPad usage in Ulysses. My affinity for the device has always been at once a sine qua non of my tech nerdiness, and a source of vexation about why, exactly, I find it so appealing.
On the Weekly Review in OmniFocus
Weekly review in OmniFocus… lack of keyboard can be painful when you know how easy it would be on the Mac. But… the position, the posture. It doesn’t eliminate the friction on a Sunday night, but it’s nice.
Note to self: don’t do this on Sunday nights!
I would argue that one of the greatest use cases for the iPad is a weekly review, if you’re a GTD and OmniFocus user. OmniGroup has done such a great job with the iPad versions of their apps.
On the Lack of a Clipboard Manager and History
Copy and pasting links…. it’s painful cause no clipboard history. Maybe the worst part. On a Mac, you can copy all kinds of stuff and use whatever clipboard manager (or managers) you like. For me, it’s most often Launchbar, but I like Pastebot a lot. It reminds me of Windows excellent clipboard plus that comes with PowerToys.
On Having Too Much of a Good Thing
Don’t take it everywhere I thought I might (mini with cell)
On the Extravagant Keyboard
From 2022:
What the iPad Pro got right, among other things, is the expensive keyboard. If you’re sitting or lounging on the sofa, the keyboard pushes the naked robotic core towards you, in a way that is so useful.
Not Using the iPad for Work During COVID
I don’t use my iPad very much for work, which I kind of miss; however…
I was really getting back into a desktop Mac setup at home.
High Hopes Pre-COVID
The iPad is nanometers away from replacing laptops for so many users. I could probably walk away from a computer myself save for specific work tasks.
A “Third Category of Device”
As quoted by John Gruber in an article on how many Apple users have an iPad:
Phone remains the most dominant product, with 94% of recent Apple customers owning one. iPads are next, with 78% owning one. Mac computers have much smaller penetration, at 36% of recent customers.
This surprised me; I’d think that the next obvious step would be from iPhone to Mac. The iPad sits in the middle and is in my mind the third least-essential of the trio. That’s increasingly less true for me, but remains so. I’d miss having an iPad sorely if I didn’t have one, but I’d miss having a Mac more.
The iPad can feel like work, but it doesn’t. Sitting on the sofa, iPad on my lap, I just accept the tradeoffs of using the touch-driven interface and accept that I’m going to move a bit more slowly, but it’s intimate and casual feeling in its way. I still use the hell out of my Mac, especially for work, but I do love the iPad. It’s pretty great just as it is.
It’s the perfect device for reading news and RSS feeds.
I still want a clipboard manager, though.
For as fast as I am on the Mac, I love using gestures. I can be pretty fast with those too.