Going Post–PC with the iPad Pro
I won’t be going completely without using desktop computers. This is the case because I do need to use my Mac for dictation. Dragon for Mac is the bees knees when it comes to dictation. I can do Siri dictation on the iPad and I prefer to do that, than use the keyboard for typing. Not bad but not as accurate as Dragon. It’s not that I don’t like the iPad keyboard for typing, because with predictive text it can be as quick as or even faster than a physical keyboard. When you only need to do one tap to put in a long word or even do many long words one after the other, you just have to appreciate how good it is. Despite all of this, I now have my hands on a lovely iPad Pro.
Drawing and painting on the iPad
One of my main reasons to get the iPad Pro is for digital drawing and painting and it seems that the Apple Pencil will be marvellous for the job. When I finally get the Apple pencil, that is. There is a wait of one or two weeks to get this product from Apple and I can’t believe that they didn’t have enough made for the launch of the iPad Pro. I am an artist and I used to be an art teacher and despite that I’m not brilliant at drawing these days. I’m quite out of practice after spending many years doing other things and not drawing much at all. I’m keen to get back into drawing again. I have been using a couple of different stylus with my previous iPad and I have both versions of the Wacom creative stylus. One has the usual rubbery end and the other has the harder point. The new Apple Pencil is more like the second version which has the harder end for drawing with. I find that one is quite clicky and hard on the surface when drawing and some of the applications don’t support it. The beauty of the Apple Pencil is, it is specifically made for the job. There is extra technology and hardware implementation on the iPad screen itself. This means that there is very little lag from where the drawing point is, to where the line appears on the screen. I expect this will also stop that thing happening in some applications on previous iPad apps where you would draw a line that was supposed to be straight and it would end up being kind of wavy. I would love to get my hands on an Apple Pencil now to try out. I should have called into the Barcelona Apple store on Saturday as I was passing.
Hitting the iPad Pro hard for the next month
I have promised myself that apart from the time I need to spend dictating text into Dragon dictate on the Mac I’ll spend has much time as possible using the iPad Pro. I’d like to see if I could transition to the small mobile device, despite it being quite a bit larger than the previous version. It should work out a lot easier having the ability to run two apps side-by-side on the screen. Each app being the same size as they used to be on the iPad Air 2. It makes it very easy to do a copy and paste from one application to another. I expect that one day we will be able to do a drag and drop in between two applications. Although, who knows what version of the operating system for iOS it will be when that will becomes available. The screen for the iPad Pro is lovely and a very high resolution which makes it a delight to work with. A truly immersive experience when using the iPad Pro. That is a very good thing when you use art applications. Keeps you in the zone and makes it more personal for your creativity.
My need to get a protective cover is holding me back
Despite the fact that the devices well-balanced and weighted and feels good to hold and use , it does feel a little bit slippery and precarious in my hand. I have become used to having my iPads in a decent protective cover. I prefer to have one that will protect the back as well as the front. I also like the smart covers that turn the screen off using the magnet sensors when you close it. I chose a cover from Amazon for the magnificent price of €15 rather than laying out the ridiculous amount of money for an Apple smart cover. As I was saying about my preference for dictation, I don’t have too much need for a keyboard. I’m not hankering after getting the Logitech Create keyboard for the iPad Pro or the Apple iPad Pro keyboard. I might still try one out though when I see one in the Apple Store on my next visit.
Other Mac apps I’ll need to use.
I do have an application on the iPad that will create e-books and it does a fairly good job of it. However, Book Creator doesn’t do the iBooks that I’ll need to use iBooks Author for. It’ll be interesting to find out which are the other OS X applications that I just can’t do without. There are occasions when all need to do some high-level photo editing and for that it’s still going to be better to use Affinity Photo and maybe I’ll have stick with that and Affinity Designer. I used Topaz Impression the other day also to modify a photo in a creative way. Seems like I might have to use the Mac for quite a few things…. Still, I’ll try to get as much use out of the iPad Pro. I’ll pick it up first and only when I really have to switch to the Mac will I change over.
