iPad Pro Fell Back in Love with my 1st Gen iPad Pro 12.9, and what are your Favorite Use-Cases?

[PrettyWings]

Hey all,

Just a positive post. I was a freshman in college when the first iPad came out. Grabbed it and was amazed at the technology and the potential that, one day, somebody might be able to use a device like this as a primary device in school. Fast forward a few years later, and I’m working on degree 2.0. Got the 12.9 iPad Pro a few years ago and it easily became my favorite Apple device. The quad-speakers, the true 10-hour battery life, that big 13 inch screen, but also that thinness, it made so many activities a luxury experience. I’d been using it every week for almost 3 years, at the very least, just to listen to music. I began to study for a final last week. Normally, I had just been using pencil and paper, because I thought that would make me go faster. This time, I switched to the iPad. Already had the Apple Pencil. I was able to cover so much ground and do it quicker and much more organized, I was blown away. The fact that you can have your textbook on the iPad, then screenshot long questions into a digital notebook app, do what you need to do, then open up a calculator app that will allow you to write tedious calculations into it and compute things for you (without ever having to put down the pencil to type things into a calculator), and then you’re back to the notebook and onto the next one. Then, reviewing the notes afterwards, everything is so colorful and easy to read.

The productivity I experienced on the device was so seamless and composed. It’s like the honeymoon started all over again, and it makes me wonder what else I’m missing.

With that, I must ask, what are your favorite use-cases?

 

[spudWorks]

I moved to Germany to be with my wife and I've been taking a daily German language class. Like you, I had the iPad Pro (baby 9.7" version though) for more than a few years and the pencil too. For the first couple of years, the pencil was basically a novelty. But in the last year, it's been super useful for note taking in class, handwriting essays, the whole shebang!

My favorite thing isn't just the hand-note taking or handwriting-to-text recognition, both of which are... you know, awesome. It's actually how I can then consolidate my daily notes into topically related notes while leaving the originals in place. I know it sounds like a little thing but it's been twenty years since I've been in a classroom and I remember how terrible it was to search through a semester's worth of notes for one thing that was related to something we talked about today but that I could never locate within my jam packed notebook or exercise sheets. It's really helped keep me organized and, I believe, helped make learning German possible for me.

The new swipe over multi-tasking of iPadOS13 has also been a godsend so I can bring up Google Translate when I'm absolutely lost deciphering something, without breaking my workflow. The old way feels like such a kludge now...

Additionally, because of the keyboard, the iPad is also my favorite writing device. I've written two books on it and write with it almost daily. (When it comes to revisions though, I still haven't made the leap to actually correcting on the iPad and still print my pages and hit them with the red pen treatment but... next time...? Who knows!?)

 

[ericwn]

Thanks both for sharing your experiences!

@spudWorks - what app do you use for handwriting - text recognition? I’ve tried this on my GoodNotes and the results with my handwriting were pretty terrible.

Enjoy learning German, as a native speaker we often forget what a challenging language it can be to wrap one’s head around!

 

[kristalsoldier]

I moved to Germany to be with my wife and I've been taking a daily German language class. Like you, I had the iPad Pro (baby 9.7" version though) for more than a few years and the pencil too. For the first couple of years, the pencil was basically a novelty. But in the last year, it's been super useful for note taking in class, handwriting essays, the whole shebang!

My favorite thing isn't just the hand-note taking or handwriting-to-text recognition, both of which are... you know, awesome. It's actually how I can then consolidate my daily notes into topically related notes while leaving the originals in place. I know it sounds like a little thing but it's been twenty years since I've been in a classroom and I remember how terrible it was to search through a semester's worth of notes for one thing that was related to something we talked about today but that I could never locate within my jam packed notebook or exercise sheets. It's really helped keep me organized and, I believe, helped make learning German possible for me.

The new swipe over multi-tasking of iPadOS13 has also been a godsend so I can bring up Google Translate when I'm absolutely lost deciphering something, without breaking my workflow. The old way feels like such a kludge now...

Additionally, because of the keyboard, the iPad is also my favorite writing device. I've written two books on it and write with it almost daily. (When it comes to revisions though, I still haven't made the leap to actually correcting on the iPad and still print my pages and hit them with the red pen treatment but... next time...? Who knows!?)

Interesting and thanks for sharing. What kind of books did you write?

 

[spudWorks]

Thanks both for sharing your experiences!

@spudWorks - what app do you use for handwriting - text recognition? I’ve tried this on my GoodNotes and the results with my handwriting were pretty terrible.

Enjoy learning German, as a native speaker we often forget what a challenging language it can be to wrap one’s head around!

I use Nebo MyScript. It's pretty good. You can set the language per-binder. So, for instance, it will recognize English words in my German Class Notes binder but not as well in the general one that I have set for English. And in the English one, German is not really recognized at all. But it's been good! And I have pretty chicken scratch hand writing!
[doublepost=1566047752][/doublepost]

Interesting and thanks for sharing. What kind of books did you write?

Dumb stuff. I have a crime-thriller centered around a professional killer and then a sci-fi series that's really just for me. High lit, it is not.

 

[AutomaticApple]

Hey all,

Just a positive post. I was a freshman in college when the first iPad came out. Grabbed it and was amazed at the technology and the potential that, one day, somebody might be able to use a device like this as a primary device in school. Fast forward a few years later, and I’m working on degree 2.0. Got the 12.9 iPad Pro a few years ago and it easily became my favorite Apple device. The quad-speakers, the true 10-hour battery life, that big 13 inch screen, but also that thinness, it made so many activities a luxury experience. I’d been using it every week for almost 3 years, at the very least, just to listen to music. I began to study for a final last week. Normally, I had just been using pencil and paper, because I thought that would make me go faster. This time, I switched to the iPad. Already had the Apple Pencil. I was able to cover so much ground and do it quicker and much more organized, I was blown away. The fact that you can have your textbook on the iPad, then screenshot long questions into a digital notebook app, do what you need to do, then open up a calculator app that will allow you to write tedious calculations into it and compute things for you (without ever having to put down the pencil to type things into a calculator), and then you’re back to the notebook and onto the next one. Then, reviewing the notes afterwards, everything is so colorful and easy to read.

The productivity I experienced on the device was so seamless and composed. It’s like the honeymoon started all over again, and it makes me wonder what else I’m missing.

With that, I must ask, what are your favorite use-cases?

That was the greatest thing I’ve heard all day!

 

[kp98077]

Nice post!

 

[spiderman0616]

In the beginning, I started using the iPad Pro as just another way to do my emails, keep up with work stuff on the go, take notes, and then do all my other “for fun” stuff at night. There wasn’t nearly as much high powered software in 2015 as there is now.

These days I’m using it for drawing in Procreate, photo editing and designing with the Apple Pencil in Affinity Photo/Designer, editing and recording audio in Ferrite, editing video in LumaFusion, the list goes on and on and on. Basically all the high octane stuff I used to do on a Mac I now do on my iPad Pro. Paired with the Pencil, it’s my dream computer for content creation.

I tried going all in with iPad back when the original iPad Air came out. I was disappointed with the results, because back then Apple wasn’t selling a keyboard case and most third party options were pretty terrible. Most apps were also severely limited and not the full blown desktop class studios we’re getting now. I ultimately gave up on the idea of using my iPad Air as a computer.

The launch of the iPad Pro was a godsend for me. It was a signal to me that Apple was finally ready to take the shackles off of the iPad and let me use it the way i want to use it. I’ve bought every generation since then and the experience has just gotten better and better.

 

[PrettyWings]

I moved to Germany to be with my wife and I've been taking a daily German language class. Like you, I had the iPad Pro (baby 9.7" version though) for more than a few years and the pencil too. For the first couple of years, the pencil was basically a novelty. But in the last year, it's been super useful for note taking in class, handwriting essays, the whole shebang!

My favorite thing isn't just the hand-note taking or handwriting-to-text recognition, both of which are... you know, awesome. It's actually how I can then consolidate my daily notes into topically related notes while leaving the originals in place. I know it sounds like a little thing but it's been twenty years since I've been in a classroom and I remember how terrible it was to search through a semester's worth of notes for one thing that was related to something we talked about today but that I could never locate within my jam packed notebook or exercise sheets. It's really helped keep me organized and, I believe, helped make learning German possible for me.

The new swipe over multi-tasking of iPadOS13 has also been a godsend so I can bring up Google Translate when I'm absolutely lost deciphering something, without breaking my workflow. The old way feels like such a kludge now...

Additionally, because of the keyboard, the iPad is also my favorite writing device. I've written two books on it and write with it almost daily. (When it comes to revisions though, I still haven't made the leap to actually correcting on the iPad and still print my pages and hit them with the red pen treatment but... next time...? Who knows!?)

Right! It’s such a beautiful device that seems really fun to have for obvious reasons but there’s some hidden treasure there that you don’t realize until you start trying to use it in certain contexts. And being able to consolidate your notes seems like a little thing, but it’s something you end up doing over and over again. And you spend time trying to look for notes. You end up saving time by doing it this way, and working hard on something does not make something more complicated because you end up with so many more notes to look through!

This multitasking you mention intrigues me. You mean, like on the X and the XS?

I actually just bought the keyboard a few days ago! It’s like a whole new device. Reminds me of the Surface Pro now. Really excited about mouse support!

 

[spiderman0616]

I moved to Germany to be with my wife and I've been taking a daily German language class. Like you, I had the iPad Pro (baby 9.7" version though) for more than a few years and the pencil too. For the first couple of years, the pencil was basically a novelty. But in the last year, it's been super useful for note taking in class, handwriting essays, the whole shebang!

My favorite thing isn't just the hand-note taking or handwriting-to-text recognition, both of which are... you know, awesome. It's actually how I can then consolidate my daily notes into topically related notes while leaving the originals in place. I know it sounds like a little thing but it's been twenty years since I've been in a classroom and I remember how terrible it was to search through a semester's worth of notes for one thing that was related to something we talked about today but that I could never locate within my jam packed notebook or exercise sheets. It's really helped keep me organized and, I believe, helped make learning German possible for me.

The new swipe over multi-tasking of iPadOS13 has also been a godsend so I can bring up Google Translate when I'm absolutely lost deciphering something, without breaking my workflow. The old way feels like such a kludge now...

Additionally, because of the keyboard, the iPad is also my favorite writing device. I've written two books on it and write with it almost daily. (When it comes to revisions though, I still haven't made the leap to actually correcting on the iPad and still print my pages and hit them with the red pen treatment but... next time...? Who knows!?)

Oh man—do you not have the Apple Pencil? It’s a joy to use when it comes to document markup.

 

[kp98077]

Oh man—do you not have the Apple Pencil? It’s a joy to use when it comes to document markup.

Dumb question, how do you you use it for document markup? Which program? New....

 

[spiderman0616]

Dumb question, how do you you use it for document markup? Which program? New....

What usually happens in my use case is that someone will send me a form to fill out. I’ll open the PDF, use the markup tools built in to iOS to fill it out with the Pencil, save my changes in Files somewhere, and then email it back to the person who needs it. Not sure what app you’re using for writing, but the big ones all support this.

 

[spudWorks]

Right! It’s such a beautiful device that seems really fun to have for obvious reasons but there’s some hidden treasure there that you don’t realize until you start trying to use it in certain contexts. And being able to consolidate your notes seems like a little thing, but it’s something you end up doing over and over again. And you spend time trying to look for notes. You end up saving time by doing it this way, and working hard on something does not make something more complicated because you end up with so many more notes to look through!

This multitasking you mention intrigues me. You mean, like on the X and the XS?

You know exactly what I mean. It really is amazing!

But, yeah, the new multitasking works very much like the newer iPhones but it will only show the apps that you've used in that context and in the order you last used them. So it's way more contextual than the old iOS9 scroll through all the apps old way or the constantly having to replace the one app with another from the home bar. It's my favorite part of the new OS and is way more handy than I'm making it sound.

 

[spiderman0616]

You know exactly what I mean. It really is amazing!

But, yeah, the new multitasking works very much like the newer iPhones but it will only show the apps that you've used in that context and in the order you last used them. So it's way more contextual than the old iOS9 scroll through all the apps old way or the constantly having to replace the one app with another from the home bar. It's my favorite part of the new OS and is way more handy than I'm making it sound.

I believe the part of the multitasking you’re referring to is the new split view app switcher—that’s going to be super nice. I’m also looking forward to a more “Spaces”-like app picker when swiping up and holding from the bottom.

 

[PrettyWings]

In the beginning, I started using the iPad Pro as just another way to do my emails, keep up with work stuff on the go, take notes, and then do all my other “for fun” stuff at night. There wasn’t nearly as much high powered software in 2015 as there is now.

These days I’m using it for drawing in Procreate, photo editing and designing with the Apple Pencil in Affinity Photo/Designer, editing and recording audio in Ferrite, editing video in LumaFusion, the list goes on and on and on. Basically all the high octane stuff I used to do on a Mac I now do on my iPad Pro. Paired with the Pencil, it’s my dream computer for content creation.

I tried going all in with iPad back when the original iPad Air came out. I was disappointed with the results, because back then Apple wasn’t selling a keyboard case and most third party options were pretty terrible. Most apps were also severely limited and not the full blown desktop class studios we’re getting now. I ultimately gave up on the idea of using my iPad Air as a computer.

The launch of the iPad Pro was a godsend for me. It was a signal to me that Apple was finally ready to take the shackles off of the iPad and let me use it the way i want to use it. I’ve bought every generation since then and the experience has just gotten better and better.

Didn’t know the apps had improved that much to a level where they are now mirroring desktop apps. That’s very cool. I’d love to find a list of full-featured stuff.

It’s also intriguing that you say it’s gotten better and better. The iPad Pro was the one Apple device that I bought and I didn’t even check what was coming out afterwards. I’m still so satisfied with this

 

[spiderman0616]

Didn’t know the apps had improved that much to a level where they are now mirroring desktop apps. That’s very cool. I’d love to find a list of full-featured stuff.

It’s also intriguing that you say it’s gotten better and better. The iPad Pro was the one Apple device that I bought and I didn’t even check what was coming out afterwards. I’m still so satisfied with this

Yeah with the Pro models you’re going to have a good experience even if you’re still on the 2015 model. I always buy the smaller model, so I’ve gotten a screen size revision every year: 9.7–>10.5–>11. I doubt I’ll upgrade for a while now. I think the design and screen sizes are going to to be the same for a little bit and I can skip a spec bump or two.

The Affinity apps are the best example I can think of where there is almost 100% feature parity between macOS and iOS versions. I am doing some amazing things with them on my iPad Pro and Pencil and wouldn’t want to do it any other way at this point.

Even some full blown Mac/PC games have come to the iPad now. Civilization VI for iOS is the full computer game with some UI adjustments for touch, and it works great! There have been others ported over too that have been fantastic.

 

[spudWorks]

I believe the part of the multitasking you’re referring to is the new split view app switcher—that’s going to be super nice. I’m also looking forward to a more “Spaces”-like app picker when swiping up and holding from the bottom.

It’s actually the multitasking (slide over window) app switcher, but the app switching in general is so much improved that, yeah, that too.

I’m curious about your excitement about Spaces though. It looks neat but I never use Space on the Mac so I’m curious what your use case is/will be?
[doublepost=1566074295][/doublepost]

I always buy the smaller model, so I’ve gotten a screen size revision every year: 9.7–>10.5–>11.

I got the 9.7 and still love it. I keep being tempted but until the 11” I’ve been super happy. Still am but I just find the 11” sexy.

 

[PrettyWings]

Dumb question, how do you you use it for document markup? Which program? New....

I use PDF Expert. I’ll download a document and import it in there.
[doublepost=1566076778][/doublepost]

That was the greatest thing I’ve heard all day!

Very nice of you to say. Sometimes, with all the stuff we criticize Apple about, it’s nice to talk about how good their products make us feel. To have all that productivity in that thin, light form-factor. Wow.

 

[spiderman0616]

It’s actually the multitasking (slide over window) app switcher, but the app switching in general is so much improved that, yeah, that too.

I’m curious about your excitement about Spaces though. It looks neat but I never use Space on the Mac so I’m curious what your use case is/will be?
[doublepost=1566074295][/doublepost]

I got the 9.7 and still love it. I keep being tempted but until the 11” I’ve been super happy. Still am but I just find the 11” sexy.

My excitement on that stems from being able to use multiple instances of apps open. For example, I often have iMessage open on one side and either Music or Pocket Casts open on the other. Instead of having to switch the audio app on the right, which isn’t always convenient, I can just find the other instance of iMessage that has the other app open next to it. It’s not exactly like Spaces, but it’s a good way to actively switch to another grouping even if you don’t have what you need in the dock.

 

[spudWorks]

My excitement on that stems from being able to use multiple instances of apps open. For example, I often have iMessage open on one side and either Music or Pocket Casts open on the other. Instead of having to switch the audio app on the right, which isn’t always convenient, I can just find the other instance of iMessage that has the other app open next to it. It’s not exactly like Spaces, but it’s a good way to actively switch to another grouping even if you don’t have what you need in the dock.

That sounds really cool. I'll have to play with it more on the beta, see if I can bring it into my workflow. Thanks!

 

[kristalsoldier]

I use Nebo MyScript. It's pretty good. You can set the language per-binder. So, for instance, it will recognize English words in my German Class Notes binder but not as well in the general one that I have set for English. And in the English one, German is not really recognized at all. But it's been good! And I have pretty chicken scratch hand writing!
[doublepost=1566047752][/doublepost]

Dumb stuff. I have a crime-thriller centered around a professional killer and then a sci-fi series that's really just for me. High lit, it is not.

Well, writing is a skill that I appreciate and value greatly and to me no form of writing is “dumb stuff”. The reason for my asking was whether you had to use references/ footnotes etc. which, to me, is a bit problematic on the iPad. My writing (which is also, often, book-length in extent) requires extensive footnotes/ references etc. Thanks for your reply.

 

[spudWorks]

Well, writing is a skill that I appreciate and value greatly and to me no form of writing is “dumb stuff”. The reason for my asking was whether you had to use references/ footnotes etc. which, to me, is a bit problematic on the iPad. My writing (which is also, often, book-length in extent) requires extensive footnotes/ references etc. Thanks for your reply.

Ah... well... for stuff I need to do footnotes and endnotes on, I actually use Word for the iPad. I know it doesn't have every feature of the desktop version but I've found it more than featured enough for me to write technical specifications with detailed footnotes and endnotes in. I'm not an Office "power user" by any stretch but I do use it for more than writing letters to my grandmother. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, I really should write her more often...)

 

[thadoggfather]

My favorite is using it as a casual laptop replacement when I’m doing non work. I don’t force it into doing something just because it’s capable of it , I use the tools that’s get the job done and serve their purposes.

Because I don’t want to drive a square screw into a circular fitting to be able to corroborate Tim cook’s Marketing claims and appease Cupertino. And because I don’t need to, I have a few devices that serve different purposes

. Same with my mini5 fits right in with my needs of wanting a more tablet
Experience but without all the bulk and at this point Little
Compromise with that a12 and p3 screen (huge fan of now old style iPads with lightning home button and headphone jack)

I ‘love’ my 12.9 gen2 to pieces and tho I’m *STILL* a little salty spending $700 on it over 2 years ago because I’ve always been a base WiFi model user and used to $500 and even $600 for the iPad Pro 9.7 was jarring to me even though I got that one on sale
Too (got $100 off my 12.9 retail with a Best Buy price match a month or two after it was out back when my credit card had amazing PM policy) it’s proven to be worth it

I have a wooden aesthetic slick wrap on my pencil, and the pencil I really don’t use a ton but Nice to have for
Two pencil compatible iPads, ASK almost 100% of the time attached, and 12.9gen1 oem Apple silicone case on it that feels like an extension of its frame by now. Just blocks flash and a back mic I don’t care about. And speaker grills are ever so slightly off. It’s quite the ‘kit’ as the brits sometimes like to say

Lots of rambling but

 

[spiderman0616]

My favorite is using it as a casual laptop replacement when I’m doing non work. I don’t force it into doing something just because it’s capable of it , I use the tools that’s get the job done and serve their purposes.

Because I don’t want to drive a square screw into a circular fitting to be able to corroborate Tim cook’s Marketing claims and appease Cupertino. And because I don’t need to, I have a few devices that serve different purposes

. Same with my mini5 fits right in with my needs of wanting a more tablet
Experience but without all the bulk and at this point Little
Compromise with that a12 and p3 screen (huge fan of now old style iPads with lightning home button and headphone jack)

I ‘love’ my 12.9 gen2 to pieces and tho I’m *STILL* a little salty spending $700 on it over 2 years ago because I’ve always been a base WiFi model user and used to $500 and even $600 for the iPad Pro 9.7 was jarring to me even though I got that one on sale
Too (got $100 off my 12.9 retail with a Best Buy price match a month or two after it was out back when my credit card had amazing PM policy) it’s proven to be worth it

I have a wooden aesthetic slick wrap on my pencil, and the pencil I really don’t use a ton but Nice to have for
Two pencil compatible iPads, ASK almost 100% of the time attached, and 12.9gen1 oem Apple silicone case on it that feels like an extension of its frame by now. Just blocks flash and a back mic I don’t care about. And speaker grills are ever so slightly off. It’s quite the ‘kit’ as the brits sometimes like to say

Lots of rambling but

For me, there’s now enough high powered software available for the tasks I need to do that I don’t feel like I’m trying to force the iPad into being a traditional laptop (Apple would call it a MacBook if it was supposed to be a traditional laptop, not an iPad), and it’s not even gimpy mobile software. I’m talking about things I actually now prefer to do on my iPad Pro rather than my Mac. Examples:

Photo editing in Affinity Photo w Pencil
Graphic design in Affinity Designer w Pencil
Drawing and sketching in Procreate and Linea Sketch w Pencil
Audio recording and editing in Ferrite
Video editing in LumaFusion
Music composition in Notion w Pencil
Note taking in OneNote and Notability w Pencil
All the boring stuff like email, web browsing, Office apps, etc.

Because of the amount of power and capability this thing has in addition to its portability, I’d pay double. I consider it the most underpriced device Apple makes. It’s the kind of computer I used to daydream about having as a kid.

There’s now only one thing I still need to do on my desktop dual monitor Mac setup: conference calls where I need to share one screen while looking at another simultaneously. An iPad just doesn’t do that too well as far as I’m aware. Other than that I could do my full time job on my iPad Pro as well as all the fun stuff.

EDIT: OP, I hope this comment doesn’t derail your thread—people love turning everything into Mac vs. iPad Pro. I am just such a huge fan of the iPad and sing its praises at every opportunity. For a couple of years I had given up on Apple pushing the platform much further, and now I’m just so happy with how it has progressed.

 

[thadoggfather]

For me, there’s now enough high powered software available for the tasks I need to do that I don’t feel like I’m trying to force the iPad into being a traditional laptop (Apple would call it a MacBook if it was supposed to be a traditional laptop, not an iPad), and it’s not even gimpy mobile software. I’m talking about things I actually now prefer to do on my iPad Pro rather than my Mac. Examples:

Photo editing in Affinity Photo w Pencil
Graphic design in Affinity Designer w Pencil
Drawing and sketching in Procreate and Linea Sketch w Pencil
Audio recording and editing in Ferrite
Video editing in LumaFusion
Music composition in Notion w Pencil
Note taking in OneNote and Notability w Pencil
All the boring stuff like email, web browsing, Office apps, etc.

Because of the amount of power and capability this thing has in addition to its portability, I’d pay double. I consider it the most underpriced device Apple makes. It’s the kind of computer I used to daydream about having as a kid.

There’s now only one thing I still need to do on my desktop dual monitor Mac setup: conference calls where I need to share one screen while looking at another simultaneously. An iPad just doesn’t do that too well as far as I’m aware. Other than that I could do my full time job on my iPad Pro as well as all the fun stuff.

EDIT: OP, I hope this comment doesn’t derail your thread—people love turning everything into Mac vs. iPad Pro. I am just such a huge fan of the iPad and sing its praises at every opportunity. For a couple of years I had given up on Apple pushing the platform much further, and now I’m just so happy with how it has progressed.

Oh for sure

I’m not balking at people that do use it for work. For creatives, and certain industries, its probably a godsend.

Just for MY purposes, I’d be really trying to make it work when it can but really doesn’t / I have a laptop too

because I don’t try to make it do things I dont think are the best medium for it to be accomplished, i really thoroughly enjoy my 12.9 Pro experience