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

[spiderman0616]

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

There are a lot of web based project management apps I have to use for my job that were clearly not designed for devices like the iPad. Some of them have corresponding apps that are quite good, and some of them don’t. Most of them you’re going to get the job done faster on a Mac. I’m very excited about real web browsing coming to iPadOS because that will eliminate this pain point for the most part.

There is still some low hanging fruit to take care of, but we’re getting so close.

 

[secretk]

Interesting thread to read. I have not tried iPadOS. I will wait for the official version. I have the regular 6th generation iPad so it is not powerful by any means.

However I also have both Windows laptop at home and at work (as well as Windows desktop machine at work). I am a team lead of Software Development team. I don't have time to write code, but I do need to read code from time to time. I also use heavily Microsoft apps - OneNote, Powerpoint and to some extent Excel. I rely on their integration.

I use the iPad for digital note taking and brainstorming or to gather my thoughts on a topic. I would usually write them down in OneNote and then based on my thoughts I would create presentation. Or I would read PDF (generated from Safari pages) and would highlight whatever I find relevant and important. It helps me with doing research. Or say I would create a note in the Notes app with a list of things to get with me on a trip. All those small things that I would need paper for from time to time are now done on the iPad with the pencil.

I do like the portability of the iPad though and quite often I go on the weekends on coffee shops and brainstorm and do a lot of productive work.

 

[spiderman0616]

Interesting thread to read. I have not tried iPadOS. I will wait for the official version. I have the regular 6th generation iPad so it is not powerful by any means.

However I also have both Windows laptop at home and at work (as well as Windows desktop machine at work). I am a team lead of Software Development team. I don't have time to write code, but I do need to read code from time to time. I also use heavily Microsoft apps - OneNote, Powerpoint and to some extent Excel. I rely on their integration.

I use the iPad for digital note taking and brainstorming or to gather my thoughts on a topic. I would usually write them down in OneNote and then based on my thoughts I would create presentation. Or I would read PDF (generated from Safari pages) and would highlight whatever I find relevant and important. It helps me with doing research. Or say I would create a note in the Notes app with a list of things to get with me on a trip. All those small things that I would need paper for from time to time are now done on the iPad with the pencil.

I do like the portability of the iPad though and quite often I go on the weekends on coffee shops and brainstorm and do a lot of productive work.

I stopped using beta software about three years ago. It’s too much of a pain when stuff goes wrong. I used to put betas on my iPads, but it’s too much of a mission critical device for me these days. Sign of the times I guess!

 

[PrettyWings]

I stopped using beta software about three years ago. It’s too much of a pain when stuff goes wrong. I used to put betas on my iPads, but it’s too much of a mission critical device for me these days. Sign of the times I guess!

Yeah, goes for me too. I'd love to get a test-drive of that iPadOS but I can't afford for the iPad to go down, with all the use I'm getting out of it. Made a thread about that, if you want me to get detailed

 

[secretk]

I stopped using beta software about three years ago. It’s too much of a pain when stuff goes wrong. I used to put betas on my iPads, but it’s too much of a mission critical device for me these days. Sign of the times I guess!

I understand you. My device is not super duper modern. Not by any means! However it is the only iPad I have and I use it heavily for work. I do not want to end up in a situation where I can't rely on it you know. So I am patient and wait. And most of the time had passed. I assume that we will see iPad OS by the end of September.

 

[spudWorks]

I stopped using beta software about three years ago. It’s too much of a pain when stuff goes wrong. I used to put betas on my iPads, but it’s too much of a mission critical device for me these days. Sign of the times I guess!

I hear you on this and haven't done a beta since iOS 10, I think, because of how annoying that was but the multitasking abilities of 13 were too tempting and I'm too much of a man-child to wait until the proper release. There have been a few annoyances but not with the things I use the iPad the most for. I also waited until Public Beta 3, which may have helped, so I wasn't running pure first-release beta software.

Gotta tell y'all, once you get it though, you're going to love it. Like my friend told me about getting an iPad in the first place, it's going to change your lives in a hundred little ways that are better and you didn't even know you needed them...

 

[spudWorks]

However I also have both Windows laptop at home and at work (as well as Windows desktop machine at work). I am a team lead of Software Development team. I don't have time to write code, but I do need to read code from time to time. I also use heavily Microsoft apps - OneNote, Powerpoint and to some extent Excel. I rely on their integration.

I'm a freelance software developer, so, really, half my job is coding and half of it is project and client management. For the former, the iPad is, at best, a support device. I can SSH into a server, fix random production issues, reboot servers, whatever. But, as much as I've tried, there is just no feasible way to make it a dev machine at this point. The software that Apple allows for iOS just won't allow it. And this doesn't mean people haven't tried. Coda, Textastic, Prompt, Working Copy... all of them great apps. But all limited, ultimately, by Apple's restrictions on iOS.

But for the latter issues, the iPad is amazing! Honestly, my clients probably think I'm overly communicative and responsive now. And I can do all the things you're taking about including updating time sheets, project management deadline, workflow systems, the whole shebang, all from the comfort of my iPad Pro, where ever I might be.

If I finally gave into the siren song of taking a 9-to-5 job of being a full software architect, I'd probably do the entire job with my iPad Pro. I have git access, can leave comments, would do most of my job over Slack or email anyway... But as long as I need to code... I still need my MacBook Pro and full environment(s).

My hope is that, one day, Apple sees that developers are as interested in their iPad Pros as they were Macs back 2005-7-ish and sees it as a market to develop (so to speak). Then I could officially move over and live happy as a iPad having clam.

 

[spiderman0616]

I'm a freelance software developer, so, really, half my job is coding and half of it is project and client management. For the former, the iPad is, at best, a support device. I can SSH into a server, fix random production issues, reboot servers, whatever. But, as much as I've tried, there is just no feasible way to make it a dev machine at this point. The software that Apple allows for iOS just won't allow it. And this doesn't mean people haven't tried. Coda, Textastic, Prompt, Working Copy... all of them great apps. But all limited, ultimately, by Apple's restrictions on iOS.

But for the latter issues, the iPad is amazing! Honestly, my clients probably think I'm overly communicative and responsive now. And I can do all the things you're taking about including updating time sheets, project management deadline, workflow systems, the whole shebang, all from the comfort of my iPad Pro, where ever I might be.

If I finally gave into the siren song of taking a 9-to-5 job of being a full software architect, I'd probably do the entire job with my iPad Pro. I have git access, can leave comments, would do most of my job over Slack or email anyway... But as long as I need to code... I still need my MacBook Pro and full environment(s).

My hope is that, one day, Apple sees that developers are as interested in their iPad Pros as they were Macs back 2005-7-ish and sees it as a market to develop (so to speak). Then I could officially move over and live happy as a iPad having clam.

I think that time is coming. I know there are still always going to be naysayers out there, but people fell in love with the form factor of the iPad immediately back in 2010 and it didn’t take them long to see the potential of using this device as a much more portable, versatile every day computer. It’s just that it took until 2015 for iPad Pro to become a thing and 2019 for it to get its own fork of iOS.

Apple has taken their sweet time getting here, but the proof is in the pudding: every iteration of the hardware and software gets us closer and closer and people are starting to take notice. iPadOS is a great next step, and the hardware advancements have been blowing my mind.

 

[spudWorks]

I think that time is coming. I know there are still always going to be naysayers out there, but people fell in love with the form factor of the iPad immediately back in 2010 and it didn’t take them long to see the potential of using this device as a much more portable, versatile every day computer. It’s just that it took until 2015 for iPad Pro to become a thing and 2019 for it to get its own fork of iOS.

Apple has taken their sweet time getting here, but the proof is in the pudding: every iteration of the hardware and software gets us closer and closer and people are starting to take notice. iPadOS is a great next step, and the hardware advancements have been blowing my mind.

Your lips to God's ears...

 

[secretk]

I'm a freelance software developer, so, really, half my job is coding and half of it is project and client management. For the former, the iPad is, at best, a support device. I can SSH into a server, fix random production issues, reboot servers, whatever. But, as much as I've tried, there is just no feasible way to make it a dev machine at this point. The software that Apple allows for iOS just won't allow it. And this doesn't mean people haven't tried. Coda, Textastic, Prompt, Working Copy... all of them great apps. But all limited, ultimately, by Apple's restrictions on iOS.

Yep. I have not tried apps like Coda, but based on what I read I did not even see the point of paying. I need capable IDE that would allow me to read code, pull and checkout from GIT and debug. iPads are still not there. And I do not want to rely on remote desktop for such activities because it does not work properly with Windows. Touch cannot mimic fully the mouse and I end up with unresponsive screen quite often.

But for the latter issues, the iPad is amazing! Honestly, my clients probably think I'm overly communicative and responsive now. And I can do all the things you're taking about including updating time sheets, project management deadline, workflow systems, the whole shebang, all from the comfort of my iPad Pro, where ever I might be.

If you don't mind me asking what tools are you using for project management and workflow systems?

My hope is that, one day, Apple sees that developers are as interested in their iPad Pros as they were Macs back 2005-7-ish and sees it as a market to develop (so to speak). Then I could officially move over and live happy as a iPad having clam.

Hope so too though unlike you I feel even more restricted in using iPad. I tend to save quite often files in OneDrive and man is the Files app buggy. If I have to save file 5 times per day, at least 3 times the app is unresponsive. And I need to wait for at least 20 to 30 minutes to make it work. Naturally I forget. The second thing is youtube and music. I use youtube for background music and the fact that I cannot do this properly on an iPad has negative impact as I cannot work without music. The third is using multiple languages. I switch between English (company official language) and Bulgarian (my native one) quite often. I need a way to use English in one app and let another app use Bulgarian in the same time. This is a common case for me that I currently cannot achieve with an iPad. And lastly Microsoft apps are just not powerful enough on an iPad.

I usually do rough typing on the iPad but then do all of the styling and basically polishing on a laptop. Styling text on an iPad is not productive for me. Same for copy/paste or selecting text. Overall I use iPad for typing when I have no laptop.

The pencil is where the iPad shines for me. I love it. From brainstorming and handwritten notes to markup and highlights and even some Procreate bliss.

 

[spudWorks]

Yep. I have not tried apps like Coda, but based on what I read I did not even see the point of paying. I need capable IDE that would allow me to read code, pull and checkout from GIT and debug. iPads are still not there. And I do not want to rely on remote desktop for such activities because it does not work properly with Windows. Touch cannot mimic fully the mouse and I end up with unresponsive screen quite often.

I mean... as an app developer myself and a software developer in general... I really don't mind spending $10-$20 per app to see if it works or not. They're specialty apps with limited appeal. And I remember when full blown applications used to license for $800+ a year. So... It is worth supporting your Indie dev to find out one way or another...

If you don't mind me asking what tools are you using for project management and workflow systems?

Oh man... you know... the usual... Jira, Sharepoint, even the occasional Bugzilla install that's still around.... Plus stuff like Trello and the in-house versions that are even less optimized for mobile... I wish I could tell you more but... they're all kind of a blur to me at this point. All a variation of one or another with minor differences.

Hope so too though unlike you I feel even more restricted in using iPad. I tend to save quite often files in OneDrive and man is the Files app buggy. If I have to save file 5 times per day, at least 3 times the app is unresponsive. And I need to wait for at least 20 to 30 minutes to make it work. Naturally I forget. The second thing is youtube and music. I use youtube for background music and the fact that I cannot do this properly on an iPad has negative impact as I cannot work without music.

In fairness to the iPad, the YouTube thing is a Google limitation. But... yeah. I hear you on the rest. That would definitely be a showstopper for me, too. If that continues to happen in iPadOS 13, then it should be reported as a breaking bug.

The third is using multiple languages. I switch between English (company official language) and Bulgarian (my native one) quite often. I need a way to use English in one app and let another app use Bulgarian in the same time. This is a common case for me that I currently cannot achieve with an iPad.

I hear you. I've been in Germany for the last year and I wish there was a better way to switch between languages. I don't think most American's (and I am one who was exactly this) realize how often many other places in the world switch languages and how making it seamless would make their lives easier. So... I'm on the same page now that I understand what you have been going through.

And lastly Microsoft apps are just not powerful enough on an iPad.

I usually do rough typing on the iPad but then do all of the styling and basically polishing on a laptop. Styling text on an iPad is not productive for me. Same for copy/paste or selecting text. Overall I use iPad for typing when I have no laptop.

I will admit, as I have above, that I am not an Office "power user" in anyway. I mostly use excel to do some basic modeling and keep my time sheets and Word to write technical specifications. And, yet, I've found it to be more than functional for all of the above. With Word, I just uploaded a template to the cloud and... problem solved, and, for time sheets, basically the same. I've found Excel on the iPad sufficient enough to draft out most modeling I've needed but, again, I'm not a power user. I mostly just use it to prove out my math.

Has it fully replaced the Mac or Windows office suite? Not at all. But, then again, this thread isn't about replacing a laptop. It's about how amazing the iPad Pro is and, frankly, I find it amazing that I can write a technical specification while sitting on the banks of the Alster, drinking a glass of wine, with nothing more than my iPad and some good ideas.

 

[AppleHaterLover]

I also have a 12.9 1G. I think it's fantastic - excellent speakers, good speed.

I don't use it for work, however - as an attorney I use Word and Excel - and the Office suite is a complete disaster on both iOS and the Mac (I use windows on my firm-issued Dell)

It's an excellent Netflix, Safari and Spotify machine though - better than my 2017 MBP.

 

[secretk]

I mean... as an app developer myself and a software developer in general... I really don't mind spending $10-$20 per app to see if it works or not. They're specialty apps with limited appeal. And I remember when full blown applications used to license for $800+ a year. So... It is worth supporting your Indie dev to find out one way or another...

Makes sense. I work in a company that pays for the software we use at work. Though I use Eclipse which is rather free.

Oh man... you know... the usual... Jira, Sharepoint, even the occasional Bugzilla install that's still around.... Plus stuff like Trello and the in-house versions that are even less optimized for mobile... I wish I could tell you more but... they're all kind of a blur to me at this point. All a variation of one or another with minor differences.

Do you use JIRA app or you access JIRA through Safari? I have some issues with JIRA on Safari. It would cut off the site in the middle and I can read the comments this way.

In fairness to the iPad, the YouTube thing is a Google limitation. But... yeah. I hear you on the rest. That would definitely be a showstopper for me, too. If that continues to happen in iPadOS 13, then it should be reported as a breaking bug.

It is. At least for me. I ran on it twice or three times today. That is the three times when I wanted to store files.

I hear you. I've been in Germany for the last year and I wish there was a better way to switch between languages. I don't think most American's (and I am one who was exactly this) realize how often many other places in the world switch languages and how making it seamless would make their lives easier. So... I'm on the same page now that I understand what you have been going through.

Yep! Exactly! I do hope that they improve this! For me it is something that I have to go through constantly when working with the iPad.

I will admit, as I have above, that I am not an Office "power user" in anyway. I mostly use excel to do some basic modeling and keep my time sheets and Word to write technical specifications. And, yet, I've found it to be more than functional for all of the above. With Word, I just uploaded a template to the cloud and... problem solved, and, for time sheets, basically the same. I've found Excel on the iPad sufficient enough to draft out most modeling I've needed but, again, I'm not a power user. I mostly just use it to prove out my math.

To be honest I am not that power user either. It is not so much that I create huge or complex files. More like we have shared files like that we use in the company. I am talking Excel file with 100 columns. Naturally I really need the desktop version of Excel to work with it.

Has it fully replaced the Mac or Windows office suite? Not at all. But, then again, this thread isn't about replacing a laptop. It's about how amazing the iPad Pro is and, frankly, I find it amazing that I can write a technical specification while sitting on the banks of the Alster, drinking a glass of wine, with nothing more than my iPad and some good ideas.

This is cool! In the weekends I go a Costa nearby. I can stay there for hours with my iPad doing productive work. Like it might not be working or creating that Excel file but I would brainstorm and write down key points and ideas for work. I would sketch up diagrams and concepts. That for me is serious work too you know.

 

[spiderman0616]

Many of you are sharing more details about your workflows, and I wanted to chime in too--may as well join the party. Here are some prime examples of why I'm 99% iPad these days:

1. Ferrite: Recording, editing, and publishing audio is amazing on iPad Pro because I get better results than I ever got on a Mac. I get much higher audio quality for some reason, and no errant computer fan noise that I have to edit or gate out. It just gets fantastic results when paired with my nice Apogee mic.

2. Affinity Photo/Designer: I'm fairly new to high end photo editing and design software, and I decided to completely skip Adobe's solutions and go full Affinity software. I took a couple of online courses on how to use them, and I have gotten some brilliant results from both programs and can't wait to try Affinity Publisher once there's an iPad Pro version. I'm especially fond of designer, as I'm not the greatest freehand artist in the world. With Designer, if you can think of it, you can probably think of a way to make it without having to freehand anything at all. It almost feels like cheating.

3. Gaming: I'm a big gamer, and the iPad Pro is stealing more and more of my gaming time away from my consoles. You do have to kind of do some searching to find the gems that are worth playing, but I can't believe I now have full blown Civilization VI on my iPad Pro. That is crazy.

4. Video Editing: I don't do a whole lot of this, but LumaFusion is so great. I can't wait to put my next big project on that software and really put it through its paces.

5. Music Composition: I have always been faster writing music by hand than putting it in programs like Finale or Sibelius, and Notion lets you set up your whole musical score and then write in all the notes with Apple Pencil if you want to. It's an absolutely awesome combination of old school and new school.

6. Reading: I love Apple Books and read a lot in it. This is why I always go for the smaller Pro model.

7. Note taking, email, messages, web browsing, etc.: This is the "all the other stuff" category for me. All these things are more fun for me on iPad Pro than they are on Mac.

I just can't get enough of the iPad. I've loved it since it came out. There was a lull between about 2013 and 2015 where I wasn't sure if Apple really cared about the iPad anymore, and I decided to abandon the platform and get a new Macbook Pro instead. It only took me about 2 months to completely regret that decision. I lived with it for a little while, but when the iPad Pro came out, I sold the Mac and got the iPad Pro to replace it. Haven't looked back since. I still use a work based Mac that my employer provides me, but that's more because they require it and because I don't like putting wear and tear on my personal devices for work purposes.

 

[subjonas]

The 12.9 is my go-to device for:

- *drawing
- handwritten and typed notes
- document markup
- document presentation on the go
- background video/audio at work
- moderate to heavy: emailing, messaging, web browsing/online research, and other general productivity, especially on the go (shorter tasks are usually done on my iPad mini)

* my work drawing applications are only on desktop, but when I upgrade my MBP, I’ll also be able to use my 12.9 with Side Car to use those drawing applications away from my desk.

Note- interestingly, with the exception of ‘document presentation’, all my tasks require either the Pencil or the Smart Keyboard (at least as a stand if not for the keyboard).

I also have a 15” MBP and an iPad mini, but the 12.9 earns its spot since it’s uniquely able (or better able) to carry out all these tasks.

 

[Esoom]

I started with the original iPad, loved it, just upgraded from gen 1 to gen 3 12.9, the gen 1 was still doing ok, but I use the 12.9 as a portable stock trading station, made some extra cash & upgraded. The E*TRADE app for iPads is almost perfect, particularly when displaying options chains. I’m not stuck at a desk to trade. I’ve used my gen 1 almost 100% exclusively as my primary computer for several years now.

Have been living on the edge with iPadOS, and I think Apple hit it out of the park, when it’s released as finished, it’ll blow people away.

Just saw a video on YouTube about sharing the MacBook screen with an iPad, and was pretty excited, I just ordered a MBP and was planning on using it for a multiple monitors trading station, but with the screen sharing, I can keep from cluttering up a desk by using the MacBook and iPad instead of 2 clunky, stationary monitors and a rat’s nest of wires.

Had an interesting conversation with my brokers team that wrote & maintained the apps for mobile devices, I was trying to integrate an Android phone into my workflow at the time (pre iPad), and I asked them why the Android App was so far behind the iOS app. They told me that the active stock traders were primarily iPhone users and they put their resources where it did the most good for their customers. I always have lots of gadgets, and their Android app, years later is still a generation or two behind (or more) the features implemented on their iOS apps.