Shawn Blanc on the Keyboard Folio:
The new Keyboard Folio is nicer than the previous Smart Keyboard Cover, but I’m not in love with it.
Because the Keyboard Folio attaches to the entire back of the iPad, it’s not as easy to quickly connect / disconnect the iPad as it was with the predecessor. This is something that I’ll either get used to or will be annoyed by. Only time will tell.
Come, give us a kickstand already Apple.
With the price increases at GORUCK I know many have been waiting for a sale. There’s good deals to be had on the Bullet Rucks, and the clothing. I snagged a pair of midweight Simple Pants, as I love the ones I already have. I’d also get another Bullet Ruck if I needed it, but I don’t, right?
Good post from Ben Lovejoy on his experiences with the iPad Pro so far. What really stands out in his post, which I’ve seen all over with this round of iPad coverage, is that many people (rightfully) feel that software companies don’t take the iPad seriously enough.
This couldn’t be more true. Just look at Google’s apps, absurd. In the past the money wasn’t there for big companies to take the iPad even half as seriously as they do the iPhone. I wonder if these new models, and the seemingly renewed interest in wanting to use these devices full time, will drive companies to take the iPad seriously, and to innovate for it. Just like the iPhone did in the past.
The ideal of course being that new apps come out iPad first, then maybe make it to the Mac. I can dream, right?
Lots of headlines I could have used for this piece written by Dave Smith (don’t bother reading it in full):
I insist the iPad Pro is not a real work computer because even trying to perform the most basic of tasks felt underwhelming and compelled me to use a laptop instead.
Many people I’ve heard from tell me iPads can’t publish to their CMS because those CMS’ are tragically bad. Smith is no exception there. (Though that photo rotation bug he mentions is real, and annoying.) The issue with Smith’s post is that he never gave the iPad Pro a real chance. You can’t switch to an entirely new computing paradigm and give up after trying to publish one thing. The items he is frustrated about really have more to do with his stubbornness for preferring the way his Mac works than anything else. You can even see it in the first post he wrote about his new iPad.
Ultimately this feels like a post written by someone planning on hating the iPad Pro and returning it no matter what to make a quick buck off of the article. It’s not at all representative, and the only good arguments against the iPad Pros are:
Complaining that this device is not pro because you can’t publish to your CMS is not valid. Go ask a photographer how to use an iPad Pro like a Pro.
Francisco Mejia Uribe:
However, reality has caught up with Clifford. His once seemingly exaggerated claim that ‘it is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence’ is no longer hyperbole but a technical reality.
Erin and I were talking the other night, where she made the comment about how she wondered if later generations would look back at this period of time and laugh, wondering what the fuck we were all thinking. My take is that they would look back seeing the pattern we can’t see ourselves. That we had given ourselves the immense power of instant global communication and instant information at our fingertips, all without the forethought of some way of knowing what is actually truth and what is a lie.
But where does that burden lay, perhaps it is on all of us. Perhaps not. What’s clear is that what we have now is not working.
Craig Mod has an excellent essay about the pitfalls and hopes of the iPad. This sentence is spot on:
The problems begin when you need multiple contexts. For example, you can’t open two documents in the same program side-by-side, allowing you to reference one set of edits, while applying them to a new document.
I hear that. But what people miss (beyond how amazing the hardware truly is) is the hope this OS has, Mod again:
But it’s also kind of fun. When’s the last time we’ve been able to watch a company really figure out a new OS in public?
That’s the thing with the iPad. The iPhone is figured out, so is the Mac. The iPad isn’t and if you want to know the most realistic take on using an iPad (like a normal person no less) full time and also dealing with the annoyances and seeing the hope, then Mod’s essay is a must read.
My take away from John Gruber’s review of the new iPads is that iPads are going to become the go to tool for photographers going forward. Gruber ends his review noting:
These are serious iPads for serious iPad users.
I initially chuckled and thought “too bad no one knows who those people are”. Then I realized that Gruber stated it earlier in his review, it’s photographers, and I really suspect that will be readily apparent come this time next year. Category to watch for sure.
For this week, let’s talk about running a VPN full time on your iPad, again, then we can dive into software keyboards for iPad users before wrapping up talking about the state of the iPad in light of the new iPad Pros. It’s going to be a busy one.
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Visit any place around the web where people are talking about the items they carry daily, and you’ll quickly notice that Hamilton’s Khaki lineup of watches are everywhere. They run the gambit of designs, styles, and prices — all are far more affordable than most other watches of this type.
I chose the Hamilton Khaki Field Auto, in 42mm (model H70555533). There’s a few reasons why I chose this model: it’s automatic, the indices all feature numerals of the same size (I think that looks better), the red tipped second hand, and lastly the case and band coloring looked great. I picked mine up from Joma Shop during a sale, however they are on Amazon too.
I have a couple additional thoughts about Apple’s new Keyboard Folio cover they released for the new iPads. These are $179 and $199 add ons for the two models (Smart Keyboard Cover is/was $159/179). I am a huge fan of the Smart Keyboard Cover, for either size iPad Pro, I’ve long believed it made your purchase better. But there’s something that doesn’t sit right with me about this new Folio (granted I have not touched it, or seen it in person). Before I dive into those, the only iPad Pro worth buying or considering is the 12.9”, so I’ll base my thoughts on that only.
I’ve long looked at, and toyed with, buying a Trayvax wallet. It wasn’t until after I started to carry some cash, that I decided to get a different wallet to try. With that I ordered the Trayvax Ascent wallet and have been testing it for a little over a month now.
I said I wanted a faster iPad Pro, same 12.9” screen size, with a smaller overall footprint. Face ID, *sure*, USB-C, *whatever*. We got all that, and honestly I am not sure I see a reason to buy these. Which seems absurd given that just a couple days ago I was writing how I was noticing my iPad Pro (12.9” which is version 1, not the 10.5”) was feeling a touch slow in areas.
Apple produced everything I was hoping for in an iPad Pro — except a kickstand, I mean what are they waiting for — and I feel completely ambivalent about upgrading. I’ve not ordered one, and might not for a few days, weeks, months, ever.
And if you already own an iPad Pro, then you probably don’t need to upgrade either.
Before we dive into all that, let’s talk about the new goods in general.
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From the Pixelmator blog in the upcoming release:
Pixelmator Photo is a powerful, beautiful, and easy to use photo editor for iPad. It features a collection of nondestructive, desktop-class photo editing tools, a set of stunning, machine learning-enhanced film emulation presets, a magical Repair tool to remove unwanted objects from your photos, support for editing RAW images, and more. Simply put, it’s best way to edit your photos on iPad.
Add that to what Affinity is doing and Adobe is about to do, and it’s pretty clear that in a pretty short order the iPad will be the best photo editing device you can buy. Especially when you factor in a like system with a Pencil like device. Amazing.
Rumor has it, that tomorrow there will be new iPad Pros coming out, and that’s always the best tech day of the year. The basics of the rumors are Face ID, USB-C, and a more edge-to-edge display. I’m sure some of those are true…
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Note from Ben: What follows is a review of Tom Bihn’s Synapse 25 backpack, written by my father after he took the bag globe trotting. The bag was provided for review purposes by Tom Bihn.
My dad is the perfect person to review this bag. He is the person who I got my gear obsession from, and someone who has certainly used more bags than I have. He has experiences with nearly every bag talked about on this site, as I tend to loan or give him many of them. He has a GORUCK GR1, which he opted against for this trip. Unlike me, my dad tends to pack much heavier, while still being efficient with it. And, also unlike me, he likes his bags to have a lot of pockets to keep him highly organized, whereas I tend to prefer more of a blank slate for my bags. Here are his thoughts…
For years now, I’ve been kicking myself for not buying the original 15L Bullet Ruck when it came out — and watched as GORUCK discontinued the item, and used prices skyrocketed north of $250 for the bag. It was of course the original design with the GR1 strap style, the two compartments and much more. I have friends who have them, and who talk about them being an ideally sized bag.
So when GORUCK reintroduced their 15L Bullet Ruck, using the current designs of the 10L (one compartment, with Rucker style details on the straps) I immediately bought one. I’ve been using the bag now for some time, and it’s time to talk about how perfect this bag is.
Last night GORUCK launched a new variant of the larger GR2, only this time in 26L configuration. It is extremely odd as the line is now 26, 34, 40 for the GR2 and 21 and 26 for the GR1. Super weird, here’s some random thoughts I have on this:
I’ve really played with the camera on the new iPhone so little it is embarrassing, but my wife has really been going nuts with it. She’s getting some insane shots as always too. She wrote her thoughts up for The Sweet Setup, check it out.
There’s a real problem occurring right now with the royal us not coping well with interconnectedness, and how fast and easy information can and does pour in. Some point to smart phones as the culprit, others to high speed internet, or rather the internet’s underpinnings itself. The issue is all of the above and us.
And this was never more evident than my recent internal debates about whether or not I should get an Apple Watch series 4 to try out — and no I won’t be getting one. Because the more you think about the Apple Watch, the more you realize that it exacerbates the problem — you have to choose: do you want to relax, or do you want to be more connected? If you want to relax, or have any hope in doing so, you need to get rid of your phone and Apple Watch as best as you can.
Apple watches are at their core, a way for your iPhone to reach out and tap you on the arm to bother you better, in hopes of solving a user *want* to use an iPhone less. Or put another way: people wanted to ditch their phones, so Apple Watch was made to allow people to ditch their phones without ditching the addiction. It’s like stopping smoking to only become addicted to nicotine patches or vapes. You really solved nothing, you just substituted one thing for another.
And, ok, let’s argue that people use the Apple Watch wrong and first and foremost it should be a device to promote good health. I call bullshit on this. It’s not, if it was, it’d be great and I would own one. But it’s not a health device firs and foremost, here’s why:
1. If the Apple Watch really wanted you to get out and be healthy, they would not advertise that you can go catch some waves on a surf board while also not missing that important conference call. “Get fit, be healthy, but don’t ditch your device — that’d be nuts.”
2. If Apple Watch wants to help you be more mindful and relaxed, then “breathe” is not the best avenue — having *no* notifications is. And, actually, that’s technically easier to accomplish than the Breathe complication, so that tells you the lengths being gone through. I got 95 notifications on my iPhone during Friday — and I have almost all notifications turned off. That would be 95 times the Apple Watch tapped my wrist — there’s nothing at all relaxing about that.
3. Standing up, as much as you think it does something, doesn’t do jack shit for extending your life. But congrats on hitting those rings and goals. What would be better: using your computer or device less, but yeah that really is not good for sales, right?
4. The rings, yeah sure they are probably accurate, but let’s not forget that your diet is far more important than your exercise — it’s just that we don’t like to accept that because it’s harder to change the way we eat, than it is to full those rings. I am glad they get people out and doing stuff, that’s good, but knowing how hard you’ve worked out is not in itself important. Actually, another issue here is that it does tend to make people skip workouts they would have otherwise done when they see they have almost already filled their ‘rings’ for the day.
That’s the thing about the Apple Watch: for everything it purports to do for the good of the person, all it does is seek to make them more addicted to the tech itself. And it’s not just me, and it’s not just Apple Watch, here’s [Matt Honan on the Google Pixel 3](https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/mathonan/google-pixel-3-review-android):
> I don’t recall exactly when my phone became such a festival of stress and psychological trauma, but here we are.
Replace phone with watch and it still fits. That’s certainly how I felt and how I feel every time I wear an Apple Watch. Luckily, I was able to quit, but it wasn’t easy. And don’t even mention Screen Time — all that does is calm down Wall Street, while giving us more in-actionable and meaningless data. If Apple really wanted Screen Time to mean something, they wouldn’t allow it to be so easily bypassed — but in doing that we might miss something and surely the world would end, or so I assume, I dare not test out that theory for fear I miss something myself.
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