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I switched over to the iPad Pro as my full time, or primary, computer back in December of 2015. I kept a personal Mac around until August of 2016, though I rarely used it. While there are Macs in our home, none are mine or used by me (other than to help troubleshoot them, which I am losing my skills for). It wasn’t until 2019 I would have regular access to another Mac, when I was issued one for work.

Even now, eight years on, I use a Mac only a handful of times each month — mostly to get around shortcomings in Microsoft’s Office suite of applications. So, given how long it has been, and how infrequently I blog about this topic these days, many have been asking me to touch base on this.

What better way to do this than a very blogger-esque listing of eight thoughts on eight years of iPad only use.

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I set out to find a new wallet which could handle more cash better, not for everyday use, but for travel when I tend to bring more cash with me day to day. A friend recommended I look at Allett, and I ended up snagging thier Sport Wallet in Merlot leather. The idea with this brand is that they create a classic looking wallet with modern techniques, and they do it in very slim formats to keep the bulk at bay.

It all sounds good, and it leads to a really good, but shy of great, wallet.

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When this knife was released, it was a runaway success. A tiny automatic knife, legal in most places, with superior steel — what’s not to love? The price retails under $200 as well — these knives are not hard to get, but often out of stock at the same time. I picked this one up second-hand to see what the hype was all about.

It’s a very good knife, but somewhat impractical, less than ideal, and the type of knife you get when you don’t use a knife as much as you photograph/video/reel/snap/tok your knives. Yeah, it’s a social media star — but it’s a solid knife, so it’s hard to hate on that too much.

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I ran into a little issue with my workout watch, the Casio GBD200, causing the watch to restart/crash randomly and lose all my settings. A hard wipe/restore seemed to fix it, but my trust was broken, and frustration was high, so I set out to find something new.

My criteria remained simple: good tracking and long battery life. And there are very few options on that market that don’t require a near-daily recharge, except for the offerings from Coros. I’ve long been interested in their products, so I picked up the Apex 2, and I’ve been wearing and using it ever since.

It is very simple, straightforward to use, and works very well. It’s an excellent product for those who want a good watch to track workouts and put on a proper watch afterward.

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I’m a noted Benchmade fan, as they are one of the few companies that make most of their designs fully ambidextrous. It has been a while since a new Benchmade caught my eye, especially with the upward movement in their pricing. But the Full Immunity, from day one, was an exciting knife, so I took a chance on it.

It’s probably the best Benchmade on the market and a sleeper hit.

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I’ve been a huge fan of the Morgrie RK68B for some time now, and the two I owned were all I was using for typing for a good long while. The Happy Hacking Keyboard was simply the last on my list to try out, and when I started to get a little annoyed with the loud clicking of the Morgrie, I decided to snag this Type-S Snow Edition.

Holy shit, yeah, this is the best keyboard on the market.

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I buy a lot of watch straps, and certainly I have this year especially. Because of this, I have developed an affinity for some brands over others, so I thought it would be good to talk about my experience with each brand generally in hopes you might agree with me on my choice for the best watch straps.

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When I snagged my iPad Mini, I realized that I wanted a more integrated case for travel. The Smart Cover from Apple, while nice, doesn’t seem to suit this smaller iPad well. A sleeve felt like it would be too cumbersome, and thus I went looking.

The first case was a snap on style with a kickstand. It worked well and protected the iPad in addition to stand duties. Then I decided to go another direction instead of case with stand, focus on an easy to use stand. I tried a bunch before grabbing this MOFT Snap stand.

It’s not perfect, but it is quite good.

I reviewed an earlier version of this bag quite some time ago, and while I was very happy with it back then, I eventually moved on from it. But the idea of it has never left my head, as conceptually it is so simple and ideal.

When I saw one for a good price show up on eBay, I snagged a modern version of the Flat Pack. This is the larger of the two sizes, even though you’ll look at the images and think it is the smaller one.

The short version: if you carry only a few things to and from work, then there might not be a better bag out there. But if you like to carry stuff, this is going to be a very hard bag for you to use.

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