Using the 13” iPad Pro as a Tablet

A few weeks ago, I picked up a Smart Folio for my 13" iPad Pro at an incredible discount. It was more an impulse purchase than anything else, but I also thought it would be a good opportunity to try something new.

Since I bought the 13" iPad Pro, it's lived in the Magic Keyboard case. Functionally, it's been a touchscreen laptop running iPadOS. I love the form factor and get so much done on it, but I've always had this nagging feeling that I'm not using it to its full potential. The iPad is meant to be a tablet, after all. So I decided to carry my iPad in the Smart Folio rather than the Magic Keyboard for a while and see what it was like using a 13" tablet.

The first thing I noticed was how much thinner and lighter the iPad is in the Smart Folio case. The Magic Keyboard adds quite a bit of thickness and weight to the device, something I've just gotten used to. But carrying it around without the Magic Keyboard, I was reminded what a feat of engineering the 13" iPad Pro really is. (I'm still using the M1 version; the latest M4 model is even thinner and lighter.)

That being said, the big iPad Pro is still a beast of a tablet. I never could figure out how to comfortably hold it in my hands while navigating or reading on it. I always had to rest my arm on a table or prop the iPad up with my leg while holding it, which isn't ideal for tablet use.

I was surprised how intuitive it is to use Stage Manager in touch mode. I've only ever interacted with floating windows via a cursor before, but bringing up new windows and arranging them the way I want them with my fingers made total sense. As much as it's been optimized for indirect input over the past few years, iPadOS still works incredibly well via touch, even in its most complex configuration. One of my favorite things to do with the iPad Pro in tablet mode was working on my creativity log, which involved a lot of switching between windows, copying and pasting, and running shortcuts.

Typing with the on-screen keyboard was something I couldn't ever quite get used to. I would prop the iPad up on my desk with the Smart Folio and do my best to replicate touch typing on it, but it resulted in so many typos that the whole process really slowed me down. I'm just better at typing on a physical keyboard, I suppose. Working with text was the part of this experiment where I ran into the most friction.

There are still certain elements of the web that aren't optimized for touch as well. Most user-facing websites are optimized for any input, and I was able to read my favorite sites without any problem. But when I tried to do any work on the backend of my blog or my employer's website, I ran into elements that still didn't work quite right – or at all – via touch because they expected a cursor.

After a few days of using the Smart Folio, I swapped it back out for the Magic Keyboard and put it away. The majority of what I do on my iPad Pro falls into the categories of text editing and web work, so I really missed the physical keyboard and trackpad, and I decided they were worth the additional thickness and weight. My iPad Pro is a laptop once again.

But at least I got a chance to experience what it was like to use my iPad as a true tablet. There are still cases where I could see myself switching back to the Smart Folio for a limited amount of time, especially while watching TV and films, so I'm keeping it around as an option. For the most part, though, the Magic Keyboard is the perfect iPad Pro accessory for me, and I'm sticking with it.

For tablet use, I still have my trusty iPad mini, which I adore. But this experiment has me once again reminiscing about the old days when I had an 11" iPad Pro that served as both my tablet and laptop. Now that the smaller iPad Pro has the best screen technology once again, could I go back to using a single device for both use cases? Or am I better off with my dual approach, getting the most out of both ends of the spectrum? Those are questions for another day, but for the time being, I'm going to consider this 13" tablet test complete and return to my multiPad lifestyle.

Ebbs and Flows, Indeed

My creativity log is already turning out to be a great investment. I checked it the other day and found out that June 2024 was my most creatively productive month ever. Here’s a breakdown of what I made last month:

  • 13 blog posts
  • 4 Magic Rays of Light episodes
  • 4 MacStories articles
  • 2 Club MacStories columns
  • 5 shortcuts
  • a guest appearance on iPad Pros

To be fair, three of those blogs posts were links to things I published elsewhere, but still, that list represents the busiest month of creation I’ve ever had by far. I’m really happy not only with the amount of work I was able to put out, but even more so with the quality of it, the response to it, and the incredible people I got to work to make it all happen.

One of the themes of my personal writing this year has been the balance between outward creation and behind-the-scenes work in my life. That balance is constantly changing, and I can sometimes get in my head about it. But I’m learning to be okay with wherever I’m at on that scale at any given time.

Sometimes, I’ll be more focused on background stuff and helping others get their ideas out there, so things might seem more quiet from me. Then I’ll have periods like last month when it feels like I have something new to share all the time. That’s just the nature of the work that I’m doing; it all matters, and I find it all so fulfilling.

And funnily enough, I only really recognize where the balance stands after the fact. In the moment, it all just feels very natural, like I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to do. So I’m going to keep doing it – and, of course, tracking it. If any other interesting insights come up from my creativity log, I’ll be sure to share them.

Thank you for being along for the ride. I hope you’re enjoying it as much as I am, because it truly is a joy getting to share all of this with you.

iPad Pros 200 →

Tim Chaten kindly had me back on iPad Pros for the show’s 200th episode special, where we turned the tables and I got to interview him! He’s created his own version of the MacPad using a damaged M1 MacBook Air, and I had a lot of questions about it. It was such a fun discussion covering the benefits of a Mac/iPad hybrid, combining the MacPad with Apple Vision Pro, and even using a headless MacBook Air as an affordable Mac Mini replacement. You can listen here.

My Favorite WWDC Announcements (2024 Edition)

With WWDC week winding down, I’ve had some time to take in all of Apple’s announcements and check out small details people are discovering in the OS betas. These are the new features that speak most to me:

  • iOS: Customizing Control Center is going to be so much fun. I’ve spent a lot of time tweaking my setup in its current iteration because I get so much use out of it. Being able to make it work exactly the way I want and add third-party apps to it is like a dream come true. The resizing options for different controls look intriguing, too.
  • iPadOS: The absence of the Calculator app is such a long-running joke that it’s almost sad the era’s coming to an end, but I do a lot of budget-balancing on my iPad, so I’m excited to have Calculator available there.
  • macOS: The Passwords app is coming to iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS, too, but since Apple highlighted it as a Mac feature, I thought I’d mention it here. I’ve been all-in on iCloud for passwords for as long as it’s been around, and finally being able to manage and share those credentials from a full-fledged app is going to be sweet.
  • visionOS: There is so much about visionOS 2 that excites me as someone who spends a lot of time in my Apple Vision Pro. The quality-of-life improvements like easier access to Control Center and the option to rearrange apps on the Home View are so welcome. I can’t wait to spatialize some of my family photos, too.
  • tvOS: InSight is exactly what I need when I’m watching TV. It bugs me to no end when I can’t figure out where I recognize an actor from, and now that information will be readily available, at least for Apple Originals. I can’t wait to try it.
  • watchOS: Live Activities are great on my iPhone, but they make so much more sense on the Watch, which I’m much more likely to glance at when I need to check on something. They’ll be a great addition to the Smart Stack, especially once I get a watch with double tap.
  • Home: I’m finally going to be able to set my preferred home hub! This will save me so much troubleshooting and hopefully make my smart home setup even more reliable.
  • Apple Intelligence: The part that most impressed me about the Apple Intelligence announcement was the system’s ability to use information it knows about me to respond contextually to requests. That has a ton of potential, and I look forward to seeing what I can do with it in practice.
  • Services: I love to see Apple’s services continue to evolve. Wallet additions like Tap to Provision and richer event tickets look useful, and I like the direction the company went in redesigning Fitness+.
  • Development: FinanceKit is easier for developers to access now, which is a win for budgeting nerds like me. I hope we see a slew of personal finance apps integrate with it this fall.

There was so much more announced for this year, and I look forward to experiencing it all for myself. But these are the features I’m most interested in, so I’ll be trying them first when I get my hands on this year’s updates.

Which of the new features announced this week are you most looking forward to? I’d love to hear your thoughts on the OS updates, Apple Intelligence, and everything else about WWDC 2024.