Fraser Speirs — a long-time iPad-only advocate — is leaning towards getting another MacBook Pro. Fraser is famous for a piece he wrote about going iPad-only entitled: Can the MacBook Pro Replace Your iPad? It was an interesting reverse take on the whole “Can your iPad replace your laptop” argument that is bandied about.
I am both glad and disheartened to hear this. I was glad because it’s easy to get into a situation where taking a stance on something like going iPad-only is tough to back off from. Your identity can be wrapped up in “that guy who went iPad-only”. Inevitably, you hear from all the people who gave you grief about it two years ago with an extra helping of “told you so.” So, being able to publicly and critically assess whether a tool works for you, and change course if it isn’t, is a good trait. It’s disheartening that Fraser feels that iOS 11 doesn’t meet his needs anymore and he needs to use a Mac again.
There are four people I follow on Twitter that are iPad-only folks. Not sorta-iPad only, but full-time, only use an iPad people: Matt Gemmell; Ben Brooks; Fraser Speirs; and Federico Vitcci1. CGP Grey is also a heavy iPad user so he deserves honorable mention here. Of these five, two of them are either using the iPad less after iOS 11 or are thinking of moving back to a Mac. CGP Grey needs a Mac to create his YouTube videos, so he’s always straddled that line. iOS 11 was supposed to be the big start of iPad productivity, but instead people I follow who use the iPad heavily are leaning towards walking away from it.
I am happier with iOS 11 than I was with iOS 10, but not drastically. I think the new Files app is a great step forward. Drag and drop is pretty useful. iOS 11 has helped me not use Workflow app as much as I used to. However, iOS 11 has some weird bugs that are driving me nuts. I’ve been having a lot of rotation issues where I unlock my iPad and the rotation is stuck until I engage the gyroscope again. The Apple Smart Keyboard has been flakey and I need to snap it on and off again to get it work. That said, I think the drag and drop, the Dock, and the new Files app are a net win. I wouldn’t go back to iOS 10. I don’t think I can do tasks I couldn’t do on an iPad before iOS 11, but some of the suffering around those tasks has declined.
Fraser’s comments made me think a little more about my iPad usage after I got the MacBook Pro in March. Has my iPad usage increased or decreased? Unfortunately, I don’t have any data to back up my theories. The best example is my iPad usage last night when I was working on my schoolwork for the week. I’d been taking part in an informal case study on a MacRumors post regarding using iPad Pros for school. Like any thread about iPad productivity it devolved into a thread of half-truths, assumptions, lies, and bold statements of what you can and could not do on iPad. So, when this semester hit the midpoint I posted my findings about 5 weeks with the iPad. I considered the experiment closed at that point. I haven’t gotten any responses to that thread in a few days, so I guess a lot of people consider the experiment closed as well. I could go back to using my MacBook Pro for school and not think twice, or feel I had sold out the cause. Instead, when I got down to the business of doing this week’s assignments I just picked up my iPad fired up PowerPoint and worked on the assignment. When I was done, I uploaded it to the shared Google Drive folder and emailed my classmates.
Was this inertia from having a rhythm of working on school work this way for the last 5 weeks? I don’t think so. When I was doing some writing this weekend I found myself always reaching for the iPad first. For a lot of creative work like drawing and writing, the iPad is such a natural fit now for how I do that work. That’s not to say the MacBook Pro will sit unused. My beloved Topaz filters only work on my Mac. I use Tableau a lot and there is no iPad version. Sometimes I need the might and power of the full Office suite. Today I am working remote and need to connect to our virtual desktop system to do work. That type of work is still best done with a pointing device you can right-click on easily.
So, in conclusion my iPad use hasn’t really changed for the core work.
- Federico uses a Mac to record his podcasts, but that is it. ↩
Mark Crump 