I use my iPad Pro as a secondary/personal device, but there are many people who prefer to take the plunge and make it their so-called daily driver machine. More power to them. While I am not in a position to use an iPad as my primary computer at work, I know that it is capable of handling the majority of tasks for many kinds of jobs. I also know a few other who, like me, use an iPad of some kind as their primary home device.
Apple fans have been wondering if the company would ever touch this third rail of the iPad. The device started its life as a hard core touch-only tablet. However, as it morphed into a more powerful device that could take on more tasks, Apple began to slowly add new features.
Apple broke with Steve Jobs’ derogatory statements on the concept of the stylus with the addition of the Apple Pencil. Well, sort of. The Pencil isn’t the sole input method for the iPad like the styli of old, but its arrival definitely marked a shift for Apple’s tablet. It sounds like Apple is about to cross the next big iPad input divide with iOS 13.
Guilherme Rambo of 9to5Mac is at it again. He posted an article at 9to5Mac this morning that details several new features that should be coming in iOS 13. While his attributed sources are a very vague “people familiar with the development of the operating system,” he has become a reliable enough source of Apple and iOS data that anything he is reporting should be taken seriously.
Every once in a while, I come across something really interesting while browsing Kickstarter or Indiegogo. The TouchType Pro, a creative and innovative keyboard case for the current gen iPad Pros, would seem to fit that bill. However, to be completely honest, that’s not how I found it. While the TouchType Pro campaign was just released on Kickstarter, I have been aware of this product for a while now. In fact, I’ve actually been able to go hands on with a prototype for a few weeks. More on this in a bit.
You see, Salman Sajid, the developer of the TouchType Pro and its earlier crowdfunded variations, originally reached out to me back in the Summer of 2017. After reading one of my iPad keyboard case reviews, he wanted to know if I would be interested in a project he was starting to work on. If you are a regular reader here, then you know there was no way I was passing that up.
Logitech was the one third party accessory company that brought out keyboard cases for the first two generations of the iPad Pro right after release. They were also the only ones besides Apple to make use of the Smart Connector for their keyboards, rather than relying on Bluetooth.
Their Create cases for the original Pro were a bit heavy and bulky, but had great backlit keyboards. The Slim Combo cases that they released right after the 2017 iPad Pros were even better. In fact, the Slim Combo for the 12.9″ Pro is still my favorite keyboard case of all time. It was a near-perfect balance of protection, portability and utility.
I spent most of yesterday taking the new iPad Mini for a spin and watching my daughter have a blast with it. Now it’s time to focus on the new iPad Air. Where the Mini felt almost foreign because I haven’t used one for so long, the new Air still feels quite familiar. Even though I didn’t hang onto it, I tried the 10.5″ iPad Pro when it was released in 2017. I really liked it, but the 12.9″ still won out, in the end.
I got the new Mini 5 unboxed and set it up to load my backup yesterday before bed so it would be ready to roll today. When I got up this morning, it was fully restored and my first gen Apple Pencil was charged and ready.
Ever since the first iPad Pro was released, Apple’s tablet lineup have been kind of a jumbled up mess. You had models that were too close together in price and specs, like the iPad Air 2 and original iPad Pro. You had the iPad Air 2 on closeout while Apple was selling the new 9.7″ iPad Pro. The two tablets looked exactly the same and were only separated by Pencil support and a few other specs.
Apple held its public shareholder’s meeting at the Steve Jobs Theater Friday, giving major investors the opportunity to ask Tim Cook and the executive team some direct questions. While a resolution regarding the diversity of the board dominated the discussion and the headlines afterward, there were a few interesting notes regarding current and upcoming products and services that also came out of the event.
There was an amazing deal on overstock 10.5″ iPad Pros last week that had the base 64GB WiFi model on sale for a very low $429. Unfortunately, that deal has expired, but there is another one this week that’s nothing to sneeze at.
With its changes to the lineup and to iOS over the last two years, Apple has been able to stop the bleeding and reverse the fast downward sales trend that the iPad had been stuck on previously. However, the end result has been stabilizing iPad sales rather than growing them in a significant way. The way Apple did this was by introducing a less expensive, but still capable, standard iPad and making the iPad Pros more compelling as high-end devices. While sales of the less-expensive iPad propped up unit sales numbers, they also caused the average sale price of the iPad category to fall.