Well, as expected Apple announced The 2018 iPad Pro and what a doozy. I don’t have much to say other than this computer is going to fly. Heck, the current iPad Pro from 2017 flies! Add in the new Pencil and Keyboard Folio and yeah, it’s quite a package. Will be a nice upgrade. I ordered one and am expecting it tomorrow.

Most if the reviews that have come in say a similar thing: the hardware is exceptional and incredibly fast but is being held back by iOS. The specific things being mentioned the most: lack of access to files on attached drives, lack of mouse/trackpad/cursor,  lack of a desktop class browser, and lack of Apple’s own professional apps such as Final Cut Pro.

My take? These features will all come in the next year or two. At that time the reviewers complaining that the iPad is not up to snuff will find something else to complain about. I’m not trying to suggest that these are not real limitations, they are. But the blanket pronouncements by these reviewers that a small handful of missing features is stopping the iPad Pro (or just iPads) from being useful for many pro users is absurd. As one of these users I do not need to attach a drive as I do all of my file work via iCloud. No doubt some users need this missing feature, but not I and not all. The real point I’d make is that many reviewers do a great job reviewing from what they want for themselves but don’t seem to be able to write about the bigger picture. Why not also say in such a review that the iPad Pro might be excellent for many people, just not those that need feature “a” or feature “b”.

A last word about the hardware. The numbers indicate that the 2018 iPad Pro is about as fast as the top of the line Mac Book Pros. Damn.

My Color Classic and iPad Pro as imaged by an iPhone 7+.

The beginning of Apple’s iPad story
In 2010 Apple initially positioned the iPad as a middle device between the iPhone and a laptop. The message was that it was a friendly, easy to use device for email, web browsing, Facebook, games, videos. As Steve Jobs demonstrated on stage, it was a casual device meant to be used by anyone lounging about their home. Sure, Apple offered up the Keyboard Dock and Pages so it could also be used for word processing but that was secondary.

I can tell you that for many in my family it became their beloved (sometimes first and only) computer. But for them, mostly non-techies, it was, literally, just a bigger than iPhone screen. They knew it was a computer and yet it was not intimidating. It was a computer without seeming too much like a computer and given those characteristics it’s not surprising that it was especially popular with the very young and with elderly. At least, that was the case in my family. They’re all still happily using iPads though most have since updated at least once or twice.

This was Apple’s opening story for the iPad and it was a simple one: An easy to use computer that didn’t seem too computery that would be a great second purchase for its iPhone customers. It was obvious to everyone that the iPad was, in many ways, a larger iPhone and it ran a mobile operating system.

From Apple’s perspective this was all well and good. For awhile.

For the first two to three years the iPad sold very, very well. And then it didn’t. Sales fell off and the media and Wall Street needed an answer Apple couldn’t provide. It was a mystery. And so many stories were told about why the iPad was no longer selling as well. From my own anecdotal experience I can simply say that iPads are solid, long-lived devices that perform well for causal use. If the primary consumers of iPads were non-tech iPhone users it would make sense that they would hold onto them for awhile. Non-techies do not purchase new computers every year. They hold on to them for 3 or 4 or even 5 years if they are still working.

Searching and finding a new iPad identity
The problem with a device intended for a general audience is that they buy the device then settle down with it. They want familiar and easy. They don’t read tech blogs and obsess over the latest and greatest hardware or os features. It’s just a device for them. So, while Apple was certainly still selling a lot of iPads they had passed the peak. Apple itself seemed to struggle with the purpose and identity of the iPad for awhile and only recently seemed to have gotten their footing.

It would seem that as Apple grew the power of the tech inside the iPad, namely the A-series of processors, they needed to begin expanding the intended user-base to include those that would benefit from the investment in faster processors, specifically, technically proficient computer users. The identity of the casual non-computer based on a simplified mobile operating system needed to shift. The iPad needed to become a computer. But Apple needed to strike a balance between it’s current, non-techie base and this new group of users. Too much complexity would be a problem for the established base, too few power features would be a problem for techies.

And so, in a constant tug of tension, Apple has been slowly iterating, layering new features into iOS that will enable power users to use the iPad as a computer while not overwhelming those that are used to its simplicity. And this is where we begin to see the emergence of the oft repeated variation of “you can’t do work with an iPad, they’re only good for browsing the web and watching YouTube.” Regardless of the constant repetition of the “can’t do real work on the iPad“ meme, the identity of iPad as a computer was beginning to emerge and this was not lost on users such as myself that wanted to believe.

In 2010, as today, I made my living as a freelance web and graphic designer. For me the iPad really was just a simple and casual browsing device. I bought the very first and loved it for the tasks as Apple had in mind. Though this was a device more for my parents and grandparents than myself, I nevertheless persisted in searching for apps that would let me edit the html and css of my websites or post to my blog. Surprisingly I found a few and they sorta did the job but for the first few years there was no chance the iPad could be my working computer. But I still loved the form factor and made use of it almost daily.

Slowly but surely Apple pushed forward the power of the hardware and the feature set up the os and in the fall of 2015 they released the first iPad Pros alongside of iOS 9. This was an important milestone for both hardware and software. It moved the device forward as Apple began telling the story of the iPad as a computer. With iOS 9 Apple introduced split screen apps and slowly a group of computer users began to take notice. It was easy to see an increase in podcasts and posts about people trying to switch. I think such stories go back to the beginning of iPad but there seems to have been a very noticeable up-tick in just the past three or four years.

And while the following year was a slow one with very few iPad features released in iOS 10 there was a noticeable hum of anticipation coming from a growing community of users that made the iPad their work computer. 2016 saw the release of a 9.7” iPad followed in 2017 by new 12.9” and 10.5” iPads Pro. More importantly, we saw the release of iOS 11 with many new iPad “pro” features and a renewed focus on new creative apps such as Affinity Photo.

It’s worth noting too that as Apple pushed forward with iOS and it’s own apps such as the iWork apps, iMovie and Garage Band, important third party apps were released as well. From well known productivity suites such as Microsoft Office to creative apps such as Procreate, Pixelmator and Graphic. The ecosystem of useful, computery apps was slowly but steadily growing. Of course there’s still more to do, especially with iOS, but Apple hasn’t left much room for doubt. We may not know the details of iOS 13 or any point releases before but we can be certain that new features, computery features, will continue to come.

In recent months there’s been a lot of anticipation and excitement around the rumored announcement of new iPads Pro. I think it says something that most of this excitement emanated from what is now an arguably larger community of users that consider the iPad their primary computer. On October 30 Apple held an event in which it did announce newest iteration of the iPad Pro and it seems now that there is finally a critical mass of acknowledgement that iOS and the iPad have indeed crossed a threshold. We humans like to argue and so I have no doubt that there will continue to be debate but the iPad as a computer is no longer a question.

It’s true that the form is, essentially, the same as the iPad of 2010. It is simply a touchscreen glass front side with an aluminum back and all the usual things that make a computer a computer on the inside: processor, graphics card, storage media, RAM, etc. Were you to see the original iPad and the newest iPad Pro sitting next to each other from across a room you might easily assume they were the same device were it not for the size difference. This is the fundamental beauty of the iPad, that it has emerged, after eight years, with it’s form intact but with its mission expanded.

Apple’s iPad Pro webpage

While the original iPad had more in common with an iPhone than a laptop, it’s now true that the iPad, especially the iPad Pro, is revealed as a computer that is what it’s user needs it to be. Imagine these scenarios with an iPad, sometimes hand held with a Pencil other times attached to a keyboard: a student sketching the differences between Monarch and Viceroy butterflies; a grandparent watching a slideshow of anniversary images; a business owner creating an annual report; a non-profit communications staffer editing a video; an author writing a novel. The iPad, in form and function, empowers it’s user to do what needs to be done. It’s simplicity allows it to be more. But do not doubt that it is a computer.

One of many personal stories from people who have used the Apple Watch to help them with significant weight loss:

This is good…

We’ve had WatchOS 5 for just over a week now and I’m really happy with the changes in the calculations of exercise activity. I recently wrote that I felt the threshold for earning green ring minutes was too high. Apple states that a brisk walk is what is needed to close the green rings but I was finding that I usually needed to jog. A brisk walk was usually not enough and that’s a problem for people that might have joint problems. I have a bum knee so jogging is something I have to be careful of. For the past few days I’ve been earning my green rings with a brisk walk again. Whatever calculations are being performed to determine exercise minutes seems to have been changed to a lower level. Previously it seemed I needed to keep my heart rate at 110-120bpm or higher and now it would seem that 100bpm is enough. In my case this is perfect as my bpm during a brisk walk is usually in the range of 90 to 110.

I’ve been using the public betas of iOS 12 since July and right off something I noticed about the suggested Shortcuts were that the specificity made them mostly useless. Why would I want to resend a message to my sister which I sent 30 minutes ago? No thanks. No, I’ve already viewed that website, I don’t need it suggested again for a voice controlled command. Another pitfall is the repeated suggestion that I can call my brother or another recently called contact. I can already do that with Siri simply by saying “Hey Siri, call my brother.” Why would I bother creating a Shortcut? During the beta period I failed to find a single suggested Shortcut that would be useful. They were all duplicates of something Siri already handles or they were far too specific to a previously done action to be useful. But I had hope that with the release of the updated Shortcut app and new apps designed to take advantage of the new system we would get some useful voice commands.

We’re only a couple days in so it’s too hard to say. There’s a lot of excitement in the Apple nerd community but I will say that I think this is going to take some time. Of the apps currently offering recordable Shortcuts, my favorite is Carrot Weather which offers several very easy to set-up voice commands. This Shortcut makes sense to me as it allows me to get my weather via voice. I can listen and be done. What makes less sense to me are the recorded shortcuts for apps that I’m likely to be interacting with on-screen. Two examples are Drafts and Things which also offer Shortcuts.

Mixing up the inputs: Visual and Audio
What we have with Shortcuts in iOS 12 is a merging of visual and audio computing. We’ve had a taste of the audio for the past few years with Siri. This is Apple’s attempt to mix it up a bit and it will be interesting to see how it pans out. Frankly, in these early days I find it a bit confusing as do my devices.

When I’m at a screen, usually the iPad, sometimes the iPhone, I will use the occasional Shortcut created by the Shortcut app. For example I’ve got one that I’ve used consistently to convert pdfs into jpgs with cropping and resizing as steps. Very handy for turning pdf flyers into jpgs for posting to client websites. I’ve also got Shortcuts for opening or creating file archives which can be handy and nice to be able to do this without third party apps. Various shortcuts for blogging such as one which takes the url and rich text from web pages and copies the combination for pasting into Drafts or iA Writer.

Another, this one used from iPhone, is a mileage calculator that I use to append text to a plain text file stored in iCloud. I get gas then run shortcut which appends the date, gallons, miles and mpg to the text file. Just a tad easier than tapping the text into Notes which is what I used to do.

Speaking of Notes, I’m surprised and disappointed that Apple has done nothing to connect Notes and Shortcuts. If they expect third party developers to take advantage of Shortcuts they should do the same. As of this moment the only Shortcut step for Notes is to create a new note. Why not let me do more? I don’t use the Bear notes app but those that do have access to at least six built in Shortcut functions. I’d love to be able to use a Shortcut to append to a note, for example,the above mentioned gas and mileage log. I’d rather keep it in Notes.

Another log that I keep is for heating and cooling my sister’s vacation cabin. We share a utility line so in the hot and cold months I keep track of the heating and cooling so that I can better estimate our shared utility bill. I’ve set-up a Shortcut that lets me simply say “AC Log On” or “AC Log Off” whenever I’ve turned her A/C on or off. At the end of the month I have a much better idea of how much her bill is. That will also come in handy during the winter when I run her heater. This also goes to a text file when it could be stored in Notes. This difference between this and the mileage log is this is one I trigger just using my voice. I wanted something super convenient because I do this action often and it is indeed very easy to do! I can use this via iPhone, iPad or HomePod. I should also be able to activate via the AppleWatch but currently get an error.

Over the coming weeks I’ll be exploring Shortcuts a bit more. Will they live up to the hopes and dreams of the Apple Nerdery? Will they prove useful for average users? Also, how do they fit into personal and work life? I’m looking forward to finding out.

At the moment I’ve just about finished up a post about Shortcuts. Nothing too extensive, just a few thoughts about using it. I’ll be giving Apple’s Shortcuts User Guide a thorough read-through soon.

Shortcuts in iOS 12 let you get things done with your apps, with just a tap or by asking Siri. In addition to running shortcuts available on your iOS device, you can use the Shortcuts app to create custom shortcuts, simplifying everyday tasks by combining steps across multiple apps.