My iPad Professional does greater than you’d anticipate

This is my scorching take: an iPad does not want to interchange your laptop computer. I am among the many crowd that believes (moreover the Apple Vision Pro) each product within the iPad maker’s lineup has a distinct segment use case it is best suited to. Positive, you possibly can watch movies in your MacBook, but it surely’s not fairly as fluid as utilizing an iPad.

I’ve develop into an enormous fan of the iPad Professional since its bezel-less design was launched in 2018. At present, I take advantage of a 13″ M4 iPad Professional with mobile. Whereas I really like my iPad Professional, I additionally imagine it has an extended strategy to go earlier than anybody ought to seriously consider buying it as a laptop computer substitute.

I did not buy an iPad Pro to replace my MacBook. As a substitute, I purchased it as a complementary system for a selected set of duties — which it thrives at checking off the to-do record.

1 Watching video content material

YouTube, Apple TV+, Netflix — you title it

The iPad Professional is well my go-to system for streaming video content material. Admittedly, utilizing an costly sheet of metallic and glass solely for video streaming has develop into a little bit of a meme. Nonetheless, each time I am making dinner, preparing within the morning, or needing a distraction, I seize my iPad Professional as a result of its giant display screen, loudspeakers, and contact interface make it an unimaginable content material consumption system.

Plus, its low profile means it may be positioned on a stand or within the nook with out getting in the best way. The iPad’s lengthy battery life, mixed with its skill to simply save content material for offline viewing, provides to the protection of why it makes for a wonderful medium for video content material consumption.

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2 Sketching and note-taking

The Apple Pencil is a key aggressive benefit

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Apple Pencil Professional

The Apple Pencil Professional is a upgraded model of Apple’s stylus with pressure-sensitive sides that permits you to squeeze the stylus to entry contextual menus.

Probably, the primary cause folks purchase an iPad is to make use of an Apple Pencil. Many individuals get the system duo with the intention of sketching and illustrating. Whereas these are nice use circumstances for the iPad and Apple Pencil, you are able to do much more with these two units.

When ending my undergraduate research, I used my iPad Professional and Apple Pencil day by day to repeat down formulation and take notes throughout my arithmetic courses. I’ve additionally made it a behavior to edit pictures utilizing the 2 units on my flight dwelling after a visit. Doc markup, audio enhancing, and some other activity that makes use of a stylist means a MacBook cannot match, and the iPad has to come back in to do the job.

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3 FaceTime calls

Panorama digicam for the win

I not too long ago got here again from a week-long journey to Nashville. Whereas away, my girlfriend and I FaceTimed every night to speak about our days. The iPad rapidly grew to become my go-to system for these calls. Like video streaming and content material consumption, the iPad’s giant display screen, loud audio system, nice microphones, and low profile make for a fantastic video calling system.

Combining these advantages with the brand new panorama digicam positioned on the iPad Professional’s lengthy aspect, you are now wanting proper on the individual on the decision somewhat than this off-side video.

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4 Presenter distant and notes

Take management of your keynote presentation and examine something you jotted down

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I actually love presenting. Every time I get invited to talk at a convention or occasion, I am jazzed to design and ship a brand new keynote. An incredible advantage of utilizing Apple’s keynote app (past beautiful-looking displays) is the presenter remote feature. When you’re unfamiliar with it, the presenter distant lets you have your keynote on one system (MacBook, iPad, iPhone) and management it with one other (iPad, iPhone, Apple Watch).

When utilizing an iOS or iPadOS system, it’s also possible to view presenter notes, view present or upcoming slides, add non permanent doodles or illustrations to slides, and use a vertical laser pointer to convey your factors.

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My typical presentation setup includes connecting my MacBook to the presentation show (projector or TV) and utilizing my iPad because the distant to modify between slides and examine my presenter’s notes. The 2024 iPad Professionals are a good bit lighter and thinner than their predecessors, so I’ve discovered holding my 13″ mannequin for prolonged intervals much more snug than the 12.9″ that got here earlier than.

5 Studying the information

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Certainly one of my most important private accomplishments has been shifting away from social media (with the exception ofLinkedIn). When Twitter ended help for third-party purchasers, I made a decision it was the second to search out an alternate strategy to get the information. So, I turned to an RSS reader known as Reeder. All an RSS reader does is accumulate articles and movies from web sites and feeds to pool them right into a single chronological timeline (yay, no algorithms).

Whether or not you employ an RSS or a devoted information app, I’ve discovered my iPad to be a pleasant strategy to atone for native and world occasions within the night. As a strategy to cut back distractions all through the day, I created a shortcut to routinely shut Reeder on my iPhone once I’m at dwelling however enable me to make use of it whereas I am out of the home. As a substitute, I depend on my iPad as my major studying system whereas stress-free on the couch.

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6 Writing and focus workflows

The Magic Keyboard offers an incredible typing expertise

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Apple Magic Keyboard for iPad Professional 13‑inch (M4)

iPads are nice units when you have to give attention to a single activity, for the reason that platform largely focuses on the person solely having one or two apps open. When making an attempt to write an article, my iPad Professional and its Magic Keyboard foster a fantastic typing expertise the place I can give attention to the one activity at hand.

When writing on my Mac, it is easy to get distracted by an e mail or Slack message. So, writing an article in Pages on my iPad results in fewer distractions. The iPad Professional’s Magic Keyboard additionally makes for a snug typing expertise, which is anticipated of such an expensive keyboard.

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7 Distant productiveness

I want MacBooks got here in mobile

Apple / Pocket-lint

If Apple made a MacBook with cellular connectivity, I might purchase it in a heartbeat, and I am not the primary tech author to say this. I bought an iPad with a mobile transmitter as a result of I’ve discovered utilizing my iPhone as a hotspot to be unreliable, inconsistent, and battery-draining. As a substitute, when working away from my home, I take advantage of my iPad Professional’s direct mobile service for a quick and safe web connection. Most of the time, my iPad’s mobile service is much extra performant and definitely safer than utilizing a public Wi-Fi community.

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