more than one way to skin a cat…

Intro

The M4 iPad has come along and shaken things up a bit – for me at least and changed things for the better. It will never fully replace a Mac – but it sure gives me new options – and ones I’ve come to enjoy.

When I started to use it I had no idea of what I was doing or how to best make it work for me. After all, a Mac user was getting used to working on an iPad – surely that was a car crash waiting to happen…

But as I spend more time using it, the more I feel I’m getting out of it – and more importantly it’s freed me up and almost liberated me. I’m no longer a slave to the desk, office or studio. I’m constantly finding new ways I like to work on the iPad and the best workflows for me.

iPad and Multitasking

I came to the iPad not knowing much about it all. I jumped straight into using Stage Manager as that was the poster boy for iPad when it came to multitasking but this past week I’ve found more out about Split View and Slide Over.

They have brought a whole new dimension to working – or multitasking for me to the iPad.

It’s a cleaner way of working – particularly slide-over. It makes for a very distraction-free way of working. I can say have a YouTube or Safari page open for reference and then over the top of that I can be writing in Ulysses – and then when I don’t want to see it I can park it off to one side to concentrate only on the one thing.

I’d like it better still if you could resize windows in Slide Over but sadly that is still locked down. In Split View, you can re-size windows but again only Apple’s pre-determined sizes of 50/50 or 75/25 split. With Stage Manager there is more flexibility in window sizes. None of these issues ruin the multi-tasking experience for me though – they would just be pleasant tweaks.

But now I’ve found I have choices as to how I can effectively multi-task it means I can choose the one that’s best suited to me on that day and for the tasks I have at hand.

Working on a second display is something I’m going to look into next.

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A new me

Most importantly though, the iPad has just encouraged me to step away from the desk a bit more often. Sometimes it may just be at home to stop working in the studio and move to the sofa or at the table – but it just makes for a different working environment.

It just changes things up a bit.

As for working away from home…whilst I could take a Mac with me, somehow the form factor of the iPad makes remote working that much more enjoyable, practical…and fun. Have you found that?

I’ve never been one to work from cafes and hotels but now with the iPad, I feel happier and more relaxed to break the day up which just helps keep me fresh.

More from M4!

This is Apple’s first M4 device and the omens are good.

Everything opens so fast on here and everything feels super snappy. We are expecting M4 to land in Macs and possibly even iMacs later this year – and from what I’m seeing on the iPad it looks as if we should be in for a big bump in performance.

If you are new to iPad like I am get used to making the Files App your friend. You can not only access your iCloud files there but even files from your Google Drive and Dropbox. I’m a big Dropbox user, I have been for years and that is one app that is nailed on the iPad – it looks and feels just like you are working on a Mac.

That Thunderbolt port

Not enough is made of the Thunderbolt USB-C port on the iPad.

Unlike the Samsung S9 Tab which has a woefully slow USB 3.2 gen 2 speed of only 10Gbps, the iPad has Thunderbolt 4 transfer speeds of up to 40Gbps which opens up so many possibilities.

If you hook up a suitable dock to it you can even hardwire an ethernet connection to your iPad to get a rock-solid connection and also transfer files from SSDs or even micro SSDs.

Again it just opens up so many productive options making this iPad so easy to become a one-stop solution.

The iPad continues to help me find new and exciting ways to work and as I said ways of keeping me fresh which is just as important. I used to be guilty of spending too long in one place – but now I find myself making excuses to grab the iPad and step away for a moment and find a different spot to work from.

I’d love to know what the iPad has brought to you and the way you work. And if you’re wondering why I’ve made so much content about the iPad recently – the answer is easy.

It’s because it’s genuinely excited me.

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