Author, designer, developer, and editor of Switch to iPad, among other things.
Here’s something that’s rolled out recently, in iPadOS 16.1 (due Monday), and the upcoming iOS 16.1, that really should’ve been there from the get-go. You know those horrible allow paste from another app warnings that are such a bother with apps like Yoink (review)? Well, no, you can agree (or deny) them once and for all under each app’s settings pane in the Settings app.
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Apple has, as expected, announced new iPad models, without an event, but with a snazzy video. You have no doubt read and seen most of these models already, but if not, do check out the overview I posted earlier.
In short, we got a brand-new iPad, the tenth generation, powered by the A14 Bionic. It’s got a 10.9” Liquid Retina Display, and has the new form factor. With this, Apple waves goodbye to Lightning iPads, at least in the primary lineup. This, too, was expected, given the EU legislation that basically forces USB-C on mobile devices, including iPads.
We also got new iPad Pros, powered by the M2 chip, with the now familiar form factor of the previous generations. Other than some improvements to wireless connectivity, and the hovering Apple Pencil feature that I’ll get to in a bit, we’re talking about the same as the previous generation. That means that the 11” iPad Pro is stuck with the Liquid Retina Display, topping out at 600 nits, whereas the 12.9” models has the XDR version. That’s quite a difference, especially if you’ve been excited for Reference Mode in iPadOS 16.1.
Speaking of which, iPadOS 16.1 is coming soon, on Monday, alongside macOS Ventura, as it were.
Now, you’ve read all this, and you’re sitting there, Apple Store open in your web browser, seeing how the delivery times are moving forward, ever forward. Should you get a new iPad or not?
It’s a tough call, so I figured I’d weigh in.
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As rumored, Apple announced new iPad models on Tuesday. There was no event, just a website update, and new videos, of course. Looking at what got announced, it’s easy to see why: Apart from the new default iPad, it’s an underwhelming incremental upgrade, at best.
These are the models Apple announced, shipping on October 26th, but ready to pre-order now.
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I mentioned the other day that I used an app called Pastel to figure out the colors for my simple site, Three Olives Day. At first glance, and the way I mostly have used it, it’s a small app to add colors to various collections. This is, still, my primary use case for it, but it has some other nice features, too.
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Classic Apple developer Iconfactory did something fun a while back: They built a web server for macOS, and, more importantly, iPadOS. It’s a basic server, no databases or anything, and no cache, which makes it, I think, quite lovely in its simple form. I recently wrote about my in-between side-project, while not packing or unpacking boxes, called Three Olives Day (it’s October 14th, which might be when you’re reading this, by the way). The WorldWideWeb app (and thus, server) slotted nicely into my workflow, which also consisted of Working Copy, Runestone, and more. Do read the member post if you’re into this sort of thing.
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Spark, the popular email app from Readdle, has gotten a pretty big update, and with it, they’re switching to a subscription model. If you’re a user today, nothing much will change, unless you want access to these new features. It’s all detailed in a blog post, but I wanted to touch this a bit.
First, the new subscription model pricing. We’re looking at $8/month or $60/year for individual users, which, I must say, is pretty steep. Current users get 30% off. The Spark for teams pricing is, I think, unchanged, at $10/month or $84/year per user. Again, pretty steep, but if you build your business around email, and need collaborative tools and real-time chat about these things, then it’s reasonable, I guess.
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Between moving and editing a manuscript, I’ve been building a new site. Yeah, that sounds nuts, but it’s not as momentous as you might think. This new site is a one-pager, celebrating what, I think, is the Best Holiday Ever™️, which is Three Olives Day!
What? You haven’t heard of it? Well, you should, which is why I’m building a site about it. You can read about it on the site – threeolivesday.com – but in short, it’s a day for Dry Martinis, and celebrating Sir Roger Moore, of James Bond fame.
Anyway, every little part of that basic site (I’m a bit pressed for time, for obvious reasons) was designed, built, and launched using my 11” iPad Pro. I’d prefer a larger screen for this (or a working Stage Manager…), but this is what I’m carrying as I’m jumping between hotels and our countryside home while they’re painting our new apartment. So, I figured I’d let you in on how it went down.
Continue reading →It seems we might be getting new iPad Pros any day now because Apple has removed the old promo videos from its Youtube channel (thanks Steve, for pointing this out). This is common, Apple doesn’t keep promos for old models around, so this should mean that new iPad Pro models are imminent. Since there hasn’t been any event invites, these new models will likely be announced via press release, as has been rumored. I’d expect that to happen no later than tomorrow, Tuesday, so if you’re in the market for an iPad Pro, I’d hold off another day or so.
The new iPad Pros will likely use the new M2 chip. Here’s hoping the 11” model will get that glorious screen from the 12.9” model, although I wouldn’t bet on it. I don’t expect any major changes to the hardware, surely that would warrant an event, so this’ll most likely be another incremental update.
You have no doubt seen plenty of Apple pundits and tech reviewers talking about how the AirPods, and the AirPods Pro in particular, is one of the best things that Apple’s done. I agree with them, to some extent, but to me, the AirPods are limited by being in-ear headphones. You see, I listen to a lot of music, and the sound quality is important to me. The fact that I have tinnitus might further add to this. The same goes for active noise cancellation, it needs to be good enough for my ears. That’s why I’ve spent a lot (and I do mean a lot) of money on headphones over the years.
I’m stepping into this review as a happy AirPods Pro (first generation) user. I think they’re good headphones with great noice cancellation and decent sounding microphones. They fit my ears just fine. But, all of this praise (it is praise, I promise) is with that big addendum: For being in-ear headphones. I mean, Apple proved this themselves with the excellent AirPods Max. You can’t compare the noise cancellation or audio quality of the AirPods Max, with the original AirPods Pro, it’s just not a fair fight.
Well, that sort of changes with AirPods Pro 2 (which I’m going to call them).
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While this isn’t an iPad-only feature (it’s also in iOS 16 and the upcoming macOS Ventura), I, for one, am doing most of my photo managing on an iPad, so I appreciate this new feature in Photos. As you know, taking more than one photo of something is the key to getting a good result, but it does mean that you end up with plenty of duplicates. Well, Photos can help you with that, thanks to the new Duplicates feature.
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