🆓 This member post is free for all, thanks to our paying subscribers. Enjoy!
Hi!
I hope you’re doing well. Where I am (currently: Stockholm, Sweden), it’s warmer than usual. Today (a couple of days before you’ll read this) looks to land at 30º C (86º F), which is a temperature I, personally, find horrible. It’d be a different matter if Sweden was a country where we expected heatwaves such as this, thus having air condition and the like, but outside of hotels, we don’t, and thus we suffer.
Summer, or rather, summer temperatures, points to a flaw in iPads. It’s not necessarily the sunshine that’s the problem, very few screens apart from e-ink work well in direct sunlight, but what the heat does to you, and your devices.
First, iPads (as well as Apple’s other devices) are designed to operate between 0º C (32º F) to 35º C (95º F). Luckily, we rarely see the higher temperatures where I live, and I wouldn’t want to use a touchscreen in minus degrees Celsius, but both can obviously happen. Writing in the sun this summer would’ve been a bad idea, for both person and device because the temperature easily exceeds the intended limit. And then your device shuts down, to prevent damage. It’s also horrible to handle because it is literally too warm.
🌡 Max-min temperaturesStoring an iPad is a different beast, then you should keep it within the -20º C (-4º F) and 45º C (113º F) range.
ℹ️ What you do mattersAll tasks aren’t created equal. Writing something puts a lot less strain on the iPad, thus generating less heat, than rendering a 4K video or playing an intense game. Maybe don’t do any of the latter if your device is getting hot to the touch, it’s a sure way to interrupted work, or even data loss.
Since I would need to get a serious case of sunstroke (which is no joke, there are plenty of reasons to protect yourself from the sun and wear sunscreen) to even consider sitting in the sun writing, iPads shutting down is rarely an issue for me. I’ll find a shady spot, and get work done. However, there’s another problem when handling an iPad in the heat, and that’s the touchscreen. Or rather, handling it with your sweaty mitts. I hate it, all that smoothness of the interaction, where you can easily swipe or drag something, goes out the window. Instead, your finger sticks, it’s a janky motion, or it won’t even register. Add to the fact that, despite sitting in the shade, your device is warm to the touch, thus bringing up your own temperature even further.
I get around this by using the Magic Keyboard (but any bluetooth keyboard will do) and its trackpad, although that’s not particularly nice to touch either. Apps with plenty of keyboard shortcuts are always preferred, but I truly seek them out when it’s warm out. Case in point: I’m writing this with the janky setup of my iPad Pro in the Magic Keyboard on a small table under a parasol, using a Keychron K2 bluetooth keyboard which is a little less nasty to type on when I’m warm.
Another tool that can help is the Apple Pencil. It doesn’t get warm, and the interactions with the touchscreen are as expected. I’m not a big fan of navigation iPadOS using the Apple Pencil, but you can, and occasionally I do. It’s a way to limit, or eliminate, the need to put sweaty fingers on the device.
I don’t have any great solutions for using your iPad when it’s so warm outside that you’re sweating, other than finding a place where it’s nice and cool. That’s not always an option, and you have to make do, so finding the right accessories (which is more a matter of shade than actual iPad accessories) is the only thing you can do. I’m interested to try some of those cooling cases, but they’ll only cool the iPad, not solve the interaction problem, which I’d say is the bigger issue for my climate at least. Besides that, heat and iPads mix poorly. Maybe that’s why normal Swedes take vacations during the hot summer months…? 🤔
This heatwave is really hitting my productivity, but I’ll be ready to share that new thing with you soon. Expect an extra letter (not an actual issue) in the near future, detailing what’s going on. It’s all thanks to you guys, the fantastic subscribers, that makes it possible to put proper time into making Switch to iPad. So again, thank you so much!
And now, time to find some place to cool off. Preferably a lake, sans iPad…
— Thord D. Hedengren ⚡️
In the wild…
