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Issue #91: The iPad packing list for my Easter trip šŸ£

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Hi!

How are you? Me, Iā€™m packing for a trip down south (itā€™s not as dramatic, nor as warm, as it sounds) to attend my little sisterā€™s wedding, and get some much-needed vacation. Itā€™ll be good to see my parents and siblings, itā€™s been a while, as youā€™d imagine.

Oh, and itā€™s Easter, too. Thatā€™ll make it a joy to travel through half the country by train, Iā€™m sure… I do hope to get some reading, writing, and researching done on the train, though, so thatā€™s good. Sometimes, being confined to a certain space, and limited as to what you can do, is great for productivity.

Iā€™m traveling light. That means Iā€™ll bring my 11ā€ iPad Pro, and not that many other things.

Traveling light

I always try to travel light, and for this trip, itā€™s almost as light as it can be. Thatā€™s in part because I donā€™t expect to do any design or development work, so thereā€™s no need for an emergency MacBook, or the Intel variant for the client whose IT department are firmly rooted in… old… things… And should the worst happen, I can do just about anything from my iPad, itā€™s just not particularly pleasant sometimes.

Iā€™ve decided to go with the 11ā€ iPad Pro (M1 version) for this trip. Itā€™s big enough for writing and light editing, but small enough to fit in my Hunterā€™s Satchel from Peg & Awl. This is a great iPad, with plenty of storage, so I feel confident dumping photos from my camera onto this as a backup. Extra storage for photography sessions is one of the perks of the 11ā€ iPad Pro, compared to the new iPad Air, which also sports the M1 chip. That said, when I do professional photo work on the field, I tend to bring backup drives. The LaCie Rugged series in particular is nice, because it does automatic backups of SD cards as you insert them.

But again, Iā€™m traveling light, and I donā€™t expect to need additional storage at all. My camera of choice is the Ricoh GR III, which is a street camera that takes wonderful photos, and suck at video. I love this thing, and I look forward to going through all the photos Iā€™ve taken on the train back home next week. And again, my 11ā€ iPad Pro will have the storage for all this, no matter if I go with RAW, or decide to shoot in JPEG.

So, weā€™ve talked about the 11ā€ iPad Pro, and the camera. Iā€™m going to bring the iPad in its Magic Keyboard, obviously. This makes for a decent writing experience, despite the somewhat cramped size. Itā€™s better for US or UK keyboards, than it is for me, because I have additional keys that are half-sized. These are for Swedish language characters, so it should come as no surprise that I prefer to write in English on this keyboard. The apostrophe is, unfortunately, a half-key as well. That said, itā€™s a fair price to pay for the smaller form factor. I type fast enough on this thing.

Yes, Iā€™ll bring an Apple Pencil. Itā€™s almost boring to talk about these things, these days, because every list of things your iPad just must have, for the sake of humanity, is a Magic Keyboard and an Apple Pencil. Everyone says this, and while the former isnā€™t always true, the latter most likely is, if youā€™re a pencil-person.

The little bits

Iā€™ve got a tiny canvas pen-case that I picked up at Muji a couple of years ago. It fits most of the little bits you need when out and about. This is what itā€™s in it for this trip, and most of the time, to be honest.

Thatā€™s slightly more than I need for this trip. I donā€™t foresee any situation where a micro-USB adapter would be beneficial, but itā€™s so small, and sometimes I bring my Kindle Oasis with a really short micro-USB cable, so thatā€™s why itā€™s in here. The inCharge cable is somewhat redundant most of the time, too. If it supported faster charging, Iā€™d love it, but it doesnā€™t so itā€™s for those times where I need an extra cable for whatever reason, or just want to convert something.

Most of the time when traveling, Iā€™ll wear the AirPods Pro, and the Apple Pencil will sit in the case.


This is a simple setup. I like to keep things simple. It could be simplified even further, surely, but I like to be ready. As long as Iā€™m bringing the canvas pen-case, then I might as well keep adapters in it, is my reasoning. What I really would like, is to get rid of cables. Since Apple still wonā€™t sell me an iPhone with USB-C charging, I need a Lightning cable. The inCharge cable supports USB-C to Lightning, so itā€™s a solution, but it doesnā€™t support fast charging, and sometimes you just want to juice up the iPhone real quick. Iā€™m happy that my camera both syncs and charges over USB-C, that saves me another cable.

Right, itā€™s about time I get serious about the rest of my packing. The gadgets are under control. So, what to wear to a wedding, then?

ā€” Thord D. Hedengren āš”