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I’ve spent the day working in Stage Manager on a Mac. It’s a better experience than on iPadOS, with a lot less weirdness in terms of window sizes, and none of the forced snapping that’s so apparent on smaller iPads, like the 11″ iPad Pro or the fifth generation iPad Air. I was curious to see if the problem with Stage Manager was the feature itself, or rather, the concept, or if it was inherited to iPadOS.
I’m here to tell you that I’m now officially suffering from Stage Manager burnout.
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I like mechanical keyboards, but the sound they make can be a bit annoying for co-workers. I wanted to try Logitech’s – I mean Logi’s – recent offering with my iPad, as it’s smaller and quieter than my Keychron K4, and when the latter’s battery started to act out, I finally got the chance.
Now, the Logi Mechanical Mini for Mac is a wireless mechanical keyboard, and since it’s tailored for Mac, it works just fine with iPadOS too. Having an external keyboard is a must if you use an external display with your iPad, but I like it with the iPad in a stand as well.
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The one new feature that truly stands out with the 2022 M2 iPad Pros, is the hover dot the Apple Pencil gives you to indicate where you’re about to press. This registers earlier than before, meaning that you can hold the pencil a full 12 mm above the screen, and see where you’re heading.
This is helpful, I’m pleased to say.
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I picked up a new M2 iPad Pro, the 2 TB 11″ model with cellular, as you might’ve read elsewhere. It was an upgrade from the (now) previous generation, with M1, which I have in both 11″ and 12.9″ configurations. I tend to pick up both models, blaming “my job” for the splurges, but this year I did not. I’ve yet to put the new M2 iPad Pro to the test, but I’ve got this feeling that this upgrade was pretty unnecessary. That’s why I didn’t get the 12.9″ model too, I’ll keep the M1 version for Big Design Things™️, and sell my M1 11″ iPad Pro down the road.
I’ll get back to the upgrade-worthiness of M1 to M2 at a later date. For now, I’m just enjoying starting from scratch. I don’t always do this, it depends on what I’ve got going on, but this time, I felt so conflicted about what’s what in my iPad setup, I decided to take the time and not restore or transfer data.
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I’m one of those guys who, generally, stick to Apple chargers and cables. It’s rare for me to go with a third party, although there are some exceptions, and some I trust. Chargers, in particular, is something that I wouldn’t want to skimp out on, for safety reasons. Mophie is one of the trust-worthy third-party accessory makers. They make sturdy cables and good power-banks, among other things. So, when they announced their new Speedport line of GaN chargers, I wanted to take a closer look.
I’m partial to Apple’s 35W Dual USB-C Port Power Adapter. The dual USB-C support saves room in my small travel pouch, and, since I use USB-C to Lightning for the iPhone when I’m out and about, and have a USB-C capable Apple Watch charger, the plug powers all my stuff, albeit not at the same time. The Dual USB-C Port Power Adapter is small and nice, I have nothing bad to say about it, packing a total of 35W.
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While, unreliable at best, I must admit that I missed the external monitor support for Stage Manager when Apple pulled it from iPadOS 16.1. It was the right call, no doubt, but screen mirroring on an external monitor after having used Stage Manager just won’t cut it.
Well, the iPadOS 16.2 beta brings back external monitor support for Stage Manager, which looks pretty swanky on my Studio Display.
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I’m a big fan of the iPad mini 6, it’s been one of my most anticipated iPads, ever. For consuming long-form texts, be it in-depth articles or ebooks, the iPad mini is ideal. There’s no other iPad that makes reading such a joy. I love it.
And yet, it sits there, unused, and has been for the past couple of weeks. You see, I swapped out my iPhone 13 mini, for the latest iPhone 14 Pro Max. I prefer smaller phones, but all iPhones are what I’d call too big, and if that’s going to be the case, I might as well get a model with a good camera and a better/larger screen. The mini-iPhone is the only iPhone that’s pocketable, but it’s not exactly pleasant to carry like that, it’s still too big for my taste. My reasoning is this: If I’m going to carry a small bag anyway, I might as well get the best iPhone there is.
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It’s been a weird iPadOS beta period, bumpy enough for Apple to skip iPadOS 16.0 altogether, and jump straight to 16.1. Well, the wait is over, iPadOS 16.1 is rolling out, and the beta watch is officially ended.
I won’t do a mammoth review of iPadOS 16.1, I’m sure there’ll be plenty of videos and posts on that particular topic. However, let’s take a closer look at some highlights in iPadOS 16.1.
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The new, tenth generation, iPad comes in the iPad Pro/Air form-factor, as previously mentioned. That means charging using USB-C and eschewing, which is a good thing for such a device. All in all, the new iPad looks like a promising device. The one thing that stands out, that sort of sullies it, is that it uses the first generation Apple Pencil, which charges using Lightning. That used to mean that it’d stick out awkwardly on the side for a bit, from the iPad’s Lightning port, when you needed to charge it. Now, that port is USB-C, and charging the Apple Pencil got a lot more complicated.
Luckily, there are solutions.
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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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