Tag: Switch to iPad

It’s that time of yeah, and that means figuring out what to give the iPad lovers. That’s what Switch to iPad #76 is all about.

Have you picked out your Christmas, or whatever it is you celebrate, yet? I’ve mostly done so, surprising myself. If you’re in a bind, here are some gift ideas for the iPad lover.

And no, this list won’t contain iPads, Apple Pencils, Magic Keyboards, or any other official accessory. I think that’s been done.

📧 Switch to iPad #76 is free for all to read. My gift to you, if you will.

This week’s issue of the Switch to iPad newsletter is close to my heart, and the result of months of writing. You see, I recently wrote, edited, and sent a book to a publisher, using nothing but my iPad, as you’d expect from yours truly.

You might not know this, but when I’m not going on and on about the benefits of the iPad as your primary computing platform, or working at my digital agency, I write books. Those books used to be of a technical nature, about things like WordPress and other digital stuff, but I actually write fiction too. If you’re interested, you can find short stories by me in two anthologies, Cthulhu Lies Dreaming and Haunted Futures, as well as on some other places. 

I write novels too. If you’ve been following me on Twitter this Autumn, you probably noticed me doing some sporadic updates with the #amwriting (and later, #amediting) hashtags, as well as some dedicated hotel writing sessions. I’ve been working on a manuscript, in Swedish, so I won’t be sharing any excerpts, for a publisher’s call. It’s done, it’s edited, and it’s been sent in. Yay me, and all that jazz.

Naturally, this whole thing was done on an iPad, and I’d like to tell you about it.

🆓 Switch to iPad #75 is free for all to read, so no subscription needed. I’d very much appreciate it if you considered one anyway, obviously. Thank you!

This week’s issue of the Switch to iPad newsletter discusses what iPad sizes work best for note-taking. Note-taking is a topic dear to me, as you probably know by now.

My name is Thord, and I’m taking a ton of notes, as you’ve probably noticed by now. For this, I use my iPads, which are, as you probably also know by now, numerous. The past couple of months, I’ve been attending a course, studying Complicated Things™️, which means I’ve been taking even more notes than usual.

So, which iPad is best for note-taking? That’s not as easy to answer as you’d expect, so that’s what we’ll be talking about in this issue.

📧 Switch to iPad #74 is a paid issue, so you’ll need to be a subscriber to read this one. Do consider signing up, it’s what keeps this site going, after all. Thank you!

Have you ever wanted to setup an iPad for kids, but are unsure how to do it? That’s what Switch to iPad #73 is all about.

It’s not just me that loves iPads in my family, it’s the little bonus kid too. He’s great with it, as most kids are with touch-screen controlled devices. To him, navigating an iPad app, and figuring out a game from the App Store, is a lot easier than, say, using a controller for a video game console. It’s a different world than what I had when I grew up, that’s for sure.

The kid’s got an iPad, obviously. He’s been using an iPad mini 4, but with the launch of the new iPads, I figured an upgrade was overdue. It was also time to give him a little more control over what he could do on his own with his iPad, so I set it up from scratch.

📧 Switch to iPad #73 is out now. You’ll need a subscription to read this one, which is $5/month or $50/year. I hope you’ll consider it.

This week’s issue of the Switch to iPad newsletter discusses the subscription model. It starts like this:

Are you sitting there, muttering over yet another app that goes from a premium business model, to a freemium one? Quite a few clearly did the other week, when Notability changed their business model, essentially forcing all its serious users to sign up for a subscription. They reversed this decision, grandfathering their current users into a reasonable free tier unavailable for new users, but the harm was, for some, clearly done.

So, let’s talk a bit about subscriptions as a business model, shall we?

📧 Read Switch to iPad #72 here.

The most recent issue of the Switch to iPad newsletter talks about why one should switch, and why that’s something I’m revisiting regularly.

I’m sitting propped up in bed, with chills and a sore throat, as I’m typing this. It’s one of the joys of the iPad, the 12.9” Pro model sitting in the Magic Keyboard at the moment, that portability, it’s one of the things I like the most. However, I could just as well be typing this on the MacBook Air that sits on the sideboard on the other side of the room. It’d work just as well because right now, in the Magic Keyboard, my iPad is a laptop. Literally, a laptop, even, since it’s in my lap.

That got me thinking about why I prefer the iPad, and if that’s still true. I’m in the habit of questioning many things in my life regularly, I think that’s important because it’s all too easy to just accept what you’ve got. Sometimes that’s fine, but if you could change things for the better, wouldn’t you? That includes making hard decisions when need be, and to be okay with things as they are if they’re not worth the hassle.

When it comes to the iPad, and viewing as well as using it as a primary computing device, it’s a fairly simple assessment. I can boil it down to the most common question I get, regarding my choice, which is: Why don’t you just use a Mac instead?

Switch to iPad #71 is out now. It requires an active subscription, so do consider that if you want to support my writing.

The 69th issue of Switch to iPad is all about extensions for Safari. These arrived with iPadOS 15, and there’s a pretty healthy offering available now. This issue goes into how you find extensions, activate them, as well as points you to some extensions that I like.

Switch to iPad #69 is for paying subscribers only. Do consider signing up for a subscription, it’s just $5/month or $50/year, and it helps a lot.

👉🏻 Read the issue here.

It’s Game Day in Switch to iPad #68, with three games to kill the time. This from the first game, Clap Hanz Golf:

I’ve spent a lot of time with Clap Hanz Golf the last few weeks. I played it a bit when it launched on Apple Arcade (yep, you’ll need a subscription to play this one), but then fell out of it. It’s gotten several updates since then, and whatever the reason was to stop playing this game, it’s seemingly gone.

If you recognize the style of Clap Hanz Golf, you might’ve played another golf series called Everybody’s Golf or Hot Shots Golf, depending on your region. Clap Hanz is the developer of said series, which was (is?) published by Sony for various PlayStation platforms. They’re great games, especially the two that was released for PlayStation Portable.

🆓 Read Switch to iPad #68 here, for free.

Apple keeps updating the default Notes app, and it’s really getting there. I’ve gushed about the new Quick Note feature already, but that’s not all you can do with Notes.

Switch to iPad #66 is another How do I… installment, all about Notes. This time, it’s paying subscribers only, so if you’re not one of those, do consider signing up. There’s a free trial and everything.

✍🏻 Read Switch to iPad #66 here.