Category: News

Let’s talk iPad screen sizes again:

How’s your eyesight? Mine’s good, although I have invested in blue light-blocking glasses for work, with slight magnification. I find it relaxes the eyes a bit, or maybe it’s the placebo effect. It matters little.

I’m typing this on my 11” iPad Pro, sat in its Magic Keyboard. The keyboard’s a bit cramped, as mentioned previously, but it gets the job done. The screen size is large enough for most tasks, the middle ground of iPads, you might say.

However, the release of the M1 iPad Air (10.9”), the iPad mini 6 (8.3”), which I love, and the fact that I’m using Universal Control rather than Sidecar with my Macs, has made me think about iPad screen sizes again. This, obviously, means that I have to share said thoughts with you, so here we are.

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I haven’t talked about Universal Control at all, up until now. There’s a reason for that: I wanted to actually put it to the test first. So, here’s this week’s Switch to iPad newsletter, about Universal Control.

Universal Control was introduced in iPadOS 15.4, and requires a Mac running macOS Monterey 12.3 or later. It’s a feature that lets you control your iPad with the keyboard and pointing device connected to your Mac, but also lets you do some things seamlessly between the two. So, while connected, you can move your pointer from your Mac screen, to your iPad’s screen, and back again. And yes, that means that you can drag a file between the two, which feels like magic the first time you do it.

But is this useful, or just a gimmick. I’ve been using Universal Control for weeks, since iPadOS 15.4 was released, and I’m here to tell you: It depends.

📧 Switch to iPad #92 has been sent to paying subscribers. Care to join them? It’s $5/month or $50/year. There’s a free trial, too.

Easter is upon us, well, almost, and I’m going on a trip. That’s what this week’s issue of Switch to iPad is all about.

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

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

I’m traveling light. That means I’ll bring my 11” iPad Pro, and not that many other things.

📧 Switch to iPad #91 is free for all to read. Have at it!

Here I am again, talking about default apps and features. This time, it’s Safari’s Reading List feature, and comparing it to the likes of Pocket and Instapaper.

How are you? And more importantly, how and where are you reading these letters? I like to put longer pieces in a read it later service, something I’ve talked about before. I also like to use the default apps as much as possible, since they tend to integrate well with iPadOS.

So, where does that put Safari’s read it later alternative, called Reading List?

I ditched Pocket and its ilk for a couple of weeks, in favor of Reading List, and I have thoughts. Read on, or save for later, to find out if Safari’s Reading List is good enough.

📧 Switch to iPad #90 is a paid issue. It’s $5/month or $50/year, which includes the full archives, if you’re interested. Thank you!

Remember when I said I was going back to default app, but not Calendar? Well, that changed.

How are you? Is your calendar as jam-packed as mine? I certainly hope not, it’s been nuts, and while I hope this week is the last crazy one, I’m starting to doubt it. These days, I put more and more things in my calendar, blocking time. That, in conjuncture with a to-do list app, keeps me organized.

You might remember that I’ve been going back to the default app to a certain extent. I’ve written about Reminders in Switch to iPad #85, the default to-do app, and extending it with Remind Me Faster (review here). I’m a dedicated Notes user, too. But Calendar, I just didn’t see it replacing Fantastical.

Now, Fantastical is a great app, but it comes with a yearly subscription if you want all the features. I don’t mind that, I’ve relied on it for a long time. However, a series of sync issues made me wonder if Fantastical was the culprit, and, in a weak moment, I deleted the app, and reverted to the default Calendar app.

Let’s just say that I’ve got thoughts.

📧 Switch to iPad #89 is a paid issue, so you need a valid subscription. It’s $5/month or $50/year. I’m matching all subscriptions with a donation for Ukraine, until March is over, so do consider subscribing if you haven’t already.