Category: News

Every now and then, I get the urge to switch back to the default iPad apps. This is one of those times.

I’ve been conducting an experiment for a couple of weeks. It involves using default offerings, as in apps that come pre-installed, rather than the often recommended alternatives. This isn’t the first time I’ve talked about giving default apps a go, and I’m sure it won’t be the last.

What’s interesting, however, is how some of these default apps are seeming to stick. I did not expect that.

Let’s dive in, shall we?

📧 Switch to iPad #85 requires a paid subscription. It’s $5/month or $50/year, with a free trial available.

Ah, photography… I’ve got a complicated relationship with it, from working professionally, to it being an expensive hobby. And then there’s mobile photography mucking things up, too.

This is how the 84th issue of Switch to iPad starts:

I’ve been bringing my camera, a Ricoh GRIII, with me these past couple of weeks. You didn’t expect me to take photos with my iPads, right? I rarely shoot with my iPhone either, especially not now that I’ve downgraded from the iPhone 13 Pro, to the iPhone 13 mini. The cameras on all (modern) iPhone models are great, but it’s not the same as taking photos with a dedicated device. Currently, my favorite is the Ricoh GRIII, but there are plenty of other great options out there.

Anyway, I’ve been bringing the dedicated camera with me regularly recently, as I said, and I love it. What I don’t love is interacting with the camera when it comes to actually getting the photos onto a computing device. That’s where the iPhone camera truly shines because everything just syncs. With my Ricoh GRIII, or any other camera I’ve got access to, not so much.

Boy, is that annoying. Let’s talk a bit about where I’m at, with these things.

📧 Switch to iPad #84 is for paying subscribers only. If you’re curious, do consider getting a paid subscription. It’s $5/month, or $50/year, and you’d be supporting my writing while doing it. Thank you!

This week’s issue of the Switch to iPad newsletter is a day late. Sorry about that. It starts like this:

I hope this letter finds you well. Me, I was so very positive last Sunday, full of energy. Unfortunately, I’ve been feeling unwell all week, which is also why this letter reaches you a day later than usual – sorry about that.

I have had time to think, though, and my thoughts have been on the iPads in my house. Namely, all three of the current generation that I use – I’m not counting iPads for development, testing, or betas. I’ve been selling off a few older devices, and a couple of newer ones (yes, there is such a thing as too many iPads), and I got the question, why so many?

Well, for work, and Switch to iPad, and because I can’t help myself, obviously!

But, it did get me thinking about how I use my iPads, how they fit in my workflow.

📧 Switch to iPad #83 is free for all to read! Go read it, post-haste.

There’s a rumor going around that Apple will release a new iPad Air in March (alongside a new iPhone SE, if you were waiting for that). It makes sense, the iPad Air is due for a spec bump. Currently, it sports the A14 Bionic chip, which is fast, but not as fast as the A15 Bionic that’s in the iPad mini 6 released last year. It also has worse cameras, and you can’t get it with 5G if that’s your jam. In other words, due for a spec bump, not a refresh, so expect the new iPad Air, which’ll be the 5th generation, to move up on par with the iPad mini.

That’s how Switch to iPad #82 starts. The issue isn’t so much about the rumor, or iPad Air, though. Instead, I’m discussing when it’s time to upgrade your iPad to something newer, more shiny.

📧 Switch to iPad #82 is out now, and requires a paid subscription.

Mind mapping is something a lot of people swear by. I used to, too, but lately, things have gotten a bit more chaotic.

Today, I started thinking about mind maps. I used to do a lot of mind maps and flow charts, but not so much anymore. My thinking has moved from the structured setup of a typical mind map, to the more chaotic process of a free-form pen. Or, Pencil, as it were.

But, why is that? That felt like an interesting line of questioning to dive into, so I installed SimpleMind, the app I used to use. Now to find out if mind mapping is something I’ve missed, or if I’ve replaced it with my scribbling.

📧 Switch to iPad #81 is all about mind maps, the two ways to do it, and if you – and I – should. This issue requires a paid subscription, which costs $5/month or $50/year, at the time of writing.

I always bring an iPad with Apple Pencil to meetings, and that’s what the 80th issue of Switch to iPad is all about.

When I’m not writing books, newsletters, and blog posts about iPads and other things, I spend my time working with clients at Divide & Conquer, my digital agency. As anyone who’s ever done client work knows, it involves meetings. The pandemic years have made those meetings mostly video, but the physical meetings are back now, so I figured I’d talk a bit about the benefits of using an iPad in meetings, rather than a laptop.

Now, me, I take countless notes. I take notes to remember things later, but it’s also how I process things. Most people take notes in meetings, so that’s not anything new, but how you do it matters.

Imagine a scenario where you’re four people around a table, each one with their laptop open, eyes glued to the screen, keys smattering, as the meeting starts. The keys continue to smatter, and you can’t really tell if it’s note-taking, or if people are just checking their email. It’s a wall of laptops, with unknown things happening behind them.

📧 Switch to iPad #80 is for paying subscribers, so you might want to consider becoming one. There’s a free trial and everything.

The 79th issue of the Switch to iPad newsletter outlines our eleven favorite apps of 2021.

It’s 2022, and you just know you’ll mistype that as 2021 for a couple of months. This issue is still in 2021, though because I wanted to share my favorite apps of last year. That’s not to say that all of these apps were actually launched last year, rather the ones I’ve used, and enjoyed, the most. There are no games on this list, and I’ve also decided to cut out streaming services like Netflix and Apple Music, for example, as well as default apps. I’ve also limited this list to eleven apps because why not?

📧 Switch to iPad issue 79 is a paid issue. Do consider signing up for the complete list, with our reasoning for each app. (And if you don’t, we’ll be tweeting the list on the @switchtoipad account later this week.)