Monthly Archives: August 2017

Trying out an iPad Pro 12.9″ for sketching and drawing….but it is awesome!

I recently got my hands on a iPad Pro 12.9″ which I wanted to use for drawing sketches when I am working on some issues or just designs since I always seem to have the need to visualize stuff when I am working (and attaching them into OneNote). My desk often looks like there has been a mass-murder of post-its or notebooks. And those end up in the trash and I end up having to hammer down a drawing in Gliffy (or I don’t…..which isn’t exacly a good thing since I often would like to remember what I was sketching later on).

So – I got an iPad Pro 12.9″, Apple Smart Keyboard and a Apple Pencil.

Now I guess I have to admit I might have laughted histerically of those crazy people buying into the iPad Pro + Apple Pencil hype. More the once. Probably more then three times even….I have owned a iPad in the past (think it was the iPad 3) but I mostly used it for watching TV episodes before going to sleep. And Skype couple of times.

So I spent last night setting everything up. Sat down in my La-Z-Boy and got down to business – getting the iPad enrolled in our MDM, installing the apps I normally use on my laptop (SSH client, RDP client, Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, VPN client etc). Played around with the pencil.

My SO was sitting in her chair with her Surface Pro 4, doing her nightly surfing. She has been using the SP4 for two years if I remember correctly. She loves that thing. Probably more than me. But less than her cats.

After playing with the iPad for like an hour I start to realize how cool device this actually is. And how useful it is (I had my doubts it would actually be this useful). Start mumbling something about how awesome it is to be able to sketch with the pencil (which is better then any pencil I have tried before). Keep using the iPad. Keep mumbling about how awesome it is. She suddenly looks at me and says: “I told you multiple times – having a tablet with a pencil is extremly useful”. While I have thought about getting a Surface I never acted on that – they are pretty expensive here in the land of ice and snow.

I guess I have to eat my words. The iPad Pro is actually one of the most useful devices I have used for work-related computing. And I can even use it to do more then I actually thought I could do on a iPad. Which is a lot of researching, hammering at those pesky SSH terminals and replying to emails. I might even stop taking my laptop to meetings. And let me tell you – Before last night I would never have told you I would replace my laptop for any task.

Don’t get me wrong – This device will not replace my laptop. But I will probably use it less then before.

Hopefully I can pair a bluetooth mouse with it and use it with my RDP client. Haven’t tried it yet. If that works then I don’t think I will take my laptop with me when I am going on short trips over weekends etc.

I just have to say it. Apple might have created a market of devices that we don’t really need – but the iPad Pro is one brilliant device. While iOS is a little bit limited as a desktop OS it has couple of things going for it LInux and Windows can’t keep up with. The battery life is awesome (at least on this thing and so was the battery life on my old iPhone 6s Plus). I am still on the first charge on this bad boy. And I probably have OST of 8 hours already.

My Lenovo T460s laptop chews through the battery in just 3-4 hours. And that thing is just a year old. But I can probably blame Chrome + Extensions for that 🙂

Bgrds,
Finnur