The Beginning and End of the iPad

I understand that it's not for everyone, but for me the value of an iPad is easy to understand.

I draw on it. Sketching and painting. I design 2D layouts on it. I sculpt on it. Lately I've been doing some 3D polygonal modeling on it.

Now are there desktop/laptop apps that can outperform an iPad? Yes. (Though, for drawing an iPad is hard to beat. I prefer it to my $3500 Cintiq in a lot of ways.) But the iPad is lightweight, both in actual weight and in the cost of starting to do something on it.

If I want to do something on a desk top, I first have to go to the desk top, boot it up, load the application(s), and deal with all the distractions and gravitas that a desktop comes with.

With the iPad I pick it up, swipe to the drawing app, or the sculpting app, and start messing around with something. Very low barrier to entry, and I can put it down just as quickly. It's very much like picking up a sketchbook as opposed to setting down at an easel, uncovering the pallette, pouring out some oils, etc.

And I can do it on the couch, in the car (not while driving of course), in a cafe, at the park, on a mountain top, waiting for someone in the lobby. You get the idea.

Lately I've been doing some hand drawn animation on Procreate Dreams. Very nice.

Not everyone does the kind of work I do, and has the same work habits and needs. YMMV.

I also write on the damn thing with the pencil. Not perfect, but its getting there. I can truthfully say that I've written some things that wouldn't have happened if not for having an iPad handy.

It's also great for reading comics and manga. I can't say that I like it for movies or TV. And I'm not interested in it for listening to music. But it's definitely an important tool for me.

The current phase of the economic crisis is the proliferation of high-priced products that most people can't afford. There was a time we could blame the pandemic for economic problems but lingering problems point to another root.

Cars are one major sector this has happened to. Carmakers have gone on strike when it comes to making affordable cars, electric or gas-powered.

The Apple Vision Pro was framed differently (maybe it's just not useful) but it can be seen through the lens of "this is too expensive for what it does" when (1) it doesn't support the immersive world applications that have proven appeal and that it is hardware capable of and (2) consumers think that a headset that is 1/7 the cost of the AVP (the Meta Quest 3) is too expensive and are buying the cheaper MQ2 (with less AR capability) in large numbers instead.

Now with the iPad Pro we've got something that's more expensive than a laptop but does less. If Apple wasn't fighting with a hand behind their back by making a product that can't do everything a laptop software-wise that would be one thing, but in 2024 people are tightening their belts and aren't going to pay for a product where software steals most of the potential.

My iPad and Apple Pencil are the best organizational tools I’ve ever used. They feel like the logical conclusion of Palm Pilot style PDAs. I manage my meeting notes, calendar, and to do list with it. Thanks to iCloud everything syncs to my phone and my Macs, so I can access everything pretty much anywhere.

Side car gives me a portable second monitor for my MacBook.

I suck at art, but Procreate and the Affinity suite are amazing. Even I can get decent results with them.

It’s also a great format for surfing the web and watching videos on the couch. It feels so much more cozy than my laptop.