824: Life After iPadOS 26

Hello and welcome to Mac Power Users. My name is Stephen Hackett. I'm joined as always by my friend and yours, Mr. David Sparks. Hello, Stephen. How are you today, buddy? I am good. How are you? I can't believe we're near the end of the year. I know. The show is going to release at the end of November. And wow. Yeah. Anyway. I don't know why this always sneaks up on me, but it does. It does. No, it totally does. You know, this episode will be out. It'll be Thanksgiving.

It's a little behind the scenes. Before we record each week, we spend some time looking at our Notion database, upcoming episodes. I think people know we work on multiple episodes at once. And I was like, oh. The end of the year is super close. It's not that many more, not that many more episodes, but, but yeah, it happens every year. It turns out, you know, I'm really looking forward. Cause I.

I have my tech stack audit every year at the end of the year. I give myself permission to change apps between Christmas and New Year's. Yeah. This year, I spent a lot of time in the Apple productivity suite for obvious reasons. And I'm really looking forward to shuffling the deck for next year. And I'm starting to think about that. So it's good. It's good being at the end of the year. Yeah.

Some preliminary announcements. Because it's the end of the year, maybe you'll want to share the gift of Relay. If you go to giverelay.com, you can get a discounted membership for the old Mac Power users, for yourself or a friend. You should go check it out. 20% off. Yeah. Yeah. 20% off any, any annual plan. And what we do here for more power users is what we call our membership version. Yeah. Very proud of that name. We got to say when we came up with that, it's like.

That's it. Just clever enough. So in More Power Users, it's ad-free, so you don't hear any ads. And it's longer, so we do an extra section at the end of the show. Sometimes it's things that we're working on. Sometimes it's like an extension of the topic. So for instance, we had our developer round table a few weeks ago and on more power users, there was a whole section about developing.

for the Vision Pro and what that looked like, both from a technology perspective, but also the business perspective. I think a really good conversation. So members can get that sort of stuff every single week. And when it's 20% off... That means it's 56 bucks for the year. Gang, that's basically a dollar an episode to not hear ads and get more content from your favorite podcast, Mac Power users. That's a pretty good deal. So I would definitely encourage you to go check it out.

GiveRelay.com is the first link in the show notes this week. And it really does help us keep the lights on around here. It does. We really appreciate the support.

Speaking of which they have more power users, we're going to go in deep on our video experiment. For those of you that are... uh subscribe to the mac power users youtube feed yes there is one the that we just put the audio feed up for ages we are now putting up a video version of the podcast now i understand for a lot of people that's not your thing you just want to listen to us in your ears and we are an audio first podcast that always will be

But if you want to watch this on YouTube, now you can. And we're going to talk about how that came about and what we're doing to make it happen. Yeah. Yeah, it's going to be great. All right. The iPad grew up. Topic one.

uh yeah huge year for the iPad with iPadOS 26 you know I've spent some time reflecting on the sort of the journey the iPad has been on. You know, we just passed 10 years from the iPad Pro introduction, which is hard to believe. And I actually went back and rewatched that section of that keynote. And it's just amazing 10 years on what has changed and what hasn't changed. That was really a turning point for the iPad, right? You got the first big screened iPad.

First time they had a keyboard and an Apple Pencil. We're going to talk more about those a little bit later on. But they promised a new era of iPad software. And I would argue that first iPad Pro didn't really move the needle that much in terms of... applications and what the iPad could do. But then the last several years, Apple has really been at work on this, right? So they added stage manager several years ago. They've now with iPadOS 26.

added a ton of stuff that we're going to get into. It really feels like the iPad is evolving more quickly than it did, you know, the first 10 years of its life. And that's exciting. I mean, it really felt to me like the iPad was the biggest Apple whiff or missed opportunity for a long time.

You would see it in the reviews. Every year they'd get a new iPad Pro and it would have the latest M-series chip in it and have a great screen and everything. They added a cursor support and mouse support a few years ago. The reviews would always be, iPad's great, and the software isn't up to it. It doesn't live up to the dream. And I really feel like in the early days, there were a lot of us that wanted.

the ipad to become that like remote computer we wanted it to become the thing that we were all trying to get it to do more and i wrote a book called ipad at work believe it or not like a long time ago yeah and it's just like we we wanted it to do that stuff and then it just like the uh getting beat i read a story once about the shark and like the tuna have you ever heard this this they did some experiment where they put a shark like in a tank with a tuna and uh and the shark kept you know

sharks eat the tunas right that's what the sharks do but they put a glass retaining wall between them in the tank so the shark kept bumping his nose into the glass trying to go for the the tuna and then Eventually, the shark just stopped trying to eat the tuna. I don't even know if this is true or not, but it's a great story either way. Eventually, they pull the glass out, and then the shark doesn't eat the tuna anymore.

because it's just decided the tune is not worth eating and like i part of me feels like that's us on the ipad we we tried so hard so many of us just said forget it you know i'll just get a mac and of course at the same time macbook air got amazing with the m-series chips and all the great stuff we got with the apple silicon revolution so most people just moved on and just said okay i'll just get a little laptop and that'll be my ipad you know kind of thing

And now they pulled the glass shelf out. Are we going to eat the tuna, guys? I don't know. But the fact is, there's a lot of great features on the iPad now that make it something you can use. And we've done shows. following the release software releases we're not going to do that show again today but just to summarize we get the windowed mode now where you can put windows anywhere you want a stage manager has got a massive upgrade

Even just the point releases of this iPad OS 26 are getting better with each one. They added slide over back with point one. With point two, they're making even further changes to multitasking mode to make it more friendly. It's got a menu bar now, expose, you know, the cursor looks like a mouse cursor now. They really have suddenly given us the stuff that we wanted all these years. And then.

The purpose of this show is to answer the question, well, what does that mean now? Because I think the standard Mac power users line on the iPad for the last five or so years was use it as an iPad. Don't try and do more. It's too much work. Just use a great MacBook Air as your portable thing if you need it. Yeah, you rather famously in the six colors annual report card that Jason does.

You had this great point about the iPad several years ago, and basically it was like, I'm going to use the iPad for what it's good at, and I'm tired. I'm not going to fight it anymore. I've just come to terms with it, was basically your point. That was really, really interesting to me because I think there has been that tension because the iPad has been, it's such a compelling device, right? You can take it anywhere. It's modular.

It's lightweight. You can draw on it. It has all these great features. But then for years, we were like the shark getting the glass when it came to the software, like you said. I do think, having spent a lot more time with iPadOS the last several weeks preparing for this, it is capable in ways that I had missed because I basically... use it as you know video social media kind of machine right i'm not doing a lot of consumption and it gets the usual yeah yeah so what do we do

in preparing for today this this outline we do work on our outlines for a while this one's been in the works for basically since they announced ipad os 26 but one of the things i did about a month ago because i have a mac studio And I have a MacBook Air. And about a month ago, I shut down the MacBook Air. I mothballed it. And it's in a drawer right now. I haven't touched it in a month.

Except for one thing I can tell you about. One limitation I hit with the iPad. But it's just not been turned on and used. And I just set up my iPad.

and so i did not replace my mac my main mac my mac studios what i do my work on i have not like gone the whole ipad lifestyle for this show but i did replace my laptop and and the thought i had was Well, if I just used it every day as my laptop, where would I hit the friction points? What can we do with it? And what's the new normal for the iPad in your life now that it's more powerful?

Yeah, mine was very similar. I mean, I use a laptop as a desktop replacement, but I left it on my desk, plugged into my studio display and everything. I have a MacBook Air that I use as sort of a portable laptop, if you will. Kind of a more personal computer than a work computer. But do the same thing. That machine has been on the shelf. Been using my 11-inch iPad Pro for those things, including going to some meetings where I'm taking notes or sharing things.

And a lot of things like, you know, photo management and things that I would prefer to do on a Mac, right? And it was really interesting to, like, make that decision. Because it's a decision that I walked away from a long time ago. I mean, I wrote this thing. If I can find it, I will put it in the show notes. I'm not going to promise it'll be there because their website has undergone a lot of changes. But I wrote this thing for Macworld.

like 15 years ago about struggling to use PDFs on the iPad a long time ago. And it's kind of been that. it's kind of been that sort of feeling for a long time for me like yes it's great but when it comes to get some work done i'm gonna i'm gonna pull out a mac and purposefully changing that decision in preparation for this was Difficult at times, but fascinating. Yeah. And just a note on hardware, I am also using an 11-inch iPad Pro with a keyboard and an Apple Pencil. That's last year's M4.

ipad pro it's got a um and i've got an ipad mini which i also used quite a bit but i always always use that for kind of like reading it's like my kindle um but the main thing was the ipad pro and going into the experiment my thought was look I know that I'm going to hit points where I'm like, oh, I could do this so much faster on my Mac, but I'm not going to be that guy. Instead, I'm just going to figure out the workflow on the iPad. And one of the truths you have to accept is...

I've been using the Mac forever since the Mac arrived. So of course, my workflows are locked in and I can do everything efficiently on it. I have not really given the iPad even an attempt at some of this stuff in over five years. So I know going in, some of the stuff will be slower. And I did notice over the month, some of these workflows that at first felt like sandpaper became a lot smoother as I...

kind of did them more often so you have to kind of give yourself that i think so too and i think that exact thing speaks into like where apple has been with the ipad there was a time where it was going to be the future of computing that's how they talked about it It seemed like they took their eye off the ball when it came to the Mac. But now it feels like both platforms are moving forward. Both platforms have excellent hardware.

With iPadOS 26, it's come a long way in terms of what you can do with the operating system. And now it really feels like Apple views them as just two different options for different types of people and different types of work, right? I think there was a time, there was a season where Apple was pushing people toward the iPad. I think maybe that's where some of the tension that people like us felt of like, well, no, like.

I'm going to use the Mac for these things. And now it feels like they're on more or less equal footing internally at Apple. Like these are different platforms. They do different things. They have overlap. They have shared. They have shared features, shared user interface elements, but they are different and that's okay. And I think that's a healthy place for, for these products to be in.

Yeah, and I really think that because of the change, it's just more possible. I mean, there's just a lot you can do with it that we couldn't do before. And one of the things I've been doing throughout this test is I've been running the betas because the iPadOS betas have made, like I said, significant improvements with the point releases more so than Apple normally does.

I feel like whoever is in charge of this software stack at Apple is actively engaged in trying to figure it out with the feedback they're getting from customers. There's a version of history where they... took it this direction 10 years ago with the release of the ipad pro and i you know there's part of me that wonders where would we be now if the ipad you know had had the operating system

with 10 years of development with this philosophy, you know, how good would it be now? And I try not to like get hung up on ifs, you know, but it's hard not to because like, yeah, this is kind of what we wanted. Now you're doing it. That's great. But better late than never. And I think they're really giving us a basis of a new take on the iPad. So if you've got one sitting in a drawer because you gave up on it.

One of the things we want you to do after this show is pull it out, dust it off, and figure out some uses. We've got a bunch of different uses Steve and I have been testing it on. This episode of the Mac Power Users is brought to you by 1Password. Go to 1Password.com slash MPU today to get a discount on your personal family or business plan. Look, so much of your world is digital. Your security should be too.

1Password takes a complex problem, internet security, and makes it easy for you and your family. With 1Password, you always know your password, even when you don't. That's because you only need to remember your 1Password. It's in the name. So with 1Password, you can lock down your life's most valuable essentials. 1Password makes it easy to create, manage, and use an unlimited number of strong passwords. Every time you go to a new login, you can easily create a unique strong password.

1Password generates and memorizes them for you so you don't have to. You can securely share logins, credit cards, Wi-Fi codes, and other sensitive data with appropriate permissions. And perhaps my favorite feature of 1Password is Watchtower. It scans your saved items and flags known data breaches. We can reuse passwords and websites you use that support passkeys.

It keeps track of the websites you use, and if there's a breach there, 1Password lets you know you need to change your password. It even monitors dark web expositions of known passwords and compares it to your password database. to let you know if any of your passwords are on a published list. Looking, the bad guys are very sophisticated in ways to break through your internet security. You need a sophisticated solution. That's one password.

It's made by people who are absolutely obsessed with protecting your privacy. It's both powerful and simple. Go check it out today at 1password.com slash MPU. If you go to that link, not only do you get a discount, You also let them know you heard about it here on the Mac Power Users. Thanks, 1Password, for all of your support of the Mac Power Users. So let's get into some of the key technologies.

to make the iPad with iPadOS 26 really work harder for us, for people out there. One of the first things, you know, when we sat down and talked about this. I was pretty set on is like, it really feels like with the new windowing system and the cursor support that has been there for a few years, but has gotten better. The iPad for a lot of people is really much better.

with a keyboard and a trackpad. Do you agree? Yeah. I mean, there is an asterisk there. I feel like if you're going to try and take it to the levels we're talking about in today's show, you need to have a keyboard. But, like, if you're just, you know, there's some content consumption. There is kind of classic iPad where you're holding it in, you know, portrait mode, and you're just sitting there. What's the vertical mode? Is it portrait? Portrait, yeah.

portrait mode and you're like you're looking at your calendar or watching youtube there's still excuses to yank it out and i did find throughout this period that it's very dynamic for me i keep it in the keyboard case but often i use it without but

But to do a lot of the features and stuff we'd like to talk about, like upping your game with the iPad, you need a keyboard. And honestly, the iPad... pro keyboard costs as much as the entry-level ipad or it's in the ballpark but it's really good and it's got a trackpad on it and yeah i hate to tell you guys to spend money but this

If you're going to really get serious about it, you probably need one of those keyboards. I think so too. And I mean, it's the keyboard for Texans, you're right, but it's also keyboard shortcuts, which there are a lot of on the iPad now.

But it's also the precision pointing with a trackpad. A lot of the new elements, like the window controls, the stoplights came over. And like on modern versions of macOS, if you hover over the green one, you get... controls of like i want it on this side of the screen or that side of the screen you can do that with your finger but a lot of it is is easier and i think a bit more natural

with the trackpad and i was really excited it was during covid when they they first had the first um keyboard with the trackpad and it was a very subdued launch like apple didn't even have a video like i remember like jason snell hosted it on the six colors youtube channel because apple didn't even publish it anywhere it's really subdued but it was a in hindsight i think a huge turning point because it let it gave developers

Liberty, including Apple, developers at Apple, to make user interfaces that were more complex. right and now you got to balance it right and that's the conversation when we talk about touch maybe coming to the mac you have to balance it because people are going to do different things but for me the keyboard is in the trackpad i think are equally important when it comes to

turning the iPad into something that I can do more of my work on. Because you can pair it just with a Bluetooth keyboard, right? But the keyboard cases are expensive. The ones for the iPad Pro are a little heavy. But...

The combination of those things really, I think, unlocks a level of precision and speed on the iPad that you don't have otherwise. Yeah, like when I do remote work. Sometimes I have a Disney pass, so I'll go down to Star Wars land at Disneyland and get a nice cup of coffee and sit there and write blog posts or newsletters. It's a great place to kind of like disengage.

The iPad with the attached keyboard for that is so powerful. I guess there's my first workflow that has improved because now with windowed mode, I can do research and have drafts open. I've got everything I need right there. But just that kind of compact package of... an 11 inch ipad with a keyboard case on it with a cellular connection so it just gets onto the internet where no matter where i go fits in a very small bag um that's really nice and the keyboard is just a key part of that

another thing you should you need to kind of understand coming into this if you want to like take it up a notch i think is dock enhancements With the new UI and operating system, I don't think we even mentioned this on the show, but you can put more apps in the dock now. And you should, because the way the multitasking works.

It's so much easier to multitask apps out of the dock than it is if you keep them on the screen. Now you can do it. You can swipe up and find the one on the screen. But I have found that that extra friction gets in the way. And if you want to like kind of really get going.

put your apps in the dock to the extent you can. And, you know, just have like the list of the things you really want. Make sure they're always in the dock. They're always available to you. And the stuff you want to multitask with is going to be there. Yeah, some of that changed with iPadOS 26 and the beta of 26.2, which is 26.2 isn't out yet as we're recording. They're bringing even some of that back. And so the dock, I think, is becoming even.

uh even more powerful same thing from like spotlight you can drag an app out of spotlight in the beta that was in 18 and then gone and i think that's that's fantastic the the dock on the mac you know it kind of serves the multi-purpose multiple purposes as well. It's a launcher. It holds things temporarily. It shows you what's open and what's not. And, you know, for a long time, and still the case on the iPhone.

The doc was just kind of a place for your favorites. It's kind of how I thought about it. It's like, oh, like I use messages all the time. I want it in the docs. And no matter what home screen I'm on, I can see it. But. Over the years, it really has become more powerful. I think to a point where it's even gone past what the dock on macOS can do. Really key. And so if you're using...

the doc just as it was, or, you know, you've got four or five apps down there, really spend some time on your home screen. Think about the apps that you're using, especially apps that you want to use in multitasking. And give it a shot. You know, I've got, looking at my iPad, I've got about 10 apps in the dock right now. The icons are still perfectly usable in landscape. And I really spend a lot of time using that to navigate.

yeah and and steven nailed it there it's the multitasking apps you want like i write generally drafts drafts always in the doc and the research apps you you know you reference and the things you're going to want to pull up on the screen make sure they're there it's not a gate gating issue like you can still run them off the desktop but it's not as convenient so so learn to live with the doc

Get your universal list of apps, the stuff that you always want to be referencing there. Another thing is you can set default apps for file types now, which, you know. Who would have thunk? It's huge, man. It's a huge change. But spend some time setting that up because you want to be able to have the app you prefer open a PDF, not the default app in the system. Yeah. Really, the files app in general has come so far. I mean, it was so basic in the early days.

Over time, it has gotten better and better. It integrates really well with cloud providers as long as they do the work on their side. So like I have iCloud Drive and Dropbox just in the sidebar in files right next to on my iPad. just like I would on the Mac. It is not Finder, but it is closer than ever. And we're going to talk about PDFs a little bit later, but in particular for me...

being able to set the file type and like having an open and preview, but then opening other files where I want them to, like that's a big deal because I mean, for, for so long, right. You'd have something in files or.

in an email or in an iMessage and you'd go to open that file and sometimes it felt random what file would open right it's like or you have to like open it and then go through the share sheet and open in a different app it was really clumsy and it's much easier now take some time and set it up but once you have it the way you want it it's much less frustrating agreed another thing that i kind of discovered in the process of working on this is

you know one more reason to love focus modes you know we talk about focus modes occasionally on the show uh in the max bracket labs we just did a big session on focus modes and i continue to think it's like the unsung hero of the mobile devices from apple

If you take advantage of them, you'll really appreciate it. But turning the iPad into something you do more than watch movies on. Focus modes are your friend because you can set up custom desktops for just the widgets and apps you want when you're doing.

writing versus you know research or whatever the things you do for work are and i found that in the last month i've really come to rely on those focus modes i use to to do context switching and get myself between the different types of work i want to do on the ipad and to a certain extent like this is one of those things coming out of this experiment it's like

i'm gonna really miss this if i go back to you see my my macbook air all the time because like these these are really nice and it really does make a difference to kind of have the whole system organized now you can do that on a mac with

with what i call setups you know you have different apps show up on the screen things you can do that with keyboard maestro shortcuts but but the focus modes are a very elegant solution and they just don't give that kind of support to the mac so this is one of the things i kind of found is better on using the iPad as my mobile computer. Yeah, I think so too. And I'm not as big of a focus user as you are some other people.

But I do have a couple and one of them is, you know, kind of a weekend focus mode. I need to rename it. I need to rename it to home. But in using the iPad more. over the last month in preparation for this, I really leaned into that. I was like, oh, I actually don't want Discord notifications if I'm watching, you know, something on the iPad at night, right? Or if I'm...

Really like writing something. I wrote several blog posts on the iPad that I've published over the last month. Being able to sort of dial those things down. is is fantastic and focus modes are just better on ios and ipad os than they are on the mac i think apple has has lots to do there the topic for another day but i think it can really help you

Take one iPad and use it in different contexts in your life. Yeah. And then the other thing we've been kind of bouncing around that I think is kind of a key tech to make this work. It's really just mastering the window mode and how to put windows together and move them around. And it is a bit of a moving target in a good way because Apple is continuing to evolve this actively as we go through this year.

yeah 26.1 came out uh added slide over at one point we were complaining on the show they don't slide over well now they got slide over it's a little different it's one app at a time yeah uh only in windowed mode but It's good enough for me. I always use SlideOver Relief for just one app anyway, so I don't really notice it. But if you were using SlideOver more actively, you're not going to be happy with the new version.

And then they've got more stuff coming in 26.2. I mean, this is the kind of progress I want to see. I want to see them. looking at how users are using it, where the difficult points are, and being willing to stick their neck out even in a point release to get it fixed. But you need to get really familiar with the windowing system because you don't want to be trying to figure that out while you're doing your work.

Yeah, I've got some links in the show notes from some Apple resources to go through it. One thing they've done on the iPad, and it really follows in the footsteps of the Mac, is as Apple has evolved the... multi-window system. They leave previous versions more or less around, right? So you can still use an iPad one app at a time full screen. And you know what? For a lot of people, that's fine.

A lot of people who aren't using it as a laptop replacement or can get disoriented or confused about certain UI features. Full screen apps are great, but they also left stage manager. And I know we have people in our audience and in our lives who are big stage manager fans, and that's how they want to group their windows together.

that's still there too, right? Just like on the Mac, you have regular window mode, you've got full screen apps, you have stage manager on the Mac, and you can switch between those things in control center or in settings on the iPad. And for different people, different solutions will be better. You know, someone like a parent or a grandparent who, you know, they're using mail, they're using FaceTime, they're using Safari.

You know, the people who would call you in the old system and say, why is my notes app skinny on the side? And you have to explain slide over the phone. Full screen is great for that. And I actually think them. Bringing slide over back is great. I'm a little bummed it's only one half at a time, but I get it. But having that only in windowed mode, I actually think makes a lot of sense because...

Full screen mode should just be super simple. An app is full screen, you swipe home to switch between them. Just as simple as it can be. Just like how the iPhone is, right? You have an app, you go home. You have an app, you go home. For a lot of people...

That's how it should be. But those of us who want more, who want multiple apps on screen at a time where we have notes and Safari mail or whatever, we now have more options than ever. And I think they did a really good job bringing that to the iPad.

Again, using the stoplight controls, even if you've never used a Mac, the stoplight controls make sense on the iPad if it's the first time you've seen them. This is why they... put them in mac os 10 you know 25 years ago it's like this is a really easy metaphor for people and then having the the maximize button the green button be your gateway into

different types of setups i want these apps side by side i want this one in slide over that is easy enough for people to understand but then you can even go the step further and just size them the way You want to spend some time with it. If you've used a Mac, I think it's really intuitive to do it on the iPad. But even if you've not used a Mac, if the iPad is someone's first computer, I think you can get it within a few minutes.

Yeah, and just a couple notes on stage manager. On iPad, stage manager, it's not an or, it's an and. So you can use windowed mode and stage manager or windows mode without stage manager. If you get good at windowed mode and you want the stage manager benefits, you can add that on in addition. It's not like you have to pick one or the other.

A quick stage manager trip on the Mac. I have noticed, Stephen, I've been doing this much more frequently. When I'm making tutorial videos or presentations on Zoom, Stage Manager is an excellent platform for screen sharing if you have multiple windows. Because Zoom doesn't really make it easy to switch between windows while you're presenting. Just enable Stage Manager and share your whole screen. And then just...

You can jump between windows so easily with them over on the left with Stage Manager. Anybody out there doing Zoom calls where they're screen sharing, consider using Stage Manager just for those presentations. You don't have to use it all the time. It's easy to turn it off and on. That would also work on the iPad. Yeah. Are you a stage manager user on the Mac or iPad? You know, it's funny. I go back and forth on it. Like every year in beta season.

I turned stage manager on, and this year I kept it on longer than I've ever done before. The things that I like about it are I've got a giant screen, so I don't mind giving up a little real estate for it. i don't like though that it only has like five groupings and if i have more than that they just fall off and i can't get to them and the other thing i do you know it just kind of gets back to that concept of setups i was talking about before it's like okay i want

email on the left and i want omni focus on the right and maybe you know my notes app too i can set up with keyboard maestro or shortcuts a script that clears all the windows and puts them exactly where i want them kind of what stage manager does without the limitations of Stage Manager. So I don't think I'm going to be using it full time, but I will be enabling it when I record tutorials and do Zoom calls because it's just so nice.

Because when you do those, you intentionally close most of your windows, and you've just got the two or three you want to demonstrate. And being able to just go over and click that, it allows the audience to see you transitioning to a different app so they know what just happened. You know, nothing just appears. I think it's really good for demonstration modes, but I don't think I'm going to be sticking with it full time for like my day-to-day stuff. I think I'd prefer my scripts for that. Yeah.

That makes sense. But again, you've got different tools at your disposal, right? And you don't have Keyboard Maestro or Moom or those things on the iPad. I don't know if they would ever do that, but... With Stage Manager, you can at least have your different sets. And so it's kind of the same. Maybe it's not as fluid. But you do have app pairings on the iPad where you can put a group of apps together and then in Slido or get to them.

which is nice too, which is kind of a version of that. So I haven't, you know, I've been playing with Stage Manager on iPad as well, but I don't know if that's going to stick for me. I think I kind of prefer having the app groupings. There's a certain amount of setup. Delight has a cost, I think, with the iPad. If I was to summarize some of the stuff we're talking about today, sometimes it does take just a little bit longer to get things set up just the way you want them.

In exchange, you get a piece of glass computer that fits in a very small bag and does a lot.

This episode of Mac Power Users is brought to you by our friends over at Ecamm. If you're a Mac user and you're creating video or podcasts, you need Ecamm. Ecamm Live is the all-in-one studio built exclusively for macOS, so it looks, feels, and performs like a native pro app should. Whether you're live streaming, recording a podcast, or producing training videos,

Ecamm gives you broadcast-level control with drag-and-drop simplicity. Switch cameras, share your screen, cue overlays, control audio, and more, all without ever leaving your Mac. What I love about Ecamm is that it makes content creation faster and cleaner. Ecamm knows about all the cool multimedia stuff that you can do on your Mac, and it integrates it all in a way that's really easy to manage and control.

You can brand your show with things like titles, graphics, and lower thirds. You can also pull in guest via interview mode or record multi-track audio for perfect post-production. And if you're into automation, Ecamm works beautifully with tools and apps like the Stream Deck and Loopback, as well as many Mac tools you already know and love. You can upgrade to Ecamm Pro. and unlock a bunch of cool Zoom features. This lets you feed your polished setup straight into Zoom meetings or webinars.

share Zoom comments on your screen, and even capture each participant's audio and video separately for easy post-production work. To get one month free, go to ecamm.com slash MPU. and use the code MPU at checkout. That's one full month of Ecamm Live at Ecamm, E-C-A-M-M, Ecamm.com slash MPU. Our thanks to Ecamm for supporting the show and all of Relay.

Okay, let's get into the workflows. I mean, I think the payoff of the show is we found a bunch of new workflows that we wouldn't have recommended last year. And this is stuff you can do. I mean, in general... The big question to answer here is, can you use it as your portable computer? And I'd say for most people, yes. I mean, that's...

You know, if you want the answer, I mean, this thing does great at, you know, web and email and like any app that you've already got on the iPad that you do your work on. I think there's a lot of people who could get by without a laptop and use an iPad with a keyboard as their portable computer and get things done. And for a lot of us that just, like I said, just use the basics. yes you know try it that doesn't mean you have to maybe you prefer the mac i mean the the the

Apple Silicon super light MacBook air is great. And I think it's lighter than an iPad with the iPad keyboard attached to it. I think it is. So, you know, and, and I think if the rumors are correct at some point, it's going to get a cellular connection too. So we're not telling you, yeah, you have to replace your laptop, but we're saying you probably could. Yeah. One thing I ran into that this time around is.

just the screen real estate i've got the 11 inch ipad pro i don't want to carry the 12.9 it's it's too big for me yeah um but ipad os has each year better and better support for external displays And so if you like the way the iPad works, but 11 inches or even 12.9 inches is too small for you. You can't plug this thing into a bunch of displays and everything just is bigger. And I did that a little bit this time. And I got to tell you.

you gotta like kind of pay attention like am i on a mac like it it really feels at times like you're just i mean it's on it's on my 27 inch studio display i got a bunch of windows floating there i got a dock it's like oh This is basically a desktop environment now when you plug it into a display. Yeah. And that's really, I think, the first one that I was most interested in is multi-source research and writing.

That's something I really do a lot is like when I write a newsletter, an article, or research an episode of a podcast or field guide. I'm looking at a lot of sources as I'm trying to figure out what's going on. And that has historically been really difficult on the iPad. What I would do up until now was...

I would usually do the research on the Mac. And if I had like a summary or an outline, then I could take the iPad and write from that. Because at that point I had kind of learned what I needed. And then it was good enough, you know, the iPad would work. Now I find that with multi-window, you know, I can have three or four windows.

with safari research going i can have i always use drafts if i'm in the research phase i put drafts and slide over and spend most of my time looking at because because of screen limitations you know you don't have a lot of space but when i'm like researching and planning i can slide drafts in to draw an outline or my node and then i can slide it out continue the research it does that just fine this is a workflow that didn't work for me before

ipad os 26 and um if you want like if you're adding stuff to multiple notes sources like an apple notes window you can have that open too Sometimes when I'm doing this, I have a task manager I'm feeding stuff into. So research to me is often multiple applications and lots of moving pieces. And that just was not something I could do before.

And, you know, previously I would try to get the split view to work where I would swipe between them, but then I couldn't, you know, my brain doesn't work that way. I need to have it on the screen when I'm writing notes on it. It just. You know, it was so much friction before, even with the M series iPads, it wasn't that it wasn't powerful enough. It's just the software limitations were making that work really hard to the extent that I just didn't do it.

And now I find it's fine. Like I can go pick up a new project, do a bunch of research, take notes, add tasks, work in the notion outline for MPU. I can do all of that stuff. right off the ipad which you know i didn't know at the beginning of this year that that would be something available to me yeah i mean i think you and i write in a similar way at least for some of your writing

Most of my writing is just like bananas, right? I got PDFs and Safari tabs and a quick time video and like, yeah, it's very messy and there's a lot of stuff going on and I'm bouncing between things and really before. 26, I had given up on that on the iPad, right? I mean, the tools I wanted were there like Safari. I do a lot of writing in IA Writer.

Devon Think is on both platforms, right? But I was doing it on the Mac because of the window management. And you said something that I actually do too. when I'm writing on the iPad in this mode, like doing some blogging this month on the iPad, I would have AI Writer in SlideOver. And so I could have, you know, the webpage I was linking to or...

I'm skimming a YouTube video to find the quote from some person 20 years ago. And then I could just pop back into my document and paste in something if I'm quoting it. type, write another paragraph or two, and then go back to my research. And that sort of really fast context switching is so easy on the Mac. And really now it's just as easy on the iPad, right? You even have command tab that's been on the iPad for a while.

But having those multiple windows open, those multiple sources open really does speed things up, at least the way that I work kind of in this mode. Yeah, and we... We are both 11-inch iPad users. We've heard from a lot of 13-inch iPad users that say the window mode is even better on that. And I think that's totally true. But SlideOver gives us kind of an easy out for that kind of stuff.

All right, so the next category, which is one I was very curious about going in, is video and audio content production. um you know can you use like i was using luma fusion and i was trying to do local capture i was trying like all the tools because i had like given up on that stuff before it was just the friction was too much and the fact that you couldn't render a video in the background which you still can't do in final cut that's that's nuts um but the uh

I just gave up on it. I spent time with it. I feel like that was a less successful experiment for me. I felt like everything felt pretty frictiony, so much so that when you do a podcast with Stephen Hackett, you know.

there's some things you can ask him and some things that you can't and like i did not ask him to record this show on our ipads because i knew he's shaking his head right now it's like like can't do it yeah that's not gonna go over well and and i don't think it's there yet i mean you can do it you know they have built in some of those tools um some of them were back in the day you need like extra hardware and stuff that's easier now with usb and ipad was 26

And some things you can only do on an iPad with audio and video. Like you mentioned Final Cut. It is bananas. They don't have the full background export. I assume that's just coming in a software update. But Final Cut Camera, which our friends over on Upgrade have used.

when they record in person, multiple iPhones, that video gets streamed back to the iPad. That's only on Final Cut for the iPad. Final Cut for the Mac, at least at this point, doesn't have those features. And that's really interesting too. I mean, for so long.

The iPad just didn't have, they had some third-party tools, but no first-party tools for audio editing, video editing, even though the hardware was clearly capable of it. But I think it also fell down in the file management aspect of things, right? Editing podcasts, editing music, editing video. Not only do you sometimes have a lot of files, you have big files and things like external storage devices. Things like files just being better.

on the iPad, things like local capture, they all make that easier. But I think only up to a certain point, I think you do still hit a ceiling with some of these things where you're just going to need a Mac that can, you know. It has a fuller version of Final Cut, a fuller version of Logic, has that background rendering and those sorts of things. And I think like, you know who you are, right? If you're doing serious video production workflows.

you're going to have a loaded macbook pro you know with a 16 inch screen and i just feel like that's i think what they're doing here is they're enabling you to the ability to do it but for a professional who does it all day They're not going to do it. I don't think there's many people are going to do that on the iPad. I don't think so. So my results were more mixed with the video and audio testing. It works. It never got smooth for me.

Like I didn't even ask to do the show with it because I think we could have technically made it work, but it's too risky. And also we're in the middle of this transition to the stuff we're doing with the videos too. So it just doesn't make sense for us.

I think that's better, but I'm not jumping on board with it the way I am with the research workflow. Another one that was on my list early is PDF processing. You mentioned your Macworld article. Yeah. It seemed always to me, especially when I was practicing law, that iPad is such a natural device for PDFs because it's like a piece of paper and it's got a pencil attached to it so you can outline it.

I was a big fan of it over the years, but it also, because of file limitations and just file system limitations and software defaults. it was also a friction prone environment to like work on PDFs. And this is one, I feel like it's a complete win, like going into this thing now, using it. You know, working with PDFs over the last month on the iPad, getting signatures, jumping between multiple ones, adding pages.

A lot of stuff that before took a lot of like inside knowledge and secret swipes now. It seems like it's all just done. And part of this is I haven't given it a real serious effort for years. I'm sure it's gotten better just with the native tool software stack. But a lot of these are windowing and iOS or iPadOS features that are enabling this stuff. And now with your iPad, I feel like a full-blown complex PDF and research system can absolutely work. Yeah. Preview was...

first rumored for the iPhone and iPad in iOS eight, 11 years ago. So overdue. So overdue. Um, and I spoke about this over the summer on the show, when we're talking about the betas, I bought a house this summer. And it's just all you do when you buy a house is look at and sign PDFs. It's like the whole thing, right? And having it even on the phone, but on the iPad as well, just having a first party app.

or I tap a PDF that someone emails me, I can review it, I can sign it, or I can mark it up and send it back to them. It's so fluid now. I mean, there's lots of good PDFs out. PDF apps out there for the iPad. We've covered a lot of them in the past. A lot of them are more powerful than what Preview can do. But having something that's built in, integrated with the Files app.

gives you Apple's really excellent markup tools where like it saves your signature and you can use a pencil or even your finger if you're on an iPhone. So overdue. It blows my mind that it took Apple so long to ship.

preview for the iPad. But it's really good. I use it all the time. So much of our lives are PDFs. I mean, it's astonishing. And having an 11-inch iPad... even taken out of the keyboard case you're just you know you're scrolling through a document it's so powerful and so good and you don't have to go find a third-party app that may or may not work the way you want to

It's a huge deal for a lot of people. And I think for a lot of people, preview is the first time that they sort of... like pdfs and the ipad will click right like yeah you could preview them in mail and for a long time they had markup in mail so you could open a pdf or markup in notes open a pdf mark it up and deal with it but

A lot of people still operate in the mindset of like, I need a PDF viewer, right? Like lots of people still running around with Acrobat reader for this reason. And the iPad getting it is for, for me and for you sound like they have been, it's been a real. improvement yeah and that's there's there's two pieces to a pdf workflow there's the front end the reviewing and modifying the pdf and i agree with you there's great third-party apps but having a native app is essential

But there's another piece of it, and that's the file management piece of it. Because when you work with multiple PDFs, just getting to them. I remember, because this isn't the first time I tried to use an iPad as my mobile computer. And I've told the story on the show before, but the breaking point for me was I was a lawyer. We were doing an acquisition and I went to a meeting and they sent me like, you know, 15, 20.

excel sheets and pdfs they just emailed them to me right in the meeting like okay let's start going over these and i had an ipad i had the big one at the time it was the third probably 10 years ago like the 13 inch original ipad pro and i just remember saying i am so screwed Because how am I going to get to these files as these lawyers are jumping between them? I'm like, guys, wait a second. I got to fiddle with my iPad for five minutes before I can read this.

you know that that was that was the breaking point and now that's not the case like one of the things i did i had a big pile of pdfs to review well you know in the last month i just put them in the doc because you can do that now create a folder with things in it

put the dock in the foot put the folder in the dock and then you can just jump through to them and like open them in preview it felt like being on a mac and except it was better because i had a pencil and i could highlight with the pencil and you know it's just like yeah this is better and um this is another thing where i really leaving this experience saying yeah the ipad is going to become my pdf processing station going forward it's not it's it's easier on the ipad than the mac

Not only the front end, but the back end is now good enough that I can do more than one at a time without losing my mind. And, you know, good on Apple. Yeah, absolutely. One thing that I love in addition to that, the files thing is, I agree, is huge. They've also brought over the autofill information that the Mac has. So if you're filling out, you know, again, buying a house, buying a car, applying to college, whatever it may be.

Very often when you're filling out a PDF form, you kind of need the same basic information, right? You need your name, your address, your email, that sort of thing. Preview knows about your contact information and it can auto fill a lot of that stuff just with a couple of taps. And it even does the thing that it does in the Mac, you know. PDFs can have structured form data. So like the PDF knows that this is the text box that someone can type into it.

But you can also just freeform that. If someone scanned a PDF that was printed and it doesn't have that metadata in it anymore, you can very easily still add text, check boxes, that sort of thing. It knows about the structure of these documents. And again, something that, you know, some of those features we've had on the Mac a long time, but having them on the iPad makes so much sense. And I think for me this summer...

I mean, it was a game changer. I did not want to have my Mac with me at all times when trying to sell and buy a house. It's like, no, I can just do it on the device I have with me. Totally awesome. Okay, that's a win.

It is. The multi-project stage manager, we kind of talked about this, but the idea of quickly being able to jump through groupings of applications, I enabled it. I had one that was... It was photos and day one. And I had another stage, you know, that was podcast prep with Notion and Safari. And I set up different.

multi-project stage manager workflows using stage manager and windowed mode and it totally worked man it's like that that is not something that you know jumping between modes on the ipad before was misery because you had to like open it and even just you know it just didn't work well and uh bringing over the mac paradigm of stage manager or you know setting these things up

man, does that make it easier? So can you take an iPad with a little bit of effort, set it up to jump between different work modes? Absolutely. Yeah, I think that's really cool. I'm just not... a stage manager fan but this has prompted me to to re-explore maybe maybe specifically on the ipad

um i don't like some of the visual stuff i feel like that's a little exhausting like things swinging back and forth i can tell you the problem you're going to hit is the 11 inch ipad and sage manager yeah means you're giving up more screen space But you can set it up for when it opens the apps, it covers up the stage manager little previews on the left. And really, it depends on what you're doing. Like, if you're just going to sit down and have a PDF session.

And not need to jump to work mode or day one mode. You don't need it. You can just stay there. And that's kind of like the in-between. But if you... are going to sit and use the iPad for three or four hours. You're going to want to spend some time on podcast prep and some time on something else. Set up a few stages and just try and get comfortable with it.

We also mentioned the quick reference, you know, maybe I'm writing and I have my research documents, you know, kind of floating around. But you can also go further with that with slide over and apps side by side.

Yeah. Which is really nice. Again, you manage all that through the green stoplight window. And since the original iPad, like... uh really since the ipad air 2 i think was the first one that had side-by-side apps and those early days it was really clunky and then it's gotten better and better over time But one thing that I think we both do is we will pair apps together for CERNIT tasks, right? So an example, I recently was dealing with a contract for a freelancer.

And I was having a conversation in Slack with my coworkers. And I had a pages document with this agreement. And we were going back and forth on some of the specifics. And I could just... tap pages and adjust things as we discuss them. No command tabbing, no swinging through stage manager, just having them side-by-side working. And some of that's not new on iPadOS.

But with the keyboard and trackpad in particular, I think it's easier than ever to deal with. Yeah, agreed. But you've got to spend some time with it. You know, this stuff doesn't... if you've been a mac user some of the stuff is a little foreign and you're gonna have to kind of just dig in on it a bit And again, I'm not saying everybody needs to switch over and use it for all these things, but I think for the first time ever we can confidently say it's capable of doing these things. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think a big part of it for Mac users feeling more comfortable in addition to the window management stuff is the inclusion of the menu bar for a long time. ipad apps have been able to have keyboard shortcuts but you had to like hold down the command key and then a panel will pop up and show you what they were and if you didn't know that you didn't know where the keyboard shortcuts were

all the actions or controls in the app were behind visual buttons. And now if a developer takes the time to adopt the menu bar and put their actions and commands in there, it really feels more Mac-like.

really feels more mac-like and it's just like on the mac it's an easy way to learn what the shortcuts are for things and it's early days for the mini bar on the ipad certainly the apps that i'm using it is not evenly distributed right like developers are or have not adopted it evenly across the ecosystem that will get better with time but if you're

Coming from the Mac perspective and you're looking at the iPad, like what workflows make sense on this device that's smaller and lighter and easier to carry around? For me, at least, the menu bar has been a big boon in that of like...

Instead of digging around in settings in an app or trying to find, I want to export this kind of file this way, just having it available to you from the file menu or the edit menu, just like you would on a Mac, really makes it feel... much more like mac os yeah i think that another category i would talk about here is just the basic life management stuff like your calendar and your email and your contacts

These are things that historically I felt like the iPad was good for. Like you could answer email on an iPad or open your calendar and check your calendar. But I feel like all of those things have been plussed with the new... new operating system using windowed mode using slide over using the tools that they've now given us uh for doing that stuff type of stuff especially if you want to look at your calendar and your tasks at the same time

and like grab a link from an email and you know put it into your task manager that stuff is just easier across the board now so even kind of like the entry-level ipad stuff that we used to be able to do we can now do better and more efficiently

This episode of the Mac Power Users is brought to you by KRCS, one of the oldest Apple premium resellers in your one-stop shop for all things Apple in the UK. Go to krcs.co.uk slash relay and check it out. I'm a big fan of Apple resellers. These are people that really believe in the product. And if you live in the UK, you've got a great one with KRCS. that you can find at krcs.co.uk slash relay. It's the one-stop shop for all things Apple in the UK, and their month of savings is well underway.

Right now at KRCS, you can build the Mac of your dreams in their Black Friday event and save 10%. Shop the new MacBook Pro 14-inch M5 from just £14.39. 160 pounds savings. You can make your Mac truly yours, have the specification you want, or take your pick from their in-stock models and save 10% until midday on the 5th of December.

You can even spread the cost with affordable monthly payments. With free next working day delivery on in-stock items ordered before 3 p.m., there's never been a better time to get a Mac at KRCS, your local Apple experts. Get more information at krcs.co.uk slash relay or click the link in the show notes. Representative 9.9 APR, 18 years plus and subject to approval and terms and conditions apply.

Please spend responsibly. Borrowing beyond your means could seriously affect your financial status. Ensure you can afford to make your repayments on time by due date. KRCS are a broker, not a lender. Head over to krcs.co.uk slash relay now. That's krcs.co.uk slash relay. That's krcs.co.uk slash relay.

And our thanks to KRCS for their support of the Mac Power Users and Olive Relay. All right, let's talk about some takeaways. And kind of just the general state of the iPad since we're here. Okay. In fact, let's start with the state of the iPad. We're about to do our state of the platforms shows that we do at the end of each year.

And since we've been talking about iPad today, we thought we'd get started today. Yeah. Let's talk generically. Steven, where does the iPad platform stand now, in your opinion? I think it's stronger than ever. I really do. So much of what people, what power users wanted out of the iPad and its software, Apple is doing even esoteric things like audio recording, right? It's not a mainstream feature, but they're doing it. They're delivering it.

while also preserving full-screen apps, making it really easy to hand somebody who's never used a computer before, whether it be a kid or your great-grandmother, hand them an iPad and they're comfortable with it. Balancing those things, I think Apple's done a good job. And of course, the hardware is as good as ever. I do think there's a little bit of clarification Apple could do between the iPad Air and the Pro.

I mean, the screen is much better on the iPad Pro, but a lot of people aren't going to see that. It's not going to matter to a lot of people. I don't know what they do about that. But I will say, like, you know, you and I both get questions. A lot of our audience, I'm sure, gets this question of, like, what iPad should I get?

I think for most people, the iPad Air is more than enough. I really don't think you need an iPad Pro unless you want something that it does specifically. But yeah, I think I feel better about the iPad than I have. Maybe since the introduction of the iPad Pro, because that was such a promising moment. And they have finally, with iPadOS 26, I think delivered an operating system update that...

They didn't copy and paste macOS onto this thing. It feels like the iPad, but they've brought a lot of features we're used to on the desktop to the tablet in these creative new ways. And I'm just... It's not my main computer. It's not going to be my main computer, but I'm more excited about the iPad than I have been in a long time. Yeah, I am on the software side for the first time in a long time. I feel like the state of the iPad is good.

and I'd love to hear the story behind it I don't know if there's like an internal advocate somebody who just finally said guys we gotta like give this platform what it deserves or if it was just you know the water torture of every year these reviews talking about how the ipad was better than the ipad hardware is better than the software but

Something happened at Apple and lit a fire. And I am like, the way these point updates are getting substantial improvements in their face to me is just as encouraging as the initial improvements. yeah they're invested they want to make it better and the state of ipad software is better than ever

I hope that this isn't a thing where they're going to feel like they get to a point where, okay, it's figured out now. We solved it. Now let's move on and ignore it for another five years. I hope that they continue. to work on the friction points and make it better and better. Because I feel like the platform with this kind of attention over five years could be really amazing. So software.

thumbs up i mean better than i've ever felt about the ipad that's the reason we made today's show yeah hardware i mean it's always been thumbs up on hardware for ipad but now that we've got the software here's a here's a corker right usually We're saying, ah, the software stinks, but the hardware is great. Now we're thinking, well, the software is pretty good. Let's make the hardware better. And two things I think that could definitely stand to happen is...

an iPad pro treatment of the iPad mini form factor. Yeah. I think there'd be a lot of people that would like.

to keep that small ipad but just have it just a real barn burner of a processor and a great screen maybe the matte screen if they wanted you know like you're just a real killer ipad mini which i think makes sense now with this new software And the other thing, I can't help but think an even bigger one, like one that you don't take around with you, but you keep in your house and you can use it as your TV set and you can use it as a.

big platform computer like 15 inch 16 inch 20 inch i don't know there's rumors out there that they're working on a folding one that's going to get really big in a few years i don't know if that's the case but I kind of like the idea of just making a big one, you know? And like, just imagine it as like your second monitor, but then you yank it off a stand and then you lay it on the table and start drawing on it. And now we've got this great software.

I would like to see them expand. I feel like the general nature of the hardware is really good. I'd like to get them to be more willing to take risks with the screen sizes. Yeah, I think the multi-window system really cries out for that. I mean, it's one thing to plug it into something like a studio display or even a 24-inch display.

But then you're stuck at a desk, right? And then make a 16-inch MacBook Pro, make a 16-inch iPad. I think for the people who are really leaning on the window management tools. It's just, it would be so much better. I mean, I know that if I were looking for the iPad to be my portable computer full-time, I would consider the 13-inch more strongly than I have in the past.

For that reason, because the 11 inch can feel a bit cramped. Yeah. I think if it's a laptop replacement, that's the best case for a 13 inch. Yeah. Oh yeah. I forgot to mention earlier, there was one thing I did that I had to pull the laptop out. And I have a laser cutter at my house. And I had to do some laser engraving. And they just don't support.

ipad software you know they have a mac app and so i had to get the mac out for that so so you do occasionally find weird stuff where you know it doesn't work yeah okay so what is your

Coming out of this, what's your new relationship with the iPad? How do you think about it now after the release and your experiments you've been doing? Yeah, I mean, almost everything I'm using my MacBook Air for, again. macbook pro at work macbook air is kind of like a personal laptop that you know leaves the office the macbook pro basically never does yeah unless i'm traveling uh the ipad can do basically everything i do on that macbook air and do it

in a smaller package that is also really good at, you know, uh, the consumption stuff because the iPad pro screen is incredible. The speakers are really good. And so I think that MacBook Air really could be basically retired. And I'm really, honestly, I don't know when that MacBook Air is going to come back up off the shelf. Even like writing research topics.

the iPad can definitely do for me. One thing I've been, long-term listeners will know, for years, I was a two Mac person. I had a desktop, I had a series of desktops, and then I had usually MacBook Air or like a low-end MacBook Pro. And while it is easier to keep two Macs in sync, easier than ever, you do run into some frustrations. And since moving to just one laptop for work...

you know, it's much simpler. But I'm really in a position where I don't like taking my work laptop into the house, right? And I prefer to leave it up here in the office where if I shut the door, work is behind me. And so I've... sort of accidentally fallen back into the two Mac lifestyle and all those frustrations have come back. But with the iPad, I don't feel those frustrations, right? It's like, oh, I didn't sync my keyboard maestro. Well, there's no keyboard maestro on the iPad, right?

oh, like I need that PDF. Well, like if it's in Dropbox or iCloud, that's great, but what if it's on the desktop? You know, all those things. And so for me, I think the iPad is really stepping into that sort of personal computer usage. And I'm excited about it. Yeah. I feel kind of the same. In the labs, I promised I wouldn't use my MacBook Air for the rest of the year. So I'm going to try and keep the experiment going through December.

And I have definitely gotten better at using an iPad to do the kind of things I do. I don't know that I would just sell my iPad Air at the end of this. For no other reason, I always want to have something I can run the betas on. The MacBook Air, you mean? Yeah, MacBook Air. I don't know.

and i i do like there are some things that are just better on the ipad like the the automation stuff i am so on top of my game on automation like my mac does circles for me and i can't get that automation level with the ipad because just the it's not enabled we had sal on the show he talked about the fact that there's no apple events on the mobile platforms and that was a

conscious choice made by apple which i think was a mistake and so we don't get the same level of automation but so i miss that too but at the same time honestly There's a lot I really like about using the iPad. I like using it and pulling it out of the keyboard and just using it as that slab of glass, 2001 style.

consuming on it i like doing uh writing on it like i said when i leave the house if i want to bring a computer with me this is definitely the winner so i suspect i'll be holding on to my my macbook but The iPad is playing a much more prominent role in my productivity these days. And I'm fortunate enough to have both. So I get to do that. Yeah. It really sounds like we're on about the same page there. Yeah.

I'm trying to use the Apple Pencil more, like just writing on the screen and have it transcribed for me. That stuff is really good once you get used to it, but it's a paradigm I haven't got internalized enough. So that's one of the things I've been trying to do more.

Yes. Same. And you and I are both pen and paper people to a degree. I think you more than me, but you know, I like we talked about in our holiday episode, right? Like I keep a notebook in my pocket at all times. So they're right here on my desk. Like, um,

And so for me, if I'm writing is a very different thing than using an iPad. And so I have an Apple Pencil, but it doesn't stay on the iPad most of the time. I definitely have not internalized that either. But for a lot of people, that's the thing. Right? I mean, we heard from so many people when the Apple Pencil began to filter down to the lower iPads, right? Because it was iPad Pro only 10 years ago. And I remember even then...

Hearing from listeners and readers are like, oh, like I would love this on an iPad that wasn't 12.9 inches. And over time, the pencil is supported everywhere now. And there's even third party like Logitech, you know, has a pencil alternative.

I think for a lot of people, that's the thing for the iPad. Just because it's not for us doesn't mean it's not important. And, you know, with Pencil Kit and... especially like an apple notes being able to combine drawings and text and photos and stuff it's really pretty powerful and it's interesting because our take on it for this show really is not we're not looking at do you replace your mac with an ipad that's not the stunt we're after here

It's more of, you know, Mac power users often will have two Macs and it's like, do you need. you're you know you've got your desktop whether it's a big fancy laptop or a mac studio which you'd have to pull out of my cold dead hands yeah uh but do you need another mac to go with that for being on the road and and with what they've done here

For most people, like I said, the top, probably not. Probably not. All right. We are the Mac Power Users. You can find us at relay.fm slash MPU. If you'd like to join, and now is the time to join to get that 20% discount.

Go to relay.fm slash MPU, join more power users, get the ad-free extended version of the show. Today, Steve and I are going to be talking about this video that we were putting together and how we did it and came around to it. So we'd love to share that with you. Go sign up, check it out. Thank you to our sponsors, 1Password, Ecamm, and KRCS. Have a great week, everybody. We'll see you next week on the old Mac Power Users.