Now that a bunch of us are receiving our new Minis. Or, maybe you recently purchased an iPad Air or a Pro? Either way, unless you plan on double-fisting iPads; what are your plans for your older devices?
Trying to repurpose REALLY old iPads is kind of a sad state of affairs. Especially if you wipe a (legacy?) iPad that tops out with an older version of iOS... before backing it up. Kiss your apps goodbye. So, let's focus on the devices that have some real life left in them.
I've relegated my 2016, iPad Pro 12.9" permanently to my primary work desk. It's been there for a week now (other than taking it somewhere for a Zoom call once. Which makes me look forward to the new 12mp front camera on the Mini.) Here are a few takeaways from the past week of iPad repurposing...
Trying to repurpose REALLY old iPads is kind of a sad state of affairs. Especially if you wipe a (legacy?) iPad that tops out with an older version of iOS... before backing it up. Kiss your apps goodbye. So, let's focus on the devices that have some real life left in them.
I've relegated my 2016, iPad Pro 12.9" permanently to my primary work desk. It's been there for a week now (other than taking it somewhere for a Zoom call once. Which makes me look forward to the new 12mp front camera on the Mini.) Here are a few takeaways from the past week of iPad repurposing...
- I have paired HomePod Minis on my desk. I listen to music pretty much all day, everyday. I tried a few times to control them with Apple Music on my Mac, but that is just kind of "eh" ... an extra step in a way. So, I usually just control it with my voice. Now however, the iPad makes a fantastic companion to the speakers. Whether it's controlling what's already playing, or selecting songs on the iPad and "replacing" what's playing. The lyrics feature is great (when it's playing on a screen that's not taking up work space.) It's like the missing piece that makes the HomePods even better. Which makes it pretty obvious that HomePods with big ass screens would be a logical next step for Apple.
- MyRadar Weather - It's just nice to have showing, it's a great compliment to your weather forecasts.
- Email - I use Outlook for work, across my devices. Apple's Mail app for personal email. I've found myself popping my email open on the iPad quite often this past week. I wasn't planning to use it for that specifically, but it's been convenient. Especially when the computer is booting, some task is processing, etc. It's a 2016 iMac with loads of ram, but it still crawls on initial boot. This morning I popped open Outlook on my "desk iPad" and saw a message that my boss needed something asap. If I'd waited to check it on my computer I probably wouldn't have seen it for another 10-15 minutes. Which wouldn't have been a problem, but I was that much quicker getting the task done.
- Duet - (Or similar apps) Using the iPad as a third screen... The desk iPad is all setup with Duet, and I've used it a handful of times. But using an iPad as an additional screen (in this case it becomes my Mac's third screen) feels like and act of desperation. In theory it's a great idea. In practice, I personally find it more trouble than it's worth.
- Files / OneDrive / DropBox / Etc. - It's actually been super handy to pop open a file for a quick glance, print or share. I never would have busted my iPad out of its suitcase-prison for these tasks in the past. I normally just use the Finder, or go to the website on my Mac. This has been unexpectedly convenient.
- Notes - I use this app 20 times a day across all my devices. The desk iPad is good for viewing them. It is in no way practical to create notes on it though. (It stands almost vertical.) The Apple Pencil (Gen 1) that I have with it is basically just a fancy poking-stick companion for it now.
- Keyboard inputs - Anything that requires keyboard input is not practical, again, because it's in a little holder and almost perpendicular to the desk. (And before you say it... No, I will not add another keyboard to my desk for it.) This makes things like web browsing a little more inconvenient. Which doesn't really matter, I'm more likely to choose the desktop experience over the mobile experience anyway.
