The First Day #iPadOnly
Frank Blome
Leading a remote team for more than 20 years. Merlin Project is our product and adoc Studio is our rookie.
That was a very bumpy start. I didn't think a switch - even a temporary one - could be so challenging. But my lessons learned are your experiences. So first things first.
The Setup
I had already roughly listed my setup in my announcement on Friday.?
Let's start with the hardware. The Magic Keyboard is certainly four or five years old, but I still found it to be good. But if you come from the new keyboard of the 2021 MacBook Pro (M1 with 16"), you will be in for a nasty surprise: Both keyboards are worlds apart! I have not yet had such a great Apple keyboard as the one of the currently MacBook Pro. Period. Even the previously good Magic Keyboard can't keep up. Once again, the better is the enemy of the good.
Other than that, there is not much to say about the hardware. A trackpad vs. mouse is still a matter of taste. Both work smoothly on the iPad.
I received one comment about the Huawei MateView with its 28". Yes, the aspect ratio of 3:2 is not very Apple-like, but it works very well for me. I only wish the monitor didn't have speakers and a microphone (see below).
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The Operating System
I did what I warn everyone about every day: I tried to use a beta version productively ... and failed miserably. Some background should explain my attempt. Included in iPadOS 16 is Stage Manager, which extends an external monitor on the iPad as a full screen workspace. As shown in the photo, you can run a browser and Twitter timeline on the external monitor, for example, and completely different programs on the iPad itself. It's nice and conveniently divided.
As nice as the plan was, a beta version is a beta version for a reason. Even if it looks mostly finished, under the surface there are of course still a lot of bugs. And I probably ran into every possible bug today. Of course I wrote some bug reports to Apple, but then my productivity was gone.
The Result
After less than 6 hours, I'll stop here for today and switch back to the MacBook Pro. The main reason is Zoom which I use for all meetings: I can't even set the audio input and output in Zoom on the iPad. Since I have an external monitor with a mic and speakers, it cheats its way into the setup, which then just sounds tinny and my meeting partners can barely hear me. The excellent mic and speakers in the iPad can't be used at all. As a quick solution, I simply disconnected the external monitor. But this way I then again was missing workspace for the other apps, e.g. for notes.
If anyone on LinkedIn has a tip for me on this, I would be very grateful!
Working with General & Subcontractors, Design Build Contractors and Independent Project Consultants, delivering enhanced plans that achieve better results.
2 年Been using Zoom a lot over the past few years and audio was a problem earlier on. Not surprised at the difficulty. No t surprised at the challenge you’re having with it Frank. My main issue happened when setting up the audio playback of ‘OLee’, the virtual assistant in OVERGantt software. Zoom eventually fixed it but it took awhile.
Customer-centric | Value-oriented | Employee inspiring | Presales Solution Architect for Microsoft Dynamics 365 FinOps (Retail/Commerce), Power Platform, Copilot Studio and IOM (intelligent order management) environment
2 年I very often work only with the iPad. Especially now with the new "window mode". With a headset via Bluetooth, meetings also work without problems.
I am using my iPad for note taking now exclusively, after decades of Moleskin. That works for me for most of the time. Scribbles, wireframes and anything else "visual" works for me better on the iPad, and the integration into my Mac Workflow is really good. Apple Notes finally kicked down my 17 year old Evernote subscription. But. I can't imagine myself using a iPad only.