One of my reasons for purchasing the iPad Pro was to replace my Chromebook as a travel computing device. Here's what I've been using my iPad for on this trip:
- Reading downloaded ComiXology comics on the frankly beautiful screen using ComiXology's Guided View mode. Seeing individual panels filling the whole screen helps these old eyes. I could have done the same on the Chromebook using the ComiXology web site, but the Chromebook's screen isn't as good. Also, using ComiXology's iOS app, I could download the books I wanted and read them on the airplane or anywhere else without needing a wifi connection.
- Checking and responding to email, of course. I use my Apple Bluetooth keyboard when I want to type anything longer than a quick message. The iPad and this keyboard are a great combo, with all function keys and many common keyboard combos that work just as expected (but no Forward Delete!).
- Reading comics and Kindle ebooks on the airplane, something that would have been more cumbersome with the Chromebook. I have never read Kindle ebooks on the Chromebook, as reading them via the web was my only option. I carried a separate Kindle Paperwhite for those occasions.
- Writing this blog post using the Squarespace editor. There are some restrictions to editing on a mobile device, but I can create and publish posts. The Chromebook, however, would have offered the full suite of editing and styling functions from its web browser Update: I originally wrote this in the Squarespace editor when the wifi went out before I hit Save, so that I lost all the edits for that session. Lesson learned! I'm now drafting this in the Drafts app. The Chromebook also offered offline editing but that kind of violated its whole reason for existing, so I never used it for extensive writing.
- Downloaded the Doctor Who Christmas special via the Amazon Prime Video app. Again, I could have viewed the video on the Chromebook if I had a stable wifi connection. Where we're staying on the road, the wifi connection is iffy (wiffy?) (no).
- Used the You Need A Budget (YNAB) app and my credit union's app to track my expenses. I could have done this via the Chromebook also, though YNAB's iPhone app makes it dead easy to capture expenses on the fly.
- Slipped it quickly into and out of my backpack, where it weighs less than the few books and notebooks I keep in there. The Chromebook was bigger, bulkier, and it's AC adapters were impossibly awkward in size and weight when I wanted to travel light. The iPad Pro is a clear improvement.
I'm not really doing anything different on the iPad than I could do on the Chromebook. I'm reading, watching video, writing, surfing the web. But what I'm doing is easier and more fun on the iPad. It's the best all-In-one computing device I've ever used.
