The 2018 Apple iPad Pro is a computer replacement

I abosulutely love it.  It is truly an amazing device.  I have not needed to get onto a laptop since I purchased the 2018 Apple iPad Pro with the 512GB hard drive.  My only regret is not getting the 1TB hard drive with the 1GB of RAM version of the iPad Pro.  Over the past weeks I’ve purchased 4 dongles for my iPad Pro.  I’ve purchased the USB-C to USB-A dongle.  I actually bought two.  I bought the USB-C to headphone adapter so I can listen to music and I bought the USB-C to SD card adapter.  I also bought the Apple Pencil 2 along with the Apple Keyboard Folio which by the way is awesome.  It’s not back lit like other keyboards and it doesn’t have the function keys which I really don’t miss.  I thought Face-ID was a gimmick but once it’s setup it works flawlessly for all my apps and websites that I visit that have passwords.  I don’t even need to type in my passwords after the first time.  I like how Apple thought that out.

I have purchased apps for photo and footage editing.  Affinity Photo and LumaFusion are both amazing apps.  The rest of the apps were either free or or costing less than $6.00.  I can attach my Yeti mic to do podcasts.  Found a free podcast app today thanks to the Apple website.  Yes I am going to do podcasts.  I hate being in front of a camera so podcasts will do.  They will be short and will deal mainly with photography.   

I honestly don’t need a mouse.  I have eight fingers and two thumbs that I can use to write and touch the amazing screen on the iPad Pro.  For finer detail work in my photography of when editing my footage, I can use the Apple Pencil 2.  I don’t think I even need an external hard drive as I pay Apple $12.99 a month for 2TB of storage.  If need be I can always purchase a wireless 4TB hard drive from Western Digital

For my photography, I use a Sony RX100 Mark VI which I can attach through the supplied Sony USB cable and and a USB-C to USB-A adapter.  I can use the Apple USB-C to SD card for my footage shot with the Canon Vixia HF G40 camcorder.  There is absolutely nothing else that I need.  No laptop, no desktop.  The iPad Pro comes with me everywhere along with my Sony RX100 Mark VI.  I tell ya it’s a great combination for a single shooter type photographer.  The less I have to carry, the better.

I am one happy guy with the 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  I purchased the PaperLike screen protector which is in the mail and should be here soon.  Once that is applied to the iPad Pro, I will be secure in knowing that the iPad Pro is secured in practically every way.  I am so happy with this device.  

The perfect computer that really isn’t

The perfect computer that really isn’t a physical style like computer but is a computing device.  Of course I am talking about the 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  I’ve been using the 2018 Apple iPad for a week now as my daily driver to check and reply to emails, media consumption and photo and footage editing device.  I have not even touched my Windows 10 based PC or my early 2013 Apple MacBook Pro.

What I love about the iPad is the portability and accessabitilty.  It is always on and always with me.  I can be setup in less than 15 seconds.  Just pull it out of my carrying case and plop it onto a table.  I have all the apps that I could possibly want.  And the apps are totally inexpensive.  I think I pad $20 Canadian for Luma Fusion to edit footage.  I bought Affinity Photo for $29 for the iPad Pro.  Those are the most expensive apps that I’ve purshased for the iPad and they are all that I really need.  I bought some blogging software for $7.  I’ll have to buy an FTP app to upload footage to Shutterstock, Pond5 and Storyblocks.  The Apple Pencil 2 is now my mouse.  It’s exactly like a mouse except in a different form factor.   I can take my iPad Pro along with my Sony RX100 Mark VI with me anywhere and I can just blend in without carrying a huge DSLR and laptop with me.  Just my iPad and my pocket camera.

The downsides of the iPad is the dongle life and no support for external hard drives connected via USB-C.  Hopefully iOS 13 will at least fix the external hard drive problem.  You can already connect a 4K monitor to the iPad Pro   I really don’t want to connect to a WI-FI external hard drive.  While working with the iPad, I’ve found workarounds and solutions to the iOS 12 file system.  I haven’t tested my SD card holding my Sony RX100 Mark VI shots yet.  I plan to do that this weekend.  I’ve read somewhere Sony and the iPad file systems are incompatible but that’s just a rumour so far.  I want to test it out for myself.

Now time to go do some photography.

And on this day...

... I got another Sony RX100 Mark V.  I was going to get an Apple iPad Pro 2018 today but just came up financially short.  I wanted to get the Sony RX100 Mark VI today but I'll probably get that one in 2019 along with the 2018 Apple iPad Pro.  I just needed a backup camera quick today so if anything happens to my Sony RX10 Mark II, I'll have a backup for now.  I pretty much spent the day alone today which some days is needed.  I didn't even get a haircut today.  Tomorrow I guess.

I've been trying to upgrade the firmware on the Sony RX100 Mark V for about 2 hours without any success.  I've followed the instructions on both my Apple and Asus laptops and the connection keeps failing.  Both computers recognize the camera but neither will connect to it to run the update.  It's pretty weird.  I will try again tomorrow.

I also purchased Serrif' Affinity Photo for the Windows 10 laptop today.  I actually want to start using it in full in the new year.  I am glad I no longer use and pay for Adobe Photoshop.