Pandemic computer: The iPad could be your shelter-at-home dream machine
Shopping for a computer to get you through the pandemic? You reflexively might look into a laptop, and that's never a bad call. There are lots of superb notebooks out there.
But take some time to consider another option: the iPad.
Yes, I'm referring to Apple's tablet thingie. What, you don't think it's a real computer?
Consider this: As a tech writer who typically has a half-dozen loaner computers of all sorts around the house, I have been reaching for an iPad more and more since the coronavirus forced me to work exclusively from home. Though I lean heavily on my Apple Mac Mini desktop machine, the iPad has become my pandemic computer.
By that, I mean the iPad is the computer that gets me through hard days, that keeps me sane when the world looks like it is crumbling around me. It is the computer I carry with me continually to accomplish all I need a computer to do. It is a machine I use to work, to play, to work out, to be entertained and enlightened, to keep in touch with my friends and family, and more.
Yes, a traditional laptop can do all of this, but the iPad as a minimalist, ultraportable and hyper-dependable slab of glass is often so much better.
It's not the first time the iPad has filled this role in my life. Late last year, after a medical emergency that nearly did me in and left me hospitalized in a near-invalid state, I needed my tech to be simple yet powerful. I had little use for a regular, clamshell-style laptop, which is awkward to use in bed. I had my iPhone, but that was too small to be my primary machine.
An 11-inch iPad Pro, which I had on loan from Apple, was the perfect fit for use while I was lying down, or sitting up. Like something out of "Star Trek" or "Westworld", it was a thin, easy-to-hold portal into the universe outside my hospital room. And when I needed to type, I simply snapped on an ultra-thin Apple accessory that doubles as a compact keyboard and iPad protector. That's how I banged out lengthy Facebook posts to keep my friends up to date on my health situation.
The iPad was great then, and it is even better now. Much has changed in recent months. For instance:
The iPad has mouse and trackpad support. An update to the iPadOS operating system has remedied a longtime knock against the iPad, that you can't deploy external pointing devices the way users of other tablet computers, such as Microsoft Surface machines, have long been able to do. Apple's Magic TrackPad 2 and Magic Mouse 2, in particular, are now great iPad add-ons as well as Mac peripherals.
A new generation of keyboards has arrived. Piggybacking on that OS update, the latest iPad keyboard covers include laptop-style trackpads. The most prominent of these accessories, Apple's Magic Keyboard, works with the company's high-end, recently updated iPad Pro models. Logitech addresses the lower end of the iPad line with its Combo Touch.
The iPad is a Chromebook now. Google has had a hit in its Chrome OS, a lightweight operating system modeled on its Chrome browser for use with lower-cost laptops called Chromebooks. These are popular in schools and are increasingly used in the home. The iPad had difficulty competing in this respect until recently, when Apple made the iPad's Safari browser less like that on the iPhone and more like the version of Safari on Macs. Now, the iPad can more reliably load websites the way Macs, PCs and Chromebooks do.
Not every iPad is expensive. Another knock against the iPad is its cost. The iPad Pro models, in particular, are breathtakingly pricey. Throw in a Magic Keyboard and you would pay as much as you would for a fancy laptop. But you can get into an entry-level tablet for just $329. That model got upgraded late last year, so it is not out of date. Add the Combo Touch for only $149.99.
The bottom line is that the iPad can be an all-purpose computer for many though certainly not all people. Macs and Windows PCs have their place. I would not dream of doing away with my Mac Mini, which is my main work machine, and going iPad-only.
However, pretty much anything I can do on the Mac I can do on the iPad, which is why stepping away from my Mini to work with a tablet on my front porch is so satisfying now that the weather is warming up (a cold beer completes the picture). The combination of an iPad Pro and the Magic Keyboard has been a delight.
For me, the tablet's desktop-class browser has been crucial. The work I do as an online editor is predominantly web-based, meaning I need a computer to faithfully, dependably pull up all my web tools so I can fulfill my duties. The iPad once did this atrociously — Now it does so all but flawlessly (sometimes I run into little glitches I'm sure will be ironed out soon).
When I am not in a productivity mode, I'm videoconferencing and playing board games with friends and relatives around the world; binging TV shows; reading e-books, magazines and comics; catching up on the latest news; following workout routines; and more. Again, these are all tasks I can do on a laptop — but the iPad's simplicity, elegance and ease of use are often impossible to resist.
I'm not the only one in my family to find the iPad transcendent. My elderly father has used an iPad mini as his only computer for years. My mom, on the other hand, uses a MacBook Pro, so theirs is a snapshot of how the iPad and the Mac coexist and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.
If I haven't convinced you to take the iPad seriously, read New York Times tech writer Brian X. Chen's column, "Why Apple's iPad is the gadget of the pandemic."
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