Reporting for Duty — Daily Dose of Chemo

The next generation iPad Pro has finally reached our shores officially and on the very first day it was sold, I managed to get the spec which I wanted after a looking at a third store.

The launch day in Malaysia did not include stocks of Apple Pencil or the keyboard folio case for the 12.9 inch. So, I got the cover without the keyboard for the time being as well as got the unit laminated for screen protection. Now it was time to get through its paces ...

I don’t need that much storage and 256 GB is more than enough

Updating the new iPad proved to be a breeze since I just used an online copy of my last iPad Pro. Everything was done on the fly and once all the apps were downloaded and updated - which took about half an hour on my connection - all I needed to do was key in my passwords.

The new unit appeared thinner than I thought and navigating through the table had some learning curve with the new interface, minus the home button which I was used to over the years. Despite owning the iPhone X, things were still unfamiliar and updating my muscle memories might take a few days. There was also the issue of not having the pencil and the dedicated keyboard. Luckily, the Logitech Bluetooth keyboard on my desk took care of the typing part. The Pencil will have to come later.

Now a sensible uploading option using USB C

As a result, I can’t use the new iPad as my main tablet yet. I read all my files and articles on my iPad and I use the keyboard and the Pencil extensively. The camera on this thing was much better than expected and having to change my charging habit - now that the new iPad was using USB C also cause some headache. But with the USB C, accessorising was straight forward. I am able to use a third party dongle to import photos from SD cards. I am yet to try using the DVI connection for my MacBook to use the iPad for presentations.

Clearly the transition is still ongoing and some of my workflow requires me keeping the old iPad in use still. But once the Pencil and keyboard arrive, change would be abound ... so far so good ...