iPad Air 2 to 9.7" iPad Pro?

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Nice catch. But I just copied and pasted the obvious typo directly from the text of the Mac Rumors web page without reviewing it. So they messed up. No surprise there! Just read any blog or news media site these days to see loads of typos. Looks like they have corrected it now though.

In such manner, all rumors may become true!

Well I took the plunge yesterday (12 Jan 2017). I was trying to decide between an iPad Air 2 and the iPad Pro 9.7. The main hold back on the Pro was the extra $200. But I saw an ad from Best Buy and they had the Pro 32GB on sale for $499, so I grabbed one. The Pro is definitely worth the extra $100. Actually it would have been worth an extra $200, but I didn't want to spend that much. The 32GB model was fine for what I use it for as I don't put a lot of songs, videos, photos, large PDFs, etc. on my iThingies.

I'm still getting acquainted with the iPad Pro 9.7, but I must say wow! It is a quantum leap up from my old iPad Mini 2 Retina. I'm keeping the Mini 2 BTW, just going to re-purpose it from all around iPad to special duties within my study. I could sell it, but it is worth more to me to keep it around.

I absolutely love the screen on the Pro! I also like the extended color spectrum which the old Mini didn't have. Photos just never looked as vibrant on the Mini as they should.

I haven't purchased the Apple Pen yet, but I probably will. I love the idea of taking notes and scribbling down math/engineering equations on it and drawing out concepts rather than killing trees by using paper notebooks.

I used it with the app Skysafari Pro 5 last night and wow, very responsive, fast, and the night sky charts looked really amazing on it. SkySafari Pro 5 is an astronomy app, BTW.

My only complaints are involving iTunes and iOS. I have no complaints at all with the Pro.

First complaint: Well iTunes is of course a suckfest, and setting up the new iPad Pro 9.7 was a tedious chore. It took a long time to get my photos and songs over to it, even though those are shared among my iThingies. I'm really not sure why Apple still cannot get iTunes to be all that useful. I know it is relatively easy to backup an old device then transfer all that to a new device, but I wasn't going that route since I will keep the Mini 2. At any rate, I've nearly got all my apps and stuff imported into the Pro, now I'm busy signing in to all my accounts which is taking a while because I don't use Keychain and all my passwords are unique for security reasons.

Second complaint: Apple has limited iOS devices to a 5 x 4 app icon grid. That was no big deal with the Mini and its 7.9" screen, but it seems rather limiting on the bigger Pro 9.7". If they do that with the big brother Pro too, then the screen on it must have huge icons. I wish Apple would allow resizing of the icons and expansion of the grid like they do on Mac OS X and like MS does for Windows.

[Bookworm_Girl]

Glad you like it! I still love mine. The screen is also a big deal to me. I wouldn't trade it with the iPad Air we have in my household. I haven't used the Apple pencil as much as I would like. I've just been too busy to explore its capabilities.

[Julius Caesar]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I absolutely love the screen on the Pro! I also like the extended color spectrum which the old Mini didn't have. Photos just never looked as vibrant on the Mini as they should.

On top of that, the iPad Pro true tone automatically matches the color temperature of the display with the color temperature of the ambient light. This makes reading for extended period of time much more tolerable and comfortable. After replacing my iPad Air 2 with iPad Pro 9.7, I hardly use my Kindle Oasis anymore.

I got an Apple Pencil today and have been exploring what it can do. I really like it. I've never been in love with touchscreen interfaces designed to be used with fingers. My old, arthritic hands have made using smartphone/tablet interfaces less than enjoyable. But using the Apple Pencil for 90% of what I had been using my fingers to do makes it a lot better. I can certainly select/highlight text better with the AP, and my aim for touching buttons etc. is also way more accurate. And of course the AP was designed for drawing, writing, highlighting, and other tasks that I haven't fully explored yet, but I'm loving what I've seen so far.

Having moved up to the Pro from an old Mini 2 is like stepping out of the dark into the daylight. The Pro is super fast.

My Otterbox Defender case will be delivered tomorrow. I can't wait as the Pro is way too thin to comfortably hold and use while naked. The case will take care of that. I just don't buy into the idea that thinner is better. It isn't if you have arthritis. But cases help, and they add a lot of protection too. So win win.

I got an Apple Pencil and decided to try it out. Well my handwriting looks like poop! But that is not the iPad Pro 9.7's fault because it looks like poop on paper too! However, I mostly wanted to test out sketching and drawing. So I got the SketchBook app (freeware) and gave it a go. Mind you I used to draw quite a bit in childhood, but I got away from artwork during college years in the 1980s. I haven't done any freehand drawing in decades. So I'm rusty, but I think this self portrait came out pretty good for a first attempt. At any rate I have to say that Apple finally got it right with their iPads when they introduced the Pro models. This is great fun! I think I'm going to be doing a lot of freehand artwork on mine.

[tomsem]

I am interested in the next gen 12.9" iPad Pro. But it would really grease the wheels if they would only add cursor/trackpad support to iOS, as with Windows and Android. And it annoys me that app developers for iOS often forego the opportunity to add keyboard shortcuts or even simple things like using arrow keys to turn pages etc. Without such features iPad will always remain 'almost' a laptop replacement. But perhaps they fear cannibalizing Mac/MacBook, which is doing better than other desktop/laptop OS but not by much.

Originally Posted by tomsem

I am interested in the next gen 12.9" iPad Pro. But it would really grease the wheels if they would only add cursor/trackpad support to iOS, as with Windows and Android. And it annoys me that app developers for iOS often forego the opportunity to add keyboard shortcuts or even simple things like using arrow keys to turn pages etc. Without such features iPad will always remain 'almost' a laptop replacement. But perhaps they fear cannibalizing Mac/MacBook, which is doing better than other desktop/laptop OS but not by much.

Developers are not always on the ball when it comes to fully supporting any OS, tablet or desktop. That is frustrating when encountered. I think tablet app developers are even worse than desktop/laptop developers though.

As far as features, iOS still has a long way to go IMO. Apple still puts too much emphasis on looks and not enough on function. They need to forget the looks for now and concentrate on function. It is a touchscreen OS designed to be used primarily through finger input. Some people use a stylus, some add a keyboard, some other input devices, but it has to be designed to fully function by finger input alone, otherwise it isn't a tablet OS. But they should also build into it the functionality to work with mice, pens, keyboards, etc. They have some of that integration ability now, but it needs a lot of improvement.

I really don't think we will ever see a company like Apple turn a tablet into a laptop/desktop replacement. That would not make sense from a business perspective, and stockholders would be upset. They will try to keep it a highly desired additional device that consumers feel they really want and need. Quite frankly, I want my iPad to be a tablet, not a laptop replacement. I prefer portability with a sufficient amount of power and functionality to more than adequately accomplish away from home tasks for which an iPad was designed. Turning it into a do all machine will likely make it lackluster in much of its functionality. Leaving it highly good at the tasks for which it is designed makes much more sense to me, and makes it much more useful to me. One major thing that I do wish is that they would implement a better file system. I want to be able to connect my iPhone/iPads directly to my Macs without having any interface like iTunes (a suckfest) or iCloud and be able to drag and drop files between them. Having this ability with Windows PCs would be great too. Currently it is a PITA to transfer files, and it shouldn't be.

ETA: One simple change could drastically improve the finger input. Use a darn keyboard with numbers and letters and a few of the most common special characters on the same screen! It takes forever toggling back and forth to enter passwords with letters, numbers, and special characters. I realize the iPhone screen is limited in space, but there is plenty room on the iPad screen. And yes I know there are 3rd party keyboard apps but they don't integrate as well as they should, and none I've tried are very good. I hate having to toggle or long press, and we shouldn't have too.

[cats2books]

Wow! I think your self portrait is awesome.

I also upgraded from the iPad mini 2 to the iPad Pro 9.7, and I really like it. I haven't gotten the pen, as I can't think of anything that I would use it to do. Unfortunately, I have zero artistic talent and I don't need to write anything on the iPad. I use the notes app to type any lists and I have other apps for recipes and such which I use the virtual keyboard.

However, I do believe that it was worth spending a bit more for the iPad Pro versus the iPad Air. The iPad Pro has a faster processor and a better looking screen, and I'm not likely to upgrade for a few years. So I think it's better to get the most up to date model available.