iPad Apple Releases new IPad Air and iPad Mini with Apple Pencil Support

[dublincheri]

Originally Posted by OtinG

Has anyone gotten an iPad mini 5 yet? I’m still on the fence and won’t be ready to purchase for about two weeks, so plenty of time to make a decision. Will be good to get some first hand comments though.

Mine arrived on Wednesday and I’ve barely put it down since. Had the 10.5 pro so I already have the pencil, just happy to be back to the smaller form which fits nicely in my handbag. Just need to find a decent case for my next trip home!

[peaceridge]

Originally Posted by dublincheri

Mine arrived on Wednesday and I’ve barely put it down since. Had the 10.5 pro so I already have the pencil, just happy to be back to the smaller form which fits nicely in my handbag. Just need to find a decent case for my next trip home!

Let us know what case you find, please.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

After a great deal of thought, I have decided to sell all my iPads, and just get the new 10.5. I never use my mini, the air2 has been replaced by the Pro 12.9 and the 12.9 is too big. So It makes sense to sell the lot and get the 10.5 which should work for me. I'm just going to wait and see if Logitech ever release a decent keyboard case for it. I won't get it until/unless.

Do you use a keyboard so much that a keyboard case is worth the bulk and weight it adds to the iPad? I tried one, and hated it! On the comparatively rare occasions I use a keyboard, I have an external Bluetooth keyboard which works extremely well.

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Do you use a keyboard so much that a keyboard case is worth the bulk and weight it adds to the iPad? I tried one, and hated it! On the comparatively rare occasions I use a keyboard, I have an external Bluetooth keyboard which works extremely well.

Yes, I use one all the time. right now, for example, I am on the pro with a Logitech Slim Combo keyboard but I dont like it much. I have a Type+ on my Air2 and before I got the pro, that was my main machine. I rarely use my laptop, and the Mac Mini works more as a media server now, than anything else. It might make more sense to get an external, that way I would only need one keyboard for whichever device I was using, Logitech have a couple which might suit.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

Yes, I use one all the time. right now, for example, I am on the pro with a Logitech Slim Combo keyboard but I dont like it much. I have a Type+ on my Air2 and before I got the pro, that was my main machine. I rarely use my laptop, and the Mac Mini works more as a media server now, than anything else. It might make more sense to get an external, that way I would only need one keyboard for whichever device I was using, Logitech have a couple which might suit.

The majority of my use of my iPad is purely for content consumption, not creation, hence my wish for a lightweight cover (I use the Apple "Smart Cover"). I have a Logitech "rubber membrane" style iOS BT keyboard (this one). It has a micro-USB connector for charging and works very well indeed.

[OtinG]

I’m kind of the same in that regard. I mostly use my iPads for reading books, surfing the web, watching videos, and what not. I have a BT keyboard but I never really use it much. Early on I had hoped the iPads would be laptop killers, but they are touch interfaced and have no mouse capability, and that was always restrictive when using them with a keyboard. I’ve tried using them touch only to create documents and spreadsheets, but tablets are not good for that. It takes me too long to enter the text and/or data. But they are great for viewing things and doing a little light work on.

[kyteflyer]

Interesting. I detest on screen keyboards and have used external from the very first iPad onwards. for that, I had the Apple ipad keyboard. It only worked in portrait mode, though, I prefer landscape. For my iPad 3 I had a logitech ultraslim, and I've listed the others. I switched for the Mini and have a Zagg keyboard case, its heavy and very protective of the device which I like, but accessign the lower part of the screen is difficult because of the case design, I would not buy one again. Generally, I prefer Logitech. I tried the Apple Keyboard but didnt like it, it was very limited. Logitech keyboards are "real" keyboards, whether external or dedicated to a particular device. I like having keys for dimming the screen, searching, volume controls etc. My type+ even has a key for screenshotting. Sadly that does not exist on the others. If I had only the option to use an on-screen keyboard, I would have abandoned tablets years ago.

[OtinG]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

Interesting. I detest on screen keyboards and have used external from the very first iPad onwards. for that, I had the Apple ipad keyboard. It only worked in portrait mode, though, I prefer landscape. For my iPad 3 I had a logitech ultraslim, and I've listed the others. I switched for the Mini and have a Zagg keyboard case, its heavy and very protective of the device which I like, but accessign the lower part of the screen is difficult because of the case design, I would not buy one again. Generally, I prefer Logitech. I tried the Apple Keyboard but didnt like it, it was very limited. Logitech keyboards are "real" keyboards, whether external or dedicated to a particular device. I like having keys for dimming the screen, searching, volume controls etc. My type+ even has a key for screenshotting. Sadly that does not exist on the others. If I had only the option to use an on-screen keyboard, I would have abandoned tablets years ago.

I've got a Logitech keyboard too, model K810. It can be connected by BT to up to three devices at once with three function keys that let you toggle between the devices. I totally agree that on screen keyboards blow chunks! Hate them with a passion, especially on smaller screens like smartphones. But I don't like having a external real keyboard with no mouse capability for my iPad. It is clunky having to move my hand from keyboard to screen, and it is way more difficult to select text and what not and position the cursor on a touch screen than it is with a mouse. That is why I rarely use my iPads to create spreadsheets or to create documents that are longer than a few paragraphs. Good grief, it takes me hours of frustration and books full of foul language to create a spreadsheet on my iPad, but I could create the same on my MacBook Pro in just minutes, and the neighbors don't have to hear me yelling in foul language!

[HarryT]

On-screen keyboards don’t bother me for moderate amounts of texts (I’m typing this on the on-screen keyboard on my iPad) but for larger amounts of text I prefer an external keyboard.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by HarryT

On-screen keyboards don’t bother me for moderate amounts of texts (I’m typing this on the on-screen keyboard on my iPad) but for larger amounts of text I prefer an external keyboard.

Same here.

Like @OtinG, though, I prefer having a mouse with my keyboard. Reaching out to the touchscreen which is usually farther away from you when on keyboard is a major pain.

I've got a Logitech K780 that I use for both desktop and iPad Pro 12.9. Also have a Logitech K380 as my portable keyboard but to be honest, that one barely gets used. Unless I'm sitting on a desk, I find it more convenient to just use the onscreen keyboard. Most of my iPad typing are just forum posts and searches anyway.

[tomsem]

I have Logitech K380 - connects to my iPhone and 2 iPads via the dedicated BT pairing keys. I would say with the Pro 12.9” I have it connected 90% of the time. Have had it for something like 5 years, have replaced batteries at most once.

My complaint is mostly with developers who don’t implement any keyboard shortcuts apart from copy/cut/paste (Amazon, come on!). Apple is better than most, at least you can navigate a Book with cursor keys once it is open, and News app has useful keyboard shortcuts too. Microsoft Office apps. O’Reilly (safari books online) app too. Juno (Jupyter Notebook client for iOS) has dozens of keyboard shortcuts, bless them.

Ironically, cursor positioning is slightly more efficient with virtual keyboard due to its ‘trackpad’ mode. Used to be you could jailbreak to get mouse/trackpad support but I’m not into that.

Perhaps Marzipan (iOS apps running on macOS) evolution may some day result in some cross fertilization (support for touch interface on macOS, cursor/trackpad on iOS) but I’m not holding my breath.

[Scarpad]

the mini was always my favorite form factor for reading a books haven't had one since the Mini 3 so even thou i have a 12.9 2018 pro (which is a fantastic comic reader BTW) i picked up a mini 5 silver 256gb Cellular model, arriving tomorrow.

[pwalker8]

Apparently, they stocked the Cellular models first. I can pick up a celluar one today, but the non cellular won't be available in the stores until mid month.

[OtinG]

Apple has a trackpad mode for iOS when using the on-screen keyboard. It doesn't seem like it would be too much of a stretch for Apple to enable that function on an external keyboard with a built-in trackpad. Having a physical trackpad built into an external BT keyboard would make the iPads/iPhones 10 times more useful and faster for entering text, and data, and for editing same. Trying to update fields and spreadsheet cells is a royal PITA on even a big iPad. It is not precise to use my fat fingers. Using the Apple Pencil 1 (never tried a AP2) is a little better, but being precise is still difficult because the darn selection insertion is flaky. Trying to select text by finger can become frustrating. I often wind up with the dragging end of the selections suddenly jumping to select whole sections, or suddenly jumping to select one darn letter! WTF Apple! If they could just add trackpad mode capability to external keyboards and fix the on-screen selection issues they would make it so much easier and less frustrating for using the iPads as laptop replacements in some cases, although I will never give up my MacBook Pro for desk use as it blows away any iPad or tablet and has way better file management capabilities, storage, and raw power. I hope Apple tells the ghost of Steve Jobs to go bleep off and starts listening to customers and makes the future iOS and iPads more capable for creating and editing documents, spreadsheets, and databases. I darn sure won't use mine for that purpose very often as long as it takes me ten times longer than using a laptop or desktop computer.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Apparently, they stocked the Cellular models first. I can pick up a celluar one today, but the non cellular won't be available in the stores until mid month.

I wonder if majority of iPad minis that are sold are cellular models (e.g. bulk corporate purchases for warehouse, shipping, logistics, etc. operations requiring built-in internet).