For the uninitiated, Drafts for iOS looks too simple to be used for anything more than basic notes. I sure did use it that way for a long time. While there are more powerful text editors on iOS, like Editorial, 1Writer, and Ulysses, there are few that nail the directness and flexibility of Drafts. It launches to a new note instantly, but it has a JavaScript engine and a near endless set of options for getting the words out of the app.
7 years after the iPad release, some of us are still trying to parse out if it is a real computer. I, for one, have given up. Everything is a computer now. Some just have more well defined roles. While I consider my iPad Pro and my MacBook Pro to both be computers, they are different kinds of computers. Here’s the Venn diagram of their capabilities in my daily life.1
I now own a 10.5" iPad Pro. I’ve occasionally used the 12.9" first generation iPad Pro reserved mostly for my kid. The 12.9" is glorious to look at but it was just too big to be my every day device. As expected, the 10.5" is the perfect size for me.
Most of what I’ve read or heard about the new iPad Pro is close to reality but I think the effect of the new 120 Hz refresh rate of the screen is being over stated.
Great article from Jean-Louis Gassée
Let’s indulge in a bit of speculation.
Tentatively dubbed Apple Neural Engine (ANE), this hypothetical chip fits well with Apple’s tradition of designing hardware for its software, following Alan Kay’s edict: “People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware.”
Couple Apple’s AR and ML announcements with the putative ANE chip and we have an integrated whole that sounds very much like the Apple culture and silicon muscle we’ve already witnessed, a package that would further strengthen the company’s moat, its structural competitive advantage.
I used to carefully pick the perfect capacity size of each new Apple device I’d buy. With everything syncing between devices, photos getting larger and videos getting longer, I now just go with the largest size I can get.
This is my current iPhone.
Spending time juggling what data to keep on the device costs me too much. It’s not worth my time or the interruptions. I’d like to see Apple bring the pricing in line with the rest of the world, but for now I’ll pay the premium to keep my sanity.
Apple did not lie about the size of the iPad Pro 10.5 Smart Keyboard size. It is very close to a full size keyboard. Here it is in comparison to a keyboard on a Macbook Pro 15".
Here’s a comparison of the new Logitech Slim Keyboard Case
The keys are all positioned where my fingers would expect them to be, but just barely. This is the reason I can actually type on the 12.
DEVONthink and Scanner Pro for iOS have both been updated in the last week to provide better integration between the two apps. Now Scanner Pro shows DEVONthink prominently as a destination app for saving scans.
The implementation isn’t ideal though. It’s only marginally better than using the “Open In” function and importing into DEVONthink. I would have loved to see DEVONthink as a location for automatic uploading from Scanner Pro.
iThoughts for iOS has a nice update this week that adds support for document providers. Now I can store my planning maps inside DEVONthink along with the rest of my project data and still open them from within iThoughts for editing.
I like the Smart Folder I have on my Mac to load all of my iThoughts maps at once. It’s very convenient to browse all of my maps.
But I can create a similar folder in DEVONthink for Mac.
My good friend and amazing designer Erik Hess did something. He made a sticker pack just because he loves Tomcats. I think they are beautiful. I’d imagine if you like aircraft, this would be right up your alley. It’s two bucks which like 1/19,000,000 of the cost for the actual plane.
I sure do like Slack. It’s a hugely convenient service that I actually pay for.1 Many of my best friends are on Slack and it’s a continuous source of enjoyment and intelligent discussions for me. But I use it less now because I can’t trust its security.
From Techcrunch:
Slack has a lot of functions, but end-to-end encryption isn’t one of them, which makes the platform a no-go for some users.
