For a long time I was using my iPad Pro 12.9″ 2018 as my daily driver computer. I coded on it, I wrote on it, and sometimes wouldn’t turn my laptop on for a week. Then I stopped using it as much for coding work, but let’s take a look at if the M1 iPad Pro changed anything for me.
What I Don’t Use my iPad Pro For?
There is really only one thing I don’t use my iPadPro for…coding work. Yes you can use Secure Shell Fish or Blink and SCP to transfer files. But it’s simply not as efficient as Forklift for transferring files.
Yes I can also use a VPS with my iPad and get the exact same coding setup I use from my laptop, but the large screen real estate and second monitor for reference on my laptop make the coding experience better there.
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The other big hiccup in using my iPad as my main machine for my day job is that the Wrike app is terrible on iPad. Yes it works, but there are so many features that don’t exist in the iPad application that it’s essentially useless if you want to actually get work done in Wrike from an iPad. Using Safari is a bit better, but there are still limitations in Wrike there that make me grumble.
My final issue is with developer tools. While we have the Inpsect Browser something about it always feels a bit limited when I’m developing code for WordPress Themes. The tools in Firefox and Chrome are superior while Inspect feels like it’s simply adequate.
So my day to day job, my main income is earned with my M1 MacBook Air, but that computer almost never leaves my desk which means all my other work is done on my iPad Pro.
What I Use my M1 iPad Pro For
All my research for YouTube is done from my iPad Pro with DEVONthink To Go and Obsidian. All the notes I take while reading are taken on my iPad with a book next to me. All the writing I do for my site is done from my iPad Pro from various locations in my house.
Video editing is done with LumaFusion and thumbnails are designed with Canva. I use YouTube Studio via Safari and the YouTube Studio app because each one is broken in different ways currently with iPadOS 15.
Most of my email is done from my iPad along with all my accounting. I scan receipts with my phone and email them to myself then enter them in my Number sheet that I send to my accountant.
My favourite computer to us is my iPad by far, it’s just missing something that I can never point directly to. Maybe proper monitor support would be enough to make the iPad my all the time computer, but maybe not. Better support for progressive web applications in Safari might be the thing that gets the iPad to turn a corner…but that might not be it either. Maybe better support for FTP clients would be the thing…but maybe not.
I love my iPad, but sometimes it feels like it fights me trying to get actual work done.