Week in review - Jan. 12, 2025
A downsized iPad Pro experiment
I’ve been using a 5th generation iPad Pro 12.9 tablet with keyboard for nearly four years. It’s still a great device but the battery has degraded quite a bit. That’s to be expected. I considered getting a new battery for it, but realized this was an opportunity for change.
So I traded in the big iPad Pro 12.9 with M1 chip and bought the latest iPad Pro with an M4 chip. Not the 13-inch one though. I downsized to the 11-inch iPad Pro.
Here’s my thought process. While I have a capable laptop, I tend to use the big iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard for everyday computer tasks. By that I mean email, calendar management, personal finance applications and general web browsing, to name a few. I’m writing this very post on the large old iPad, for example. So it’s a great casual computer for me.
I also watch a lot of video content on the iPad and it’s an outstanding experience. Between the bright large display and the quad speakers, I thoroughly enjoy watching live sports, streamed movies and TV shows, and YouTube videos on it. In fact, even though we have some great 4K TVs in the house, I would estimate that 98% of my video consumption is on the iPad. Not the television sets.
Why then downsize to the 11-inch iPad Pro?
While the large iPad is great as that casual computer and video consumption, it’s bulky as a tablet. When I don’t need a keyboard, I want something smaller that’s more comfortable to hold, thrown in a bag, etc…
The iPad mini is a good candidate for my “tablet mode” but it’s not great for the “casual computer” use. The larger iPad Pro is great for the latter, but pushes beyong the limits for the former. Hence: I’m trying to meet those two use cases in the middle with the 11-inch iPad Pro.
In just 24 hours with the new device, I’m confident that tablet mode is a win here. I’ve used the new slate all around the house and already find it much more portable and “tablet-like” without the keyboard. I can’t speak to the casual compute scenario because my local Apple Store didn’t have the matching Magic Keyboar for iPad Pro 11 in stock. That arrives in a few days, when I can begin to test it out.
One last note on why I spent more money than simply replacing the battery on the old iPad Pro 12.9. Apple offered me $460 for the old device to offset the cost of the new one. That’s more than half the purchase price on the new iPad Pro 11, which adds the tandem OLED display (very nice!), the M4 chip upgrade and of course, a brand new battery.
Lots of tech work stacking up
Due to work, I didn’t get much done on my technical projects and classwork this week. I did start a new folder for my personal journal / second brain thanks to the new year. Now I can write my entries for 2025 and have them in the proper place on the site.
I also installed Plex on the homelab server even though I don’t have much physical media to serve there. Still, I did watch some Plex content this week and came away impressed.
Grandbaby update
Many of you have offered support for us as our granddaughter Melani was born at 33 weeks old earlier this month. For that I thank you!
Melani is still in the NIC unit where she’ll likely stay for another 3-5 weeks. However, she’s doing great, as are her parents.
She told me to tell you all that she says “Hi!”
✌🏼