Image rights from top left to bottom right: Brydge, iBeani, Moshi, Studio Neat, Apple.
CANOPY
$40 studioneat.comThis neat folding case with
stand and leather strap turns
an Apple Magic Keyboard
(latest model only) into a
portable iPad accessory. It’s
ideal for the 12.9–inch iPad
Pro, but supports any iPad in
landscape or portrait.BRYDGE KEYBOARD
From $99.99 amazon.com
Turn your iPad into a laptop
with an aluminium keyboard
that clips to your iPad, iPad
Pro and iPad mini with a stiff
hinge. It’s more stable and
versatile than folding cases
or stands (though you’re
limited to landscape).
iBEANi
$34.99 amazon.comSold in every fabric from
plain grey to paisley
elephants, this bean bag will
support your iPad while you
watch or work. Too bulky for
travel (despite the handle),
but great at home or for your
hipster office breakout sofa.MOSHI VERSACOVER
From $44 amazon.comApple’s Smart Cover (iPad) or
Smart Folio (iPad Pro) cover
the screen and fold to stand
up, but don’t provide much
protection. This case has a
slim hard shell and smarter
origami, and can even
enclose your Pencil 2.MONDAY
Apple’s Smart Keyboard is
immediately not my favorite thing.
I struggle to get the trifold stand–up
origami right. And the magnets fail
to stop me detaching it while trying,
so I then have to work out which way
round it snaps back on. Once set up
on my desk, it holds the iPad at a Ľxed
angle pointing at my chest, where,
inconveniently, my eyes aren’t.
Still, the waterproof matt Ľnish,
full–size keys and MacBook–like
short travel make it comfortable to
type on. With Mail, Safari, Pages,
Numbers and Keynote on the big
touchscreen, I feel reasonably
empowered to get on with some work.
The combination of multi–touch
swipes and keyboard shortcuts (hold
Cmd for a contextual list) is quite
eL·cient, even if my hand keeps
wandering to an imaginary mouse.
Come to think of it, iPadOS sort
of lets me add one, via Settings >
Accessibility > Touch > AssistiveTouch
> Pointer Devices > Devices >
Bluetooth Devices (or you can Ľnd it
faster by typing “blu” into Settings’
search). This does make positioning
the text cursor a bit easier, but I endup ditching it. I really just need to get
used to using touch.TUESDAY
In the Ľrst challenge to the integrity
of my Apple-walled garden, a
colleague emails me a magazine
ľatplan in Excel. Hmm. Tapping the
attachment in Mail shows a preview,
but opening it in Numbers breaks the
formatting. So I download Microsoft
Excel (free) from the App Store.
I could save the attachment to Files
and open it in Excel, but there’s a
simpler way: if I long–press the
document icon in Mail, then drag it to
the right of the screen, Excel — the
app associated with its Ľle format
— pops up for me to drop it in. Score
one for iPadOS: this certainly feels
closer to a desktop workľow than
earlier versions of iOS.
Attachments can’t be edited, so
Excel prompts me to save a copy. But
the free app is for viewing only> I still
can’t edit until I sign in with an OL·ce
365 subscription. I have one for my
Mac, which covers mobile, but the app
is oblivious to iCloud Keychain. I have
to reset my forgotten password to log
in manually.Prop up your iPad anywhere
COMMON PROBLEM ONE
External drives can be connected
to an iPad Pro’s USB–C or via the
Lightning to USB Camera Adapter,
but the latter may not provide
enough power for anything bigger
than a flash memory stick. Drives
must be pre–formatted as HFS+
or exFAT, not NTFS (Windows).???
Ditch the MacBook