I just got myself this blazing hot new iPad Pro 9.7. It gives me portability and nearly all the functions I need, except the more fancy ones like making a calendar with Photos. Still have to do that on the iMac. With the Apple pencil I can do a little artwork to make a holiday greeting card. I have to remember the iPad Pro has no track pad like my Mac. But the best part is the actual keyboard that replaces the touch screen one that requires nimble, skinny fingers. I never did master that on the iPad mini, and I'm useless on the iPhone. Especially when you're trying to enter a password. It amazes me how the more dexterous of us can use their thumbs to email and text on that teeny tiny keypad! I do have opposable thumbs just like they do, so what's the deal? Maybe it's because I'm geriatric and so last century.
Notice the backlit keyboard?
Anyway, I'm writing this blog on my iPad Pro using Pages.
How do I double space?
How do I save the doc? Hmmm.
Oh wow! With Pages, I don’t need the Word software. I can format it as a Word doc before I email it. Very handy for when I do client work away from my office. (Clients: I really will be MIA during the holidays, so don’t get any ideas!)
I go through this every time I get a new Apple product. Frustrating as hell to figure out how it works and sorting out all the apps and functions. It always looks so easy at the Apple store when a young chipper nerdy type does a demonstration. This time I lucked out with a decidedly cute nerd in a local boy sort of way -- ahh, Mana, with the melting brown eyes. But I digress. The thing is, he whipped through the demonstration on how easy it is -- flipping through apps, doing doodles with the nifty Apple pencil, bringing up side-by-side windows to show how I can write on Pages on the left of the screen while doing a Wikipedia search on the right. So I bring this baby home and ... how did he do that sketch thing again?
I know. It doesn’t look anything like my sweet granddaughter, Eva. Hey, it was a first attempt!
It's amazing the cool stuff you can do. All you need is a bunch of apps that are just a tempting click away at the Apple App Store. Before you know it you have all these bells and whistles, most of which will end up in your virtual junk pile. I'm shaking my head as I look at all my disabled, impulse downloaded apps - lullabies for infants, quick fix meditations for every occasion (can't sleep, boss pissing you off, need to relax, etc., etc.), a piano keyboard, games, and lots of recipes. They're like all the shiny toys you give a kid at Christmas only to watch him playing with the packing boxes or hauling out your utensils and pots to pretend cook!
Speaking of which, the giving season is upon us. I wasn't tempted by the Black Friday frenzy, especially watching people slugging it out over hot deals on national news. Of course, we laid back islanders are way too polite. I bet you heard a lot of "'scuse me!" and "Sorry!" as people rushed past you to grab those deals. Not my scene. That's why I love Amazon.
Which brings me to the holidays. I got the iPad Pro to give me portability, functionality, and access to all my working files while I’m away in Oregon for a month over Christmas and the New Year. Tracy and Michelle and their two adorables, Blake and Eva, have just moved into a new house (their very first home), where there’s a room with my name on it. I’m sorry they moved, but so glad that they got this really lovely home that they could never have afforded if the same house was in Hawaii. Neither could I, for that matter. That’s a whole other issue, with so many young people – and older ones too – moving to the mainland because of the cost of living here. But it is what it is.
In the meantime, I’m looking forward to snow in the mountains, although not so much the rain (it’s the Pacific Northwest after all). It’s going to be fun cutting down and decorating a Christmas tree, baking gingerbread cookies, shopping (yes!), and picking out all those cool toys on Amazon for the kiddies.
Of course, I’ll be enjoying my early Christmas present as well – my ripping iPad Pro 9.7!
How did we manage
Before the digital age?
Life was slower then.
