I'm starting my first ever capital-J Job in eight days. I still don't have a new apartment. But we're really goddamn close: we have a "reservation", which means they won't give it to someone else in the meantime, and we sent nearly all of the two dozen documents they want. Then the official owner of the property needs to give the thumbs up, but since that's some real estate business that should be fine? (It's a fucking one-year contract and we've shown we have enough savings to rent like three years, so it better be fucking fine.) If we get the thumbs up and get to live there, it'll be damn near perfect. The neighborhood is "rough" by Dutch standards, but the apartment complex is brand-new, 1000sqft, not too long of a commute for me and (divided by two) rent & utilities are really affordable. Plus my housemate will be my best friend that I've known for nine years. In other news, I got myself an iPad Pro for work/home. If anyone has app recommendations, lemme know! I love the thing already: I like to sketch out my thoughts and the iPad is super useful for that kind of work. It's also almost making my desktop PC useless, because consuming media / articles / news / hubski is much nicer on that thing.
I'll still have a new work laptop but I'm pretty sure it'll only be used for a few Windows applications and not a whole lot more. Funnily enough I think the iPad will have a much larger impact on my phone usage. I used to sit on the couch and browse from my (comparatively) teeny tiny phone screen, but I much prefer the iPad for that now. If I look at my phone home screen, I could see myself removing more than half of the apps on there. The only thing I really need my phone for is calling, Whatsapp and 4G LTE.
I've held out getting an iPad for years now. I love my 15-inch Macbook Pro, can't imagine being more productive on an iPad. I listened to CGP Grey describe his setup and how the iPad Pro was like the best piece of hardware he's ever owned.
Well, the iPad will be in addition to a laptop that I'll need for GIS and working together with others, so it'll definitely not be my only device for productivity. I did realize that on my 13"MBP, I did not do much more than text editing and browsing, so it's not a loss in my mind. I'm pretty sure it was this Cortex episode that got me interested in using an iPad. I already use pen & paper as a way to get my thoughts straight but want to up my ante. Playing around with GoodNotes and Concepts already has me confident that I've made a good decision.
I had a couple ipads. They're fun to play with it you don't need a keyboard for something and just want to sit around without a laptop in your lap. I can't imagine being productive with one but I suppose it's doable with a Bluetooth keyboard. Without that it's a giant phone. I'm curious about the pencil but I'm a traditional media dinosaur so I don't even see myself ever bothering to even play with one for art. YMMV