It’s the end of November/beginning of December, and it’s been so busy that I haven’t really had time to post the news. Here comes a blizzard of posts.
This past weekend was Black Friday, and every year I look at what Apple’s offering and evaluate. In fact, I even have a spreadsheet that I update. Since 2013, I’ve gotten a new iPad every 3-4 years:
- 2013: iPad 4
- 2016: iPad Pro 9.7″
- 2020: iPad Air 4th generation
Esri Canada has had their Employee iPad Program that whole time, and when it has renewed, it’s always prompted me to take stock and see what’s available. Combining the Esri program with the Black Friday deals can be a winner, like this year, or not like last year. This year, all of the iPads were discounted by Apple, and so were the keyboards. Add it all up, and I stood to save around $410, which was enough to make me pull the trigger.
It’s an iPad Pro 12.9″ with the M2 processor and 265 GB of storage. (The one that we got for Miranda in 2021 was the same form factor, but with the M1 chip and 512 GB)
I’ve always been interested in the larger iPad but never had one. We’ll see how it turns out. It might be very cool and liberating, or it might feel like I’m hauling a TV tray around. As anyone in our family will tell you, I always carry my iPad around. Unlike when I replaced the iPad 4 and the iPad Pro 9.7″, my iPad Air (SkyPad) was actually still doing pretty well. The battery was still healthy, and I was able to do things with it, no problem. Main uses as of 2023:
- Zwift (mounted in front of my stationary bike)
- Duolingo (I’m on a 1244 day streak)
- News / video
- Kindle reading (I have a Kindle paperwhite, but I find myself reading on the iPad instead)
This December, because I have the big iPad, I am planning on trying the Advent Of Code on it in Swift Playgrounds. That will be an interesting challenge.
