Drsql.link

I am this close to using an iPad as my only roaming device…but not completely. For the past few years, I have used an iPad more and more for my daily work when I am not at my desk with my big monitors. I started this out on a 11-inch Pro device that I used for traveling on-call work. I could log into a VPN and then remote control a server and get pretty much anything done I needed.

I had to give that back when I left the company, but I got one of the base-level iPad, Series 10 iPad models as a replacement. I added to that a Logitech keyboard case that has a nice feel and a very responsive touchpad. 99% of the time, I really don’t miss the Pro version that much (except when I want to edit video perhaps) and this one was 1/3 the cost and still does everything I need.

I even used that 10th Gen iPad device for a presentation recently at SQL Saturday Orlando, and will continue to when I don’t need live demos. I also have a few other iPads, including a mini that I use as a Stream Deck, desktop digital frame, and traveling entertainment system.

As a writer, I put pretty much everything into Apple’s Notes application (which I can access on my iPads, my phone, and when I am at my desk, in a browser). The base-level iPad doesn’t have Apple Intelligence, which I use as a proofreader at the very least, but I can go to my phone and use it and it changes in both places in a really nice manner.

For real work, as the cloud gets better and better, a lot of stuff that I do can be done right in a browser or controlling a PC in the cloud or at my desk. I don’t have my local server exposed to the internet (other than typical computer use.)

And, the latest version of iPad OS even now supports a windowing model that feels very much like a PC. Throw the image up on a large screen and you can be writing an article and showing the game on the TV and writing a blog in a window on a device that has a several generations old phone processor powering it. It’s sort of clunky, but it definitely is a nice new feature.

But..

As much as the experience of using an iPad as my primary machine when travelling has an appeal, it also has downsides. I searched to see what others thought, and while some people liked it, many didn’t.

The biggest downside is that quite a few of the apps are not really optimized for a full-sized screen. They all feel a bit like large versions of iPhone apps. This is fine in some cases (I actually was contemplating using my iPhone 16 Pro Max to present from, but for some reason that made me feel like less of a technical person).

Its the apps. All the apps.

As I was prepping my presentation for next week, I decided I was going to try to edit it on the iPad. Using the iPad to project the presentation to my Apple TV for practice was easy. It looked good. It was perhaps a bit sluggish on an animation, but for the most part, I would never have known this was on an iPad.

But the editing experience was less than ideal. Just trying to change out a graphic and some font sizes took a lot more work than on a PC with a “real” mouse, rather than what amounts to a virtual finger much of the time (the virtual finger does work great most of the time, to be fair).

Using the Windows App (used to be called Remote Desktop), controlling a PC mostly works very well, though not every keystroke has a simple replacement on the iPad keyboard. For many tasks, it is great, and I wrote a lot of my technical posts from my iPad on a PC that I have SQL Server installed on.

I also tried using the browser-based editing tools, and as anyone who has used them knows, they have their own set of issues with usability. There were a few things in browser PowerPoint that were better than iPadOS PowerPoint (like resizing the fonts of an entire block. In iPadOS, it could only change all the font sizes to one size. The browser version could increase them all proportionally).

But in all cases, when I get anywhere past writing text or simple edits, it was just a hassle.

The verdict

The iPad is going to be more and more my travel (in my house, travel, etc.), work, and entertainment device. I will write on it, present from it, and use it very often. I might even consider looking at one of the 13-inch devices one day.

I think that we are finally getting to the vision that Microsoft had for their lower-end Surface devices back in the day. A device that you can do real work on that is light, long-lasting, and syncs beautifully from the phone I carry everywhere. Now if we can finally get office apps that are truly similar enough to their PC versions.

So while the iPad is a great companion…it is not nearly ready for me to use to do the heavy lifting. That may change one day, but it is going to take time.