I am still watching an absurd number of iPad Mini videos on YouTube. I am not sure if this is being driven by some of the exciting new features in iPad OS 17 or a weird tablet-focused mid-life crisis where I am wanting to go back to a smaller bag with fewer things in it.
Like many mid-life crisis-esque things, this drive is has a kernel of truth that is layered with a thick coating of fantasy. In this particular case, the truth of the matter is I don't need to be ultra-portable and/or ready to jump on a plane to zip off to some exotic location and give an emergency lecture on the use of A Vision in W.B. Yeats' poetry as if I were some kind of scholarly minute man. I will, for the foreseeable future, be a father and university professor. What trips I take will be planned far in advance. On most days, my mobility requirements will involve walking from my office to a classroom.
The iPad Pro I put in my bag every morning is currently the better device for the classroom. In between Stage Manager and the Magic Keyboard, it provides capabilities and creature comforts that make it a better choice for classroom and office use. (An iPad Air would likely serve me just as well, in that regard.)
But I am, once again, find myself in Notes using the Apple Pencil to write this.
Realistically, I know I am in too many remote meetings to give up on the two device lifestyle — even if I am increasingly hoping/wishing an A17 iPad Mini will be capable of Stage Manager — especially after several benchmark tests have shown the A17 to be comparable to the M1.
And yes, I know the RAM configuration will matter.
But a boy can dream.
While watching these videos, however, I have increasingly had to acknowledge that there is another kernel of truth I need to confront. Either my use case has been shifting or I need an intervention about my relationship with the word "Pro", as it relates to Apple's iPad lineup.
I am primarily a writer and a reader. Yes, more of the writing I do involves emails than it does more creative work. But what I don't do as often is scroll through large spreadsheets like I did while I was a full time administrator. (I'm not convinced I should have been doing that as often as I did anyway.) Some of the problems could have been addressed by deleting or hiding columns with unnecessary data and risking my columns not aligning with other users' spreadsheets.
I still think that moving to an iPad Mini 100% of the time is something that would take a lot of adjustment. I would need to rethink my keyboard and pointing device and if they would fit in my favorite bag from yesteryear. I would need to look at whether I need to get a monitor for home as well as work.
In short, I would need to rethink my relationship to computing. Of course, all of us in the Western world probably need to rethink that, given the way the rest of the world has learned to use their phones. Given the difficulty inherent in that kind of self-reflection, the good news is that I have time to do so.
Nevertheless, it is something I need (and, given the number of these videos I have been watching, I suspect I may want) to do.