After reading Federico Viticci’s excellent review of the new iPad Mini 7 titled “iPad mini Review: The Third Place” I had an epiphany that has solved something I have been toiling over since I retired from Apple three years ago, what to do with my iPad Mini?
I love my iPad Mini 6. It feels awesome in my hands especially when holding it in one hand and using it with either my finger or Apple Pencil. I also love its size as it fits almost anywhere when travelling and feels like an always ready device. However the truth is I have never found a truely proper place for it in my life.
The problem I have had is that I have too many Apple devices. This is an affliction of many ex-Apple employees. I have an iPhone, a Mac Studio with Studio display, a 15” MacBook Air, an 11” iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard and an iPad Mini 6 (plus a Kindle whose only duty is reading on the beach). I love them all in their own way but I have been doing a lot of travelling since retiring and lugging a MacBook Air, iPad Pro, iPad Mini and iPhone as well as the cute little Kindle whose weight, battery life and ruggedness means it doesn’t need any thought and just gets chucked in anywhere, has been a bit of a chore. It is especially annoying at airports with the new scanners that make you leave everything in your bag when it gets scanned. This is problematic as I have found my bag always gets pulled aside for manual inspection. I finally got to speak to an airport security officer who confirmed that the scanners can’t scan through 3 layers of tech on top of each other.
Acknowledging the “too many devices” problem, I have been trying to figure out a way to reduce the number of devices and also get done what I need/want to do. This lead me down a rabbit hole of buying a Google Pixel Fold and setting up AirMessage (so I could still stay on iMessage) in an attempt to replace the iPhone, iPad Pro and iPad Mini. I won’t go into detail but that experiment was just a bridge too far due to many factors but a lot of it was lack of app support for the folding screen and the removal from the Apple ecosystem. I did work for Apple for 25 years so have converted all my family and friends to iPhones and iMessage so it is probably my fault.
After the failed folding Android experiment I went back to the drawing board. This made me think about what I really wanted out of a device. The first realisation was that I don’t need the multitasking, multiscreen, multi app setup I once did when working. The second realisation was that iPadOS has come a long way but so have services that support iPadOS such as banking and some social media apps. So i ditched the MacBook Air and traveled solely with my iPhone and iPad Pro with Magic Keybaord. After a recent holiday to Croatia and Italy I proved the point that I could get by with just these two. However what about the iPad Mini I have desperately been trying to find a place for?
Well, this is where Federico’s excellent article “The Third Place” comes in. Basically I was thinking all wrong, I had dismissed carrying two iPads as a stupid idea as surely they both should occupy the same place for my needs given they both run the same OS. The epiphany really came when I realised the iPad Pro was now covering my “Mac” needs then why isn’t there a place for another iPadOS device?
Bring on the iPad Mini as the Third Device – Thanks Federico, I just ordered a iPad Mini 7 with Apple Pencil Pro.