Just over a week ago, I finally took the plunge, and ordered myself a new iPad, even though there wasn’t much wrong with the one I was using. It’s an iPad Air with 128GB of storage.

Even with Scrivener, and a whole bunch of other apps loaded, that iPad never quite made it as a secondary writing device. However, the iPad has done sterling service as a surfing and reading device. As time has progressed even that became suspect. Over the past few months, an increasing number of apps have failed updates because they need more recent versions of iOS. My iPad was running 12.5.5, and the latest is 15.4!

So I ordered a new iPad PRO with the Magic keyboard. When it arrived, I fired it up, started the side-by-side synchronization, and waited less than a minute before it failed! iOS 12.5.5 is too old to automatically sync with 15.4.

Well, the air was pretty blue for a few minutes as I wrestled with how to synchronize manually. The biggest time-sink was manually syncing Music, Books, and Kindle, but once that was done, and Dropbox and iCloud were configured, I realized one benefit of manual synchronization.

Over the years I’ve downloaded and tried several dozen apps. Some of them are no longer supported, and some I discarded after a few weeks. Clearing those out has certainly kept my home screen less cluttered, and helped me focus on the apps I use most frequently. That list has turned out to be Scrivener, Obsidian, Aeon Timeline, and the Office 365 Mobile apps. Plus of course Music, Books, and Kindle! I haven’t configured email, which was a deliberate decision.

The keyboard has also been a revelation. Over the years, I’ve experimented with several keyboards with various iPads, and they’ve never quite worked for me.

The Magic keyboard took a while to get used to, but once I did, it’s turned out to be all I could ask for. I’ve already written two stories mostly on the iPad, both in my office, and at various other locations.

Not having email or any messaging apps immediately available, has really helped reduce distractions, and my iPad is finally realizing the vision I had for it several years ago.