I love it, I’m a system administrator and sometimes I jump in when we need to install network gear also (Cisco) anyway. We work against our servers (RDS) and with JumpDesktop this works perfectly with iPad Pro and the magic keyboard and trackpad.
I can write in PowerShell without any issues, I can remote in to my MacBook Pro 16” and use power from there also.
The iPad Pro is the ultimate portal devices for me now.
This is spot on, for me.
I’m just a lowly consultant and alas I shall rise no higher. But I do have a nice MacBook Pro 13” with a 5k 27” display, but also an iPad Pro 11” with the keyboard folio.
I have the MacBook at my desk, nice device, powerful and with a beautiful large screen. Stunning. But also a tad big to haul around. Even the 13” is rather weighty and it feels like it could be easily damaged in a backpack/briefcase. There was a time when there was an 11” MacBook Air. I liked that a lot, even though it was woefully underpowered. But it was really portable. The 12” MacBook was even worse, IMHO, as it only had 1 USB-C port and there are no USB-C hubs and it was as slow as an asthmatic
But then came the iPad. For a long time I had the 12.9” (1st gen) and it is nice, but a bit big/large/heavy.
Then came the 11” and it is so portable yet very powerful and the battery lasts and last.
About that power, I have no illusion that apple is forcing apps to stay within certain boundaries for memory/cpu/gpu use and that this might limit apps severely. But as a user I never notice this. For me the iPad is a speed monster.
My usecase for the ipad is everything else: There are only a few things I need/want to do on the big screen and everything else is done on my ipad. So editing documents while referencing several other documents, OCR large files and working in large/complex excels is done on the 27” screen with the MacBook Pro 13” screen as a second and my ipad as a notepad.
Everything else is basically done on my ipad. Reading reports, long long looooong threads about a keyboard, collecting information on the internet, reading emails, replying to emails, surfing, small game every now and then and many other things are best done on my ipad.
If I’m in a pinch (or lazy, or away from the office) I use Jump Desktop, login to the Macbook and do what needs to be done. If I’m not to lazy I saunter to my desk and fire up the large screen. But it is amazing how much can be done with a bit of thinking different about your work processes and some google searches.
This magic keyboard, although not perfect, will make my life a bit easier.
For one I really get tired of touching the screen when I’m typing. The trackpad might solve that.
Also the magic keyboard looks like it is really sturdy/doesn’t wobble when typing. I like that a lot.
Another thing is that it looks soooooo cool, floating your ipad around :-D
Also the fact that it is really easy to pick it up and leave the keyboard standing like a dock does look like a useful feature.
The fact that you can’t bend it backwards doesn’t make a big difference to me because I always take my Smart Keyboard folio off when I’m reading. Except for one usecase: when I put it down on a desk and want to write notes. That is when the SKF protects the back of my ipad and I really don’t like the idea of using my ipad unprotected on some table/desk/college-folding-crapy-thing.
And I don’t like the price. But that didn’t stop me from buying it. Or my 1Tb LTE iPad. Or....
