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Everyone seems to love to argue about whether you can or can't do real work on an iPad. After spending some time experimenting and refining the apps I'm using, I've finally settled into using my iPad as a major part of my computer life.
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Chapter markers:
Why I'm using the iPad more and more 0:00
What's in my Dock: 1:06
Apps I'm using to get work done: 6:36
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0:00
This video is sponsored by Intigo Mac
0:08
What's going on, everybody, Ian here for Cote of Mac. And I've really been thinking about and using my iPad Pro quite a bit recently
0:15
And a lot of it has to do with the fact that the magic keyboard is really good. I've had a lot of spare time to really think about my working setup
0:21
And on top of that, I just like playing with technology. And in turn, I found that the iPad Pro can replace more and more of the things that I use my Mac for
0:28
on a regular day-to-day basis. Now, the more I hear people talk about using the iPad for different things
0:34
or think about using the iPad for different things, the more it excites me and makes me want to use the iPad for those things
0:39
And because of the Magic Keyboard and the iPad Pro's overall design and the apps available for it
0:43
I found a ton of really great ways I can use the iPad to get things done
0:47
And if you miss my Magic Keyboard review, that'll be linked down below and up here
0:52
But really, that's kind of the thing that has driven me to want to use the iPad to do more
0:56
So I thought I would share some of the apps and services I'm using on my iPad to really get things done so you can see kind of how to use an iPad
1:03
in place of a computer if you're willing to give it a shot. Now, since so much of iPad OS is driven from the dock and getting into multitasking and
1:10
things like that from the dock, that seems like the most logical place to start with the first
1:14
app drafts. Now, drafts for me has a very specific purpose. I basically use it as a catch-all place to throw any piece of text while I'm working between
1:23
other apps. It's like a scratch pad or a post-it note type of app where I can just go and go
1:28
in, throw a couple pieces of text, jump over to whatever app I was working on separately
1:32
and then jump back into drafts really quick to grab that text to move it somewhere else
1:36
It's almost like a large clipboard manager or a place where I can quickly do things with
1:39
a big chunk of text outside of the primary app that I'm working in. Next up on the list is iMessage, which is obviously there to keep in touch with friends
1:47
and family, and having iMessage in the dock is super great because you can easily throw it into
1:51
split screen or into slide over and jump into a text message throughout or anything like
1:55
that, and then jump back out without getting completely distrower. or shifting modes out of whatever you're working on
2:01
Now, TweetBot is the next app on my dock, which is the only social media app on my iPad
2:05
I guess, except for YouTube if that counts. And it's there because I have a Twitter addiction, I'm aware of that, and it's my favorite
2:12
way to browse Twitter. Apple Music is next up on my iPad, and it's one that I keep in the dock of my iPad, for the
2:18
same reason I keep iMessage there. It's an app that I want to jump into quickly, change songs or change playlists, and then jump
2:24
back out of, and it's really easy to throw it into Split View or slide over when I need to do
2:27
something quickly in the app without fully disrupting whatever flow I'm in in whatever
2:32
project I'm working on. Next up in the dock on my iPad is Safari and that's my go-to web browser across all my iOS
2:39
and Mac devices. And that's mostly because everything syncs across all of my devices, meaning that all of my
2:44
bookmarks and favorites are everywhere I need them to be. But on the iPad, it's also really nice to have that desktop browsing experience, meaning
2:51
that I can get a full web experience on my iPad without having to do any weird hacks or refresh
2:57
the page in a desktop view that doesn't fully work. And paired with the magic track pad, you get all of those other effects that only really
3:03
happen on a desktop browser like rollover states and hover states, which is a big deal for
3:07
me when I get into doing web development work. Next up are my two mail clients, Outlook and the iOS mail app
3:15
And I've already discussed this in a previous video. The big reason I use two different mail apps is because I want one to be up for all my work
3:21
stuff, my regular job-y job stuff, and then one for everything else. Because I want to be able to look at my work things when it's work
3:27
time and look at my personal stuff when it's personal time and not have those two pools kind of
3:31
mixing. So using two email clients is an easy way for me to create a dedicated separation between
3:36
work email and personal email. Files is another iOS app that I like to keep in the dock. And this is
3:43
really because I like the ability to jump in and out of files when I'm in another app so I can do things
3:48
like grab a file to attach somewhere or move from one folder to another or grab something to
3:53
throw into an email And having files in the dock means I can pull it into slide over And I can pull it into a slide over or split view really quickly grab the files or do whatever I need with files and then get back out of it without completely interrupting my flow or having to deal with grabbing things with one hand
4:06
and dragging with another and all of that complexity. Instead, I can just put the two windows
4:10
side by side and drag things in between. Next up is the Apple Notes app and the reason I keep that
4:16
in the dock on my iPad is because I rarely run it in full screen. Typically what I'm doing is looking at
4:21
you know, a presentation or a video or something on one side of my iPad and on the other side
4:26
I'm taking notes. And this enables me to quickly grab notes and throw it into split screen
4:31
with whatever other app is running on my iPad, making it easy for me to take notes or write
4:36
down things from whatever I'm looking at on the web. Maybe it's directions for something that I need
4:41
to grab off of the website and I put into notes or just a place to collect images and links
4:45
for a project I'm working on. Now, Apple News is another app that I've discussed several times on
4:50
the channel. So having Apple News in the dock makes it quick and easy to get into and out of
4:54
and it's an app that I genuinely just enjoy looking at. The next in line on my iPad's dock is the Reminders app, and it's an app that I've gone
5:03
back and forth on several times, but after trying a multitude of different task manager
5:07
and reminder type apps, I've landed back on Reminders yet again. And at least with Reminders
5:12
I know that I'm getting a consistent experience, whether I'm on my Mac, my iPad, or my
5:17
phone and I'm easily able to add things to my reminders list from my watch using Siri
5:21
I'm able to add them from my phone and see them on my iPad. Everything just kind of works
5:27
Now I know in the past I'd recommend a Tick Tick as a Reminders app because it was a little more
5:30
advanced, a little more feature packed. But due to some issues with their Mac app, I'm not able to get to those tasks
5:35
So I've completely abandoned Ticktick because ultimately if I'm going to be using a Reminders app
5:40
to keep track of tasks that I'm working on or things I need to get done, I need it to work everywhere
5:44
I need it to work consistently. and reminders has done that better than any other task manager I've tried yet
5:50
Now the final app in my dock is my password manager. Regardless of who you are or what you use your devices for
5:56
you should probably have a password manager on your device. Now at Cold the Mac, we recommend Dashlane as our official password manager
6:02
though I personally am using one password because I have a very long history with the app. But regardless, on the iPad, I like to keep my password manager in the dock
6:09
because I can quickly throw it and slide over and use it for either dragging and dropping username or password
6:14
or even using it for getting things like multifactor or two-factor authentication codes
6:18
out of the app and throwing them into the browser. Now, you may have noticed something about the doc on my iPad, and that's the fact that most of the
6:26
apps there aren't really work-specific apps. They're just the quick access apps that I use as companions to the things that I'm actually
6:32
using to get work done. And those apps all live up on the one home screen of my iPad
6:39
Now, the first app as far as my overall productivity apps on my iPad is IA. Writer
6:44
Anything that's long form writing that I'm going to do, whether it's a post for Cultive Mac
6:48
a how-to, or a guide for my regular job, anything that I'm planning on writing and then distributing
6:53
in a written form is going to go through IA writer. It allows me to quickly type things in, add some style through markdown, add links, things like
7:01
that, and then quickly take that text, export it in whatever format I need, and then share it
7:06
wherever I need it to go. Now, for those of you who don't know, my regular day job isn't just making videos and writing
7:12
posts. It's actually as a front of web developer and systems and servers administrator
7:17
And so the next couple apps are things that I use to get things done for that job
7:22
Now, as a front of web developer, I use working copy to access the Git repository we use
7:27
for CSS and JavaScript files, any kind of web assets we're using where we all need to work
7:32
back and forth or I need to move between machines. And we're using that as our way of
7:37
you know, doing version control. Having working copy on the iPad allows me to quickly pull down
7:41
whatever the most recent, most updated copy of, say, a CSS file is
7:46
make a couple changes if I need to and push those all back up to the server without having to leave my iPad to go to a Mac to get whatever that copy is somewhere locally or go out to the web to download it Instead I can use WorkingCopy integrate with our Git repository and just pull everything down on the iPad work on it and send it back up as needed
8:04
Because WorkingCopy integrates so seamlessly with our Git repository, it's actually one of the
8:09
big apps that has pushed me to using my iPad for more of my regular day job stuff
8:13
And the other app, which is fairly new to my workflow, is Inspect Browser, which is a
8:18
browser for the iPad that allows you to actually view the source
8:22
code of a web page within the iPad's browser. Now, this is something that exists on the Mac and on Windows and just about any browser
8:29
that exists, but on iOS, it's actually been very hard to find a version of a browser
8:34
that will let you see the code side of things, which can be really useful when you're
8:38
trying to figure out how to customize web classes or customize CSS or need to make a tweak
8:44
in some JavaScript or you're figuring out what is erroring out on a site. Having an inspector browser allows you to see what's happening behind the scenes so you can
8:50
hopefully fix what people see in front. Now, if you've never done any kind of HTML or web development type work, this might all
8:58
just be in one ear and out the other, but for those of you who have done this kind of work
9:02
or interest in this kind of work, having it available on the iPad is an absolute game changer
9:07
The next two apps on the iPad are Teams and Slack, both of which I use to communicate with
9:12
the various groups that I'm part of for work things, whether it's Slack for talking with the
9:16
cult of Mac team or teams for my regular job as my way to communicate
9:20
be part of calls and meetings, share and collaborate on ideas or stories or projects we're
9:25
working on. Having those apps available on the iPad allows me to stay in touch and be responsive
9:30
without having to switch to my phone or back to my Mac to have those conversations
9:36
Tuggle is another important app for me and one that I talked about on a recent video and it also
9:40
lives on my iPad's home screen. And it's the one that I use for when I'm doing any kind of freelance
9:44
work, whether it's making videos and writing blog posts or doing freelance web work for different
9:49
clients, it's my way of keeping track of the hours that I put in and where my time is going
9:53
on any project so that I can then in turn bill for those hours and make sure that I get paid
9:58
for the work that I'm doing. And speaking of getting paid, let's take a break to talk about
10:02
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10:07
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10:50
My thanks to Intigo Mac for sponsoring this video. Now, jumping back into the screen of my iPad
10:56
settings is next up on the list, and that's an app that I keep on the home screen of all of my devices now
11:02
I've tried burying it in folders or putting it on second and third screens on my iPhone, on my iPads, things like that
11:08
and for whatever reason, it always seems to find its way back out. It's an app that no matter what I do
11:13
I always end up needing to jump in there, just often enough that having to dig for it or search for it becomes a pain
11:19
And so by just putting it on my home screen and taking up one of those spots with the Settings app, it gives me a quick way to jump in to connect to a Bluetooth device or change Wi-Fi settings
11:27
or whatever does I need to do without too much hassle. The next app on my home screen is Pepprika, which is my recipe manager of choice
11:34
I keep it on my iPhone, my iPads. It's an app that I really couldn't live or cook without
11:41
It makes all the difference when you're trying to use your iPad or look at recipes on the web. Basically, it can take the recipes that you see posted on blogs and on things like
11:50
Pinterest It can import them in strips out all of the cruft and all of the long story that happens to it and leaves you with just the recipe and the ingredients make it really easy and really fast to follow along And I love having paprika on my iPad because I can prop it up I can get a nice
12:03
two column view where I can see all the ingredients I need over here and the actual recipe itself
12:07
over here. And then I can just jump back and forth as I'm trying to cook or bake or do whatever
12:11
in the kitchen and know exactly what I'm doing. Photos is next on my iPad's home screen
12:17
And I love having photos on my iPad just because the iPad is such a great
12:20
screen for looking at pictures and videos. I took a ton of pictures and videos of my daughter and my
12:26
family and our animals and all kinds of stuff like that. And having a way to quickly jump in and see
12:30
all of those images is super convenient. And next up are three folders on my iPad's home screen
12:36
And each of these is sorted by the type of app that's in them. First off, I have the entertainment
12:41
folder, which is things like Hulu, Netflix, Disney Plus, drawing apps, things that I use
12:48
kind of just to entertain myself, and it's a great place to jump in and get to those apps quickly
12:54
without having them clutter the main home screen, because they're apps that I really don't use that often, but they all kind of serve a similar purpose. And if I'm looking for media of some
13:02
sort or something to entertain myself for a little bit, I will jump into that entertainment folder
13:06
and find the app that I'm looking for. Now, something I do on all of my iOS devices, whether it's
13:11
phone or iPad, is have a productivity folder. And it's at that productivity folder is every app possible
13:16
that fits under the productivity umbrella that isn't a core app to how I get things done
13:22
On my iPad, for example, it's things like Dropbox that I don't usually need to jump into
13:27
because I have the files app, but sometimes I need to get into the Dropbox app specifically
13:31
Or it could be something like TeamView, which I use for work occasionally to connect remotely to someone else's computer
13:37
to do some troubleshooting type support. I also have things like Affinity Photo
13:42
Lightroom, LumaFusion, or Google Docs in there because there are things that I use
13:45
to be productive on my iPad or for work type things, but they're not things that I use as often or as frequently
13:51
so instead of keeping them on my home screen, taking up space and making it hard to find those important apps
13:56
I put them in a folder. They're never further away than a quick, you know, command space spotlight search
14:02
or quickly opening that folder and searching through to find the one that I'm looking for
14:06
But having a folder to keep those apps kind of grouped together and separated
14:10
while still being accessible and quick to find makes it really, really convenient
14:15
And the final folder on my iPad screen is the Apple folder, which I'm sure we all have at this point
14:21
And it's just where I put all of the Apple apps that I don't use all that often
14:25
Like I'm never going to look at stocks. I usually don't make FaceTime calls from the FaceTime app
14:31
I usually will search in Spotlight for a contact and make a call that way. Or I might even use Siri to do it
14:36
And for things like the iTunes Store or App Store, it's just a quick way to put them out of the way
14:42
So they're not in my way when I need to use my device. but have them still accessible in a place where obviously it makes sense they're made by Apple
14:49
Why not put them in the Apple folder? So those are some of the apps that I use on my iPad to get things done to be productive
14:56
Like I said, I've really been embracing the iPad as a way to get things done lately. I've been doing a bunch of web development on my iPad without even touching my Macs to do that work
15:05
which is something that I never thought would be really accessible or possible easily on the iPad
15:10
I always thought I would have to jump back to a Mac to test those things out. and now I'm seeing that I can do them on iPadOS
15:17
I'm really looking forward to seeing what Apple does in iPadOS 14 to push it even further and make the iPad even more capable
15:24
Let me know what you guys think in the comments down below. While you're down there, be sure to get the video a thumbs up
15:28
Subscribe to the channel if you're not already. And until next time, I'm Ian for Cult of Mac
15:32
I'll see you in the next one
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