I’m trying to remember when I started my latest experiment with the iPad. My first experiment began in 2010, when the first iPad was released. I wanted a real electric tablet! That lasted a few years.
Eventually I realized what it couldn’t do and lost interest in it. I took an interest again when Tim Cook introduced the Pencil, but it was reserved for the high end users, and I waited. Then the Pencil was broadened to all users. I made my move. I bought.
Immediately I came up against two hard facts. The operating system was clumsy, and the Pencil wasn’t made for handwriting. But, I didn’t give up. I set my mind to give it a good effort. Well, that effort is over now, and I’m relieved.
The operating system was nothing but a constant bother. Every action took at least four steps. The iPad didn’t know how to organize files. It didn’t know how to move files to or from other devices. And it didn’t know how to receive input from the user. Using it was like trying to build cabinetry with mittens on.
Let me just point out that I am experienced in using the most mature and sophisticated operating system in the world: Mac OS. It is the operating system that taught the world how to use computers.
What do I mean? For information organization and presentation, the Mac wisely drew on the file system that Western society had been developing for centuries: the hierarchical file system. Looking at the Mac screen, any office worker would see a representation of the same files and folders they saw in cabinets against the wall. They understood it. I’d like to say more, but not now.
There was really only one viable way to get information into an iPad, and that was through a keyboard. But the iPad didn’t have one, it only had a cartoon of one. So, you have to add a keyboard, and then you were back to an imitation laptop computer with a clumsy operating system. You want to copy some files from a hard drive? The iPad was surprised by that. Sure, the iPad would figure out a way, but you were going to have to help it.
What about the Pencil? For years, Apple barely acknowledged the concept that pencils are used for handwriting. Then, they began to admit, that yes, a pencil is not just for drawing. Expectations rose. They announced that the user could now use the Pencil to write in Pages, their word processor, and in many other places! Amazing.
The problem was in the execution. My handwriting on the iPad produced text more erratic than a seventh-grader’s typing. It proceeded between frequent scratch-outs and rewrites.
Then the system errors began. I had bought a refurbished iPad Pro. The screen started dimming and brightening randomly. I like my screen bright, so I kept going to the Settings and setting it to bright. Apple has created an annoying ability for the operating system to decide when to change brightness, supposedly based on ambient light, and I turned that off. But another version of that control was hidden in some collection of automatic controls that must have been designed by the marketing department. So I went there and turned it off. The random brightness changes continued.
Through all this troubleshooting, I was assisted by some great technicians at Apple Support. In the late stages I took the iPad to the Apple Store Genius Bar a couple of times, leaving it overnight or for a few days. Finally, the Support team decided I should send it to an Apple repair center. They turned it around pretty fast, but the repair did not fix the problem. Finally, they decided to replace the defective tablet with a brand new top-of-the-line iPad Pro. They were going all out for me.
Unfortunately, iPad pros now use FaceID, which I spurn, so I sold the iPad Pro and bought a great iPad Air with TouchID. I felt a little sheepish, because I was rejecting the Support team’s ultimate gift for something less, and in a way that implied criticism of the iPad Pro. But, I got the Air, along with a new Apple Pencil 2, and it was great. The handwriting recognition improved a little, but then regressed.
I’d been using the iPad Air for almost a year when the new problem began. The iPad stopped opening pdfs. I frequently used the iPad and pencil to sign documents for work, so this was a mission critical problem.
Back to Apple Support I went, and they began to work with me over a couple of weeks. Finally, the engineers were stumped. They said to wait until the next OS update to see if that happened to fix it. While waiting, I decided to run some tests of my own. I deleted a couple of apps, and the iPad began opening pdfs again!
What were the apps? They were two handwriting recognition apps. I had downloaded them in my never-ending quest to use the iPad as a real electronic tablet. That was the last straw.
I decided to end my iPad struggles. I got rid of the iPad. I bought a 2017 MacBook 12” from Other World Computing. I’ve given up on handwriting recognition again, and the iPad, for a long while to come. But I have have a sleek little laptop for my mobile computing, and it uses the best operating system in the world. I love it.
RobinCravey 