Curious how people use their iPads beyond watching videos and social media.
I mostly use my iPad for things that feel awkward on a phone but don’t require a full laptop. A lot of reading, note-taking, browsing, recipes while cooking, and watching videos during travel.
With a keyboard, it’s also surprisingly good for emails and light writing. I didn’t use mine much at first, but once I stopped expecting it to replace a MacBook, I started using it every day.
Mine’s a real work device now ngl, multitasking in iPadOS 26 finally doesn’t feel half-baked. Only catch, real dual-screen (not just mirroring) needs an M-chip iPad, M1/M2/M4. Older ones just mirror. Here’s what’s new if curious
Still feels like extra steps vs just opening my laptop imo, no shade tho. Mine’s just my bedtime reading device, nothing fancy. Night Shift on before bed makes a big diff btw, way easier on the eyes than stark white at 11pm
almost entirely drawing here, got into digital art with the Pencil a year ago, basically my procreate machine now. skip buying procreate first tho, adobe fresco’s fully free these days, close enough to test if art’s even your thing before dropping $13. also tried it as a second screen for my mac once, works fine for reference pics on the side
Basically my daily planner now, ditched folders for tags in Apple Notes a while back, way quicker to find stuff. Calendar, meeting notes, to-dos, all searchable in like two secs. Boring next to everyone’s creative stuff but it’s what actually gets used daily
Reading/research is my whole use case, PDFs, marking up with the Pencil. One trick that’s saved me time, drag a PDF out of Files to the edge of the screen, pulls it into Split View next to notes instantly. Small thing but skips like three taps
@iHelpYou Didn’t know you could drag straight from Files like that, def trying that !!
Gonna throw in a totally different one, mine’s my mini music setup. Hook a cheap MIDI keyboard to GarageBand and it’s a real instrument instead of tapping glass, velocity sensitivity carries over and everything. Found this a while back, covers the setup for both Lightning and USB-C models
More of a PSA than a use case honestly, if anyone’s still using an iPad as their HomeKit hub, Apple axed that back in February, only Apple TV and HomePod count as hubs now. Found out the hard way when my automations just stopped and I had zero idea why until I looked it up
@PurpleBanana wait seriously? Had no idea that got pulled, glad I switched to Apple TV for that ages ago for unrelated reasons honestly))