I am a huge fan of managing my tasks using plaintext files. I mostly use todo.txt, but I have recently learned about the TaskPaper format. This is what I have learned about both formats.

Both formats

Both todo.txt and TaskPaper formats are, of course, plaintext files. You can open them in any text editor on any platform. There are several clients available on each of the major computing platforms specifically built to handle them. None of the clients controls your data or is able to lock you in. You are free to organize your task list any way you wish, and even to have multiple task list files. Both formats offer different ways to define projects and tasks, and both have some kind of tagging support, which helps in filtering tasks. You can also have multiple task list files, though most clients work with only one file at a time. Last, but not least, you are on your own when it comes to syncing your task list across systems. Dropbox is the most common third-party file sync service.

Todo.txt

File format

Todo.txt is a simple flat-file format—just a list of tasks, in a particular format—that was initially built for command-line querying. It acts as a junk drawer that you can throw stuff into and easily get out later through sorting, filtering, and searching. It is for the sort of person who, for example, archives all their email into one folder, figuring it can be found later with search, rather than those who file every message into an elaborate folder tree. It works for me because I tend to have dozens, and sometimes hundreds, of tasks at a time, spread across a variety of projects, with only minor dependencies between them.

App ecosystem

There are many todo.txt compatible apps on all the major platforms. I created SwiftoDo (iOS) SwiftoDo Desktop (macOS), which are todo.txt apps highly focused on filtering and sorting tasks, and allowing for easy updating and reprioritizing. On Windows, todotxt.net is my favorite client. I sync them all via Dropbox. As long as you have a good client, like the ones I mention above, the todo.txt format is especially good for entering and managing large amounts of tasks, and rapidly reprioritizing them.

TaskPaper

File format

The TaskPaper format is much simpler than todo.txt’s format. It is a multi-level outline that includes support for tags and notes…and that’s it. It uses tags for just about everything: project, context, priority, due date, completed status, etc.

Because it is an outline, I find that the TaskPaper format is superior to todo.txt for planning—either project planning or simple day planning in my work journal. Having different outline levels makes it easy to see how tasks are grouped, ordered, and inter-dependent.

These strengths as an outliner are weaknesses, for me at least, when it comes to working through my task list, finding my next actions, and adjusting priorities to reflect what I need to work on next. The outline and order of tasks feels fixed in TaskPaper files, and it feels somewhat unnatural to sort and filter them. It is possible to flag all of the tasks to do today with a @today tag and filter the file to show them. I prefer to work with one very short TaskPaper file for the day, containing only the few tasks I plan to do that day, and mark tasks complete as the day progresses.

App ecosystem

TaskPaper’s macOS app is, as you would expect from the creator of the file format, the gold standard TaskPaper editor. It is clean, well thought-out, and deceptively simple. It has powerful outlining and filtering features that I admire, and extensive keyboard shortcuts that cover everything.

Because I have to work on Windows, I mostly use a bastardized version of TaskPaper format in Sublime Text, using the PlainTasks plugin. Editorial on iOS is the best mobile app I have found that supports the format. It looks like the next version of Drafts will do so in the near future, as well. In my opinion, outside macOS, you are best off using a text editor for TaskPaper files.

Conclusion

Both todo.txt and TaskPaper are useful tools in the plaintext toolbox. I use todo.txt to manage all my tasks, but I use TaskPaper to plan new projects or to outline priorities for my workday.

Last year, prior to Apple’s announcement of the iPhone 7, I had hoped for the “all-screen” design that was announced last week for the iPhone X. I was sure that would be my next phone. Now that it is here, one year later, I am not sure if I want it—at least not yet.

As an iPhone Upgrade Plan customer, I have three options at my disposal:

1. Do nothing, upgrade to something new next year, keep my iPhone 7, and give it to one of my kids, put it in a drawer, or sell it for peanuts in 2018.
2. Pre-order the iPhone 8 Plus, which would presumably be available soon, as the most rabid Apple fans will prefer to skip it and get the X. I would have to turn in the iPhone 7 around month 12 or 13 of my 24-month payment plan.
3. Wait until next month and pre-order the iPhone X via the iPhone Upgrade Plan. I would likely have to wait a couple months for the phone to be available (probably January). I would have to turn in the iPhone 7 around month 15 of my 24-month payment plan.

Cost: the main reason to skip the iPhone X for me

The iPhone X starts at $999. The model with more storage that I would buy is $150 more, and AppleCare Plus costs about $200 on top of that. That represents a huge outlay for the phone. I don’t begrudge Apple for pricing the iPhone X so high, or other people for buying it without worrying about its cost. The high price is, however, a hint that the X may not be for me—at least not this year.

Additional switching costs of an early upgrade

While I love the idea of “renting” a smartphone with a fixed monthly cost (hardware as a service), it doesn’t really work that way. You actually have to buy the phone, and deal with the downsides that entails.

When I upgraded to the iPhone 7, I was surprised that I would have to pay 100% of the taxes on the new phone (about $100), plus a fee to activate it on my Verizon account (about $20). I had been thinking only about the difference in the monthly phone payment I would make, which was minuscule, and the expected cost to buy a new, compatible case. I was out over $100 for the new phone, and realized that I had already paid those costs one year earlier for the 7, and was giving up that hardware completely. On top of that, the case cost a lot, too (about $50). It is easy to forget about these costs when (1) the cost of the phone dwarfs them, and (2) the main cost of the phone is a relatively small monthly payment.

This year, wiser about the switching costs, I am just not sure if it is worth it to go from the 7 to the 8 Plus or X.

Other reasons why I am iffy on the X

Coming from the Plus, the iPhone X actually represents a step down in screen size (though it has a higher native resolution), lacks Touch ID, and has a smaller battery. I am not sure how my apps will look on the iPhone X screen. I bet developers will have to figure out how best to handle the notch and curved corners. (I am a little worried about my iOS app, SwiftoDo, too.) Face ID might be slower or less convenient than Touch ID. Battery life might not be as good as on my one-year old, heavily used iPhone 7 Plus, or even the new iPhone 8 Plus.

Considering these minor drawbacks and unknowns, it might be nice to sit out the period in which users and developers figure out the new hardware, and Apple fixes any iPhone X-related software bugs.

What about the iPhone 8 Plus?

The iPhone 8 Plus is actually pretty attractive, despite having the same old (but good!) case design as the iPhone 6, 6S, and 7. I’m sure demand for it will be rather low, by iPhone standards. I would actually be able to get one soon. It is at least $300 cheaper than the iPhone X. The model I want costs $949, which is really expensive, but my monthly iPhone Upgrade Plan payment would not change.

What to do?

If money were no object, I would buy the X outright sometime soon and never use the iPhone Upgrade Plan again. Because that is not the case, I am leaning most heavily towards skipping an upgrade this year. I will deal with decreasing battery life and knowing I don’t have the best camera or performance anymore, but I will not suffer much. Or, I may just order the iPhone 8 Plus and not worry about the X until next year. I will go to an Apple Store in the next few weeks to test my resolve.

Sublime Text, my text editor of choice on Windows, Linux, and sometimes on the Mac, released version 3.0 tonight.

I was surprised to learn the news, because I have been using Sublime Text 3 since 2013. Those were betas, of course, but were more solid and stable than most production software I used. I have been using beta versions for so long, I basically forgot that a final release would ever be forthcoming. There was, famously, about a year over which there were no beta updates, but the developer pulled through more recently with more frequent updates and meaningful new features (like High DPI support). Now, after several years of development, the release is marked complete.

I am a huge fan of this text editor. I use it constantly for many things. I even wrote popular articles about it in my Plaintext Productivity guide. Congratulations to the developer for wrapping up the release.

Now is a good time to buy a license, or pursue an upgrade. My 2013 Sublime Text 2 purchase qualified me for a free upgrade, so I am a very happy customer now.

I am a fan of the open web, and also a fan of people asking their audiences directly to pay to support content they find worthwhile. A List Apart announced yesterday that they are pulling away from their advertising-based funding model, which apparently was not working well for them anymore, toward a volunteering and patronage model, which will draw from the community that reads and loves the site. I think this reflects a trend that is starting to separate “the open web” (community-based sites) from the big commercial sites (Google and Facebook, mostly), based on funding models and even content types.

I learned so much from A List Apart over the years. As a publication, it means an awful lot to me and my professional career. I am somewhat sad to admit that I stopped reading it after I shifted away from its core topics, web design and development, and moved toward finance, data analytics, and audit. I am not longer part of its core audience or community, but I wholeheartedly wish them, and the site’s readers, writers, and editors, well.

There is news today that Apple’s next-generation iPhone—the rumored high-end one—is not only going to remove the physical home button (everyone has assumed that for a while), but it will also not replace it with an on-screen simulacrum (people like me have expected a circle icon to act as the home button). The plan, apparently, is to kill the home button entirely, and replace it with a dock of icons, like the iOS 11 betas have on the iPad. That is a bit surprising to me. Whether it is true or not, this news made me want to pause a minute and reflect on how brilliant Apple’s home button was.

Simplicity

As the one, single button on the front of the phone, it was the ultimate escape key. Can’t find an exit app button onscreen? Did an app hang? Does an app confuse you? Is the screen black for no reason? Just press the only physical button on the front of the phone and return to the home screen.

It sounds so simple and obvious, but no one else had anything quite like it. (OK, Samsung copied it soon afterward, but that barely counts.) Most Android phones came with “soft buttons”, onscreen buttons or tap-able areas below the screen. But there were more of them–remember back, home, menu, and search?–or they had weird, almost meaningless icons-square, circle, triangle-that you had to figure out.

Physical orientation

A side benefit of a physical home button was that you could feel it with your thumb, and always know which way you were holding the phone by touch alone. When it inevitably goes away, I will miss the familiar sensation of finding it when the phone is in my pocket, to orient my hand and to use as a pivot as I swing the phone around to use it.

Consistency

Over time, the home button was overloaded to do multitasking and Touch ID, but it always served its original purpose, and Apple never screwed it up, even with its non-moving, Taptic Engine-driven style in the iPhone 7. (That phone’s haptic feedback feels incredible.)

Obviously, Android’s early move from physical buttons to soft-buttons approach worked out all right, but, to me, Apple’s stalwart refusal to ditch the physical home button over many generations of iPhone reflected, in my opinion, a design ethic centered upon simplicity and humanism, which I really respected.

I’m not sorry to see (presumably) the home button go, but it was definitely one of the reasons I admired the design of the iPhone, and ditched my Android phone for one years ago.

It seems that many programmers who are actually programming on iPads are writing code that runs elsewhere, either on a web server, or on a remote system they SSH into. That doesn’t describe what I do anymore. My non-work programming has shifted almost entirely to Swift, due to my obvious love of Apple platforms and my love of the language. This makes the iPad Pro less than useful for my programming needs.

I code in Xcode. Developers have been awaiting Xcode for iPad for years now, despite nearly nothing coming out of Cupertino to indicate that this will ever happen. Xcode on iPad would be great, I guess, but it seems too big and too complicated for me to even contemplate on iOS. I don’t think I would even want to develop full apps on the iPad, but I would love to work on models, custom subclasses to iOS controls, and creating unit tests, even when I’m away from my MacBook.

I know Swift Playgrounds exists, but I really wish there was something more fully-featured than it available. It doesn’t let me export my work to anywhere I can use it, which is the largest problem. I know I could code Swift on an simple text editor on the iPad, but what I really want is a compiler. Coding in Xcode is like having a conversation with the compiler, and seeing what it will allow you to do. I like that. I wish I could do that on the iPad, perhaps in a multi-file playground and export it to a Git client like Working Copy. I could get a ton of work done that way, without even trying to build and test a full app.

Perhaps Apple will make me happy this fall, when iOS 11 is finalized, or next year with iOS 12.

Setting up a new iPad is an opportunity to start over with a clean slate, and fix whatever problems you have on your old device’s setup. Fortunately, operating stability tends not to be a problem these days. What is a problem, however, is the sheer number of apps you can end up having installed, and the many notifications that come with them.

An app strategy

The App Store started out with a Unix-like philosophy about software. Remember the phrase “there’s an app for that?” Most apps did one thing. Most people do a lot of things, so we end up with a whole lot of apps. Not much has changed over time. Springboard, the launcher on iOS, is deliberately primitive. All your apps are spread out across various home screen pages. Once you have more than two or three pages, it is really hard to remember where all your apps are. Apps can be grouped into folders, but once in folders they are harder to find, unless you have a good organizational strategy.

With a new device, such as my new iPad Pro, I simply don’t install apps unless I need them right then. For those apps that get installed, I reduce their notifications to a bare minimum. If you get notifications on your phone, and you always have your phone with you, do you really need them on your iPad? Probably not.

Even after doing these smart-sounding things, I have 72 applications on my iPad Pro (and this is a machine with zero games on it!). Because of this, I often use Spotlight search to launch apps. I do this on my iPhone, too, where it feels inferior to tapping an icon. I’m learning, however, that on the iPad, just as on my Mac, it’s the right way to do it.

(I probably use about ten productivity apps most of the time, and those apps will likely be in the Dock once I install iOS 11, but I still use at least 20 of those other apps on a daily basis for reading, scanning, and videos.)

How do you launch an app on an iPad?

With the keyboard, just like on a Mac. Simply hit Command+Space to launch Spotlight, type the first few letters of an app’s name, and hit Enter. Without a hardware keyboard, pull down on the home screen to launch Spotlight, and type with the onscreen keyboard.

This behavior is fast and efficient. As a side benefit, it drastically reduces the need to organize apps efficiently on the SpringBoard.

Home screen organization with activity-based folders

I tried briefly to not organize the Springboard at all, but I ended up with several pages of apps and it looked like a jumbled mess. So I went into the other direction: I put everything into folders, all of which fit on one screen. The folder names are all verbs, based on activities:

• Configure (iOS Settings, IoT device settings, and apps related to fixing things on my home server)
• Secure (VPN, and password and other authentication-related apps)
• Plan (Calendar, Reminders, Maps, brainstorming apps, etc.)
• File (cloud data providers)
• Communicate (Mail, Messages, FaceTime, etc.)
• Scan
• Photo (“photo” is stretching it as a verb, I admit)
• Draw
• Eat (MyFitnessPal, recipe apps)
• Program (my BitBucket app and Pythonista, for now)
• Shop
• Read
• Write
• Watch
• Play (this one would be there if I had games on my iPad Pro)

Other verbs, such as “research” and “listen”, may be useful for folder names in the future, if my hobbies and/or media diet increase.

The apps within the folders are not organized. Unless I have more than 16 apps in a folder, all the icons are visible at once, and their order does not matter to me.

My Dock contains the six apps I use all the time throughout my work day: Safari, Overcast, Music, SwiftoDo (my todo.txt task list), Drafts, and Ulysses. When I put iOS 11 on this machine, my use of the Dock will change somewhat, mostly by allowing me to put more apps in it.

(I don’t have a junk or “Apple” folder for unused and unloved default apps anymore. Since iOS 10, you can remove (hide, really) Apple’s default apps that you don’t use. I just do that.)

After a couple weeks of this

This organization scheme is working out very well for me. It helps keep me focused on what I’m doing and what I intend to do, and kind of forces me to use Spotlight to both launch and switch between apps, which is the behavior I want to reinforce. (It is still ingrained in me, based on how iOS worked prior to multitasking, to close an app and go to the home screen to switch apps, but it is not necessary to do so, and it is faster not to.)

Having given up on a keyboard case, I felt adrift in subpar options for an iPad stand and case. I admit, it is not that hard to get something decent; most people would just buy an Apple Smart Cover (or a decent knockoff) and be done with it. I, however, wanted something very specific, something I had in my old iPad Air 2 case, which is apparently rare: a kickstand.

The reason is that the kickstand made my iPad feel rock solid. It never moved or wobbled on a table. It never fell down because the folded up case collapsed beneath it. It felt real and solid, like a high quality tool rather than a fragile slice of glass and metal.

The Logitech Create keyboard case (which I didn’t like) had a kickstand, but nothing else I could find at the Apple Store or on Amazon did. Apple’s Smart Cover seemed expensive and far worse as a stand than what I had for my old iPad. There was a charging stand, the Logi Base, that looked like a good, sturdy platform, but was overpriced, had a number of unfavorable user reviews, and was not a case at all, so it was an incomplete solution. I basically didn’t want to spend so much on either case or stand, but after lots of thinking and comparison shopping, I bit the bullet and bought them both. I am very happy I did.

An extravagance, but a nice one

The Logi Base, once you get over the initial cost of it, is unexpectedly great. It’s a stand that charges the iPad through the Smart Connector. Unlike a folded-up Smart Cover, it is rock solid. It basically sticks to the desk, and provides the iPad a secure backing. You can bang the screen with your fingers and it would not move. That, for me, is key. A wobbly iPad feels like a toy. A secure one feels like the future of computing.

Docking and undocking are simple: a strong magnet helps keep everything in place. Charging through the Smart Connector works just fine. Numerous product reviewers complained that charging is slow and doesn’t support fast charging. Perhaps that is true, but charging is fast enough to keep up with battery use, and then some, which is all I actually need.

The final thing that delights me about the Base is that it actually gives me a place for the Pencil. It has a tiny amount of ledge space in front of the iPad that is just big enough for the Pencil to rest on its side. There is just enough magnetism there (it is near the Smart Connector) to keep the Pencil there rather safely.

Necessary protection

While a stand is nice for desktop use, you still should have something to protect the iPad’s screen sometimes. I bought the Apple Smart Cover for travel, whether around town or around the house. I actually take it off (you have to) and store it in a desk drawer when the iPad Pro is on the Logi stand. I did spend more on it than it is worth to me, but when I ordered it, cheaper third party cases were not widely available yet. I find that I take the Smart Cover off when actually using the iPad, and put it back on when I put the iPad away. That’s different than how I’ve treated every other iPad/case combination I’ve owned, largely due to the difference in size and weight between the 9.7" and 12.9" iPads.

All in all, I am happier using the iPad with no case, and it stays on the Logi Base at my desk most of the time anyway.

I just spent $30 on an annual subscription to Ulysses, my favorite writing app (it is not quite a "text editor") on macOS and iOS. It was a relatively expensive macOS and iOS app for years, and I thought of it as the best buy I ever made on the platform, because I always bought it on steep discount the day it was released, and upgrades have been free ever since. As much as I love it, I have never used it enough, mostly because I spend time programming rather than writing. That may change now, however, because I am paying now a lot more for the privilege to use it. Overall, I decided it is worth my money to continually support the software I love. That said, the much higher cost of Ulysses and other apps I rely on probably means I will be trying and buying far fewer alternatives.

There is a limit on how much I want to pay each year, total, for software. I am not sure what that limit is, however. It is over $100, I guess, based on my spending history. But it's not that much higher than that—and I am a person who loves software. I will have to choose my apps with way more discipline and effort now that many will be an ongoing cost to me. I will be choosing just one text editor for $30 per year, rather than buying the top six of them for $5 apiece and maybe upgrading one or two of them to new versions, for another $5 apiece, after a couple of years.

I hope this arrangement will lead to better software, and more well-supported software, overall. It looks like it will have the side effect of reducing the number of apps on my home screen to an essential, more costly, more sophisticated few. That's not necessarily a bad thing. But it further raises the bar for new indie developers—those without venture backing—who are working on the next new thing.

iPads are great for writing, but if you are a touch typist, you need an external keyboard to have a top-notch experience.

I am a touch typist, and used to be a very fast touch typist as well, until RSI (repetitive stress injury) slowed me down to more reasonable speeds. Due to RSI, and the fact that using an ill-suited keyboard physically hurts, I am very picky about keyboards. I prefer a keyboard that is clicky and gives me a precise feeling when the key is activated. Mushy keyboards, by contrast, are awful for me; my accuracy decreases, and retyping increases. Key spacing basically has to be as close to a full-size key board as possible for me, because my hands cramp up when typing on anything smaller than a standard MacBook keyboard. Travel distance is important, too. Too little throw on a keyboard, such as on the first generation 12" MacBook, makes my fingers hurt.

As I said, I am hard to please when it comes to keyboards.

Smart Connector Keyboards

The iPad Pro comes with a special connector, mostly useful for keyboards, called the Smart Connector. It promises rock solid communication between the iPad and the keyboard, meaning no dropped keypresses, which are my chief complaint about using Bluetooth keyboards. Unfortunately, there are only two keyboards that pair with the Smart Connector on the iPad Pro: Apple's Smart Keyboard and Logitech's Create Backlit Keyboard.

Trying out these two keyboards, however, quickly led to disappointment. The Apple Smart Keyboard just felt awkward to type on. It has very little tactile feedback, and almost no throw. It is floppy enough to be poorly suited for use on the lap (which, admittedly, would be rare). The case it comes attached to is slim, versatile, lightweight (for what it is, not overall), andstylish. But, alas, it is not for me.

The Logitech Create Backlit Keyboard, at first, appears to correct all of the Apple Smart Keyboard’s shortcomings. It has real keys! It has decent key travel! It has a sturdy kickstand case instead of a floppy folding case! While it has real keys, and more features plus a lower price than the Apple Smart Keyboard, typing on one for a while felt awful to me. It started to feel mushy to me. It is also much heavier than the Smart Keyboard. I loved the kickstand, but I wanted something I could remove more easily, because the 12.9" iPad Pro is heavy enough on its own when used handheld.

So, after lots of time trying them out, both Smart Connector keyboards were out of the running for me.

What about Bluetooth keyboards?

While there are hundreds of Bluetooth keyboards you can pair with any iPad, they have a couple drawbacks. The main one for me is dropped keystrokes, due either to flaky Bluetooth connections, low quality components, or the keyboard requiring a keypress to wake from sleep. A secondary one is that they require batteries or recharging of their internal battery periodically, but that period is a few months long. Lastly, Bluetooth pairing can be tricky, especially if you try to use the same keyboard with multiple devices.

After trying out and being disappointed by the typing experience on the Apple and Logitech Smart Connector keyboards, I went back to my favorite keyboard of recent years, the Apple Magic Keyboard. It’s a full-size keyboard, which is comfortable to type on. It has a shallow keyfall distance, but it is not as shallow as the 12" MacBook. Keypresses feel solid and clicky. The battery lasts for months. Build quality is top notch.

I have not had any problems with dropped keystrokes when waking up the Magic Keyboard, but that is likely because my new iPad Pro itself goes to sleep, which is an option I had disabled on my old iPad. Whatever the reason, a single keypress wakes up the iPad Pro and I go on to typing without thinking about it. That’s good enough for me.

So, after an honest effort to upgrade to on of the Smart Connector keyboards, I passed on both of them, and settled for the Apple Magic Keyboard, because it offers the best typing experience for me. I am actually surprised about that, and a little disappointed that I did not like the other two options. Because I went with a detached keyboard, I had to consider different case and stand options, which I will go into in a later post.

Choosing between iPad Pro sizes

There’s a definite trade-off between size and portability when choosing between the two sizes of iPad Pro. The 10.5" version is lighter and more portable—it’s essentially the same as the familiar 9.7" model. The 12.9" version is heavier and has a larger screen, and, unfortunately, has larger bezels as well (it is the same size as the prior 12.9" model).

Smaller

The smaller iPad Pro is nicer to hold in your hands for long periods of time. Even more importantly, if you read books on it in bed, where the screen is only about 12" away from your eyes, as I do, it is easier to read on. Because you can focus on the whole screen at once, you don’t need to move your eyes as much. It is small, but it is perfectly usable for productivity as well as videos and reading.

Larger

The larger iPad Pro is, in my opinion, an even better size for getting work done. The 12.9" screen, when paired with a hardware keyboard, feels like a computer screen for productivity apps. It’s barely smaller than my old 13.3" MacBook. There is plenty of room for multitasking and slide-over. It also feels even better for handwriting and drawing, because the usable screen area is basically the same size as a standard piece of paper (i.e., A4 or Letter size), which feels natural.

Trade-offs

Does the additional size and weight make it less useful as a tablet? In short: yes, but only a little.

The 12.9" iPad Pro (2017 model) weighs about as much as the iPad 4th generation (about 1.5 lbs), so weight is not really a problem for handheld use, at least when held without a case. Apple’s Smart Cover comes off easily, so you could just take it off to read with for long periods of time, and put it back on when you want to protect the screen. Also, the weight is very well balanced, so you can hold it in one hand comfortably despite its size.

As for reading in bed or in an easy chair, the larger model is slightly worse. It’s more natural to read such a large screen at an arm’s length away, rather than perched on your stomach or thereabouts. The large screen has the same DPI as the smaller iPad Pro, so crispness at that distance is not a problem. It’s just too big to focus on the whole thing evenly, unless it’s about as far from your eyes as your laptop screen normally would be. (This is, obviously, a very small problem in the grand scheme of things.)

It's easy to have no trade-offs when you can just have both

One reason behind my purchase of a 12.9" iPad Pro was that I realized that I didn’t necessarily have to give up my old 9.7" iPad Air after doing so. Sure, it might be the smart thing to get back $100 or so by selling it, or it might be nice to give it to someone else in my family, but it is still worth a lot more to me than it is to somebody else. (I admit, it does help that my kids are too young to care about electronic devices.) This decision made it much easier to go for the larger-sized tablet.

So, if you already have a smaller-than-12.9" iPad, like I do? Honestly, if you can get away with it, keep the old iPad around for reading and use the new, larger one for desktop use.

Why did I start a blog in 2017, when nobody reads blogs anymore?

Simple: I want to own my content.

I want to write posts, and to have something that reflects myself and my work on the Internet. Plus, it’s nice when Google Searches for my name turn up something more interesting than my LinkedIn profile.

I care more about writing right now than reaching the largest audience. I’ve found from blogging in the past that people eventually find your best content; you just have to put it out there. So I’m not going to worry about social networking and search engine optimization. I’m just going to write.

When iOS 11 and the new iPad Pro were announced at this year’s WWDC, I was very excited and more than a little confused. I was excited because the hardware looked fantastic, and I knew I was going to buy one. I was confused because iOS 11 made me no longer know what the iPad was for.

Excitement

Long before WWDC 2017, I decided I would use some of the earnings from my iOS app and Mac app (todo.txt task lists, under the name SwiftoDo) to upgrade my iPad Air 2 to the newest model—whatever Apple would release next. I had hopes for a larger-screen, smaller bezel iPad, which ended up being the 10.5" iPad Pro.

Even though the tech press has decried slow iPad sales for years now, I absolutely love the iPad. I use one for music, podcasts, videos, writing, Twitter, web browsing, and reading at least 8 hours every day. (It helps that I work from home.) I love the screen. I love the touch interface. I love driving it with a Bluetooth keyboard. I love how native apps can deliver a superior experience to web pages. I even love developing apps for the platform.

Since I purchased my 2013 MacBook Pro, I have bought three iPads (not counting the Pro model I was considering) and zero MacBook Pros. This year I was not really due for an upgrade, but I use the iPad so much, I decided it was worth it.

Confusion

Despite my general iPad Pro excitement, I was also confused, because iOS 11 looked to me like a computer operating system, rather than a tablet operating system. iOS 11’s new app launching dock, file-oriented architecture, and extensive drag-and-drop support gave me the impression that it made the iPad more like the next generation of Mac, rather than a tablet.

This is important because, to me, and iPad is way more intimate a product than a computer. I read on it at the breakfast table and in bed. I listen to music all day at work, and sometimes just have it display a big clock or the blank text area of a note-taking app. These are things I would never dedicate an entire laptop to. But a tablet is small, low power, and low stress.

I installed a developer beta of iOS 11 on my iPad Air 2 to get an idea of how the new UI worked. I also visited my local Apple Store to look at the 10.5" iPad Pros the day they were released. I actually walked right right past them; the store had replaced all the 9.7" models with 10.5" models, and I could barely tell the difference. After a minute I found the 2017 9.7" iPad (the new budget/consumer model) and a new 2017 10.5" iPad Pro side by side. The difference in size was more slight than I had imagined. The larger size was obviously an improvement over my iPad Air 2 screen, but it didn’t feel like a big enough difference to warrant an upgrade. I was actually a little upset, because I really wanted to upgrade to the newest iPad, but the 10.5" model did not seem much better than the iPad Air 2.

A surprising decision (at least to me)

What dawned on me at the Apple Store was that iOS 11 would make the 12.9" iPad Pro, which I had previously thought was ridiculously oversized, very attractive. With a keyboard, it would be a much better desktop computer than the 10.5" model. Without a keyboard, and indeed without a case, it would light enough to hold while reading in bed, and not really too large for that either. It would have better software and require less maintenance than my MacBook Pro, and would be a lot more fun to use. So I played with one for a while and decided to buy it.

Now I’m writing this blog post on it, and plan to write more about the other hardware I bought to go along with it, and the changes I made to its software. It’s a wonderful device, and is clearly, with iOS 11 on the horizon, the next iteration of the Mac.

Somewhat to my surprise, I have started coding a new text editor for iOS. I usually have no ideas for new apps. This month, however, I suddenly have ideas for a galaxy of related projects, all of which support the concepts I developed and wrote about several years ago in Plaintext Productivity.

My goal is to write an app that is very simple, configurable (by normal people, not JavaScript programmers), and rock solid, which will be useful for me for planning and tracking things at work. In some small way, I wonder if I am working on something that will end up like Drafts or Editorial, only specialized for people who don’t want to configure anything too much. Even if that’s the case, that’s not such a bad thing to create.

First posts are often hopeful paeans to blogging, and promises to post regularly. This isn’t such a post. This blog is a project, or small set of projects, and that is all. Like all things, this stream of thoughts will eventually run its course.

I was inspired to start a new blog by Manton Reece and Daniel Jalkut, who discuss blogging and Apple programming on their excellent podcast “Core Intiution”. I hope to tie it to Micro.blog sometime soon, once that service launches.

So, here it is. There is more to come.