Apple [ARCHIVED] Company • Page 404

I was sort of leaning this way anyway, and I saw a lot of recommendations for them elsewhere, too. Definitely gonna look at them today. Thanks!

 

ugh same.

 

I’ve owned the original 9.7 Pro, the 1st gen 12.9 Pro, the 10.5 Pro and now the new 12.9 Pro. I would go for the increased screen size. The smaller pro is very convenient in terms of portability, but I found I had to hunch closer to the screen if I was using it on a table. Always found myself wanting the larger screen again.

The only thing I find the new 12.9 to be a little cumbersome for is reading - wrists start to get a little tired after awhile. Mostly still use my iPhone to read.

 

Super jealous of the iPad Pro haha. That being said, I’m amazed at how long my iPad Air 2 has managed to feel new. Hasn’t showed a bit of age, and consistently gets better with iOS updates. Probably my favorite Apple device ever.

 

Me until the moment I opened the pro box lol

 

Been playing around on the iPad for the past hour. Getting things more customized and set up.

Man, I really love this thing.

 

Currently re-evaluating every RSS feed reader for iPads ... because that’s the kinda nerd I am.

 

I'd be interested in how you customized your new ipad, if you'd be willing to spend the time. If not, that's cool. Just curious as I play with mine.

 

Today was basically finding apps that would best fit into my workflows. So, an RSS reader that works great in split screen with Drafts for posting news, and quickly going through all my feeds, is one example.

Then I wanted to get a bunch of Shortcuts, extensions, set up for things I do regularly. One thing I do a lot when posting news is needing to create an image for the featured image on the post. Find an image, downloading it, cropping it, centering it ... can get tedious after a while. So I made an extension to help automate it. Now I can just open an image on any website, run the extension, and it’ll download the image to my server, run the ImageMagick command I use to resize/zoom crop on the best part of the image, and then puts it in a folder for me in Dropbox to add to the post.

I did a few other little things like that in Drafts as well. I have a shortcut key I hit that will put the highlighted text into Title Case. Or all lower case, or upper case. And I have one that wraps each line of text in my “tour date” code for when I post tour dates.

After that it was second home screen folder organizing. Getting apps logged in. That sorta thing.

 

And Face ID on a tablet/lap computer may be even better than the phone. It’s so damn nice and convenient. Need this on my iMac. Love the full screen no home button needed for anything too. Feels like it shoulda always been this way.

 

Gotcha; thanks for telling me! The image shortcuts sounds pretty cool. I still haven't played much with those just yet, but could see them being very useful if I try to incorporate my iPad into my workflows.

I know it's been just a day, but have you run into any shortcomings yet with the iOS that'll require some inventive workarounds to fit your workflows?

 

FaceID on the iPad might be my favorite thing. Really makes me regret the iPhone 8 Plus. I have sweaty hands. And I live in FL. TouchID fails the majority of the time for me.

 

Used my new Xs Max all day yesterday and I’m just now getting a chance to backup my old phone and restore the new one.

I thought you guys were exaggerating last year about how much of a difference not having the bezels or whatever made but I picked my 8+ up this morning and...woof lol.

 

It’s funny how the older phones immediately look ancient. Haha.

 

I think over all the main “shortcomings” are windowing things. And size of screen compared to the giant iMac. Usually I have like a bunch of windows all open at once, moving between them, when doing any kind of coding work. That’s just not something I can do here. From a writing perspective, the only issues come down to managing the clipboard and textexpander, two things that Drafts and Copied have gone a long way to helping with.

I wish there was a better way to launch websites from Spotlight. I miss that about Alfred.

 

After playing around with basically all the RSS feed readers out there, here’s my thoughts:

For most people Unread is the best one. If all you want is a great RSS reader to read your subscriptions, it’s great, simple, and very nice looking. It gets out of your way.

Reeder comes up second in that category, but it hasn’t been updated for the new iPad yet, and probably won’t until the new version. I’ve always been sad about the speed of development on that app, and it’s why I ended up moving away from it on the Mac for similar reasons. (I use, and recommend, ReadKit there.) Still, it’s a very solid solution for the iPhone and I don’t really have many complaints about it. If it would have worked on the iPad, I probably would be sticking with it.

What I need is something more powerful, because finding news and staying up to date on things is a big part of my job. I need something I can use in split view for posting news, and bonuses come for things like keyboard shortcuts and customization of layout/fonts.

I liked Lire, but it never quite felt right for my workflow. I can’t really describe why, but I felt like I was fighting against it the entire time I was trying to set it up and get it how I wanted it and I was used to/comfortable with from my regular setup.

Then I tried out Fiery Feeds. And it stuck. I love this app. It took a while to customize, because it has so many options. Probably too many options. However, if you spend as much time in an RSS reader as I do, it’s worth it. Where Unread is great for just being a great RSS reader for everyone, Fiery Feeds is the best RSS reader for those that want control over almost every detail of how the app works. From layout and font options, to how it displays feeds in the list, to being able to integrate with Pocket so, like ReadKit on the Mac, I only need one app for my RSS and Read Later needs. (This has the added benefit of gaining me an extra app space on my home screen on the iPhone as well.)

Combine this with convenient keyboard short cuts, and this works with my already established posting workflow almost perfectly. It’s unfortunately also the most expensive options ... with a $9.99 per year subscription price. Yet, after getting everything set up, I think that’s a price I’ll gladly pay for an app this versatile and important.

 

Unread has always been my cup of tea. Gave up on Reeder due to lack of updates, but it is also a great app.

 

Started to transfer all my photos and stuff to iCloud photos. Anyone else do this? $0.99/month for 50 GB just seems like such a steal.

 

It’s amazing. So worth it.

 

hahahaha my wife is gonna let me get a 12.9 iPad Pro - fuck yeah

 

mine is defffffinitely not lol jealous

 

Love Fiery Feeds. I know I don’t use it to its full potential, but the lack of Reeder updates was bumming me out. I still use that on Mac though for lack of looking into a better option.

 

Same. I had to abandon it. Not only because it doesn't look right on the new iPad, but if it's not going to be updated, I can't risk it. I know most people won't tweak or need to tweak all the options, but I've been able to customize Fiery to look and feel almost exactly how I want. It's really nice. Especially for how much I use an RSS reader during the day. I check it and star things to post if I'm in line at the grocery store, etc. I haven't actually made my own theme yet, but I've contemplated it. I have a lot more work I need to actually get done before I'd tackle that, however.

 

I don't even know what an RSS reader is.