Access Project

Technology enables us to access a world full of information at the click of a button. Almost no other place has the ability to take advantage of this more than education. When I decided to re-enroll in college I knew that I wanted to utilize technology to better enable myself to learn. So when I decided to buy a new computer or tablet I knew I needed something to meet the various situations I would encounter during my coursework. That lead me to the purchase the iPad Pro. It had a wide variety of features and my previous experiences with Apple products told me that I would easily adapt to its use.  Apple initially released the iPad Pro in 2015 and released an updated version last year. It has a 12.9 inch screen (it is also available with a 10.5 inch screen) that makes it seem much more like a laptop computer than a tablet. Matt Swider of the technical review website TechRadar describes the screen as “the Big Gulp of iPad screens – it sometimes seems ridiculously large, but you’re happy to indulge anyway.” It is wonderfully color rich and never seems to get pixelated. The iPad is lightweight at 1.5 pounds even though it has a battery that seems to last weeks on standby at home when I mostly only use it for school work. This makes for great mobility if I need to use the iPad on the road. An added benefit to the mobility is that a cellular data connection is an option. The iPad I purchased has that option so I never have to worry about whether I have a WiFi connection to be productive. I previously utilized an iPad Mini for road trips and simple tasks when I didn’t want to use my laptop. I have found that the iPad Pro is superior in every category except for mobility, but that is entirely based on the size difference between the two (the iPad Pro is a full five inches larger than the Mini.) The iPad Pro allows the user to multitask by allowing applications to be placed side by side. I’ve found this very useful when taking notes, which is also made easier by the Apple Pencil which we’ll discuss shortly. The iPad Pro is also much faster making it easier to switch between applications with almost no noticeable lag. There are several storage options: 64GB, 256GB, and 512GB. I opted for the middle range option as that affords me plenty of space to download movies when I have to travel. While I don’t find myself taking a lot of pictures and videos with my iPad it does have a very capable camera that can take 12 megapixel photographs and record video at 4K quality. Equally impressive are the four speakers. You would expect that the speakers would sound like the speakers on your smart phone but they are not. The sound is crisp and clear and sounds better than most computer speakers I’ve ever used. They also get sufficiently loud that I’d be comfortable using the iPad in a noisy environment. The iPad Pro also comes with all of the features that iPhone users have come to know well. TouchID is standard allowing the use of fingerprints to unlock the iPad, utilize stored passwords and make purchases with Apple Pay. FaceTime is easy with a front facing camera. However, there are a couple of drawbacks to this version of the iPad Pro. Many people who are Apple detractors would argue that Apple limits the ability of it’s user to expand and customize their experience on the iPad. There are no slots for additional flash storage so you are limited to the storage chosen at the time you purchase your iPad Pro. There are three external ports on the iPad. A headphone jack, a smart connector for a keyboard and the lighting port that iPhone users are most familiar with. To utilize any wired peripherals, besides the keyboard and headphones, you have to chose from (and typically pay a steep price for) a myriad of lightning port dongles that are available. Two of my most favorite features for the iPad Pro are the Apple Pencil and Apple Smart Keyboard accessories.  With the release of the original iPad Pro Apple also released the Apple Pencil. The Apple Pencil may seem like a simple stylus but it is so much more than that. It is pressure sensitive which is amazing when you draw using the “pencil” setting. The pressure sensitivity allows the user to shade by rolling the pencil along its side similarly to using a real pencil. The shading also gets darker or lighter depending the amount of pressure applied with the stylus. Although I am not an artist I am sure that anyone with some artistic ability could use the Apple Pencil to create a beautiful work of art. I’ve also found some other non-artistic ways to utilize the Apple Pencil. While taking a math course online, I have found it much easier to plot points on graphs using the precision of the Apple Pencil and it is also useful to take handwritten notes. There are many third party applications for the iPad that enable the user to take notes directly on texts in many formats. One of the most common being Adobe PDFs that I have seen many courses utilize for online textbooks, presentations, and additional course materials. The apps enable users to write directly on the documents so you can highlight and add additional information in the same way you would highlight a hard copy book textbook. Another interesting feature is the ability to charge the pencil using the lightning port. The pencil can be charged from a completely expended battery to completely full in 10-15 minutes and it lasts weeks on a single charge. While the Apple Pencil is an extra cost on top of the iPad Pro it is a worthy investment for anyone serious about using the iPad Pro for productivity.  Anyone who dislikes to use the on-screen keyboard on their tablet should definitely try the Apple Smart Keyboard. The keyboard doubles as a cover for the screen and a stand for the iPad. Athough I wouldn’t trust it to provide serious drop protection because it is pretty thin in areas and is expensive itself. One of its greatest features is that it does not require a battery. The keyboard is powered via the smart connector port on the side of the iPad. That is a wonderful feature when compared to my previous experiences with battery powered bluetooth keyboards. I have found a couple of limitations with the Smart Keyboard. Some websites and applications on the iPad do not support all of the buttons on the keyboard. Most commonly I have found that the arrow keys don’t work on some websites making it difficult to navigate through text when typing on a website. Other than some keys not working in specific situations I have found that the Smart Keyboard is just as easy to use as a laptop or desktop computer keyboard.  So far my time with the iPad Pro has been amazing. I’ve found a few minor things that prevent me from saying my experience has been perfect but anyone who has used Apple products in the past would have no issue getting used the features of this iPad. The iPad Pro’s entry level price point may be a premium to someone in the market for a cheap tablet and many consumers may be against Apple’s proprietary development processes. Even so, I would recommend that anyone in the market for a new tablet heavily consider the iPad Pro.     Works Cited  Swider, Matt. “iPad Pro 12.9 (2017) review”. TechRadar, Jun 7, 2018. www.techradar.com/reviews/ipad-pro-2-129.  “Pro – Technical Specifications – Apple”. Apple. www.apple.com/ipad-pro/specs/.