Over two years ago, I wrote a piece about long form writing on iPad, which I’ve grown to love as an activity over the years. My combination of iPad and Canopy/Magic Keyboard served me well for much of the intervening time. But then I made the mistake of lending my Magic Keyboard to Jessica in the middle of last year, and I never got it back. So rather than picking up a new Magic Keyboard, I took the opportunity to pick up a Smart Folio keyboard, even though…

I was all set to go on a weeklong trip out of the country just one day after the new iPads became available. It was as if Apple knew I was leaving town and rushed it out on a Wednesday instead of the usual Friday. Now that I’m back, some initial thoughts, in no particular order: I went with the 11-inch model. As I’ve said in the past, this is purely a personal decision. There is no right answer to which iPad size is best. I’ve owned…

Okay: Crazy designer ideas time. Bear with me. This is not a prediction of what may or may not happen at tomorrow’s Apple event. Just a thought that’s been rattling in my brain for the past few months. Have an iPad handy? Great. If not, use your imagination. Pick up the iPad and hold it as you normally would in landscape orientation. Where are your hands? If you’re anything like me, one of your thumbs is roughly on top of the home button, and the other one…

I fought the notion of a mechanical keyboard for my iPad for years. Part of the reason was every keyboard designed for a tablet I’ve tried (including Apple’s own Smart Keyboard) is just not good. Small keys. Crappy feel. I’ve never been able to type a sentence on any of them without immediately concluding that they were terrible compared to the on-screen keyboard, let alone my MacBook Pro keyboard. But the bigger reason I’ve always been opposed to external iPad keyboards is I just fundamentally believe…

A previously undocumented requirement asks for a passcode in a very particular set of circumstances: When the iPhone or iPad hasn’t been unlocked with its passcode in the previous six days, and Touch ID hasn’t been used to unlock it within the last eight hours. It’s a rolling timeout, so each time Touch ID unlocks a device, a new eight-hour timer starts to tick down until the passcode is required. If you wondered why you were being seemingly randomly prompted for your passcode (or more complicated password)…