Best device for working home and on the go – The iPad Pro

For many, this may sound like an ideal scenario, working remotely regardless of where you are and when you want. You will of course need a job with certain description which will fit within that scenario as well as good equipment to work on ! In most cases you can work remotely if you are a writer, blogger, video editor, YouTuber, IT consultant, salesman, web designer, web developer, programmer, journalist, business owner, teacher, entrepreneur etc. I’m sure there is many more which I cannot name right now.

So we have come to a job title which will allow us to work remotely. Now we need to think of our surroundings, would we work at home as our ideal place or perhaps our friendly, local coffee shop? Or maybe even in another country surrounded by palms and sun around you!

All of this is possible of course with the help of the right equipment. Many use laptops which till now has been really good as portable machines but thanks to Apple and their constant development of their tablets range we now have a new generation of iPad Pro’s ! I have a pleasure to own latest 12.9” iPad Pro. Apple is offering only 1 year warranty on these machines but you can pick it up from let say John Lewis (same price there literally anywhere else) and you will have 2 years warranty anyway which is a better deal than you will get at the Apple shop. Don’t forget getting a screen protector glass as you probably don’t fancy scratching £1000 odd piece of advanced engineering. When going for additional accessories, you most likely will need Apple Smart Keyboard, latest Magic Keyboard for iPad (available from May 2020) or any other Bluetooth keyboard which will suit you best. I went for the Apple smart keyboard which I must say is a little strange, does not have backlight which is handy when you working in dark environments but overall, after over a year of using it every day, I really love it. There is not many alternatives if you want something with high quality, Brydge perhaps – an American company recently introduced their Brydge keyboard which has a bluetooth connectivity, with battery which will hold the power even up to 1 year, backlight keyboard and lovely aluminium design, this has been also updated with trackpad as now iPad supports trackpad or mouse which I’m sure will make certain group of people very happy and pleased with it. I’m thinking of getting the latest Magic Keyboard which will be available in May, just need to see it first to see if it will fit my current working environment.

Talking of iPads come with different colours – two to be exact (space grey and silver), they have two sizes available – 11” and 12.9”, they do have LTE option which will enable you to install your own sim card (on plan or PAYG) and enjoy internet regardless of where you are. Storage size there are 64GB, 256GB, 512GB and massive 1TB option ! I went for 256GB as I like to have my PLEX and Netflix videos as well as some audiobooks downloaded and available when I’m on the plane, also being a storage specialist, I have constant connectivity to my Qnap NAS which allow me to access terabytes of data (and backup my iPad at the same time as well).

There is tonnes of well made apps which can suit every professional person regardless of what your career is, battery will allow you to work up to 10 hours which also is very good! On top of that you can buy a power bank which will allow you to hold that extra power on when you need it. There is also an entertainment factor on why iPads are so great, as mentioned before you can watch your favourite movies, listen to audiobooks, read actual books, talk with friends (even many at the same time !), as well as watch TV if you’d like. There are ways to watch UK television when you are out of country and this is pretty good.

Apple Pen is another device which could be very useful if you need any graphic capability, I don’t really use it for that purpose but it is great as a hand extension or when taking notes, you can also make screenshots, select and amend text, images or PDF documents.

Depends on environment you working on you may need good headphones, be warned – iPad doesn’t have old type jack input or lightening, it comes with USB-C so you can use adapter. I have recently purchased Bose Noice Cancelling 700 headphones and I must say that these are absolutely fantastic. These comes with built-in 8 microphones which will help you having a decent quality conversations even in crowded places. Can I assure you that only your voice will be heard to person you speak with, it will also work with VoIP, Skype, FaceTime, regular phone calls or SIP. Battery will keep working for 20hours, quality of audio is very good and due to light weight you will be able to keep them on the head for entire day. These will help you focus more on work as you won’t be disturbed by any noise.

In the next upcoming weeks I would be trying to spend some time showing other cases and setups you may need when working remotely and on how to be more efficient as if you just starting to work outside from office you need to make sure you deliver better quality than you did when working among other people.

I help people and companies to make this move and start working remotely. If you are interested in dropping your current workflow and moving into iPad I will be happy to help you with this move, can hear to your requirements first and then advise on what would be the right way to approach it, I will help you selecting the right apps, explain how to synchronise everything, help moving your outlook .PST files into this environment or remotely helping you with everyday iPad problems you may have (until you know how to use it with confidence) ! Let’s make that big step towards future NOW. Consultancy service is a paid service which I offer but you will get value out of it. If you are interested, please feel free and get in touch by emailing me directly, you can do it though “Contact me” page on the top of the page.

I’m looking forward to hear from you,

All the best,
Lucas