{"id":16875,"date":"2018-11-25T12:32:54","date_gmt":"2018-11-25T20:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/?p=16875"},"modified":"2018-11-25T12:51:34","modified_gmt":"2018-11-25T20:51:34","slug":"macbook-ipad-choices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/2018\/11\/macbook-ipad-choices\/","title":{"rendered":"Troy Shimkus Seeks the Perfect Road Warrior Setup"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"box-shadow-right\" src=\"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/11\/Troys-Macbook-and-iPad-case.jpg\" alt=\"Troys Macbook and iPad case\" title=\"Troys Macbook and iPad case.jpg\" border=\"0\" width=\"300\" height=\"\" \/>Guest article by Troy Shimkus<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>For the last several months, I\u2019ve been trying to rework my workflows in regards to equipment choices. As a result of a long story I won&#8217;t recount here, I lost my 2013 MacBook Air &#8211; so I needed to find a replacement.<\/p>\n<p>My home setup is a trash can MacPro with two 27\u201d monitors, which has been and continues to be a great setup for my work. My mobile needs were not extensive, so I started thinking, gee, maybe I can try going iPad only. So the search began.<br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"width:120px;height:240px;float:left; margin-right:10px;\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&#038;OneJS=1&#038;Operation=GetAdHtml&#038;MarketPlace=US&#038;source=ss&#038;ref=as_ss_li_til&#038;ad_type=product_link&#038;tracking_id=httppodfeecom-20&#038;language=en_US&#038;marketplace=amazon&#038;region=US&#038;placement=B00R0I71S4&#038;asins=B00R0I71S4&#038;linkId=06bc3e23443879fca1e2a7c6afbc927e&#038;show_border=true&#038;link_opens_in_new_window=true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>I owned a 9.7\u201d iPad Pro, so I started there. I tried out a few keyboard folio cases, and external keyboards to see what would work well. I settled on a little keyboard from <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2SfLEv7\">Logitech called Keys-to-Go<\/a>, that works well for me. I\u2019m not very picky on the keyboard I use, I can pretty much acclimate to any keyboard.<\/p>\n<p>So, part of the process of course includes software. My day to day work isn\u2019t anything too demanding like audio\/video recording or heavy graphics work. It\u2019s mostly around SQL queries and data work and with a collection of apps I got pretty close to being able to work remotely completely on an iPad, but just enough little things kept creeping up to make that not a long term solution.<\/p>\n<p>So after buying several different keyboard portfolios, trying different apps, buying and returning the 12.9\u201d iPad Pro, I came to the conclusion that I still needed a full laptop to be functional on the road.<\/p>\n<p>Enter the MacBook, purchased early October within the middle upgrade option for the processor, paired with my original 9.7\u201d iPad Pro and the Logitech keyboard, and I had a great setup that was easy to travel with and handled the work I needed.<\/p>\n<p>Then came the October 30 Apple Event, and I again began to question everything. Would the new iPads turn the tables on my attempt to go iPad only? Would the new MacBook Air be a better solution? And wow did I ever want that new MacMini even though I had no need or use for one &#8211; I\u2019m sure I could come up with something if I tried hard enough.<\/p>\n<p>I had a week long trip coming up and I had just recently gotten all the apps set up on the new MacBook and companion apps installed to my 9.7\u201d iPad, a week on the road away from my home setup, a great way to test it all out. Well, it went flawlessly and I was very happy with the setup, accomplished everything I needed to with a very light weight travel setup that included a USB-C battery bank that could recharge the MacBook completely and had a little extra for my iPhone X and 9.7\u201d iPad Pro, a Samsung T5 1TB external SSD for the larger files I needed and to hold my Windows VM that runs perfectly fine off the external SSD from the MacBook.<\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"width:120px;height:240px;float:right; margin-left:10px;\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"\/\/ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/widgets\/q?ServiceVersion=20070822&#038;OneJS=1&#038;Operation=GetAdHtml&#038;MarketPlace=US&#038;source=ss&#038;ref=as_ss_li_til&#038;ad_type=product_link&#038;tracking_id=httppodfeecom-20&#038;language=en_US&#038;marketplace=amazon&#038;region=US&#038;placement=B074DRW84M&#038;asins=B074DRW84M&#038;linkId=5505603c6c1d409d85ee41f746f5feab&#038;show_border=true&#038;link_opens_in_new_window=true\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Well, it\u2019s now late mid-November, and here I sit, typing and recording this little review completely on my brand new 11\u201d iPadPro. Still keeping the MacBook, but upgraded the iPad, and it\u2019s a great device. FaceID works flawlessly on it, much better than on my iPhone X, the screen is a great size, not too large, but noticeably and comfortably larger than the 9.7\u201d, my little Logitech keyboard works great, and I can record audio using my Blue Snowball mic attached via <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/2S77sJc\">the same USB-C adapter I have for the MacBook that includes an HDMI output and USB-A ports<\/a>. I can also send the new iPad display to an HDMI TV with the same adapter, so many new avenues of workflow opened there.<\/p>\n<p>In the near future, I will be looking at Luna Display to be able to use the 11\u201d iPad Pro as an additional display on my MacBook, but I\u2019ve been happy using it as a separate device in conjunction to my MacBook so far. I must also admit, that I am within the 2-week return period, and before leaving for Thanksgiving, there\u2019s a chance I\u2019ll trade up to the new 12.9\u201d as, with the smaller bezel it might be a more acceptable size for my needs than the previous models &#8211; any excuse to visit the Apple Store I guess.<\/p>\n<p>Happy Holidays All!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Guest article by Troy Shimkus For the last several months, I\u2019ve been trying to rework my workflows in regards to equipment choices. As a result of a long story I won&#8217;t recount here, I lost my 2013 MacBook Air &#8211; so I needed to find a replacement. My home setup is a trash can MacPro [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[127,732,2865,1064,2864],"class_list":["post-16875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog-posts","tag-ipad","tag-macbook","tag-road-warrior","tag-travel","tag-traveling"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16875"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16875\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16913,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16875\/revisions\/16913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}