RigiDigi

Not so, really. Vastly overstated and overpriced. There are surprisingly few differences in day-to-day use & this incudes some reasonably cpu-intensive tasks, eg, photo & video editing. Performance difference is ‘slightly’ better; screen difference the same really, noting HDR playback from Apple+, Netflix etc. Slightly better. The single most improved difference is the camera now in landscape, finally, obviously, well overdue. The biggest minus in this respect is the downgrading of the cameras & surprisingly, I really miss the zoom lens.

The other surprise was in adding ESR’s latest Rebound Keyboard. Has been brilliant & now with a row of function keys. I’d half expected I’d persevere with that for a while then eventually cave in and buy the outrageously expensive new Apple Magic Keyboard. But not so, this ESR device is very, very good & not going anywhere. AUD$113 shipped vs. $AUD$549. A no brainer. Oh, and the balance is much better than Apple when actually used ‘on my lap’ (90% of the time). The Apple is still fwd heavy and overbalances, even more so with the new model which has a steeper angle on the Pad attachment. The ESR also provides a magnetic sleeve with sides protection for the iPad, also missing from Apple. ESR; fast bluetooth, no lag. Yes separate charging.

Another surprising plus for me is re. the (what I’d also thought) ‘toddler software’ and crippled iPadOS. Not quite so much at all with the Keyboard & which opens up so much extra functionality in this iPad. Now I am able to much more easily, say, access & work with the file system & dirs, ditto for local NAS, Cloud, printing & the rest. Keyboard trackpad & keyboard controls, stage manager & navigating windows etc etc. Very, very surprised with this one & clearly the keyboard brings the iPad alive in ways I hadn’t previously realised. My laptop hasn’t needed to be opened since this arrived (an excellent Ausus touchscreen unit).

Mind you, I have the feeling that this would have been exactly the same on my previous iPar Pro 11 also running iPadOS 17.5. The biggest difference was the addition of the ESR Keyboard. I’m hoping and expecting that WWWDC & iPadOS 18 will actually begin to truly leverage what might be under the hood here in this very pricey 13” iPad Pro, but do have the feeling it will be more of the same; underwhelming & only marginal improvements. We’ll see.

hell cares about these particular moronic American politicians. Far more compelling matters going on across the world than this kind of parochial rubbish.