When I tell people I write on an iPad, even for long documents, they’re usually surprised. I imagine even Steve Jobs, who mostly saw the iPad as a way to consume content, would be surprised too. Yes, I use an iPad for most of my writing, not even an iPad Pro, but an iPad Air with a Magic Keyboard. I’ve always been a fan of using an iPad for work. I wrote one of my first novels on an iPad 2. Back then, typing on the glass screen was a pain, but now that the Magic Keyboard is here, it’s like using a Mac. The main downside to using an iPad for work was multitasking. Even now, I have five apps open, two Safari windows, Ulysses, Apple Music, and Apple Notes. All these apps are essential for my writing process for this article, and before iPadOS 26, multitasking was a nightmare. I had to rely on Stage Manager or Slide Over to do it. With iPadOS 26, Apple has made the iPad so Mac-like that I hardly notice the difference when I’m on the iPad vs. my Mac mini. I easily have the five windows open without a problem, and unlike the Mac, I can just reach up and push the windows out of my way if I need more space or want to open other apps. Also, with iPadOS 26, we got apps like Preview for viewing and editing PDFs and another enhancement to the Files app to make it more like the Mac Finder app. All these advancements have made me just love using the iPad more. I find myself going to the iPad for more than ever, especially when I can use the Apple Pencil to quickly scribble out notes and have it converted to clean text. I often write whole posts just with the iPad and Apple Pencil. I often get asked for recommendations for computers since I was a network engineer for 15 years, and my answer now is just get an iPad. It’s portable, Apple tends to support devices for five plus years, the iPadOS gives you options for a simplified single-window view or a Mac-like multitasking view, and the device is simple and versatile for most users’ needs.
What device do you use? Have you tried iPadOS 26 for your daily device?
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