And now I’m here, writing this post on a spanking brand new iPad pro. And honestly… I don’t even know what the new features are and what not. The only thing that looks different right now is that… It’s a brand new keyboard. Yes, even though my previous one was fairly new, it still got dirty rather fast. And secondly, there is no screen protector on this iPad. And I don’t think I will put a screen protector on either…. Previously I used the nanodots screen protector. Great for using the Apple pencil on, but alas, those dots fall off from the impact of the keyboard on the screen pretty quickly… And left ugly marks on the screen protector. And truth to be told, I very rarely use my Apple Pencil… So yes, shiny and sleek screen, no more screen protector, no more matte surface and bald marks from the keyboard. Had been debating taking off the screen protector for quite a while already…. But well. Now that I have a new iPad, I’ll just not use any screen protector anymore. It just dawned on me that it’s a new model and… Would the spare nanodots screen protectors still fit? It should? Still the same 12.9 inch iPad… Only that it’s the latest model, and with more storage space… And the four cameras at the back therefore I had to buy a new keyboard. Damn. Thankfully the Apple Pencil is still usable…? Still spent a huge fortune though.
No. This was a completely unplanned expenditure. Which is the whole reason why I’m so salty about it, and quite frankly is the least excited about a new electronic toy ever. Last Sunday my old iPad pro just died a really sudden death. That iPad thus far has been serving me well, no signs of slowing down whatsoever. The only thing I noticed after about 4.5 years or usage was that the battery life is somewhat poorer, like I would not be able to go an entire day on a single charge if I’m using it heavily like for doing video editing, or more commonly well, youtube marathon watching. But that is to be expected of a 4.5 year old gadget… And in all honestly, the battery is still very respectable. One night of watching youtube might get the battery life down to 60 or 40%. But alas, last Sunday. I was still using the iPad in the morning, starting off my day watching a few youtube videos. Then dad started packing stuff in the living room and naturally I had to help. Fast forward a few hours later, midway through the packing… And I finally had the chance to take a bit of a breather. Went into my room and as per my habit, hit on the iPad spacebar (I always use it with the keyboard folio) to see if there were any new notifications and… Nothing. Black screen. Just. Nothing. I tried turning it on, nope. Force restart with that volume button up and down thing. Nope. Nothing. No response at all. And bear in mind that I didn’t charge the iPad overnight from Saturday so it was at around 40%, so I’d left it charging as I watched the youtube videos and afterwards when I went off to do the clean up. It was plugged in the whole time, so it’s definitely not a case of having insufficient power. I’m not even getting that insufficient power and to plug in sign, or the sign asking you to plug into the computer – which I did do anyway, but to no avail. I unplugged it from the charger for a few hours (and well days now). Charged it more… It just no longer responded.
I was suspecting motherboard failure at this point (but why and how???) and since the iPad is obviously out of warranty, the options would be to take it to the Apple store, and pay like 800-900 bucks for a repair, find a 3rd party shop that could repair it for cheaper… Or well. Buy a new iPad.
I was still planning to bring it down to a 3rd party repair center when 12 midnight rolled around and the 12/12 sales began. By then I had more or less accepted the fate that I would have to spend a ton of money yet again for a new electronic gadget… And well… I guess in a way it was better that the iPad died before the 12/12 sales rather than right afterwards… At least I saved myself 160 bucks. All that stress about the iPad dying went away a little… But I knew it wouldn’t really go away until my work stuff was settled – kind of is now, finally, a week on. And when the iPad finally arrives. And boy did that give me a headache. It took forever to come! It was out for delivery twice, ended the day with a delivery failure due to mis-route twice! Then on the 3rd day there was no movement whatsoever. Contacted shopee customer service twice… Finally, on Friday, I suddenly got a whatsapp from shopee xpress asking if I got the item. Like no? And then no more word from them thereafter. But thankfully the delivery status changed to say out for delivery a while later, and it FINALLY came that evening. And you had to know that in the meantime two of my sis’s packages were delivered by shopee xpress. And it’s not the first time I bought from them and got my packages delivered by shopee xpress. But so many failed deliveries on their part? Now that was an absolute first. Plus they do contactless delivery these days and would just leave the package outside the door, so there is no delivery failure that would result from my own doing. But something just went terribly wrong with the iPad delivery somehow. A $2000 package at that. Yeah I was definitely anxious and worried that stuff would go wrong. What if the delivery person stole the package? Unlikely but damn. More importantly, there were papers to read, emails to respond to… Youtube to watch, and I really wanted to write some blog posts… All of which I would really, really prefer to do on the iPad. Watching youtube especially. The Dell laptop gets so hot and the sound quality is really subpar. I felt the loss greatly and as expensive as it was, I definitely did not regret buying the iPad after those few days without it. It’s just so much more convenient to have something around that is always on, ready to go. I can’t even keep my Dell computer on sleep mode because somehow it doesn’t even know how to sleep properly. The laptop would not sleep properly, CPU would still be running and laptop would be overheating, and battery would be drained and dead in a few more hours. So now I have to shut it down fully each time. As for my work laptop which I have reluctantly lugged home? It was in an even worse state. The laptop refuses to turn on without being plugged in. Even though it seems to be fine without the power plugged in after wards. And it would be showing a full battery charge right after turning on. Yeah they are both Dell and both sucks. My work laptop especially, the screen viewing angle is so pathetic and basically it just constantly looks very washed out. I can’t even stand looking at the screen. It’s that bad. Not a HD screen? No matter. But a terrible washed out screen that’s so hard to read? Nope, I can’t stand it, really.
So here I am. New iPad. Got it restored to whatever last backup was down on my old iPad before the sudden death. Hurrah for auto iCloud backups. All my songs are not in here though, besides those I bought on Apple Music. Still gotta turn on that Dell lappy to sync them in… Yeah I should get that done… Just in case. I typically only play music from my phone but on rare occasions I would play it from my iPad. In either case I have more than enough space now for my music so I might as well put them in.
Yes, sadly I had to get a new keyboard folio. I thought the previous one I bought was the newer version that would compatible with the newer iPads… But nope. When it came I was very puzzled because it still had that oval camera hole. Now I know for sure that it wasn’t actually the new keyboard folio. Sigh. What a waste of money… Sadly. Really nothing much I can do about it now huh. I certainly debated about getting the magic floating keyboard. It was on sale too, like $100 off that? But it was still like a hundred bucks plus more than the keyboard folio, and more importantly it was so heavy, over double the weight of the iPad. And even though it’s just like 300 grams heavily than the keyboard folio… It still adds up to a lot… As if the iPad plus keyboard isn’t heavy enough already… I would feel the weight of it when balancing the iPad on my lap to watch Youtube for sure, at the very least, even if I get used to carrying that weight on my back. What if I bought BOTH keyboards? Crazy expenditure aside, I bought so many cases for my old iPad and…. Pretty much never ever used them. Too troublesome. And I was typing stuff fairly frequently so I just stuck to the smart folio. If I had both… I might well not use the magic keyboard hardly ever. Added to the fact that I did try using the Apple magic trackpad – that still magically works even after all those years, long after the keyboard died (both came with my iMac)… (Wonder if it is still working now…! Haven’t touched it in at least the past year.) And also tried using my bluetooth mouse with the iPad… And the conclusion was that I didn’t like it. If they changed that cursor to an arrow instead of a round dot that would help. But that round dot was so imprecise and difficult to use… I remember video editing with the mouse and… In the end decided it was way more convenient to use just my finger on the screen. Most of the time my fingers would be touching the bottom of the screen so it’s not like I had to stretch my hands out to the top of the screen and have it get tired… Heck even then my arm can still be resting on my lap or somewhere while reaching the top of the screen. Even though it’s the 12.9 inch iPad, it’s not that big VS a desktop screen monitor, and I have it was closer to me. So yeah. Conclusion was just to get the keyboard folio again. It’s a set up that has worked well for me and I believe will continue to do so.
So there it is. Not your typical messydesk post perhaps… But something that I absolutely had to get off my chest. I’d wanted to edit some videos this Dec but in the end there was a lot more work stuff to do, I spent a lot of time packing my room – and it’s still messy, and I intend to continue packing it somemore after posting this… And then the iPad breakdown which took the whole week out basically… So much anxiety with the work stuff etc…. And next week we will spend like 5 days in Malaysia on holiday. Initially the plan was to go enjoy the cool weather in Genting but with the landslide that happened…? Nah we decided to waste that $550 hotel booking and book an airbnb in Malacca instead. More expenditure. Not out of my own pocket this time but still… Can’t be helped though. What’s a messily 500 bucks if that trip ends up killing us all in another freak accident of nature? I kinda… Don’t want to die yet. I do still would love to enjoy that nice cool weather though… But I guess not this year, and perhaps not in Genting highlands.
Alright. That’s all for this post. I’m happy to report that I’ve been writing a lot more recently. Got a few nice and long penpals letters out… And I finally also wrote a long journal entry. Perhaps I will be able to write a little more next year…
Till next time! (Possibly pretty soon? I do have quite a few posts that I want to write, and I’m also really happy that I have a working iPad again. Still have no idea what new features this iPad has that would benefit me though… The lidar thing is cool and all but I don’t actually really have a use for it…)