This article is part of a series on going iPad-only.
Last week, I upgraded to the new Face ID-equipped iPad Pro, choosing the larger 12.9” screen this time around. Here are a few thoughts on the device.
This isn’t a review, and it’s entirely about me. If you discover that we’re similar, then this’ll be useful to you. Otherwise, it’ll be more of a curiosity. That’s fine. Any review is ultimately like that; I’m just not going to pretend otherwise.
I’ve upgraded to a 12.9” iPad Pro, so I’m selling my 10.5” model (256 GB, wifi, gold). It’s only seven months old, and in absolutely mint condition. It includes an Apple Pencil (also mint condition), and a Magic Keyboard in perfect working order. All three items are boxed, and include everything they originally came with. The iPad has a UK-style plug, and the Magic Keyboard is the UK ISO layout.
Additionally, I’m including a Studio Neat Canopy stand, three different cases/covers, an Apple Pencil stand, and a case for the Pencil (both accessories can charge the Pencil).
All the details are below.
Version 13 of Ulysses was released today, and alongside other enhancements, it includes a feature I’ve wanted since I switched to the app for all my writing: coloured keywords.
Ulysses lets you assign keywords to each “sheet” (document, whether it’s a scene, chapter, or anything else), and you can also choose to display those keywords in the sheet list panel. Now that each keyword can have a colour assigned to it, there are lots of useful things you can do to get an overview of various aspects of your story. My favourite is tracking points of view: the character whose perspective a scene is written from.
It’s Europe Day, in commemoration of the 1950 Schuman declaration, so I’d like to extend my best wishes to all of our sisters and brothers in the European Union.
The EU is very dear to me, and is the natural setting for my KESTREL series of thriller novels, including CHANGER and the upcoming next book, TOLL.
I believe that the EU represents the best spirit of cooperation, collaboration, and mutual protection within a democratic framework. I very much identify as a European citizen, and that’s why I chose to create the KESTREL series of adventures, featuring an elite EU special forces team, tasked with dangerous missions that are a little out of the ordinary.
Today is Earth Day, where we celebrate environment protection, and think about conservation — and also the negative changes that we’ve made to the world. It’s a topic that’s important to me, as it should be to everyone.
This article is part of a series on going iPad-only.
Like most people, my main computer is a phone.
That’s a big realisation. The device that’s always at hand, and is the first port of call for communication and entertainment and convenience, is your main computer. With the apps available now, there’s no meaningful distinction in utility between a phone and any other kind of device. Some tasks are easier and some are harder due to the form factor, but most tasks are possible — and having it permanently within reach is the mother of all advantages.
I could pair a keyboard with my phone, and put it in a stand, and do my work on it; the apps are certainly there to allow it. It’d feel a bit awkward for some things, but I’ve drafted an article, and edited a chapter, and replied to email, and done grocery shopping, and updated the SSL certificates on a web server, and filed my taxes, and lots of other things all from my phone.
Was it the most comfortable or efficient experience? No. But was it more efficient than having to go and find a traditional computer first? Absolutely — otherwise, that’s what I’d have done. So let’s talk about computers.
This is my book review of ORIGIN, by Dan Brown. My reviews are brief (about five minutes’ reading time) and to the point, contain no spoilers of substance, and include a rating out of five at the end, with a note on my rating system.
If you happen to follow me on Twitter, you’ve probably noticed that I’m a huge fan of the Nintendo Switch. I wrote about why I find the Switch so compelling, and I also wrote about the game design of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
By day, and indeed night, I’m a novelist, and so I work from home permanently. My working space is very important to me, and I’ve recently spent a lot of time tailoring it to my needs and preferences. I wrote (of course) about redesigning and redecorating my home office, and there’s a bit more about my desk setup here.
I prefer to play the Switch docked, and I prefer to do that in the living room, with my wife and our dog beside me. I don’t like to be hidden away in the office while my wife is at home, if I can possibly help it. However, there are some situations when I’ll be playing the Switch and she might be on the phone, or it might be quite late in the evening and she’d find the noise distracting. I do like the Switch’s handheld mode for convenience, but I’m also thirty-eight years old and I don’t have great eyesight, so I find the small screen tiring if it’s after about 7PM, or if it’s just been an especially long day.
You can see where this is going, I’m sure: I made a secondary Nintendo Switch station in my office!
Happy New Year, my friends. I trust that the holidays, if you’ve had some, have been kind to you. I hope that this new year will bring both happiness and satisfaction. They’re not always the same thing.
On this first day of 2018, I’d like to talk about my resolutions for the coming year and beyond. Whenever I’ve followed this custom previously, I’ve been brief, and listed only my goals. Today, I’m breaking with tradition: I want to talk about my intended actions instead, and the reasons behind them — the main one being that 2017 was a pretty bad year for me.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild arrived at a tricky time for me.
It was the launch title for the new Nintendo Switch (though it was also simultaneously released on the Switch’s predecessor console, the Wii U), and it was unquestionably a system-seller. A new entry in the Zelda series is often a milestone in gaming, and Breath of the Wild — or BotW henceforth — has proved to be no exception. I’d diligently cleared my schedule, and was ready, months in advance, to take a three-day weekend of indulgence when both the Switch and the game were released.
Then we decided to get a puppy. We saw the ad, drove 45 minutes or so south to take a look at the litter of ten, and we immediately picked out our little guy. He was named Whisky then and there, and we arranged to return four weeks later (when he’d be eight weeks old, and ready to leave his mother) to collect him. It was only when I put the date into my calendar that I realised we’d be picking him up the day after Zelda came out. My little sister called the date Switchmas Day, and Whiskmas Eve.
As I write this, that was more than nine months ago. The little puppy who I carried in a pack on my chest has now turned into thirty kilograms of crazy labradoodle, who can easily leap my full height straight up in the air, and whom I could almost put a saddle on and ride through the park. Toilet training is long in the past. He sleeps through the night, every night. He’s great on long car journeys. He’s a huge enrichment to our lives, and very much a family member.
He also has a habit that he formed on day one in our home: when the Switch goes on, he curls up beside me to watch — at least for a while.
I’d read reviews of BotW before I played it. I knew that it was different to virtually every previous Zelda game. I knew that it played with the mechanics, and the patterns, and the hallmarks. I knew that it largely threw the formula out the window. I was nervous about that. But it was Zelda! One of Nintendo’s crown jewels. They couldn’t possibly mess it up. It would be great, and I’d grasp the wisdom of the changes straight away — especially as someone who’s played every previous game, on every platform, to death; a life-long fan. I’d get it, and I’d love it, because they knew what they were doing, but also because I wanted to. That’s what I told myself.
It was a real surprise to me when I actually hated a lot of it.