I ditched my laptop for an iPad – here's why it's a great solution for students
I've been a Mac user since before I went to University – and while I'm not going to give away my age by telling you quite how long that means I've been using MacBooks for, I'll give you a hint. My first MacBook was white, plastic and absolutely fantastic. I also still have it in a drawer somewhere.
My current MacBook is a little newer than that model – it's the MacBook Pro M4 with the nano texture display – and is also excellent, especially for blocking out reflections. But, I recently decided to work abroad for a month this summer and rather than bringing my MacBook Pro with me, I swapped it out for an iPad.
I may not be a student anymore, but here's what I learned in doing that – and five key reasons why an iPad is an ideal solution if you are and you're heading to (or back to) University or college.
Apple Pencil makes note-taking a delight
I'll be honest, I'm one of those people who still enjoys the old-fashioned pen and paper. But using Apple Pencil with an iPad is enough to convert me to digital notes. There are third-party stylus options – Logitech's Crayon, for example – but writing with Apple Pencil Pro on the iPad Air (M3) is a dream. The Smart Script feature on iPad means your handwriting is tidied up in real-time, too.
The Apple Pencil Pro is lovely and light to use, has very low latency, so it feels as responsive as pen to paper – and it responds to pressure, too, so you can get different effects easily.
A double-tap allows you to switch between tools, such as the pen type or eraser, and a squeeze can switch the line weight or colour of your handwriting. If you're drawing, you can also roll the Pencil Pro to change the orientation of the pen you've selected.
For charging, the Pencil Pro snaps onto the side of your iPad magnetically and will appear in the Find My app on iPhone or iPad if, like me, you're very good at misplacing small things.
There's a lot to be said for a touchscreen
Despite Mac having been around for over 40 years now, Apple is yet to introduce a model with a touchscreen. There's a strong chance it never will. You can't miss something you've never had, so die-hard Mac users have never known any different. But if you have ever used a PC laptop with a touchscreen, it's a feature you will undoubtedly miss on Mac.
An iPad does have a touchscreen, of course, as that's a key part of its function as a tablet. Both iPad Air and iPad Pro come in 11-inch and 13-inch sizes, so there's the option for a bigger touchscreen within both those ranges. I must admit, I've come to really appreciate it since using an iPad over a Mac these last few weeks – and it's amazing how quickly you become reliant on it.
Being able to just tap the screen to navigate can really speed up some everyday tasks. And the 13-inch models offer plenty of screen space for using a couple of different apps at the same time in Split View.
iPadOS makes multi-tasking a breeze
Speaking of Split View, multi-tasking on iPad is very simple – and it makes working between a couple of different apps exceptionally easy. You can be researching for a project on Safari, for example, whilst making notes on the other side of your iPad's screen without losing where you were in your research for even a second.
It's also really easy to drag and drop between two apps if you need to. There are some areas where macOS for MacBooks is currently better than iPadOS for iPad, but with the new iPadOS 26 software coming out later in 2025, that's about to change.
You will be able to opt to use Mac's window system on compatible iPad models, for example, as well as resize apps with grab handles and move them to wherever suits you on your screen. So the best is yet to come in how laptop-replacing an iPad will be.
There will also be a menu bar at the top of your iPad screen with the new software. Preview is also coming to iPad, so you can view and edit PDFs. And you'll even be able to customise folders in the Files app with different colours.
The current iPadOS is good, but if you want to supercharge your iPad experience, then download the iPadOS 26 beta to try out these new features before your course starts.
Removable keyboard gives you flexibility
All the benefits I have mentioned about switching to iPad so far have only required you to have an iPad, and consider investing in an Apple Pencil or stylus.
Here I'm going to suggest you also get yourself a keyboard if you are planning on doing any University or college work on one, rather than just research or take notes. It's a real game-changer addition.
The keyboards aren't cheap, especially not Apple's Magic Keyboard options for iPad Pro and iPad Air, but they are worth it. They will protect your iPad when you're not using it, but they also deliver a great typing experience with good key travel. So if you want to write an essay on your iPad, it won't be a chore – and feel much like using a laptop.
The trackpads on the keyboard covers aren't as responsive as the built-in versions on Mac, I'll admit that, but they still do a great job and they make typing on an iPad light work. They also give your iPad a stand in case you want to take a break from studying and catch up on a box set binge without having to hold the tablet and, of course, they can be quickly removed to turn your iPad back into just a tablet.
Lightweight enough to take anywhere
The last point I'll make in favour of iPad over Mac is the exact reason I ditched my MacBook this summer – portability.
I'm using the iPad Pro (M4) with nano texture display and I'm using the 13-inch model, which is just 5.3mm thick and weighs under 580g – so I can bring and use it anywhere.
That's even truer of the 11-inch iPad Pro model, which is just 444g, while the iPad Air (M3) 11-inch is only 460g.
By comparison, my 14-inch MacBook Pro (M4) is 15.5mm thick and weighs 1.55kg. So while still portable, it's more of a consideration if I'm out for the day and already have a full bag.
All the iPad models are lightweight enough to take anywhere you want though, and their versatility means when you have one in your bag, you not only have a note-taking device, but a superb device for reading and watching – or, indeed, studies and work, should you need to.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
7 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Are You a 'Flexible' Traveler Looking for Deals? Google Flights Has a New AI Search Tool for You
Some travelers know roughly where, when, and how they'd like to fly, but are open to a variety of options to get the best deal. Google says it has come up with a solution to assist them in their quest. The Alphabet (GOOGL) unit on Thursday announced an AI-powered search tool within Google Flights called "Flight Deals," aimed at "flexible travelers whose number one goal is saving money on their next trip." "Instead of playing with different dates, destinations and filters to uncover the best deals, you can just describe when, where and how you'd like to travel—as though you're talking to a friend—and Flight Deals will take care of the rest," it said. Google said Flight Deals, which uses "advanced AI to understand the nuances of what you're looking for and identify matching destinations," will roll out over the next week in the U.S., Canada, and India. In another Google Flights update, the company said it's adding a new option for users to exclude basic economy fares for trips in the U.S. and Canada. Basic economy tickets—which major airlines offer to compete with low-cost carriers like Spirit and Frontier—often have lower fares but also come with significant restrictions, including limitations on carry-on baggage, seat selection, and changes or cancellations. Read the original article on Investopedia
Forbes
9 minutes ago
- Forbes
Legendary Hacker & Investor Pablos Holman's 1000x Deep Tech Future
Pablos Holman is a hacker, writ large. The first time he spoke for one of my events, in 2010, he captured an audience member's credit card information during a break and started making a purchase on stage. He didn't complete the purchase (or share the number), but he did make his point. When I'm puzzling over a truly far-out concept or epochal challenge, Holman is one of my go-to experts. He's spent his career hacking humanity's biggest challenges with organizations like Blue Origin and Intellectual Ventures. His new book, Deep Future, is a field guide to transformative technology and paradigm-shattering thinking. Fellow Technologists: 'Aim Higher!' Holman calls himself a 'Possibilist'—the future can be better, if we decide to build it. That ethos threads the book and echoes a theme I've written about for years: technology as the art of the possible. To do this well requires reframing problems, escaping established paradigms, and doing the hard work of real invention. Deep Future draws a sharp line between 'shallow tech' and 'deep tech.' Shallow tech enhances convenience. He bluntly proposes, 'If somebody makes an iPhone app to have weed delivered to their dorm room using drones, do we really have to call that tech?' Deep tech expands human capability by orders of magnitude. Holman challenges us: stop chasing 1% gains. 'Deep Tech is about finding the breakthroughs that make it possible to do things 10x, 100x, 1,000x faster, cheaper or better.' Mosquitoes Meet Lasers If you know Pablos, you know about the mosquito-zapping laser invented at Nathan Myhrvold's Intellectual Ventures. The team took apart the malaria problem and tried something new: detect the wingbeat frequency—to distinguish it from other insects—of a female Anopheles in flight and shoot it down. 'We can, and will, eradicate malaria once and for all in our lifetimes. But not by reading the directions,' he the problem, prototype shamelessly and let physics do the heavy lifting. When the approach works—even once—you've expanded what's possible. The mosquito laser array wasn't intended to go to market. Many deep tech visions are. Read the book for dozens of compelling cases. Here are three. Deep Future relates the story of Holman's fund investing in Ladon Robotics, a company reenvisioning ocean-going shipping around autonomy and wind. Consider the economics: 'About five out of six dollars spent on a ship during its life is burned as fuel. This industry literally burns most of its operational expenditures.' Ladon's idea is deceptively simple: autonomous ships powered by wind, with sun-powered battery auxiliary propulsion for navigating harbors and periods with low winds. In other words, remove fuel from the costs. It's classic deep tech. It doesn't 'improve' shipping, it transforms it. Renewables stumble on intermittency and storage. Holman proposes to ensure the sun never sets on your solar farm. 'Put those solar panels on a rocket ship, blast them into space.' Orbital solar farms could intercept sunlight 24/7, receiving eight times as much energy as they would on the Earth's surface. The system could deliver electricity via radio waves to receiving antennas on the ground, 'even in the middle of the night or during a snowstorm.' A decade ago, this would have read like a comic book. Falling launch costs and mature RF beam-forming technologies make this increasingly feasible. Holman argues, 'All the technology to do this exists already. No breakthroughs necessary.' It's a plausible path to low-cost power—precisely the kind of paradigm flip deep tech is meant to deliver. While others have proposed such a solution, Holman's venture firm Deep Future has invested in Virtus Solis, a team endeavoring to make it happen. Some of the best solutions have been around for centuries. Consider concrete, civilization's foundation and one of our dirtiest materials. Holman highlights the work of MIT's Admir Masic, which helps explain why Ancient Rome's Pantheon still stands: lime clasts throughout Roman concrete act as self-healing reservoirs. 'When water seeps in, it activates the lime and fills the cracks. It is self-healing concrete that gets stronger with time.' Longer-lasting infrastructure with 10% - 50% lower lifecycle carbon emissions. With cement accounting for approximately 8% – 13% of global CO₂ emissions, this matters. Unlike most deep tech solutions, this one has thousands of years of proof behind it. Massive Thinking, Brutal Simplicity Holman's examples—mosquito lasers, autonomous shipping, space-based solar, self-healing concrete--exhibit how to see differently: select huge problems that matter, don't let current reality get in the way, discover opportunities the incumbents ignore. While Deep Future is about audacious thinking and enormously challenging technology, much of Holman's thinking illustrates a skill I call 'brutal simplicity.' It's an approach we can all use. Here are three questions to help you do so: The first question seeks clarity before seeking solutions. Do we really understand the problem? The second tests whether we have the right problem in mind. The third question challenges us to seek as simple--though not necessarily easy--a solution as possible. Consider one of Deep Future's examples. Problem: How can we generate clean, reliable electricity at scale? Blast solar panels into space and beam the power back to Earth. Eh, voila: Virtus Solis. Ignore The Boogeymen: Build Anyway Big ideas attract bigger anxieties. Holman devotes a chapter to our habit of telling 'boogeyman' stories about new tools—nuclear, psychedelics, AI, you name it. His advice? Research, experiment, invent—then regulate the real risks we discover. The future won't be built by the skeptics. It belongs to pragmatic optimists who make better stories true. While I wouldn't expect mosquito lasers at your next BBQ, you'll likely discover a lot of you-heard-it-here-firsts in Holman's book. Thanks to the Possibilists amongst us, some of these monstrously hard, brutally simple visions will one day become reality.
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
REPO devs blown away by world record level 10 speedrun ponder adding "official speedrun seeds" – "I know that Lethal Company did"
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Few genres of gaming videos offer more sheer enjoyment than watching devs react to speedruns of their games, and REPO's offering some very good material in that space right now. The devs at semiwork are so impressed by what the speedrun community is doing that they're even considering adding official speedrun seeds. In a recent video hosted by REPO marketing head Pontus Sundström and, in the tradition of the game's slapstick YouTube presence, a semibot with the "mind of one of the developers," the pair watch a (now-former) world record level 10 speedrun from LLMarkerz. There are some fun techniques here, including self-destructs to get through the shop faster, but much of the run seems to be about reacting to the content of the procedurally generated levels. "Watching this really makes me want to add official speedrun seeds so that everyone gets the same playing field," the semibot dev suggests. "Yeah, we should do that. I know that Lethal Company did," Sundström says teasingly as he evokes the rival co-op horror game. That brings out a stern "Hey! Hey!" from the semibot. A speedrun seed would essentially set a single non-randomized set of levels for runners to challenge, allowing them to practice the same tricks against the same set of obstacles every time. It'd dramatically change the skillset needed to do a successful run, but it would almost certainly help runners massively shave down their times. The idea of the speedrun seed keeps coming up over the course of the video, with the devs throwing out thoughts like keeping a consistent shop in every run. But, even as Sundström says "I'm really hyped for a speedrun seed now," he adds that "this is a 'would be cool' list, to be clear. We're just talking now." But hey, getting devs talking about potential new features is how things eventually get added to an early access game, so who knows what the future holds. "That was amazing," semibot dev says at the conclusion of the video. "Really impressive. Makes me want to add speedrun seeds. Makes me want to think about speedrunners more. Makes me happy to see." If you're looking for more games to play with friends, check out our guide to the best co-op games of all time.
