Joshua Wold

For the past few months I’ve been following the progress of project Gutenberg with WordPress. I’m really excited about how it’s coming together, and how this spells a new future for folks who make content. For years I’ve helped people build websites, and used WordPress for creating content. The current writing area is hardly inspiring. It doesn’t instill a feeling of being immersed with your words. I’ve rarely actually written my content in WordPress. Instead I’ve opted for creating my articles somewhere else and then pasting them in. With Gutenberg I’m looking forward to seeing this change. As the plugin matures (it’s still in Beta) I believe it will offer an opportunity to provide a richer, more immersive experience for users. Looking forward to good times ahead! Note: This was written/published using Gutenberg.

This is a 3 part mini-review of the new iPad Pro 10.5". Read part 1 and part 2.

After spending several days with the 10.5” iPad Pro, I decided to return it for the new 12.9” model. Here’s my reasons: Most of my working time (95%+) is spent at a desk. So for me, portability isn’t an issue.

When I use the iPad Pro it’s primarily for sketching prototypes for web interfaces, notes from meetings, etc. For these situations a larger screen is more important. It’s basically the size of a letter (or A4) piece of paper and means I don’t have to do as much zooming.

I really wanted to love the 10.5” size, and for many people I’m sure it will work well. However, as Rene Ritchie pointed out, if you want a laptop replacement – and yes, I think it’s possible that this could replace a laptop for many people – a larger screen with full sized split views makes sense.

If it’s more important to have portability, then you may want to look at the smaller size. At the end of the day I made the decision, that as a designer, that screen size was more important than anything else.

Often for work I need to travel stateside by plane. I’m constantly trying to whittle down what I’m carrying to see how little I can take. After several tries I’ve gotten it down to the following for a 2-5 day trip:

• Backpack – I searched a long time for one that was small enough to carry my laptop and still had room for a few days worth of clothes, all while offering some protection.
• MacBook Pro 13″
• One quart sized bag of toiletries (case for glasses, contact lense solution, toothbrush, etc)
• 1 pair of underwear for each day
• 1 shirt for each day
• Running shorts for wearing around the hotel room
• Phone
• Wallet
• Various cords
• Down jacket – I roll this up and stuff it in the top
• Small water bottle for refills

I wear jeans on me, and only bring comfortable dress shoes that I can easily walk 3-5 miles in.

I roll all the clothes into packing cubes and iron the shirts when I get to the hotel.

While I can easily bring a backpack and small bag, I’ve found it so much easier to have one small backpack that I can carry anywhere I go. When I get to the hotel I pull out the packing cubes and put them away.

A few quick notes:

• Laptop stand – Ergonomics are important. After years of using a laptop at a desk and bending my neck, I decided to elevate the laptop and buy a keyboard and mouse. It’s made a huge difference! This stand will elevate the laptop up to 11 inches off the desk.
• iPad stand – The main thing I use the iPad for is sketching. After looking around a ton (and reading reviews from Ben Brooks) I decided to grab this stand. It’s perfect. It tilts the screen up a few inches and offers a great angle for using the Apple Pencil.
• iPhone stand – Sometimes I prefer to use my iPhone for video calls. This stand works pretty well to elevate my iPhone off the desk so I can actually look into the screen when I’m on video calls.

I’ve been curious about AirPods since they came out. I finally got my own (Father’s day gift from my wife) and have been using them all day. I love them! My previous favorite headphones were the Jabra Move Wireless (recommended by The Wirecutter).

• The fit – I’ve never had a problem with Apple earbuds. As such these fit just fine. They don’t fall out of my ears and I’ve been walking around all day wearing them.
• Volume – This one annoys me a bit. I love that I can double tap to pause/play, and I am glad I was able to disable Siri (I’ve had a love/hate relationship with her for years), but not being able to change the volume without talking or using my iPhone is annoying. As someone who is constantly changing between audiobooks, podcasts, and quiet/loud music, I need to be able to manage the volume. Even with an audiobook the environment I’m in will dictate how loud or quiet it needs to be. This means I’m usually raising or lowering the volume by  one or two notches every few minutes. Having to talk to Siri or use my phone to do this feels like a waste. I would love to have some way to do be able to touch the AirPods and have the volume go up and down.
• Size – I love how they just get lost in my ears. I barely notice them. This is a huge win.
• Auto pause – Being able to quickly pull one out and have the music stop is great. The Jabra didn’t have this feature and I’ve have to remember to press the pause button or risk having my audiobook go forward a few minutes without me.

In short I’m liking these already and plan to use these exclusively.