How I Use Them: MacBook, iPhone and iPad
The more the iPad becomes a part of my workflow, the more a distinct pattern of use-cases for my MacBook, iPhone and iPad have emerged.
- iPad: Reading (books, RSS, news, everything), blogging (links), initial research on projects and first drafts of long-form compositions.
- iPhone: In addition to the obvious mobile aspects, this is my main email device. It’s also my go-to device for Twitter, Facebook and iTunes.
- MacBook: Longer blog posts, data analysis using spreadsheets, more in-depth research projects, design projects, final drafts of projects and presentations.
What I now realize is that, on the whole, I’m more fond of using my iPad than my Macbook. While the iPad has several limitations, those limitations rarely hinder me from working but more often than not forces me to focus. Also encouraging additional focus is the intimacy of using the iPad — both with its touch-screen interface and its portability.
The iPhone becoming my default email device grew from my complete disdain for Mail.app on the MacBook and the iPad not having a unified inbox until recently. Even now that the iPad has a unified inbox, I still find myself instinctively reaching for my iPhone to tear through email.
Not only am I just as quick with email on my iPhone, I find myself being more succinct. I don’t write long, rambling email messages when I’m depending on my thumbs to do the typing. In fact, the only time I turn to Mail.app is when I need to handle files — either to download for archiving or to attach for sending.
All that said, my MacBook still holds an important — and special — place in my workflow. Several tasks require its power, and there is still the enjoyment of using a Mac.
Reading John Gruber’s piece in Macworld about why the Mac OS is not in danger of disappearing anytime soon, I couldn’t help but nod in agreement (emphasis mine):
The bigger reason, though, is that the existence and continuing growth of the Mac allows iOS to get away with doing less. The central conceit of the iPad is that it’s a portable computer that does less—and because it does less, what it does do, it does better, more simply, and more elegantly. Apple can only begin phasing out the Mac if and when iOS expands to allow us to do everything we can do on the Mac. It’s the heaviness of the Mac that allows iOS to remain light.
When I say that iOS has no baggage, that’s not because there is no baggage. It’s because the Mac is there to carry it. Long term—say, ten years out—well, all good things must come to an end. But in the short term, Mac OS X has an essential role in an iOS world: serving as the platform for complex, resource-intensive tasks.
It’s hard to imagine a day when the Mac OS will not be integral to my workflow, if for design projects alone. Certainly, though, the iPad is becoming more integral to what I do each day, more so than the Macbook is becoming less integral.
It’s the natural evolution that Gruber described. It’s not that my Macbook is any less capable but that the iPad — and even the iPhone — is so much more capable of meeting my needs in a more enjoyable (and, truthfully, better) way.
