I just bought a 64GB iPad, anything I should know/do?
I'm not a very heavy tablet user, but generally like to have a tablet around for stuff I won't do on my phone. I bought a Pixel Tablet last year when I did my big tech upgrade (new phone, new smart watch, new upgraded tablet), but found the experience a bit lacking with the more important stuff I use my tablet for, largely taking notes with OneNote, and very light mobile gaming (which I usually use my phone for, since it's right there).
I'm curious if anybody's got any advice for a non-dedicated Apple user with an iPad. I'm already thinking about synergy with my multi-platform apps like Microsoft 365, Google Drive (free tier) and Mega (which I use as a backup repo for large data that isn't documents like games, music samples, etc).
I'm thinking some music apps would be great to take advantage of the generally lower-latency audio capabilities of the iPad, but aside from that can't think of too much. Otherwise, due to the 64GB, it's going to be my cloud-oriented low-storage tablet.
I saved $70 on a black friday deal on Amazon, so I bought a pen to go with it, which isn't the Apple Pencil and would be curious to know if I'm missing out on a ton doing that as well?
Side question: I would be curious what the third-party app world is like as well, ideally something like iOS F-Droid.
You're going to get three months of Apple Services through the iPad since you purchased a new device. If at all possible, you may want to wait to redeem those until after the Black Friday deals pop up.
Additionally, unless you're in the EU, there's only so much you can do with Sideloading. Altstore (https://altstore.io/) is probably the best resource available, but even then it's limited, with only a few apps allowed to be sideloaded at a time. Altstore does have emulators and some widgets Apple doesn't like, and you can sideload your own ipas, (apks for iOS) if there's something bespoke that you're into, but your sideloaded apps are only valid a week without a check-in with a computer with iTunes.
As far as more general advice, if you have streaming media, sign into those apps. Apple TV will let you sync most of them (not Netflix) into a watchlist that alerts you if there is a new episode of anything you have watched through Apple TV on any service you synced with. Comics and books are fantastic, it will let you pull passwords from Chrome across your device or another vault if you have one you use, and if you subscribe to something in app, Apple takes a 30% cut. Keep that in mind if you want to support a service or a creator, but it also has all of your subscriptions in one place, should you choose to honor it. iOS has many games that the Play Store doesn't, so if there's something you like on PC, there maybe a version available.
Google does something similar, I believe, so I already follow this rule.
The watchlist thing isn't something I'll have much need for, I but that's good to know!
Altstore was the only thing I found and, while cool, doesn't seem to be much use. I'm surprised at what's in the App Store for indie/smaller games I do play, and am definitely looking at getting Binding of Isaac, since I remember being jealous of a dude I sat next to playing it on his iPhone.
For sure, Binding of Isaac is a big get. iOS and iPad in particular has the only touch native version of FTL: Faster Than Light I’ve found, and it’s a blast to play that way. Looking for stuff like that is where Apple Arcade helps out if you want to try out a whole bunch at once.
Edit: Also, Three Cheers for Tildes is a helpful application to have, specifically for sharing articles and getting your text formatting right.
If this is your first iOS device in a while, I'd recommend just being patient with learning how to make the most of your iPad. iOS is very different from Android even if they may seem similar on the surface. Notifications work completely differently, the homescreen is pretty limited, and there will always be one or two extra steps to get things between your iPad and non-Apple devices.
That being said though, for the things you want to do with your tablet, the iPad should do really well. I used OneNote on my iPad for a while and it worked fine enough. It would sync fast enough with my other devices and would play fine with the Apple Pencil. The A-series chips are also pretty powerful so you should be more than satisfied with gaming on the iPad. Thermals will leave a lot to be desired though so it'll get real warm real quick.
I think with a third party stylus, you miss out on some features like the charging notifications, easy tool changing, and software features like scribble to text throughout the OS. Third party styluses just act like a finger so I think some apps may not react the way you expect. You could buy an Apple Pencil off Ebay or something if you really want to try it out and see if you like it.
I can speak a bit about your side question too. If you're in the US, there is no F-Droid type third party app store unfortunately. At least, not yet. You can still sideload apps but the experience is sub-optimal. You're limited in how many apps you can side-load and you have to refresh/reload the apps once a week. I found myself often forgetting to refresh my side-loaded apps on my iPad that I eventually gave up.
This is actually my first iOS device ever. I had an iPod Shuffle but that barely counts as an iPod, since you just went by ear on what you were finding. I've handled some iPhones, but am not finding the iPad hard at all to get the hang of. Power-using will be a different issue, but I can find everything easily enough.
Thanks for the info on the stylus. I got an open-box Apple Pencil for $30. That said the stylus I have works pretty good and triggers palm rejection so it's still a pretty great option for $20.
I'm expecting a bit of friction, but it's not too worrying for me.
The main thing was being able to lasso written text which is dead easy, for some reason it's buggy on Android, but even with my cheap pen, it works really well.
I've never pushed a tablet that hard, but will need to see what I can get out of the iPad then. My Pixel never really heated up, but it's mostly a note-taking machine or for some solitaire or something.
I figured that out after posting. I'd say I'm disappointed, but I'm also okay stepping into the walled garden. I'm only a visitor, so I can work around any app restrictions that are too bothersome on my Pixel Tablet.
Digital card games are a favorite of mine. Games like Ascension or Star Realms are easy fun. I like Ascension in particular for allowing async games with friends over days.
If you haven't used iOS before, you can change back and forth between the big and little keyboards with a gesture like a pinch zoom. You can't swipe on the big keyboard, but it's easier to manage numbers and symbols.
Another difference compared to Android is no back button, but the navigation bar on the bottom of the screen can be swiped to quickly flip between apps, and to navigate back within apps one can often swipe from the left edge of the screen (this depends on the app, though, with cross-platform apps being the most likely to not replicate this functionality).
Procreate is an amazing art program. Even if you don't consider yourself artistic, but are interested in learning digital illustration or painting, I can't recommend Procreate enough. It's very well-designed, easy to learn, but still has tons of features. It's also incredibly popular, and so there's an endless stream of content on the internet that you can use for learning and inspiration.