Hello, I’m Michael Sliwinski, founder of Nozbe - to-do app for modern teams. I write about productivity, #NoOffice, #iPadOnly and I believe that work is not a place you go to, it’s a thing you do.
I’m using the iPad as my main computing device since 2012. It started with the retina iPad 3, a year later I wrote the #iPadOnly book on an iPad 4 and as I upgraded my iPads, now I’m working on the 2020 iPad Pro 11. Basically, I’m showing how an iPad is a real computer.
Last week on Apple’s WWDC conference they announced substantial updates to the iPadOS15 and even though this new operating system will not be available to the public until the Fall, I’ve already updated my main iPad to the beta version. And I love the new changes:
Talking #iPadOnly with Tim. Lots of recommendations for apps and workflows that help me get stuff done on the iPad. More info ℹ️
Despite the pandemic and lack of long-haul travel, I’m still using my backpack almost daily when I need to leave home. As recently I embraced the MagSafe lifestyle I decided to review everything I carry in my backpack and write it up over here so that it might be also helpful to you. Here goes:
When I wrote about my iPad Home Screen I mentioned that one of the new apps for 2021 on my dock was an app that wasn’t even released yet on the App Store - Curlicues by the Danish programmer Simon Støvring, the maker of Scriptable. Simon was gracious enough to give me access to the TestFlight version of his app and I promised to give it a spin. Instead of writing him a long email, I decided to write a full review on my blog. Yes, the app is that good. It stays on my iPad Pro dock.
About three years ago I posted a detailed screenshot of my iPad Home Screen with the list of apps I use that help me work #iPadOnly using iPad Pro 11” as my main computing device. That list hasn’t changed much over the years. Now that we’re entering 2021 I’ve decided to re-think and simplify my app setup. I hope this inspires you to set up your iPad as a more serious computing device that you can carry anywhere.
Every now and then it’s good to get off the screens of iPads and iPhones and just play a board game. As a father of three girls, we like spending evenings playing Catan, Carcassonne or Monopoly. Or even just a simple “Snakes and Ladders” game. But to be able to play, you need dice. And in a household like ours, dice magically disappear… so in order to be able to have them always handy, I decided to quickly build virtual dice, so that we can use the phone to throw them in a truly random fashion! 🎲🎲 Get virtual dice here.
I like journaling daily. I like planning my next day in the evening. I like tracking how my day is going and what I spend my time on. Yes, I care about all these things and to make sure I do them consistently I prepared a Siri Shortcut (iOS only, sorry!) that helps me do just that! I hope you’ll also find it useful:
It’s hard to satisfy a geek like me. I don’t like to buy many things and I’m very specific about stuff I want. And there are also gadgets that I need. Here’s the list of things I got on Black Friday or will be getting soon this holiday season (or will be telling my relatives to get for me). Hope it’s useful to you and inspires you to get something for yourself:
On my iPad not only I can download YouTube videos now, I also created a special page to be able to watch YouTube videos without being tracked. Here’s why I did it and why I hope YouTube/Google will not find out about it:
My iPad Pro has 256GB of storage and I usually use only half of it. Recently I started downloading more stuff to take advantage of that storage and be able to watch things later when the Internet connection is flaky. I download Netflix or Prime Video movies or shows, some of my purchased iTunes content… and most recently I started downloading YouTube videos thanks to a brilliant youtube-dl script and a cool shell-like iPad app. Here’s how I do it.