I’ve recently acquired an old, barely-responsive iPad in my arsenal.

It’s a 5th generation unit, and something my mother has used for at least 18 hours every day, since 2017.

Truth be told, I’m surprised that it isn’t in a worse condition, as it was used for intensive video playing for 18 hours, every single day:

  • There is noticeable burn in the screen, right in the middle
  • The backlight is yellow and flickering
  • The response time isn’t what you’ll call speedy
  • The battery is at 70% of its capacity

Those are my observations from a week’s usage, and it’s far from its hey day.

But it works, and I’m having fun, experimenting how it fits in my workflow.

As a consumption device

This is undoubtedly the lowest-hanging use case, and the one with the least friction.

Cutting down screen time on my phone has been a recent focus, with culprits like Reddit monopolizing much of my time and attention. Even with the app deleted on the phone!

I offloaded the streaming apps from my phone, and while I’ll continue to use my Kindle for reading, it looks like I can read PDF books easier on the bigger, zoomable screen.

As a capture device

My general knowledge management system revolves around… a pen, and an internet connection. It’s something I am actively experimenting with, outside the iPad conundrum.

But, until I figure that out, Notion remains my primary tool for long-form capture, and Telegram’s ability to send short messages to myself for quick capture notes.

Which brings me back to connectivity as a main driver of my capture system: this iPad is WiFi-only.

If I’m at home, it wouldn’t be the first thing I reach for when it comes to notes, and if I’m outside, it is less of a hassle to capture it on my phone, than if I were to tether a connection from it to the bigger device.

So, that’s a no-go for my typical note-taking.

But there is an edge here: scribblings and drawings.

Right now, I use a random notebook from Muji capturing ideas and diagrams. I haven’t figured out the offline-to-online syncing of these ideas, other than sinking in a lot of money for a reMarkable for that purpose.

But, I’ll be spending more time seeing if this new addition to the flow works.

As a writing device

I was pretty delighted to realize that my keyboard connects to the iPad, even if it takes about a second for the lag to catch up.

Half of this article was typed half the iPad, while I’m hanging out at a cafe.

I’ll admit, the first question I posed to myself was: when will it ever be more convenient to go out with a keyboard and an iPad, versus going out with my (also new) MacBook Air?

It could be the novelty speaking, but writing on the iPad might give me an edge of focus.

Again, something I’ll have to experiment with a little more.