My next work machine will be a Surface Pro. I could have gone with a very nice looking Acer, but as I’m keeping my old Macbook Pro for a little while I thought portability should win out. I’m also spending a lot of time using my iPad, and I’m finding myself missing a touch screen interface when I don’t have one, and I’ll need to use enough Windows-only software in my new job to make using anything else an exercise in frustration.
The way I use computers is certainly changing. I’ll get the Surface Pro 4 in a few weeks, and whilst I love the look of the new Macbook Pro I don’t think I can justify buying one right now, which suggests I’ll not be using a Mac for most of my day-to-day computing for the first time since 2010. What I really need to go with the Surface and the iPad is some sort of desktop to manage all my music and do any non-work tasks that require heavy lifting. I’m disappointed that Apple didn’t announce anything in their recent broadcast, but I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on the refurb store to see if anything looks affordable (which of course they don’t right now because all the prices have gone up). My Mac Mini will do for now, but it’s 5 years old and everything else I use feels snappier, despite the Mac having 16Gb of Ram and a fairly new SSD.
I’ve written this blog post on my iPad using a full sized bluetooth keyboard (which I used as my main keyboard for a number of years). It’s even easier than using the tiny keyboard I carry around everywhere, and I think that with this keyboard and my iPad (or maybe the larger iPad Pro) then I could easily do the vast majority of my work-away-from-work without access to another computer. I’m typing this whilst sitting at my coffee table, so my posture isn’t great, but I think that once I’ve cleaned the keyboard up a little then I’ll look at trying this combo out at a proper desk as it’s certainly worth further exploration as my main writing device.
Whatever happens next, I’m already using a lot of different kit than I was a year ago, and I think I’m only half way through a fairly major change in the way I work. I start my new job on 1st December and I’m sure that will bring even more change.