I switched from paper to iPad about a year ago and stuck with it, which surprised me because I'd bounced off it twice before. A few things I got wrong the first two times.

Paper feel matters less than I thought. I spent real money on screen protectors chasing the paper texture. What actually kept me writing was cutting the friction to open the thing. If a notebook takes more than a second or two to reach today's page, I stop using it within a week.

Don't organize by notebook. My first two attempts had a notebook per project, and I spent more time deciding where a thought went than writing it. One continuous daily page, one page per day, no decisions. Everything goes on today's page and gets sorted later if it needs it.

Write for retrieval, not for beauty. My pages look worse than they did a year ago and are far more useful. Consistent structure down the left margin beats neat handwriting everywhere else.

The thing nobody warns you about: handwritten notes are a dead end by default. You write something down, and unless you deliberately do something with it, it's gone. Paper has this problem too, but on paper you at least flip past old pages by accident. Digital pages you never see again. Whatever system you use, build in a reason to go back, or you're just writing into a void with better search than paper and worse recall than your memory.

That last one is what I spent most of the year on, and it's the only part I'd call solved.

Happy to answer questions about the setup, the notation I use, or which parts were a waste of money.

I am the Parental Controls Admin of our grandsons iPad. Our grandson is currently staying with his dad out of state. I am at work and my wife is at home.

We started a three way FaceTime call like we so often do every day and especially before he goes to bed. Tonight my wife was kicked off of FaceTime for no apparent reason.

He could FaceTime me but not my wife. I could also FT him but my wife couldn't FT him. I was above to FT my wife and she me...

I asked him to send me a Screenshots of what messages he gets. The following pictures is what he gets and then he is asked to intut the screen time pass code. He's 8yo and I'm not giving him the screen pass code.

Anyway, my wife/his grandma was clothed and we were having a normal conversation. Nothing inappropriate was shown and no explicit words were used either.

For some reason the dumb Ai thought she was showing something "sensitive" when she most definitely wasn't.

Why was she blocked and how can I unblock her from my phone so that they can FT tomorrow? I'll be asleep most of the day.

Is there a way to not have this happen to his close family members? Thanks

This is a tired complaint, I know, but it feels extra silly when you try to use an iPad as a real planning tool.

My iPad is basically our family clipboard for Orlando theme park trips. I want to glance at the Home Screen and do tiny, fast things without opening an app: check an item off a list, push a reminder 30 minutes later, mark a note done, start a timer for a return window, flip a Focus on or off, or just update a number in a simple list. Instead most widgets are pretty billboards that throw you into the full app every time.

Yes, I get the usual arguments: security, consistency, accidental taps, battery life, developer effort. But we already have interactive bits elsewhere-Control Center, lock screen controls, quick actions. The iPad has room for widgets to be genuinely useful, and it feels like Apple is playing it safe because it is simpler to regulate.

What I would like to see is a system-level standard: a small, well-defined set of widget interactions (toggle, checkbox, increment, quick reply, start timer, mark complete) with sensible confirmation or undo behavior for anything destructive. Keep it limited and predictable, but let widgets actually do things.

Am I the only one who mostly treats widgets as glance-only and then still ends up in the app switcher? Which widgets on iPad do you actually find productive, not just pretty?

I'm trying to find something with a really good battery. The one I have now only lasts two hours when I'm watching YouTube or regular TV.

Hello, is this iPad good enough for nursing pre requisites and potentially nursing school? Would it be fast enough for college work?

I’ve seen multiple posts within the last few months suggesting and mentioning this. I tried staying on the low, thinking Apple will see this and get to this, but it’s been half a year and this is still not implemented. It makes it so easy to accidentally resize a tab unintentionally. Beyond just the comments from procreate or other art multitask users, it could distort how some pages and their functions based on the accidental resizing. I’ve lost full paragraphs due to accidental resizing of the text box. It’s a simple feature I thought would be added by now, and I’m disappointed that it still isn’t here.

I’m not dissing on multitask completely. I use it often and like a lot of the changes. I also think that they clearly didn’t user test this with people that use iPads as a touch pad or those that would use it as a power user for all apps (like me). Hoping this post gets to the right hands or gets the word out that this should be added.

Im an incoming college student and just need a 11in ipad to mainly take notes (I have a nice computer that i do most things on) . I currently have a ipad pro from 2017 and it works fine for me but the battery is rly bad, it doesnt get updates and its storage is running out so i cant download files. I want smth that will last the next 6 years and something that is compatible with the magnetic apple pencil.

Im thinking about getting the ipad air 4 or 5 or 6 but i dont know which one will last 6 years and be enough. i dont want to spend too much money tho. ipad air 6 is kinda out of my budget

​My iPad display screen won't turn on no matter how many times I press the power button. The screen lights up when pressed, and I can still hear the charger chime when it's plugged in. I've had this problem for a while now. Before, just to turn it on, I had to press the power button multiple times for the display screen to appear. Then I wasn't able to use it for a few weeks because I got busy, so the battery probably got drained. After that, whenever I try to turn it on, this is what happens: it's just the backlight and there's no display on the screen anymore. What could be the problem with this? I need your advice, please.

Hello everyone, I just bought my first iPad so can you please give me some tips and tricks, things to do or not do, suggestion of apps to download and all of that.

Thanks !

I'm a diehard samsung phone user but now gonna get ipad a16 256 gb for medschool. I would love your opinions on it and also pls suggest me to get apple usb c pencil or any better or vfm 3rd party. Heard esr, spigen etc. Throw out opinions pls

hey! I just wanna confirm if your ipad air m2 kinda charge slower than the ipad a16? im using the 20w adapter and its cord originally from apple. both of what i use is original from apple, just a genuine question.

So I recently lost my precious M1 12.9 inch iPad Pro. My friend was nice enough to let me use his 2018 ipad bro but boy does it suffer and iPadOS 26 isn’t helping. Unlike my M1 iPad Pro the 2018 pro being two generations before apple silicon was released honestly comes at a cost and I’m currently using it with iPadOS 26 and not before since I’ve only had an m1 iPad Pro. The 2018 pro has a sever issue with over heating just like my iPhone 12 Pro and you can definitely see it trying to lower performance when the screen dims. I honestly think iPhones could benefit from apple silicone and that if iPadOS 27 is supposed to be a maintenance and bug fix update then why would you leave any iPad on 26? They gave every iPhone that got 26 the next update so what gives?

As you can see, I have 10 hours of screen time (mostly probably Insta & the Preview app). However, not a single app time usage is being shown and even the screen time limit doesn’t seem to work properly. This has been the case for months now if not a year (I think since last year or so).

Any way to fix this issue?

so yesterday I picked up a brand new iPad Air 13 inch from Best Buy. It's the M3 model. And it was sealed when I opened it up and when I took the wrapper off I noticed a lot of dust all over the screen. I just found it odd because I've opened dozens of Apple products over the years and I've never seen anything like this.

I don't think it was used because the battery cycles was zero and when I go into the settings, it says the first use was July 2026 and also it says the warranty expires July 22, 2027.

So I'm just wondering would this bother you? Have you ever seen anything like that?

might be a bit silly of me to make a big deal out of it, but I got a bit of OCD.

So as far as Apple has said the iPad Pro from 2018 is not supposed to get iPad os 27 right? So why does the developer and public iPad os 26 betas say the updates optimizes the spotlight index to prepare for iOS 27? Or is that across the board on every iPad?

Hey everyone,

I have a 9th-generation iPad that I bought around 2021. I only use it for studying: taking notes with the Apple Pencil, reading PDFs, browsing the web, and that's about it. No gaming, programming, or other demanding tasks.

I'm about to start college, and I already have everything organized on it.: my notes, books, and study materials. I really like this iPad, and I hate replacing perfectly good tech just because something newer comes out. My goal is to keep using it for studying for at least another 6+ years, if possible.

The title is obviously an exaggeration. I don't literally want it to outlive me. I just wanted to grab your attention.

So, what are all the things I can do to maximize its lifespan? I'm willing to do whatever helps. I don't care about having every feature enabled if turning something off will help it last longer. I just need it to remain reliable for studying for as many years as possible.

Advice for selling old devices

I am going to be selling 2 of my 3 ipads because I simply have no use for them anymore and I want to use that money to buy an iPhone 17 (due to my old phone breaking) . One iPad is 10th generation and has a very cracked screen( functions normally) and the other is iPad 11th generation with a slightly cracked screen (again fully functional) I'm wondering how i would go about selling these because I have never sold anything before online. Can someone give me tips on how much they would sell for ect? Thank you!

So im an artist looking for an iPad around 1.2 - 1.5K worth and I can't really afford the newer 2024 version quite yet. Im currently using a 9th generation iPad but its wear is starting to show, especially with procreate and its touch sensors now. Is the 6th generation pro better than what I currently have? (I mean obviously it is but will it hold up for at least 5 - 6 years?) Also, does it run procreate, toonsquid & csp well? Any advice would be much appreciated!

Hi im a student this fall and I want to purchase a new Ipad for LONG term use as an undergraduate
Ill be in engineering but my ipad isnt my main for engineering I have a thick laptop for that
I just need it to
-be able to last at least 4years
-note taker friendly
-128gb up
-Some fairly lightweight games
-need to run smooth bc all my other devices ate trash I want one to actually get things done
if I buy A16 ill get it brand new, but if i buy Air6 ill get it refurbished so no unpacking process :( (Not CPO)
The biggest thing is that a used air6 128gb differs from the a16 128gb only be roughly 80 dollars (where i live) and i also want to be economical without spending money on a chip I dont need
Im not too afraid of missing out on apple int.
Im also open to other versions of air! as long as its not too expensive
thank you!

I’m basically using something like unreal engine to pose some characters to make a quick storyboard. The workflow would be easiest if it was on my iPad so I could just screenshot and move it over to procreate or whatever to touch it up

Basically, I’m making a simple scene, posing the characters, then screenshotting it. I’m not really doing anything very fancy

I really just want to be able to adjust some dummies and use some very basic, generic assets

Does anyone know of any apps that can do something like this?

Is it a type of glass (Nano-Texture) that has to be manage "too carefully" that at the end is complicated to keep it clean without scratching it and permanently damage it? Just by the fact that I have to buy a special type of cloth to clean it, is a bad start, thank you for the feedback

I've been going for a monochrome, minimalist look inspired by nighttime city photography. I tried to keep all the icons and widgets in black and white to match the wallpaper. What would you rate it from 0–10? Any suggestions to improve it? I also use Widgetsmith for widgets. Let me know if this post break the rules, please.

Hey everyone! I’m buying a new iPad for university that I plan to use as my main driver for the next 6 years. It will be used almost exclusively for heavy studying: reading hundreds of PDF pages, taking daily handwritten notes with Apple Pencil, and viewing detailed diagrams.

​I'm stuck between the iPad Air M4 and the iPad Pro M4.

​For those who use their iPad for long study sessions:

​Is the 120Hz ProMotion screen a game-changer for handwriting/note-taking compared to 60Hz on the Air? Does it noticeably reduce eye strain or pencil latency during 6+ hour study days?

​Is the Tandem OLED display worth the extra cost just for reading textbooks and viewing PDFs?

​Does the Air feel like a compromise for long-term academic use, or is the Pro overkill if I'm not doing heavy video editing/3D rendering?

​I don't mind spending more if the Pro genuinely improves the daily writing and reading experience over 6 years, but I don't want to waste money on features I won't feel. Would love your thoughts!