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Review: Logitech Combo Touch

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So I’ve been using the Apple Magic keyboard (Still a stupid name) since it was released. I like it a lot.

EXCEPT…

Your iPad needs to be naked to use it. To be fair, there are a few slipcase options that sorta work. I used the MOFT one and didn’t hate it, but didn’t love it. It only sorta protected the iPad, and only certain parts.

Enter Logitech.

My friend had this case for his iPad so I’d seen it in the wild already. I knew it had a weird fabric feel, and wouldn’t let you stick stickers to it (Stupid Logitech). Swallowing my love of stickers, I ordered it.

Being mobile.

Logitech Combo Touch iPad case
The only sticker I’ve found that sticks to the case material.

When I’m not writing, I carry my iPad around. Whether I’m sitting in my chair reading through the day’s RSS updates, or mindless swiping on Angry Birds while we watch TV, my iPad is in my hand.

More importantly, when I’m running a conference, I never set it down. Looking at the conference slack, the live stream, the ticket portal, all sorts of stuff.

I don’t want to worry about dropping it. The Case for the Combo Touch is nice in that regard. It covers the entire device, and is easy to grip.

A nice bonus for the case is the kickstand. While not a major use case the last two years, when I fly, I watch stuff. I’ve tried to write and can if I have to, but I’m tall, and flying just isn’t the most comfortable thing ever so watching movies and TV shows helps the time pass faster.

The one thing I really disliked about Apple’s Magic Keyboard (That they never claimed to solve) was that it kinda sucked as anything but a keyboard. Watching videos was annoying because the keyboard was there and the case supported only a narrow range of viewing angles. Not at all Apple’s fault, but annoying nonetheless in an expensive and premium piece of kit.

As Good as a Laptop.

iPad in Logitech case

The keyboard is nice. It feels as good as the Apple keyboard. The trackpad is wide and feels great. I like the function keys, particularly because the volume keys get hard to press when the iPad is in a case, so quickly changing volume via keyboard is great.

My only complaint, and I know it’s a limitation of design options, is that the keyboard hinges like a laptop without the weight. I can only sit certain ways with this on my lap because the keyboard is connected just by a thin thread and the kickstand sits so far back. IE I can’t use this, sitting cross-legged.

It’s a minor inconvenience to be sure, but one big plus for the Apple Magic keyboard is its heft and center of gravity.

Overall.

I’m happy with my choice. I like the flexibility of not having the keyboard around when I don’t need it and can live with the more limited options around writing on my lap.

An iPad Only Life

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iPad Pro and Blackberry Smoke

I wrote about moving to more of an iPad only life last year. I wasn’t sure how that would go, overall, especially as things eventually would return to leaving the house. That post was when I still had a laptop.

Since then, I’ve moved to the M1-powered iPad Pro, sold my MacBook Air, and have zero regrets.

In addition to reading the news, watching videos on the planet, my two main professional uses are conferences and writing. So let’s dive into those.

Conferences.

My biggest concern was conferences. In 2020 events were online and I didn’t need to stand at a podium and present. Something that was easy peasy on a laptop. At the end of 2021 one of my conferences was hybrid, and I was gonna have to present from my iPad.

Big positive. Managing a hybrid event. One thing the iPad rocked at, was keeping my streamyard studio in my hand all day. I could open the browser, see the live stream, flip a banner on or off, push an announcement to the screens, etc. That was freeing. I could be on the move, and still managing the online portion of the event.

Big Negative. Presenting. Keynote for the iPad is …. Not awesome. It’s hard to use, the limitations of iPad OS make grabbing images and content and getting into Keynote an exercise in frustration. Sadly I don’t see Apple fixing this. Their ‘business’ suite of apps has slid more and more towards beginners (On the Mac and the iPad). Finding a better way to present is on my list for 2022 events. Thankfully I’m not on stage THAT often.

Also Bad. The projector/iPad relationship. I don’t know what the issue is here. During my closing remarks, the iPad would just lose connection to the projector and fall out of presenter mode. It was annoying, to say the least. I tried more than one dongle. No idea if it was THOSE projectors, that version of iPadOS, or some combo therein.

Writing.

Writing on the iPad hasn’t changed much in the last two years. Scrivener is still not very good on it, but is good enough (The dev team’s motto, I assume). I’ve been playing more and more with Dabble, but it’s…. so so, mostly around how iPadOS with a keyboard is wonky. Likely also some weirdness since it’s a web app vs. native swift.

I’ve written books on the decks of riverboats in Egypt, on trains, in tents in Tanzania, on beaches, in airplanes, and most importantly to me, breweries.

I’m trying out Logitech’s keyboard solution (I don’t know why, but I have a Super Strong anti Bluetooth vibe on accessories for the iPad), since I wanted a case for the iPad when not with a keyboard. It’s not perfect (review forthcoming).

Hopes for the future.

My hope is that with the addition of the M1 (likely some M1X or M2 in the near future), Apple will take a serious swing at making iPadOS not “iOS with split-screen”.

My Friend Abbi

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360idev 2009 crowd shot

I posted about losing Abbi on Facebook, but haven’t talked about it here. Mostly because I’ve been processing it in the background, all this time.

I first met Abbi (Bottom left of the photo in the jacket) at 360|iDev San Jose, in 2009.

He was a fixture of the Mac community long before I met him, and up until the end. Ever the consummate entrepreneur, he was always looking for an angle. We argued a lot around this point, as I generally dislike what entrepreneurship has become in the valley. Abbi was Silicon Valley through and through.

He was the first to market with outlets with USB sockets in them but got beat out by bigger players. He built the first iPhone battery case, but well, Mophie.

No matter our disagreements, he was my friend. We didn’t get to hang out very often, he wasn’t a big traveler, so I only saw him when I went to San Jose/San Francisco for WWDC. I cherished our time every year. I’d have to drag him kicking and screaming from a loud party where no one could hear anyone else so we could eat a regular meal, and speak in normal volumes. One of our last hangs was during WWDC. He drug me to a party I didn’t want to go to on the promise we’d leave shortly after and grab a bite. We went to a pizza place that’s a staple in the area. We enjoyed pizza and a beer and talked about business.

Often I’ll be working on something and the thought, “Abbi would love this” or “This would drive Abbi nuts” will spring up. We loved sparing on ideas and business. Our approaches couldn’t have been more different.

most recently he and I were helping a friend with an app idea. We were essentially the idea pool. We had a weekly meeting where we threw out ideas, helped refine things, came up with next steps etc. It was fun, if not frustrating when Abbi and the rest of us butted heads on where this app idea could/should go.

Abbi was always the reacher. “Let’s take on Stripe! Let’s redefine what the cash register is!” etc. He never thought small, or even regular-sized. I loved him for that, even when shouting at him, LOL. He never settled. There was always something more he wanted.

Despite our differences, Abbi was invaluable, as a friend, and mentor. His thoughts helped shape mine. His friendship was unwavering.

When Winston passed, Abbi called me. He knew I was in pain, said he didn’t want to keep me, but to know he was there if I needed him, and his thoughts were with Nicole and me. I almost didn’t answer the call, because I hate phone calls. I’m so glad I answered.

Abbi passed in early November. He was, well, himself until the end. We were on a team call for the app idea. He nonchalantly said. “Sorry if it gets noisy. I’m in the hospital.” We pressed him for details, which he grudgingly shared before everyone else joined, then said. “Ok, let’s do this. This isn’t about me.”

That was Abbi. It was never about him. It was always about how he could help. Business ideas, rides to the airport, mac repairs, or discounts on repaired stuff. If he could, he would, for anyone.

Sadly, he never left the hospital. Complications, his age, and diet all lined up against him. We thought we’d see him pop onto slack any day with an “I’m better now. I had an idea about the app”

He never did.

I miss him still.

No One Cares what You Don’t Like

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And you shouldn’t either.

I get a daily stoic email and this gem was one of them.

We have so many strong opinions. Especially about things we don’t like. We don’t like it, and we want you to know that we don’t like it—that musician, that politician, that restaurant, the way that so-and-so talks. 

It’s almost like we take pleasure in the misery these things cause us. Needless to say, this is not Stoic. You think Marcus didn’t have things he didn’t like? Of course he did. Seneca, too. But they worked to get from a place of hate or dislike to what the Stoics called “indifference”—almost Zen-like nothingness towards what displeased them. 

Malcolm Gladwell asked Joe Rogan (in their epic interview on Rogan’s podcast) what kind of comics he didn’t like. Rogan responded that he actually didn’t have any. 

One of the things I’ve gotten really good at as I’ve gotten older is not paying any attention to things I don’t like. Just letting it slide right out of my brain and onto the floor, I’m not interested. It’s just, I spent so much time when I was younger and stupider, worrying about things I don’t like, being upset at things I don’t like—well that sucks, why do people like that, what is wrong with them? And then I realized, like, what a gigantic waste of resources that is, just a huge waste of energy. I don’t care anymore. You know as long as they’re not stealing material, as long as they’re not you know doing something terrible to other comics, victimizing, as long as they’re not doing that, I really don’t care. If they’re doing well, good luck.

“We have the power to hold no opinion about a thing,” Marcus Aurelius wrote, “and to not let it upset our state of mind—for things have no natural power to shape our judgments.” Beautiful.

(Too bad Rogan apparently doesn’t like science, letting it slide out of his brain to be replaced with nonsense and worse, dangerous crap. This post was started in March 2021, before Rogan went full-on health risk. Be like Rogan in that you simply move on from things you don’t like. Don’t be like Rogan in every single other way.)

I’ve struggled with this. I say struggle because especially on the internet (Facebook and Twitter) it’s easy to get sucked into sharing what you hate. Someone posts about something they like and you see it, someone comes in with how much they hated it.

No one cares that you hated it, Chad.

More to the point, your hating of it doesn’t mean someone else can’t love it, and there are exactly zero times that it’s ok to try to steal someone’s joy.

Creators know this.

It’s common among writers to tell newer writers to never read reviews. It’s awesome and heartwarming to see someone say how much they love what you create. That feeling is so easily trampled by the person who leaves a negative review because they didn’t like your writing style, or use of pronouns, or your main character’s sexuality. None of that is actionable. It’s all subjective. That person could have left their star rating without explaining, or simply said it’s not for them. They never do.

Be better.

I’m not perfect. I’m working on it. I will be forever.

I try to leave honest reviews and preface subjective issues so that it’s clear that it’s a ‘me thing’ so that the objective issues shine more brightly. After all, those are the things the creator can choose to address.

More to the point, and I think more importantly when I see someone on social media post about something they liked that I didn’t enjoy. I keep scrolling. We all should work harder on this part.

Best Laid Plans

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So we had the car packed. We had bags packed. My wife was wrapping up her work day. Next Stop….

COSine 2022!

ER

Next stop…. Doggy ER.

Paco started walking funny around 10a. Like, really stiff. I put him on the couch and sat with him for a while to see what was up. He didn’t move. He didn’t give kisses (Which if you’ve met Paco is unusual) and just laid there like a lump.

I’ve had fairly significant anxiety around Paco’s health since we lost Winston. I’ve never lost a pet that suddenly for an unknown reason so I kind of obsess over every little thing Paco does.

So, off we went to doggy ER.

About 2 hours later we got home. The consensus was that he had some disk(s) issues. Likely daaged/inflamed. Probably not new new thing, but flared up.

The MRI would tell us which and how many disks are at issue. With a price tag of $3500 we opted to skip that step since the end result would be the same. Medication and medicinal management. So we cut to the chase.

Now we get to spend 2-4 weeks keeping Paco from moving around. No jumping, running, playing with other dogs, no stairs. We borrowed some crates from our neighbor and if he’s not in that he’s wedged in next to one of us on the couch or chair.

We’re lucky that he likes ‘caves’ so actually goes into the crate on his own. Go figure.

What about COSine?

I had to cancel. I felt horrible. The conference organizer part of me knows all too well how painful a speaker canceling last minute is, but with my anxiety peaking I couldn’t stomach having Nicole we stuck in the hotel room with him. Thankfully the organizer was understanding.

So, that was our weekend :)

COSine 2022

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My first in-person thing of 2022 is this weekend! I’m equal parts excited and nervous, but mostly excited.

I’ve got a table in the dealers room all weekend so if you’re nearby come say hi, sit in on some awesome panels, meet cool folks.

Speaking of panels. I’m moderating my first panel this weekend. That’s the root of most of the nervousness. I’m looking at this entire weekend as a great opportunity to practice my stoicism.

Come again?

:) While I’m 100% certain I’ll never attain a mastery of stoicism, I like the calmness it can help impart. One of the tenets is that you accept what is in your absolute control, and let what isn’t in your direct control not bother you.

So what is in my direct control?

  • I’m going to try to be the best moderator I can
  • I’m going to try to be the best panelist I can
  • I’m going to try to be the best salesperson I can

That’s it. Everything else is beyond my control.

Will people buy my books? I can’t say.

Will people enjoy my moderation of the panel? No idea

Will people like my answers on the panels? Shrug.

All I can do is my best at those and accept that the rest is out of my control and not worth worrying about.

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