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Went gangbusters and bought the 256GB with pencil & UAG case.

MorrisTheCat

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Having been a fan of the Apple iPad (have an iPad Air2 anyway ... after a history of previous units) for my hobby-time/work in electronics and engineering I finally stumped for the Pro....

It will not be used for Facebook or movie watching or personal emailing. It's going to be my goto data, design library store 'scratchpad' think place.

Yep, so far I really like it and promptly hunted down the Apps I already know and use such as iCircuit, and then went for Concept, Procreate, Shapr3D, AutoCAD360... etc.... and are in the midst of steep learning curves getting familiar with them in such a large visual space which I must say is really a great experience. I used to have old paper note books of sketches and scribbles but now the lot sits on the Pro thanks to the pencil interface. I tried for a year doing this with a Surface Pro 3 but it just didn't work the way I wanted.

My only concern so far is I discovered one App I had bought a year back and used a bit is now dead and won't run, and is no long available and (sorry about that)... is the message.

OK, so I paid around $20 (I don't live in the USA so everything is more expensive) but heck.... It begins to set off a few alarms : just how often does this happen when you buy an App in commitment to a Product and then one day poof it's gone and inaccessible? Effectively I kind of feel there needs to a monetary compensation should something purchased in good faith suddenly for any reason become killed-off... At least some kind of warning made so associated info you might have added can be backed up or recorded somewhere else.

The App in question was a bunch of electronics circuit diagrams for general amplifier equipment... which would be great on the bigger Pro screen....

I admit here that I have never read the mega fine print on Apple's agreement so it probably says they can stiff us like this but it really is a detractor now the workflow of using an App and iPads as tools rather than gadgets is becoming the norm...
 

jwt873

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Congrats on getting the 'beast' :)

Unfortunately developers do pull up stakes and remove products. Companies go bankrupt or developers pare down their offerings.

I had a favorite navigation program (GPS Drive) that they stopped supporting. It used online resources that dissapeared when they abandoned it. They gave up selling it because they couldn't keep up with the free nav apps offered by Google etc..

With another app (Start Walk) they crippled the perfectly good working version that I paid for and then asked for more money to upgrade to the 'advanced' version which was little more than a regular app update.
 

scifan57

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In many cases it's not Apple that's responsible if an app ceases working, instead it's the developer in many cases. Any question of monetary compensation if a paid app ceases functioning would have to be between the buyer and the developer, not Apple.
 

twerppoet

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The key is making sure that the files an app uses are standard formats (cad, ,psd, pdf, tiff, etc.), or that the app can at least export standard files. That way, even if the developer goes away, you can probably find a replacement app, or at the very least a way to conver the file to another standard format.

This has always been true of computers and apps. In the early 8 bit computer days it was a major pain, now it's still something to look out for. It was/is less noticable for those who live in the Windows world using nothing but mainstream apps, and to a lesser extent for those that stick to mainstream OS X apps.

It's also a good idea to look at your backup stratagy. If you don't want to lose files because an app fails, or gets pulled from the app store, you really need to keep on top of having copies somewhere else. Prefereably more than one somewhere else.
 

Tuttle

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Morris,
Hope you are enjoying your Pro and Pencil as much as I am.

Will have to look at iCircuit.

A couple of apps that I really like and use a lot are:
1: Goodnotes for handwriting research notes.
2: Tex Writer for typesetting papers, etc, in TeX.

And, yes, I get a few warnings about old apps. It is, I think, a "semi-planned obsolence." First comes a new version of iOS, which makes some apps obsolete. Then new apps appear that look so sexy you must have them, but they will only run on the next version of iOS, so you upgrade the iOS. Then you find you can't run more of your older apps, etc, etc. To my mind a new iOS should be able to run older apps, but provide newer capabilities that newer apps can use to advantage. Granted that requires more effort on the part of system software developers, but that is the reason they earn the big bucks, no? (At least that should be one of the reasons!) But I get the feeling that they are more interested in creating new bells, whistles, and frills than in ascertaining users's needs and desires and trying to accomodate them.
 

scifan57

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The new iOS is fully capable of running the older apps, but only if the app developers allow it by writing the necessary code to make it possible. If they're busy writing new apps to take full advantage of the capabilities of the new iOS they may not have the time or desire to maintain their older apps.
 

Sparky2773

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I also bought the ipad pro monster with the pencil. I am an electrical contractor and I would like to be able to upload drawings and mark/change them. I cant seem to find an app that will do that. I would like to be able to upload a CAD file and layout my own electrical symbols on there and send to my engineer for stamping. Does anyone know of a CAD app that will help me with this?
 

twerppoet

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I also bought the ipad pro monster with the pencil. I am an electrical contractor and I would like to be able to upload drawings and mark/change them. I cant seem to find an app that will do that. I would like to be able to upload a CAD file and layout my own electrical symbols on there and send to my engineer for stamping. Does anyone know of a CAD app that will help me with this?

There are several CAD apps for the iPad. I don't' use any of them, but the big names are usually the best to check out first; and AutoDesk has the Auto CAD 360 app. I'm sure it has all the basic tools. Even if it does not support specific markup/annotation tools, your can probably get by using the usual tools in red to make the same points and notes.

Just search for CAD in the app store for other possibilites. Make sure they support DWG file format.

Note: The closest thing I have to a CAD app is MagicPlan; a room/building plan app.
 

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