Way back in 2015, I looked at whether the iPad Pro of the time could be a Mac substitute. My bottom line then was “not for everyone, but for many, yes.”

The answer, of course, is the same one I give when non-techy friends ask me which laptop they should buy: It depends on what you want to do with it.

But once I’ve heard what they want to use it for, my answer to the question, ‘Which laptop should I buy?’ has often been, ‘You shouldn’t: Buy an iPad plus Bluetooth keyboard instead.’ So far, at least, everyone who has taken this advice has been happy with the result…

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It will surprise no-one that I was an early adopter of the Kindle, buying one almost the moment they went on sale back in 2007. I was doing a lot of business travel at a time, and absolutely loved the ability to carry a whole load of books with me at all times in essentially zero space.

My Kindle went literally everywhere with me, whether it was across town or to the other side of the world. That changed, however, when the first iPad came out …

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There are two Apple products I was pretty sure weren’t for me. The first was the Apple Watch.

To be fair to myself, I didn’t state outright that I would never buy one, only that I was a skeptic.

Although I can’t see an actual problem I need the watch to solve, that’s not the same as considering it a useless device. I can see potential applications for it, I’m just not sure they amount to a sufficient reason to own one.

I now wear one everyday. But there seemed no doubt at all that I had no possible reason to want an Apple Pencil …

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Quite a few friends have asked my advice about which iPad to buy. In general, my approach when asked for advice on iDevices is to start by asking rather a lot of questions of my own. What will you use it for? How often will you carry it around with you? How appealing to you are features X, Y and Z?

Depending on their answers, I’ve recommended everything from the cheapest to the most expensive models. Indeed, my general advice with the iPad has been that, unless you need any of the Pro features, the cellular version of the 9.7-inch iPad with 128GB storage is likely the one to go for.

But this year is a little different …

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Even before the new compact 12.9-inch iPad went on sale, there was talk of even larger iPads.  Developer Steven Troughton-Smith made the case for a 14.9-inch iPad Pro, noting that this would allow two decent-sized Safari tabs to be open side-by-side with a third app open too.

And while some might think it’s a crazy idea – where would it end? – a poll of 9to5Mac readers shows that around 40% of you favor the idea of an iPad larger than the existing 12.9-inch model …

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Having given my first impressions yesterday of the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro, I thought it would be at least a couple of days before I had anything more to say, but it turns out that’s not the case. Consider this partly a diary, and partly a call to arms for an iPad-specific version of iOS: padOS.

I have a Wednesday evening ritual that involves working on a creative writing project for a couple of hours in a coffee shop, then heading to a nearby pub with friends. I usually cycle there, but this evening didn’t want to stop playing with the iPad, so took the tube instead. Having managed to secure a seat, I was That Guy – the one steadfastly avoiding looking up in case I spotted a disabled grandmother who needed my seat …

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