The Magic Keyboard: A Game-Changer for Productivity?

I've had the chance to use Apple's new Magic Keyboard with my iPad Pro, and I have to say, it's a total game-changer. The keyboard is incredibly thin and light, making it easy to toss into a bag or purse without taking up too much space. But what really sets it apart is its incredible typing experience.

One of the things that impressed me most about the Magic Keyboard was how seamless the typing experience was. I've used other third-party keyboards with my iPad Pro before, but they always seemed to be fighting the tablet's touchscreen. Not so with the Magic Keyboard - it's as if you're sitting at a laptop, not on an iPad. The keyboard is also incredibly comfortable to type on, with a satisfying click and feedback that makes it easy to get into a flow.

But what really gets me excited about the Magic Keyboard is its potential for power pass-through. I'd love to be able to plug in from either side, which would make it so much easier to charge my device on the go. And wouldn't it be great if we could also plug in accessories like microphones or external storage? It's a small thing, but it would make such a big difference in terms of convenience and productivity.

Now, I know that Apple hasn't announced anything official about power pass-through or accessory support, but I'm hoping they'll consider adding these features in the future. And even if they don't, the Magic Keyboard itself is still an incredible product that's sure to appeal to anyone who uses their iPad Pro for productivity tasks.

Speaking of which, the Magic Keyboard starts at $229 US for the 11-inch model and a whopping $349 for the 12.9-inch model. That's a lot, but you also get a ton of features and capabilities that make it well worth the investment. And if you're already an iPad Pro owner, adding the Magic Keyboard to your arsenal is sure to be a no-brainer.

But is it worth the cost? That ultimately depends on how you use your iPad Pro. If you're a traditional computer user who needs to dock their device and make it more of a laptop, then the answer is definitely yes. But if you're using your iPad Pro primarily as a multi-touch table or with the Apple Pencil, then maybe not so much.

One thing that's for sure, though - when you combine the Magic Keyboard with an iPad Pro, you get a device that's truly powerful and capable. It's like having two great things in one package, and it's hard to imagine how anyone could possibly use their tablet without a keyboard anymore.

Nebula: A New Streaming Service Worth Checking Out

As I've been exploring the world of streaming services with my friends, I've come across an amazing new platform called Nebula. For those who may not know, Nebula is a streaming service that's specifically designed for creators and writers - it's like YouTube, but without all the algorithmic nonsense.

One of the things I love about Nebula is its focus on community and collaboration. As a group of education e-creator friends, we decided to join together and start using Nebula as our go-to platform for sharing our content with each other. It's been an absolute game-changer - we can try out new ideas without worrying about getting demonetized or having our videos " algorithmically demonitized".

But what really sets Nebula apart is its amazing original content. I recently did my first Nebula original, a part of the working title series that explores one of my favorite TV shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It was an incredible experience to be able to share my passion with others in such a unique and intimate way.

And it's not just me - Nebula has attracted some amazing creators who are sharing their own content on the platform. From interviews with I Justine and Brian Tong to chats about Brazilian jujitsu, there's something for everyone on Nebula. Plus, with its partnership with CuriosityStream, you get access to thousands of documentaries and series by top experts like David Attenborough and Chris Hadfield - all for just $19.99 a year.

CuriosityStream is an amazing platform in its own right, and the fact that it comes bundled with Nebula makes it an unbeatable deal. So if you're looking for a new streaming service to check out, I highly recommend giving CuriosityStream (and Nebula) a try. And as a special treat, use my promo code "Rene Ritchie" to get started completely free for the first 31 days.

In Conclusion

As I look back on my experience with the Magic Keyboard and Nebula, I'm reminded of just how powerful and capable our devices can be when we combine them in creative ways. Whether you're a productivity pro or a content creator, there are countless possibilities waiting to be explored - all we need is the courage to take the leap.

And so, as I continue on this journey of exploration and discovery, I'm excited to see where these amazing technologies will take us next. Who knows what wonders await us just around the corner?

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Sponsored by Curiosity Stream.Now with my streaming service, Nebula.Three months ago,alongside the 2020 iPad Proand cursor support for iPadOS,Apple announced the magickeyboard for the iPad Pro.Two months ago, Apple began shipping it.And early reviews were mostly positive.- For that second type of person,this setup,this accessory is the bestpossible version of the iPad.This is a go, this is awesome.- You can still use an iPad without thisbut it is enhanced theentire experience overall.- It's kind of a one trick ponybut I have to admit it'sa pretty good trick.- The magic keyboard for iPadis the keyboard people likeme have been waiting for.- Find yourself sometime togo get this magic keyboard,its the real deal!- Mostly.- But you start to miss certain keysthat you have on laptops.Like the Escape keythe volume controls,the brightness controls.- I guess you guys haveprobably already noticedhow dirty and smearingthe bottom of this is.- You just get a reallynice keyboard case for $350.- For me,well, I'm Rene Ritchie, andthis is a magic keyboardfor the 12.9 inch iPadPro two months later.There was no March Apple event this year.Instead, Apple launched the new iPad Proand magic keyboard online.Maybe that's why there was some confusionabout what exactly the magic keyboard isand what it's meant to be.How much does it weigh?Can you fold it back?Does it even have an easel mode.For me, Apple's press videoanswered all of thosequestions on day one.When senior vice presidentof software engineering,Craig Federighi just walked overslapped his iPad Pro downon the magic keyboardand got to work.He wasn't alreadycarrying it under his arm.He didn't unfold it using someawesome smack transformationlike in the 2018 video.He's carrying the iPadaround like an iPad,like a tablet, then walks over to a tableand docks it so that hecan use it like a laptop.So yes, you can absolutely fold it upto make it easier totransport with your iPad Pro.But no, you can't fold it backor put it into an easel modebecause in that moment, Craig showsthat it's not really meantto be a triple changerlike the original Origami smart keyboard,or even an always on convertible,like the current smart keyboard.When you dock the iPad Proonto the magic keyboard,it's not fully convenientlyusable as a tablet anymorebecause that's exactly whatthe magic keyboard really is.A dock. It sits on the table,plugged into a pass-throughpower if you need it,ready to turn your iPadinto something much closer,akin to a laptop when you need it.Heavy, substantial, allkeyboard and cursor.When you don't, you justpeel the iPad Pro back offand go back to using it the way natureand Steve Jobs intended as an iPada light thin touch first iPad.And if you need to travel,you just bundle them up.The magic keyboard protects your iPad Pro,off you go.The magic keyboard lets theiPad stay true to itself.It lets the iPad be the iPad.And doesn't strip that awayfrom anyone who actually wants an iPad.It just lets people who needtraditional computer input methodsuse them whenever they need them. Kind of.See unlike a Mac bookwhere all the computer gutsare beneath the keyboardand the display is just thissuper light blade thin screenhinged up on top of it,the iPad Pro has all of itscomputer guts behind the screen.And the magic keyboard is justthis blade thin typing surface, way down.So it's not so ultra-light,the iPad just topples over at every angle.Only some angles.Unlike the smart keyboard,which offers only two positionsfor the iPad went open,the magic keyboard hingelets you adjust it any way youlike along its usable range.That range it doesn'textend too far backwardsor the iPad would take itover at center of gravity,and the whole thing wouldjust fall backwards.And that also constrainshow you can use it.On a flat table the entireusable range is perfectly usable.If you put it on your lap though,you have to keep your thighs super level,or you have to use yourpalms to hold it downif you really want to for maximum, nope,I'm not saying it writerRene can script it,but you can't make host Rene say it.Laughable. That's a new word, right?Damn it! Editor Rene always wins, fine.Whatever.Because a traditional laptopcenter of gravity is so low,you don't even have tothink about any of that.But with the magic keyboard you do.You also can't dock theiPad in portrait orientationwhich was the only way youcould dock the original iPadon the original iPadkeyboard dock back in 2010.Most of the time thatdoesn't bother me at all.Though I know some peoplereally want to use it that way.The only time it does reallybother me is when I FaceTimeor zoom or use the frontfacing camera light at all.Because when placed ontheir magic keyboard,it's not really front-facing anymore.It's front-offset, it's front-adjacent.And that makes it just so hello awkward.Even though Applesfilled the landscape topwith a magnetic inductivecharging coil for the pencilgiven every modern keyboard case,and now dock prioritizes landscape mode,it would just make far more senseto position the samefor that mode you know,like every single MacBook ever.As someone who draws withthe Apple pencil a ton,it would be great if therewas an easel mode as well.You can flip the magickeyboard upside down totry to simulate one, but it's super goofy.And honestly I don't see howthe geometry would work outfor a proper one anyway.Sometimes it's just better to havea great keyboard dock thana middling multi mode dock.Also recognizing thelimitations of the hingedoesn't mean I don'totherwise love this hingebecause I do.Within its operating angles,it works really, really well.Although it's far easier totilt down than tilt up againjust because of the weight distribution.It's the floating cantileveredaspect of the designthat really works for me though.It lets the iPad displayjust hang right over the number keyswhich is much closer thana traditional laptop screenwould be.And not only does that look cool,it keeps a touchscreenjust like right thereimmediately available forwhenever you need to touch it.It also keeps the footprint super minimalwhich doesn't matter so much here at home,even in an office.But I imagine will come in handyat coffee shops and especiallyon tray tables and airplanes.Not that I've been able to testany of that recently at all.The polyurethane materialof the case looks greatbut picks up a lot ofsmudges and fingerprints.So far I've been able to wipe them offwith exactly zero problems,which I guess is better than a materialthat smudges less, but cleans worse.I'd love to see a materialor even a finish thatkeeps it looks betterlike the bead blasted aluminumon the MacBooks thoughobviously not bead blasted aluminum.The keyboard part of the magic keyboard,looks like a magic keyboard.Also kind of it's glossyblack on matte blackinstead of glossy black on silveror space gray aluminum likeon the most recent MacBookswhich I really like mykingdom such as it isfor a jet black MacBookor iPad Pro frankly.And the magic keyboardhas inverted T arrow keys,like all good natured keyboard should.But there's no function or mediaor touch bar row above the numberslike there are on those MacBooks.Which means no Escapekey, physical or virtual.Now I say thatas someone who barelyever uses an Escape keybut still has immense empathyfor everyone that doesincluding those whoneed to use it routinelyfor development or just used to using itto get out of whatever it isthey're doing at the moment.You can remap Escapefunctionality to the Caps Lockor Emoji key.Because of course there's an Emoji keybut it feels needlessly janky.I'm sure some missed the function keysand many missed the media keys as well.I'd be just fine with asimpler version of Tab Cfor control center, whichyou currently have to turn onin settings accessibility,keyboards, full keyboard access.Just let me three finger swipe downto quickly get my controlsand put everything I may need right thereplayback, brightness, everything.It wouldn't be as fast asan individual media keyfor all the major things,but it'd be so much more flexibleand encompassing for all the things.Speaking of brightnessthe back lighting is good, crisp, clean,and mostly uniformexcept around the edgesof the longer labels.Getting the backlight means,giving up the water resistanceof the smart keyboard keysbecause all design is compromised.But I type enough at nightand spill drinks nowhere nearly enoughthat it's a greattrade-off at least for me.I know some people have complainedabout the backlight staying on too longand causing excessive battery drain.The magic keyboard is powered by the iPad.So it will drain fasterwhen you have it attachedand the backlight will stay litfor a minute or so evenafter you stopped typingunless you put the iPad to sleep.And yeah capabilities have a costand with mobile devices that costis almost always paid in battery life.But for me it's worth itbecause as a keyboard isjust flat out, terrific.The feel is just like themagic keyboard on the MacBooks.Only different.It's hard to explain the key seem the samebut more they're mounted onsomething then in somethingwhich keeps making methink they're toleranteven pluckier.Technically it has the same new scissorswhich is as the magic keyboardsjust introduced on the maxwith a steady stable key capand a millimeter of travel.and this nice punchy feeling.I can't and have typed on this keyboardfor hours and hours, days anddays, weeks and weeks now.And it's legit.The only thing that's made me soundabout not traveling theselast couple of monthsbecause I'd be using iteven more on the road,at coffee shops,at airports,in hotels than I am at home.The big revelation of the magic keyboardisn't actually the keyboard at all.It's the trackpad.There's this incrediblyrich history of featuresstarting out with theaccessibility team at Appleand then being picked up onby the Ul kit or Springboard teamand becoming just ubiquitousparts of the system.And that's exactly what happenedwith the minimal cursorsupport from iOS 12becoming the maximal cursorsupport now in iOS 13because say it with meaccessibility is for everyone.I know some will praise Applefor not just porting overthe pointer model from MacOSbut making something closer akinto an adaptive touch modelwhere the little cursor circletransforms into a buttonshape or text insertion barin this gorgeously liquid and fluid way.And yeah, sure.Others will grouch thatApple had to do thisbecause they strippedall the buttons shapeall the affordances out of iOS 7and still haven't replaced themwith anything nearly asusable or considerate.Again,(foreign language)Both those things can be true.And this track that handles the systemas is really really well.But also as hopefully it gets betterwe'll also get better with it.It's nowhere nearly as bigas a modern MacBook trackpad.Those could easily sleep poor of these.The Mac trackpad are absurdly largebecause they don't havemulti-touch screens.So a trackpad is the onlygesture area you get.The iPad Pro even when docked,it's still all touchscreen.So I'm fine with thetrackpad being smaller.That said, it is alittle cramp for gestureslike pinch to zoom andactions like drag and drop.But not that it stopped mefrom getting anything done.It's also a real physical trackpadand not a virtual taptictrack pad, like on the Mac.On moving glass and metal when it's off,total proprioceptivemind frack when it's on.But it feels like the Mac trackpadin that you can clickon it from any point,any corner,top or bottom,left or right.And they all click equally,satisfyingly great.Not at all the common hinge track padsthat click right on the bottombut not so much all near the top.The thing is for me though,because the gestures on theiPad magic keyboard trackpadare so similar to theones on the Mac trackpad,it just feels completelynatural and intuitive to use.And I don't have to evenreally think about it at all.And that's exactly the problemthis trackpad had to solvethe job that had to get done.Saved me from having to takemy hands off the keyboardto touch the screen to domost navigational tasks.Saved me from having tochange contexts, lose my flowand deal with my dumb poorlytransitional human brain.And just let me keep myhands on the keyboardand keep working.And even as a version 1.0,that's exactly what it does.There's a USB-C port on the left sideof the magic keyboard hingethat can be used to plugthe keyboard into powerand pass that power righton through to the iPad Pro .I'm guessing Apple put it therebecause the magic keyboard drawsits power from the iPad Proand enough power that it takes it belowthe 10 hour iPad battery lifethat Apple has heldinviolable since the original.So adding a USB-C powerpass-through to the hinge,is just the sacrifice Apple had to maketo the power gods orderto let this keyboard ship.And you know what, fine with that.In fact, I prefer to haveUSB-C power pass-throughson both sides, so I canplug in from either side,especially consideringhow grotesquely shortthe USB-C cables arethat Apple ships with almosteverything these days.Now, I don't know if the smart connectorwhich is the power data and ground relaybetween the magickeyboard and the iPad Pro,has the bandwidth and speedto actually supportaccessories as well as poweror if handling a keyboard ispretty much where it taps outbut it would be greatif we could plug in accessories as well,especially if there were dual portsand one could be for power,and the other for amicrophone or external storageor anything at all that justdoesn't have to travel aroundwithout the keyboard.That would make the magic keyboard dock,a far more useful dockand the iPad Pro truly, truly pro even if.Yeah it would also make an alreadyvery expensive keyboard dockone extra data port and betterconnector, more expensive.Speaking of which,the magic keyboard startsat $229 US for the 11 inchand a whopping $349 forthe 12.9 inch model.And that's a lot, that'sa 10.2 inch iPad a lot.You can still get the smart keyboardabsent trackpad for less,but if you want everythingApple currently has to offerit's going to cost you.Add it to the price of an iPad Proand it's going to kick youwell up into the MacBook levelsmaybe even MacBook Pro levels.And again, a lotbut you also gain a lotin terms of capabilities.So end of the day, you have to decideif it's worth it to you or not.If that cost is exceeded by the value.For some pros, it'll be a no-brainer.It'll get charged straight to a clientor the company and paidoff in a single gig or two.But if it's just you,if it's just you and your walletlike it's just me and mine these days,the question becomesare you enough of atraditional computer user,a laptop user that beingable to dock your iPad Proand make it more of a laptopwould be a big enough productivity boostthat it's worth your hard earned money.If you're using your iPad Proprimarily as a multi-touch tabletor with the Apple pencilthe answer might well be no.But if you're typing a tonand doing a lot of productivity workI suspect the answer will be yeah.Well, hell yeah.Because that's the exact feeling you getwhen you combine thesetwo great things together.Just like when you combine CuriosityStreamand Nebula and evenway, much better price.Nebula is the amazingly coolnew streaming video service,I'm building with a group of like-mindededucation e-creator friends.People like Legal Eagle, Thomas Frank,Jordan Harrel, Real Science and more.It's a place where wecan try out new thingswithout having to worryabout the dreaded algorithmor being demonetized,or just being told tostay in our YouTube lane.I just did my first Nebula original.A part of the working title series.And it's all about oneof my favorite TV shows,Buffy the vampire Slayer.It's just something I couldnever post here on this channelbecause YouTube would just haveno idea what to do with it.But it's also a placewhere we can post allof our regular videos,videos, just like thiswithout any ads or sponsorships at all.In fact, new ad free, sponsor free contentfrom amazing creators goesup, not just every weekbut every day, multiple times a day,which is great if you're tired of waitingfor other services to update.Their even specialand extended versions of our videoslike I've been postingthe full length versionsof my interviews on Nebula as well.45 minute chats with IJustine,Brian Tong, Walt Mossbergand more to come.Where after the tech talk,Justine and I dive into Brazilian jujitsuand Brian and I geek out over superheroes.And next up John Gruber, andI talk all about James Bond.Again, things that wouldjust get buried hereby the algorithm.And now because Nebula comesbundled with CuriosityStreamyou also get access to it'sthousands of documentariesand series by peoplelike David Attenboroughand Chris Hatfield, allfor just $19.99 a year.A year seriously, it's thebest deal in streaming today.Just go to curiositystream.com/reneritchiefor unlimited access to theworld's top documentariesand nonfiction series.And now Nebula as welland into the promo code, Rene Ritchie,just start your membership completely freefor the first 31 days.Thanks, CuriosityStream.And thanks to all ofyou, for your support.\n"