Nice to hear - I wasnāt really considering the keyboard, mostly because my Bluetooth one hardly gets any use, and I hate the way it makes the case look when folded up. But I was definitely considering the pencil - good to know it has more uses than writing, sketching, etc.
With the right apps, your handwriting will translate into text very easily (Nebo, Notes Plus) or just take handwritten notes (donāt use Nebo for that, too distracting with all the text popups). Procreate and Concepts are superb drawing apps.
Gaming wise, any bullet hell SHMUP will play a lot better since the Pencil has such a fine control, and your finger isnāt blocking the ship to move it. Some of the more cramped boardgames can also benefit from it, since the precision is much better, itās easier to select things without having to zoom in/out to get to it (like Terra Mystica at times).
The nib on the end of the Pencil usually lasts me 3-6 months. 4 packs of nibs are $20 USD at the Apple store.
Good to know - didnāt realize it wore out.
- I donāt mind deleting some stuff; I already have more on the 32 than I use regularly. I do plan on getting a Pencil, but not a keyboard. I seem to be the only person I know who doesnāt mind typing or reading on iDevice screens. I have a Bluetooth keyboard I never use, and I doubt Iāll ever get a Kindle, because I just donāt care. Perhaps if I liked beaches more, Iād feel differently about the Kindle.
FWIW, my experience is that backup/restore of iOS devices is pretty complete as long as you do it through iTunes and make sure to check the āencrypted backupā option. Yes, if you do it through iCloud, itās only a partial backup ā they say so in so many words.
Of course, this is little help if youāre not invested enough in the Apple ecosystem to have a Mac to save/restore on. (I have no idea if the Windows version of iTunes is an adequate substitute.)
If anyone here knows how to transfer Zen Pinball local scores, please let me know 
As of Mrs StCās last new phone, restoring from a Windows iTunes backup is annoyingly incomplete. Her biggest gripe was her playlists being wiped, and it seems that this is just what iTunes does. My last restore just dumped a load of music out of the database altogether, and decided not to download my audiobooks.
I might be heavily invested in the iOS ecosystem, but I loathe iTunes. Awful program.
Agreed. iTunes is the red headed stepchild of the Apple family. I canāt even get it to work reliably on my Windows machineā¦
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I bought the Cellular because more often than not I would have needed the convenience of going online directly. Tethering is an option but a cumbersome for my lazy butt.
I plan to go middle ground. Using a Pre-Paid Data Card. Prepaid because I am stingy (I put down huge piles of cash for my premium games, consoles, iDevices, PC, Boardgames and whatever but I loathe (really really, no - REALLY loathe) data plans or subscription modelsā¦and avoid it like a plague in entertainment, daily life etc. if at all possible (annual stuff like PSN+ and Amazon Prime is fine tough - yes I am strange).
Usually Prepaid plans are even worse than subscription based onesā¦ 10ā¬ for 1 GB with 30 days of timeā¦or 40 ā¬ for 9 GB in 90 days. Thats some crazy stuffā¦however I found one who only charges a buck for a GBā¦with a timeline of 90 minā¦which is fine for meā¦I could get 10 GB worth out of 10ā¬ this way it or split it up or elseā¦
Let see how this will work out.
Also the new toy arrived todayā¦and I read up on the dreaded backupā¦after @tgl tipped me of to this (thanks btw).
The internet eggheads only write about saving passwords and stuff this way but maybe it will work with game stuff as well I will tryā¦
ā¦or WOULD if not for the backup when starting iTUNES (non-encrypted) wouldnāt take ages at step 6 of 6 and cannot change to encrypted as long as the process is runningā¦seems my Backup or iTunes bonked outā¦seveal restarts and it still doesnāt completeā¦gah!
New toy!!! Shiney!! arghlglglgl!
Went into the Apple store over the weekend to play with the new iPads. Iām going to pass on this refresh. the 120hz is super nice along with the RAM upgrade, but itās not enough for me to justify a new one. I also would be sticking with the 12.9" - the 10.5" i just not enough screen real estate for me.
Overall though, theyāre still rock solid.
[quote=āPrivate_Prinny, post:19, topic:592ā]
seems my Backup or iTunes bonked outā¦[/quote]
ouch, ouch, doubleouch 
bad memories of my āall iCloud backups corruptedā desaster are coming back on me. still hurts. lost all save game data and so many photos.
apple support really tried but could not help me.
I deleted every Backup I had and checked two options āblock automatic syncingā and āsend Error / Diagnosis data to appleā or something alike.
The interwebz stated my problem is most probably a corrupted app-download directly on the device some time ago (not trough PC but from wifi appstore on the device directly). During the process of syncing/backup the process hangs himself on a update suicide/ trying to forward diagnosis data loop.
After doing the above I could check the āencrypted backupā option. Also should do more frequent updatesā¦I usually only snyc to my PC once in a blue moonā¦
I have restored the Backup on my new iPad and I am slightly impressed. Titan Quest, Stormcasters Ultra, Zombieville and some others have flawlessly imported their saves.
Why isnāt that knowledge with the encrypted backup more well known? Did I miss the day in Nerd-School when it was announced?
The internet only has some convoluted tech-articles about itā¦maybe I should have dug deeper but noone specifically mentioned games - only ālogin details and passwordsā and other nebolous stuffā¦
If I had known this I definetly would have spend more time playing stuff the last couple of months and not dreading and fearing progress lossā¦
Overallā¦it has a strange form factor. a bit bigger in length and wide then the Air but a bit thinnerā¦still fitting my non-Apple Sleeve fine.
Nice sound with the 4 speakers and much more responsive then my Air (1st gen.)
Howeverā¦the damn huuuuuge (useless) backside cameraā¦why dont they offer a version without it?
Several times I needed to the supress the urge this clever gentlemen had in this legendary youtube Video where he permanently fixed the camera hump on his iPhone 6.
While it doesnāt bother me all that much with my iPhone 6+ since I have a case which camouflages the camera-hump however I donāt use cases for my iPadsā¦argh.
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Hm, my iPad Air is showing signs of the battery getting a bit iffy, so Iām vaguely considering replacement and upgrade soon-ish (would be sooner except Iāve spent all my money on fences and horse-keeping equipment, sigh). Sounds like youāre cautiously impressed with the new shiny? 
If you also have an Air 1st Gen then:
TL;DR:
my verdict for going from iPad Air to iPad Pro 10,5:
Long story:
Sound:
4 Speakers instead of one? Perfect (watching stuff in bed or on couchā¦now with double the soundoutput as I sometimes tend to block the one speaker from the old iPad with my hand holding it.
Ram:
4 GB instead of one measly GB shows. I did a test yesterday and I can juggle much more open safari tabs or open apps without them reloading/refreshing anew when switching back
GPU and CPU:
Uh no techhead so I can only quantify it as āsnappyā? Probably should fire up Deathwatch Tyranid Invasion and XCOM:EW and see how fast they are booting but I already factory reset my iPad Air so I cannot make a side to side comparison.
Framerate/ Truetone display:
No opinion (yet)
New Screensize:
For almost the same size and nearly the exact weight I get a bit more screen estate; as I am watching many foreign movies (japanese, spanish, french, etc) with subtitles turned on every pixel countsā¦especially if you are a half blind old duck like me. Also helpful for un-optimized game apps (or badly ported ones) with tiny text.
Why no 12,9 Pro? As I am commuting a lot and spend around 10-15 hours a week on my iPad AWAY from home I like the middle ground option more.
If I ever have the money (and desire) to have a powerful home-usage only iPad as well I might go for an big iPad Pro. As it is now the size is perfect.
Fingerprint scanner in homebutton:
Finally! I have one in my iPhone 6+ and more often than not I am dumbstruck why my iPad doesnāt automatically unlock to my thumb 
Storage space:
Going from 64 (iPad 3rd gen) to 128 (iPad Air 1st gen) to now 512 isā¦awesome!
I donāt sync often so I have a ton of stuff in my VLC player, Kindle Reader, iBooks (lots of scanned PDFs) Amazon Prime (whole TV Season) and a ginormous iTunes Libary.
Juggling the tons of games I want to play someday (maybe, hopefully) as well is a hazzle if some of the meatier ones are 1,2,3 GB in sizeā¦having them around just in case isnāt always an optionā¦now it is 
Recap:
So for me the most important updates were Storage Space > Screen estate > 4 Speakers > RAM > CPU/GPU upgrade > Fingerprint Scanner > everything else
Yes it was expensive, but I use that damn thing 20-30 hours a weekā¦so it IS worth my money.
My current iDevice setup:
iPad Mini (4th gen):
for mobility (rare occasions I have no Backpack when I am away from home) sometimes reading and legacy support (not planning to go iOS 11)
and ESPECIALLY old games with no Universal app with the old ā1X 2X UIā for embiggening screen picture from iPhone size to iPad size.
Also playing games with old Digital Pad Setup (Secret of Mana, KEMCO RPGs nearly every oldschhool Premium RPG on iTunes) Twin Stick Shooters (Storm Casters Ultra) or otherwise unoptimized UIs unsuiting for mobile Action RPGs
feels way better on an iPad mini then a full sized one (try playing 3 hours Secret of mana straight with a normal iPad i dare you)
iPhone 6+
Telephoning and Web Browsing while commuting also Working (eMails) at work when I am in meetings or somehwere else on campus and not at my office pc.
iPad (Air 1st gen now Pro 10,5)
Primary gaming, reading, listening,watching and everything else device while commuting or in bed/ on couch
Yes I am an Apple nerdā¦or not? Donāt have a Apple TV or Apple Watch or even a Mac?
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I just set up my daughterās old iPad 2 for an upcoming trip and was shocked at how slow it was. It is funny, but I usually donāt appreciate memory and speed upgrades until I am reminded how things used to be.
That said, even though I understand how technology evolves, I still feel like these apple devices go obsolete awfully quickly
Pleaseā¦ Iām fully invested in the ecosystem. I think the only thing we donāt own is the Watchā¦ Iām definitely going to do the upgrade - Iāll get the 10.5 Pro, give my Air 2 to my wife, and sell her Air 1 for the $100 or soā¦ my kids are still too little to need anything more than their iPod Touches. Just awaiting the tenth anniversary of my thirtieth birthday in Augustā¦
Actually I would hold onto to the Airpad if i was in your shoes.
In my (humble?) opinion 100$ doesnāt seem to be too much of a worthy profit - think about the (quality?) time spent on actually selling it.
Gifting it away or using it as a legacy 32bit backup iDevice would be my planā¦
But I am no fan of selling stuff on Ebayā¦too much trouble for my liking 
Stop making me want an upgrade, guys.
My Air 1 is holding up just fine, so Iām going to try to hold off for a while longer, but thereās a significant part of me thatās jealous I have the oldest of the four iPads in the house ā¦
If I did sell it, itād be to a buddy at work. Kind of depends on whether I need the cash for the Pro, plus Iād like to spring for the pencil tooā¦
I just downloaded all Apps I could from my purchase history which arenāt duds or game I actually completed and donāt plan to go back to (yes I sometimes DO complete games - as strange as this may seem).
A nice clean number ā¦300! 
This was disregarding the fact that many many of them apps will be killed off with the pending 64bit-Appocalypse, just to see how much storage this would use.
I only (?) used 187 GB (and that includes a dozen or so useless preinstalled Apple apps I was to lazy to delete yet) throwing in another 50 in the realm of ācompleted but maybe I would go back to laterā currently not installed apps (lets say another 20 GB of them) and still have over 300 GB left for iTunes Music, VLC, comics, Amazon Prime Video, mangas, documents (lots of scanned pdfs)
ā¦yes I can savely say I am now truly ready for the biiiig bloaated apps of tomorrow and the day after that twitch 
Was it worth spending 230ā¬ more than the 256 GB model to go full on retaā¦ahem 512 GB? Yes - definetly!
Deducting appleās (cr)apps and the final victims of the 64bit massacre and adding all the stuff mentioned above I estimate that I would land at around 230 to 240GB of used storage spaceā¦so going with my crazy logic a 80-90% full iDevice at day 2 after purchaseā¦not to my liking.
Fun fact:
Star Realms is just shy of 500 MB install sizeā¦maybe that put things into perspective for the future of app sizes in relation to (perceived) content/volume. ā¦the days of 5 1/4" Floppies with programms a couple of KB in size are looonng gone
Ohā¦
ā¦
(<_<)
(>_>)
ā¦
(>_<) Sorry!