First of all, how the hell is it June already? Is it just me? Is time passing at a ludicrously fast pace?
OK, maybe it is just me.
This week was, in work terms, truncated: A bank holiday plus a day off on Thursday made the week feel even shorter than normal. Since Thursday I have been up in Suffolk for a little mini-gathering of the clan, seeing my niece, her husband, and their two lovely children – the children for the first time ever. They all live over in Adelaide, where my brother and his wife settled over thirty years ago. An outpost of the Betteridge’s, established.
Because I’m quite a bit younger than my siblings being a great-uncle has come pretty early. I’m less than 20 years older than my youngest niece, which means we share quite a few cultural references, probably more than my siblings in some ways. And my niece’s lovely husband (who once managed to absolutely charm my mother, which gives him bonus points) is a wonderful, lovely guy, too.
Spending time away from home is good, but I’m less enamoured of living out of a rucksack than perhaps I would have been twenty years ago. I love being away, but the prospect of being at home in my own bed is what makes travelling special. The journey may indeed be the reward, but being able to soak in my own bath for a couple of hours is also part of the journey, in a way.
This week I have been reading Beyond the light horizon by Ken Macleod, the third in a series which I have quite enjoyed. It’s a nice near-future romp which features submarines which are actually spaceships, a mysterious alien intelligence, and a European Union that’s developed into a more communistic union – and which works better. Thank you Ken for painting a picture of a near future that’s not totally wrecked. I enjoyed the first volume a lot, thought the second lagged a little (as second volumes often do) and am enjoying the third one a lot more so far.
This week I also bought a new iPad, the 11in iPad Pro with the spangly new M4 chip in it. As a bit of background, I actually had two iPads: an M1 12.9in, and a recent iPad mini. Since I bought the MacBook Air M2, the 12.9 – which was intended to be my travelling machine – has hardly had much use. The 11in iPad Pro is intended to replace both, and be the device I take on trips and while commuting.
This trip to Suffolk was its first journey, and it’s done really well. The new keyboard is a delight to type on. While I didn’t mind the previous Magic Keyboard, this is a far better feel and more akin to the excellent MacBook Air keyboard. It’s also – of course – a great book reader, and I have spent a lot of time reading on it. The screen is great, but honestly the screen on every iPad I have ever owned has been great. Is it noticeably better than the older iPad Pro? Not to my old eyes, but that’s because the older iPad Pros already had great screens.
More importantly battery life is good, largely (I think) thanks to the shift to OLED and the power-sipping qualities of the M4. Does it need all that power? No. Will there be applications in the future where it’s required? Almost certainly. Roll on WWDC in a few weeks.
