Techuisite Digest

11.12.2023: Drafts, iPad hate, and a sudden eagerness to write more.

I know I keep doing this, but I have been rethinking my writing online again and have made some decisions. All of the Techuisite Posts, or posts that originate on Medium under my Techuisite Publication (Blog), are going to be behind a paywall on Substack. I may have some available for free at my discretion, but feel like if you have to pay to see them on Medium, with a Medium Membership, I would prefer it be the same for Techuisite Digest Substack subscribers.

The benefit of signing up for Substack instead of Medium is that I will get more direct income which would also get you another Techuisite Digest a month which is paywalled. I don’t want to restrict people too much from my content but feel it is unfair to Medium subscribers if I post it here for free but require a membership on Medium.

Another Favorite Markdown Editor: Drafts

After writing about My Favorite Markdown Editors I realized there was one more that I failed to mention. Not because I have never used it, but when I tried to replace Ulysses with it recently, I didn’t think it was good enough. The app in question is Drafts, which is one that I have been fond of in the past.

The reason why I didn’t add it to my list of favorite markdown editors was because I didn’t realize I could adjust the margins and font without a subscription. Not that paying for these features is wrong, but part of the main reason I was moving away from Ulysses was to find a cheaper alternative.

Ulysses is great, but now that I don’t have a Mac and my iPhone is using a different Apple ID, I no longer get the benefit of having Ulysses sync between my devices. I have tried to use an external folder to sync between my iPhone and iPad, but I feel like after 5 years, it was time to try and find something new.

When I finished my post, I decided that I couldn’t really find anything to replace Ulysses for my iPad Pro so that is why it is both my favorite Mac and iPad markdown editor. Since I have been able to configure Drafts to fit my needs, I am starting to reconsider Ulysses and have since let my subscription lapse.

I plan to use Drafts for a few more weeks before writing about it or deciding ultimately to use it over Ulysses, but so far I really do love this app for writing. I was able to adjust the margins to push my text more center and I downloaded Roboto, my favorite font right now, and selected it as my font of choice in the app.

Also, I was able to add a Send to Medium Action so it is just as convenient as Ulysses to send a draft to Medium for me to finalize and publish. The free version is also really generous in giving me most of what I need in a writing app. I may bump up to he premium version eventually, and even then it is half the price of Ulysses at $19.99 a year or $1.99 a month.

iPad Haters

One thing that I wanted to quickly touch on is the weird hate that the iPad continues to get. I know I just wrote a post asking if the iPad needs more love?, but this was in reference to the hardware not being updated for many years now, and the M-series chips not being utilized to their full potential versus the Mac.

Even with me arguing that the iPad Pro hardware feels somewhat outdated and that I would love to see more pro-apps available, specifically Xcode, that doesn’t mean that for what the iPad is, that it isn’t great. Some people really hated Stage Manager, and even before Stage Manager was announced, were really hoping Apple was going to give Pro iPad Users what they wanted or they were going to jump ship.

Not only did Stage Manager not meet the needs for many, but because it was so new and had bugs that many were not happy. And the hate on Apple and the iPad increased substantially. Many moved to Macs instead and decided that if Apple didn’t turn it around, then the Mac was going to be their new home and the iPad-Only life was done.

The strangest part of this uproar was that even with the introduction of Stage Manager, Apple took nothing away. Maybe you didn’t get the exact multitasking features that you may have wanted, but all of the iPadOS features for multitasking still existed for the iPad, and everything you had loved about it from the start was still there.

In my opinion, I think many iPad Pro Users saw Apple giving a ton of well-needed love to the Mac and those those users found justification in moving to the Mac by shitting on the iPad. Instead of maybe recognizing that the Mac was becoming great again, and embracing both platforms. Because their identity was an iPad-Only user, the only way to move over was to hate on the platform they were dedicated too before.

The iPad has always been an iPad, it will never be a Mac, nor will Apple ever converge the two platforms together. Deleting your YouTube channel, or setting an ultimatum to dump the iPad if Apple doesn’t do what you want is just silly. The iPad is still great, and even with some kinks that still need to be worked out, it is a very powerful and futuristic platform.

Eagerness to Write

You have probably noticed that I have been writing a lot more lately. I think my letdown of Medium changing its rules and seeing my income drastically fall made me a little sad about the platform. Which led to me not feeling as motivated to write. I have since realized though, that even though money is a good tool to motivate someone to do something, my passion for writing is more than that.

I love technology and I love being able to share my thoughts about certain topics and seeing people resonate with it. Watching viewer counts can be problematic, but seeing that 8000-9000 people are viewing my articles in Medium each month makes me realize that people do like what I write.

The main reason why I started writing online was because I wanted to provide something that I like to read myself. There are a lot of other people writing about technology online, but I feel like I have a unique voice and something to say that others don’t really touch on. I like to share my experiences with my devices, rather just talking about specs and performance.

So I am eager to write more again, and look forward to hearing what you think as I continue to do so.