The date night iPad test
A few weeks ago I decided to plan a date between me and my girlfriend. The challenge was to use my base model iPad to see how capable it truly is. As a graphic designer, that iPad is great for small and medium design tasks such as illustrations, photo editing, media consumption, and scanning sketches. In my experience getting the base model iPad and then pairing it with a MacBook Pro is the best way to complement both devices and with apple releasing the cross-device content later this year it’s only going to get better! However, this is not a post about my design journey it’s a post about how I used an iPad with all the accessories to have a great date night.
Well, the first thing I had to find was a dinner recipe. I used safari to find a new recipe for us to try and cook it together. I found this website called The Green Loot. We tried their “Vegan Garlic Teriyaki Tofu for Beginners” it turned out to be one of my favorite tofu dishes! So before I left to pick up my date I put all the ingredients I didn’t have in my grocery list on the reminders app on the iPad and took off. Since my iPhone and my iPad are linked with iCloud it allowed me to pull my phone out and mark off the groceries we need.
After getting back to my house, I was able to pull the recipe up on the iPad. I put some Lofi music on in the background to a speaker I had set up in the kitchen. We cooked dinner and had a great time talking and cooking a great meal.
Here is where the iPad impressed me the most. I took an Xbox controller and a PS4 controller (be careful here because the first generation XBOX one controllers don’t have Bluetooth functions built within them) paired them both to my iPad and we were both able to use them to play games. I have an Apple One subscription which that allows me to watch tv, read the news, listen to music, workout with fitness, and have an Apple Arcade subscription. So in the date night planning phase, I found some Apple Arcade games that took advantage of the multi-controller support. One game, in particular, was CatQuest2 a combat RPG game that had my girlfriend laughing at me and had me entertained by the combat. Overall I would check it out if you have an Apple Arcade subscription.
Finally to end out the night we cast the iPad to the TV to watch King of the Hill on Hulu. I don’t have the Hulu app on the TV because I don’t use it all the time and when I do then it’s normally just on my iPad or Macbook and not an actual TV. So using the iPad as a remote is just a convenient thing for me.
A few years ago I definitely could not have a full fun date from a base model iPad but with the iOS 13 and higher, it makes it possible. The date was a great success but that’s not just from the iPad but it came from my girlfriend. I mean what girlfriend would let their boyfriend create a date night around an iPad then write a medium story about it. The one I got would but as I conclude the base model iPad is a great deal for anyone needing a powerful device that can handle almost everything you throw at it.
