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Likewise and for sure a personal preference. I suspect for every “I want a mouse” there’s a “No mouse needed” person out there. I suspect the former are using Chromebooks or some variation of them.

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@John: Best of luck with your writing. I respectfully disagree about mice. This most certainly is a failure considering the number of people who do prefer rodents. We don’t want to mess with Apple pencils. More important, I would like to keep my right hand close to the table rather than lift it up to mess with the screen.

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Entirely possible there’s a generational aspect, but a lack of a mouse is not a failure of the device at all.

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Now–back to the Fire. I’m curious if you’ve found a GOOD speech recognition solution for it–I haven’t (although for a stretch I thought I’d located a mediocre one, before the app-related server stopped working).

In that respect, my Chromeboxes and Chromebook, along with the iPad, beat the Fire (I’m using the built-in recognition as well as SpeechNotesX Voice Typing).

Bezos impresses me as the sort who cares about productivity. I’m baffled why Fires can no longer have built-in speech recognition. His people at Amazon surely could come up with their own solution if patent issues or other IP or control matters got in the way.

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I write using a version of Open Office and can easily move files back and forth between my Fire and my other computers. Plus, the fire costs ~80% less than an iPad Pro and has a micro SD slot where you can add up to 256GB of additional storage.

Unless you are an artist who needs the drawing capabilities provided by the Apple pencil there is no reason to get an iPad Pro instead of a Kindle Fire.

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Some quick answers:

1. Shareholders don’t just expect Apple to make profits – they want them to be outrageously high. So the Chinese tariffs could still hurt and Apple may respond by jacking up prices even more. Speaking of the devil, there was progress in talks with the Chinese last week—at least a temporary truce seems to be in effect (link below to WaPo). But as I wrote, “Who knows what the future will bring ?“

2. For me, at least, and almost surely for most people, a mouse makes far more sense when a keyboard or external monitor is in use. Don’t you think Apple should give users a choice in the matter? Almost surely the cost of adding mouse capabilities would be very low.

3. I’m glad you enjoy your iPad. If you want to add more tips, even ones not related to our discussion, feel free to do so.

Happy holidays,
David

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/trump-and-xis-g-20-dinner-could-decide-fate-of-us-china-trade-war/2018/12/01/bc2f42b8-f593-11e8-80d0-f7e1948d55f4_story.html?utm_term=.08e6553c6975

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Here are some of the more useful keyboard shortcuts:

FIX
Cmd-z =Undo
Shift-Cmd-z = Redo

DELETE
Opt-Delete = Delete previous word
Fn-Delete = Forward delete

CURSOR
Cmd-up arrow = Start of doc
Cmd-down arrow = End of doc
Cmd-right arrow = End of line
Cmd-left arrow = Start of line

SELECT (shift key)
Shift-arrow (all) = Select text
Shift-opt-arrow (L & R)= Select words
Shift-opt-up arrow then Shift-opt-down arrow = Select paragraph

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No need to fret. Apple’s profit margins are so enormous, they can easily absorb those duties. It’d be good if they had to do that. Their profits are one reason the company is arrogant and pays so little attention to its customers. And my own suspicion is that Tim Cook promised Trump to create jobs in the U.S. when Apple got that tax break for bringing the company’s huge overseas cash back home. He didn’t do that, so this is Trump’s punishment. You make a deal with Trump, you better keep it.
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Quote: With due apologies to Apple partisans, the Apple ebook application still doesn’t count much for me because of the higher prices of Apple-sold books and fewer reviews and book choices than from Amazon and its customers.

Are they higher? Mine are exactly the same and, because Apple pays better royalties, I could actually set them a bit lower than Amazon’s and still make the same income. Apple pays 70% of retail at all price levels. Amazon only pays 35% outside the $2.99-$9.99 range and assesses a grossly inflated download charge inside that range that lowers the effective royalties to about 60%. For ebooks whose prices are higher, blame the publisher not Apple.
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Quote: As a writer, also, not just as a reader, I’m somewhat disappointed. We begin with a major negative of the hardware or at least the related firmware. Unless I jailbreak my iPad Pro and open myself up to security hazards and also lose my warranty, I cannot use a mouse—wireless or otherwise.

Keep in mind that tablets are being considered as laptop replacements not desktop ones. The real comparison is between a trackpad and a touchscreen. Due to my general clumsiness, I prefer a touchscreen. I don’t miss the lack of a mouse.

The key to using an iPad for writing lies in getting a keyboard and learning its shortcuts to mark text. Tap where you want to begin selecting with your finger and then hold down the shift key while using the cursor key to select. Holding down option will select words, which makes it faster. Practice and you’ll soon be jumping around as fast as you did in WordStar before the mouse.

As for your software woes, you might check out Scrivener for iOS and use Word only for formatting. Word is intended to create business documents and memos. Scrivener is designed for drafting and editing long documents. Among other things, you can adjust the screen font size to your heart’s content. It also has its own TTS. Some complain about all its many features, but you can simply ignore those you don’t need. And you can easily synch documents with the macOS and not-quite-full-featured Windows versions via Dropbox. No Android version as yet. You can test it free for 30 days of use.

https://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener/overview
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Also, if you’re not into graphic design or must have a large screen, there’s little reason to pay that hefty Apple Tax for the iPad Pro. The 2018 iPad, intended for schools and thus priced more reasonably, is amply fast and even uses the Apple Pencil. The only downside is a slightly less perfect display when dragging with the Apple Pencil. If you’re not into graphics, that matters not. I would suggest future proofing it by getting 128 GB of storage. For 30% more, you get four times the storage. Here’s where I got mine with at a $30 holiday discount.

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1400415-REG/apple_mr7j2ll_a_9_7_ipad_early_2018.html

Combined with a Zagg Folio keyboard/case, I’m quite happy with it. It has all the advantages of an iPad and a small laptop. And since Apple has not made a laptop I liked in several years, it spares me that expense.

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