My Apple Pencil pouch attachment for iPad Pro case

Ever since I brought an iPad Pro, I drew a lot.  The ability to draw anywhere I want with all my draw sync to a cloud storage is pretty amazing.  Since I want to minimize the time it takes from pulling my iPad zero from my backpack to starting to draw, I brought a case that is covers the whole iPad pro from a store in the basement of Hong Kong Golden shopping center.

But then in order to draw, I need Apple Pencil.  Up until now, there is no Apple Pencil case.  So I have to find a safe spot in my backpack to make sure that it's safely stored with enough padding.  That means every time I need to draw outdoor, I need to go to the process of digging out my Pencil even after I already yanked out the iPad Pro.  Furthermore , when I carry my iPad Pro around, I have to explicitly carry the pencil in order to draw.  If I forgot to do so, which always happen because that's still one more item to carry after all, I want to able to use Pencil until I go back to my backpack and dig out the Pencil.  Thus, I am very much convinced that some pocket or case or pouch needs to be attached to the iPad Pro, so that every time I use my iPad Pro, Pencil is always there.

I started out with elementary school student mindset to solve the problem : tapes, and lot of tapes.

As you can see, this doesn't work well.  The weight of the pencil will eventually break the tapes, and i may eventually lost my Pencil because it will drop thru the not-so-strongly-sealed bottom set of tapes.

Besides, this is a style/fashion disaster.  Project Runway judges will faint if they see this.

So I looked for a Plan B.

After a reunion dinner with my friends, I walked on the street of MongKok (in Hong Kong) checked all sort of stores trying to find something that is strong, light, compact and durable enough to host Apple Pencil.  After an hour and more, I found none.  I started to wonder if was hunting for a product that doesn't exist.

Before I gave up by approaching MongKok MTR station, I walked pass the famous/notorious street hawker street 女人街.  I thought, maybe I would find something here.  And it turned out, I DID.

I found a street hawker who were selling fancy Chinese style chopstick with a pouch.  

"That's it", I though, and I brought this set just for the pouch.

But then even if I can use this pouch to store Apple Pencil, we are still talking about carrying 2 separate items around. The logical next step is to find a way to attach this pouch to my iPad Pro case.  Since I live with my mom during this work-ation period in Hong Kong, I asked my mom for some sewing needle, elastic string and so on so that I could sew the pouch to the edge of the iPad pro case.  I am not great at sewing, but at least I did sewed stuff like ballet shoes before.

However, mom was excited and insisted on doing the sewing work for me.  And here's the result after a night of work.

Because it's attached by this purple thread, it's possible to take the pouch off, although I won't do it until the day I get a new case.  The button at the top secures the Pencil so that if won't fall off even when I turn the iPad pro upside down.

So there you go: my Apple Pencil pouch.

Problem with iPad Pro right now

Let's state it out upfront: as a digital sketchbook, IPad Pro is my dream come true.  I've been asking for a device that is light weight enough to allow me to casually leave it in my backpack.  I want, or should I say, need, a device that enables me to sketch whenever and wherever I like.  I want a device that allows me to draw fluently without struggling with latency, parallax , bad drawing surface, poor battery life and terrible sketching software.  With iPad Pro and ProCreate, all these problem were solved.  Now when I sketch a bad drawing, I can only blame myself instead of blaming the device I use.

So there.  Even with all the flaws And problems iPad Pro failed to archive and solve, I will still enough enjoy and keep using iPad Pro daily.  That said, as a short temp perfectionist, I can't help but aware of all kinds of flaws IPad Pro is currently having now. I believe that eventually these problems will be fixed by either Apple or third party, but for those who are trying to decide whether to put down that high price to pick up a IPad Pro right now, I want you to have all the information that the fan boys or casual reviewers fail to provide you.

First of all, iPad pro really suck at multitasking.  You may ask, didn't you just use multitasking to sketch a soccer player using both ProCreate and Photo apps at the same time?  The thing is, it's doable if you happens to find apps that support multitasking.  But there are tons of times I wanted to do something in one app, and then needed to find something from another app, only to find out that the another app doesn't support multitasking.  The truth is that only a small amount of apps support multitasking right now.  The number of supported apps will definitely increase, but in the meantime I am living in a compromise world.

And then, there's this Apple pencil without an eraser.  

There are so many times when I instinctively flipped my pencil around and tried to erase, only to have my brain yelled at me (probably in Bill Bader's Fear voice), "stop stop stop ! It's not there!"  Maybe eventually my muscle memory will eventually learn not to do it.  But all the training I got from kindergarten by using real pencil to all the Tablet PC and Wacom Cintiq taught me will be very hard to get rid of.  Apple needs to release a Apple pencil with an eraser.  They probably will eventually, with a US$149 price tag.

My another complain is that there's too much waste of space here and there on the screen.

 

I find the space on the home screen didn't get fully utilized.  All that screen space with only 26 app icon spaces?  And then I found that most apps scaled up a bit too much for my taste.  Sure my eye tight is terrible so I really should appreciate the big big fonts, but if Apple tries to position iPad Pro as a productivity, business or even a laptop replacement, then Apple needs to understand productive people's mindset.  And for us productive people, we want to get as much done, see as much information on one glance as possible.  And right now it's like having a conference room sized room to host only a few contractors in it.

And my final complain, as for now, is lack of a good case with reasonable price.  Sure, Apple historically charge a premium on their, forgive me for saying the p word, plastic case.  But US$59 for a front Smart Cover and then US$79 for the back cover is just too much for my taste.  And at least in Hong Kong, we really have third part case option here.  So right now I have to live with using a generic pouch to protect my iPad Pro when I bring it outside.  

But I hate it.  This is not my usual optimal usage pattern when I use my iPad Air 2.  I want to simply yank out my iPad, flip the Smart Cover, and start being productive.  I have a very strong feeling that I will eventually give in by buying the covers.  But imagine all the prospected consumer who refused to give in and thus skipped this product.  But again, good third party options will be here In a month.  And  I can only blame myself being impatient.

So that's all for now.  Even with all my complain, I still enjoy my iPad pro very much, especially when I can read my favorite magazine in a full printed magazine size is just amazing.

Btw, this blog is composed entirely on an iPad Air 2.  I still love the all around perfect form factor of iPad Air 2.  I am sure that next year Apple will release a iPad Air with Apple Pencil support, and I will buy it because it will be the perfect leave-it-in-my-backpack-and-forget-about-it digital sketchbook.  Damn you Apple, damn you!