Lately I’ve been using my phone more and more for development. Claude for coding, GitHub app for reviewing and giving feedback on what it produces. This is actually a lot of fun, and has unlocked some more experimentation time for me, while I’m on a dog walk, or commuting, or just doing whatever. This experience has been multiplied since the arrival of our second child since I don’t want to reach for a laptop, and finding time to sit down is quite hard these days.

This combination made me rethink my setup at home. Over the last few years I’ve been using my computer for less and less private development, and more and more reading and just relaxing. The small amount of development I do now is tied to vibe coding. And my recent, mobile vibe coding has reignited some projects and ideas that I’m working on.

So instead of buying a new MacBook, I’m exploring the idea of getting an iPad. There are several factors that make me lean towards an iPad rather than upgrading my MacBook at this point:

• Smaller footprint. I love the 11” form factor and still think of my Netbook from Acer from around 2012 or something
• My computing needs are not what they used to be. Most of the things I want to do could probably be achieved on an iPad
• From my research, SSHing into remote servers seems to work fine, and since I’m just sporadically working on some things it might work for my use case
• Portability. It feels easier to stash my iPad in the bookcase and do a quick session and then move on

But the biggest point for me is I think it’s important to challenge yourself and find new workflows, explore new technologies, not become stagnant. The iPad flow will definitely make me think about what I actually need and what I use a computer for.

What I actually do on my computer

If I’m being honest about my computer use, it looks something like this:

• Consume YouTube
• Read forums, articles, books
• Tinker with various web apps
• Tinker with new tools such as n8n
• Vibe coding
• Random things on the internet
• Sometimes (rarely) play the odd video game

I have two small children at home. I don’t really have time to fire up anything too ambitious, like sitting down at the computer for hours. In my skewed mind, an iPad could bridge the gap between iPhone and MacBook quite nicely while giving me more screen. The smaller footprint of the 11” is also appealing. I can find weird nooks and crannies to work in and from.

The setup

The main idea is to use my iPad as much as I can, and if I need something “proper” (I say proper but I don’t know the limitations/capabilities of the iPad yet) I can remote into my MacBook, or my VPS, or my local Raspberry Pi.

I’m looking to get the Magic Keyboard Folio, and the Pencil. I am quite the user of Apple’s Freeform already, and it’ll be interesting to see if I level up my experience with the Pencil alone. At work, I do use Miro quite a lot (that is the split I have, Miro for work, and Freeform for my private stuff).

I honestly don’t know if this will work. But if I look at my computer use, I think I will probably get by on the iPad itself for most of the stuff, and since I do so little coding (in relation to everything else) I assume that I can accept the inevitable workarounds, or gotchas of not being able to do everything as I used to locally on my new machine.

My iPad development hypothesis

What I found from my research is that I can most likely remote into my MacBook, or SSH into my VPS/Raspberry Pi just fine. I have seen some users talking about using Tailscale for connecting my machines while I’m not at home.

I see some people talking about the annoyance of losing that SSH connection when closing the iPad and whatnot, but I could use tmux for persistent sessions. This should be fine, I think.

One thing that I am confused about is, I’m not sure if I am able to inspect websites. This does feel odd, and very naked to be honest.

Note, my requirements here are quite low, I mostly do PoCs, and check out new technologies, as long as I have a Raspberry Pi or a VPS that I can SSH into, I believe it’ll cover most of my needs.

The limitations

Given the obvious limitations of an iPad:

• It’s a tablet. I know this is not a MacBook or a “computer” and I shouldn’t treat it as such
• No offline coding (can’t SSH without internet). Bad internet connection will also make the entire setup janky
• Multitasking is assumably worse, though time will tell if that’s actually an issue for me
• Still not able to poke around with making Apple native apps (my current MacBook Air is way too low spec to do this comfortably either, so not the biggest deal). However, this is something I’d like to explore and play with in the future. But that’s been the case for the last couple of years so I don’t take it too seriously

Despite all of the above, I have to be honest about how I use my computer nowadays. It might be that I’ve developed irreversible workflows. And worst case, if I don’t want to keep it, I’ll return it if I notice quick enough, sell it, or reuse it for something else.

Why not just buy a new MacBook?

Honestly, I’m quite intrigued by this setup and I want to test it and push it to see how far I can take it. The OLED screen with ProMotion is quite tempting as well, along with the smaller form factor and portability. The iPad also, somehow, feels a bit more informal and casual (which it is) but that just caters to my lifestyle as of right now.

I have spent a good deal of time looking at and trying to figure out which MacBook to get, and I leaned towards a mid tier MacBook Pro, however, as I mentioned before, my computing needs don’t really require a pro version, and I am not that interested in getting another MacBook Air (I love my Air, and it has been a treat to use it). I guess I’m just actively trying to find excuses to get an iPad, which is fine I think.

One big selling point for me is the ability to combine tactile thinking in Freeform + Pencil together with thinking. I process a lot of stuff that I read, and traditional note taking doesn’t really work for my brain, I want/need a whiteboard where I can make use of organized chaos. If I find some clarity in the chaos, I can then shuffle it into my permanent note storage.

I recognize that I go into this naive, like most iPad users do I think. But development is a small part of what I do when I have time. I increasingly write more, read, fiddle, and do other things on the internet. As an outsider, the iPad does look quite enjoyable. And with iPadOS 26, it does seem like Apple might be pushing it in the right direction.

That’s it!

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I’ll write a follow-up once I’ve lived with this setup for a few weeks.