iPad Pro Screen Dimensions

My next computer purchase will be an iPad Pro. I'll use it mostly for drawing. I love my iPad Air 9.7", but for drawing the 12.9" feels like a much better fit. Obviously that's because it's bigger, and it can use the Apple Pencil. But the size is not just bigger, it's also much closer to the size of paper, at least the sort of paper I typically use for drawing. This makes it feel much more natural as a drawing tool, which I confirmed with an in-person test at an Apple Store.

The paper size I usually use for drawing is 9"x12". The body of the iPad Pro 12.9 measures 8.69"x12.04". This is very close to my paper size. The screen, measured diagonally, is 12.9". But finding the actual screen dimensions — in inches — has been nigh impossible, so I thought I'd note it here and save future Googlers the hassle of figuring it out.

And so: The screen width and height of the iPad Pro 12.9's screen is 7.76"x10.35".

Also, for reference, the iPad Pro 9.7 screen dimensions: 5.82"x7.76".

UPDATE:
The screen size of the new iPad Pro 10.5 is: 6.32"x8.42".

Here's a diagram for visual reference as well. As you can see, the 10.5" iPad Pro is not squarely in between the 9.7" and 12.9" screen sizes, but rather is much closer in size to the model it replaces, the 9.7". This being the case, I still plan to buy the 12.9" model for it's significant increase in screen real estate.

iPad Pro Relative Screen Sizes

Post to Instagram from a Mac

Instagram recently announced support for photo uploads via its mobile website. But the desktop version of the site still doesn't offer a way to upload images from a Mac.

I tried changing the user agent in Safari to "Safari — iOS 10 — iPad" and doing so does in fact enable photo uploads from the desktop. And the interface looks nice too!

To enable the ability to change Safari's user agent you'll need to go to the Advanced Preferences pane and check "Show Develop menu in menu bar."

Steve Ballmer's Second Act

Steve Ballmer has built something that sounds really cool and useful: a database that tracks what the government does with our money. The Times write-up makes it sound fascinating:

"Want to know how many police officers are employed in various parts of the country and compare that against crime rates? Want to know how much revenue is brought in from parking tickets and the cost to collect? Want to know what percentage of Americans suffer from diagnosed depression and how much the government spends on it? That’s in there. You can slice the numbers in all sorts of ways.

Mr. Ballmer calls it “the equivalent of a 10-K for government,” referring to the kind of annual filing that companies make."

Ballmer's publishing the data and a report some time today at USAFacts.org.