With the start of the 2023-24 school year, there have been several changes happening at JHS. One of these changes is new iPads for the students.

The iPads went from the fifth generation to the ninth generation. This upgrade included an increase in screen size, a smart keyboard, Apple Pencil support, a faster bionic chip and a new case with a stand.

Matthew Huang ’24 didn’t seem particularly happy with the iPad changes. He criticized the new keyboard and shared other problems he’s experienced with the new technology.

“The new trackpad makes using this iPad very awkward. I close out of my text box in Goodnotes all the time due to accidentally touching it,” Huang said.

Huang’s frustration did not end there. He faced another problem with the new iPad and its compatibility with Goodnotes.

“When I try to open up my text box with my finger, it can take up to five times before the iPad allows me to type again in Goodnotes. I’ve had this happen to me a few times a day and it can be pretty annoying. I don’t even think I can turn off the trackpad in settings which is the root of my problems with the new iPads,” Huang said.

But it was not all criticism from Huang. He enjoyed other additional features that the upgraded iPads gave students.

“Yeah, there are some things I like about the new iPads. The stand seems to be more durable than the previous one. I also like the new case because it won’t get dust stuck in it like the other one with crevices,” Huang said.

Debojeet Bhattacharya ’25 thought that the new iPads were a positive change overall. He praised the iPads for improving in almost every aspect.

“The new iPads are a huge improvement. It feels much faster and they have more space available so I don’t have to worry about storage like I did with the older ones. The cases are also better due to the stand being a part of the case itself. The older iPads had a fairly weak stand that would easily break or get lost,” said Bhattacharya.

Although Bhattacharya was mostly happy with the changes, he did have some critiques as well.

“One thing about the new iPads that I don’t care about is the new keyboards. I would remove it if I could as the built-in keyboard is pretty good and not buggy like the provided one,” said Bhattacharya.

Bhattacharya also had hopeful suggestions for the future technology at JHS.

“I wish the school provided a decent stylus instead as I feel like students would need that for note taking and Goodnotes in general. I would prefer laptops over iPads as there’s so much more you can do with them. Laptops would enable so many educational online resources which are only supported with Windows. Laptops also have so many useful apps and there are also hybrid laptops which can enable features like writing by hand which lots of students prefer but will also offer Windows applications and websites,” said Bhattacharya.

Ipads are used daily as a resource for education. The opinions on the new updates to the ipads varies between students. Some really enjoy the new keyboard feature, case, and stand while others believe it is annoying or unneeded.