John Gruber:
The Smart Keyboards are iPad covers you can type on. The Magic Keyboard is a portable keyboard stand, not a cover — when you want to use your iPad as a tablet, not a laptop, you must detach it.
It seems obvious, but I didn’t think about it like that yet.
As on Apple’s Smart Keyboards, the iPad Magic Keyboard has no Escape key. If you miss the Escape key, there are a couple workarounds. First, in most situations, ⌘-period works as a synonym for Escape. This is a standard Mac shortcut that dates back to classic Mac OS decades ago. (In my opinion, any context where ⌘-period doesn’t work as a synonym for the Escape key ought to be considered a bug.)
I didn’t know about the ⌘-period shortcut. I would’ve loved that while I was using a MBP with a Touch Bar.
Overall a very interesting post if you’re interested in the iPad and its new keyboard.