Small tip - I use "jk" instead of "jj" for ESC.

I always thought the difference was personal preference, but there is actually 1 good reason to use "jk". If you get used to pressing "jk" all the time, you'll probably end up using it in Normal mode as well as insert mode. "jj" will move up 2 rows in Normal mode, while "jk" doesn't do anything. Therefore you can use "jk" as a reflex every time you get to the keyboard, and it won't screw you up.

ctrl-c, to avoid any of that stuff. 'jk' will move you one row down, and one row up.

Yes, except ctrl-c moves you off home row, which I wanted to avoid.

Also, technically, ctrl-c is not the same as escape - it also sends a cancel signal. I actually have no idea what the practical difference is, I just know that some commands treat it differently.

It doesn't check for abbreviations and doesn't trigger InsertLeave, which essentially means that any pending command is aborted, but you're totally right about not leaving the home row.

I just right now remapped caps-lock to control and use CTRL-[ to escape instead.

There's no "ctrl" key on the iOS keyboard, though.

Latency. And for those who aren't 'almost always online.'

Even if you're online, the connection may have much more latency than you want to deal with. Depending on what you're doing a split second of latency can mean a lot.

Unfortunately, imap jj <Esc> in the .vimrc doesn't seem to work. :(

I did `:imap al <Esc>`. So then you can simultaneously press A and L to leave insert mode. Very easy on the iPad.

Oh, that's super smart! I might consider adding this as the default in the next release. Thanks!!!