Today is Apple’s iPad Event Day, and we’re bringing you everything you can expect about the iPad, including whether some of the rumors are true about what’s coming, like a new iPad Pro, iPad Air, Apple Pencil, and a keyboard case . Didn’t have time to watch? That’s okay — we’ve summarized the most important parts of the event below.
iPad Air with M2 chip
The iPad lineup is being refreshed today, and one of the most significant additions is that it now comes in two sizes, an 11-inch screen and a 13-inch screen. Cost is $599 for 11-inch and $799 for 13-inch. You can pre-order today and it will be available “next week”. read more
And, as a special bonus, Apple finally places the front-facing camera on the horizontal edge of the iPad. read more
iPad Pro with M4
The iPad Pro is being touted as the thinnest iPad ever. Features include a visual experience with an OLED display in two panels called Tandem OLED. It also has a frosted glass option for less glare. And, it features Apple’s next generation of silicon called the M4, a leap from the M2. It also features a 12.9-inch iPad Air and new gestures for the Apple Pencil.
In the US, the 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $999 for the Wi-Fi model and $1,199 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. The 13-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,299 for the Wi-Fi model and $1,499 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. read more
Inside the M4 chip
The M4 chip is the fourth generation of its custom SoCs. They feature a new display engine, as well as significantly updated CPU and GPU cores. The basic M4 chips have 10 CPU cores and 10 GPUs.
Apple claims the new CPU is 50% faster than the M2 chips that powered the last generation iPad Pro, while the GPU will offer a 4x increase in performance while still delivering the same performance per watt as the M3. Apple highlighted that the new GPU architecture features dynamic caching, hardware-accelerated mesh shading, and ray tracing, a first for the iPad. read more
Inside Tandem OLED
“We’ve always envisioned the iPad as a magical sheet of glass,” said John Ternus, SVP, Hardware Engineering during Apple’s iPad event in Cupertino on Tuesday. “And with the new iPad Pro, we wanted to offer customers an even more remarkable visual experience.”
The company did this by bringing OLED to the iPad for the first time, suggesting that the technology helps get the light and color accuracy that iPad Pro owners want – but that it lacks brightness. The company solved this by creating the Tandem OLED display, which can support an incredible 1,000 nits of full-screen brightness for SDR and HDR content and 1,600 nits of peak HDR brightness. The company says no other device offers this level of display quality. read more
Apple Pencil Pro
Shocking as it may seem, it’s been nearly a decade since the first Apple Pencil was announced way back in 2015. The stylus hasn’t seen much in the way of updates since then. The most important one arrived in 2018, bringing magnetic charging to the line. Last year, meanwhile, saw the arrival of a less expensive model with fewer features and USB-C charging.
It retails for $129. Many of the new features of the Apple Pencil Pro come from compression. You can animate, move and rotate the object and even blur the lens. read more
Magic keyboard
Apple has announced a new and improved Magic Keyboard, its keyboard accessory for iPad. This is the first major revision since 2020.
The Magic Keyboard has been “completely redesigned” to be much thinner and lighter, Apple says, and now includes a number of functions for quick access to controls such as screen brightness. Beyond that, the new Magic Keyboard features aluminum palm rests and a larger trackpad. Plus, it’s more responsive, Apple says, with haptic feedback.
In the US the new 11-inch Magic Keyboard is available for $299 and the new 13-inch Magic Keyboard is available for $349. It comes with layouts for more than 30 languages. read more
Final Cut camera
The latest version of Final Cut Pro introduces a new feature to speed up your shooting: Live Multicam. It’s a bold move from Apple, turning your iPad into a multi-camera production studio, enabling creatives to connect and preview up to four cameras simultaneously, in one place. From the command post, filmmakers can remotely control every video angle and dial in exposure, white balance, focus and more, all within the Final Cut Camera app.
The new companion app allows users to connect multiple iPhones or iPads (apparently using the same protocols as the Continuity Camera feature that was released a few years ago). Final Cut Pro automatically transfers and syncs every Live Multicam angle so you can seamlessly transition from production to editing. read more
AI improvements
Much of Tuesday’s reveal was about the hardware, however, there were some teases of new AI improvements. This included the upgraded M4 chip, which you can read more about above, which features a neural engine that is “dedicated to accelerating AI workloads.”
The company also hinted that enhanced AI capabilities will soon be in the hands of iPadOS app developers, noting that the operating system’s software offers advanced frameworks such as CoreML, and that developers will be able to leverage its neural engine to to offer “powerful AI functions right on the device.” read more
Within the iPad range
Apple has just updated its two high-end tablets: the iPad Air and the iPad Pro. While the base iPad didn’t receive an update, the company did cut its price as well. And of course, yes, the iPad mini still exists.
Not sure which one is for you? Okay. We’ve got a rundown of all the iPads and what makes them different. read more
