Tenga en cuenta que nadie en Paramount se quejó de que “Event Horizon” estuviera invalidando algo específicamente en “Star Trek”. Los motores warp de “Star Trek” son lo suficientemente diferentes de los viajes basados en portales de “Event Horizon” que nadie puede ser acusado de replicar ideas conocidas de ciencia ficción. Además, la tripulación de astronautas en “Horizon” son simios amigables y bruscos, muy lejos de los oficiales súper limpios de la Flota Estelar en “Trek”.
Pero debido a que “Event Horizon” fue tan sangriento y violento, Anderson experimentó una pequeña cantidad de pánico. La ópera espacial más popular de Paramount era conocida por su optimismo, limpieza y compromiso con la paz y la decencia. El escenario de una orgía sangrienta adyacente a “Hellraiser” en una nave espacial parece inquietar a algunas almas sensibles. Anderson recuerda:
“De hecho, alguien me dijo: '¡Somos el estudio que hace Star Trek!' […] No sólo estaban aterrorizados por mi película; Sentían que de alguna manera estaba contaminando Star Trek, porque también estaba en el espacio haciendo todas estas cosas terribles”.
“Star Trek” también es un programa muy inspirador, que ofrece a los espectadores personajes aspiracionales en un mundo utópico. “Event Horizon” termina con la idea justamente de eso El infierno está más cerca de lo que piensas. El director sabía que su película dejaría a la gente sintiéndose cruda y nihilista, tal vez en otro golpe conceptual a los ejecutivos de Trek. Él dijo:
“No creo que alguna vez tengamos una gran actuación porque el final de la película fue un poco decepcionante. […] Cuando molestas a la audiencia, no dicen: “Oh, fue una excelente experiencia ir al cine”. Pero hicimos una película que realmente quedó grabada en la gente. “Creo que se agradeció el trabajo extra por eso”.
De hecho, Event Horizon ha ganado un gran número de seguidores a lo largo de los años y tiene muchos defensores.
Apple’s “Let Loose” event this week went off largely as expected, headlined by new iPad Pro and iPad Air models.
The updated higher-end devices are complemented by some new accessories, while Apple also tidied up the lower-end of the lineup a bit, so read on below for all the details!
Everything Announced at the Apple Event
Apple held its first event of the year this week to announce several new devices and accessories, including new iPad Pro models with OLED displays and the M4 chip, new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air models, the Apple Pencil Pro, and a redesigned Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro.
In the U.S., the 11-inch iPad Pro now starts at $999, while the 13-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,299. The devices are available to order now and launch on May 15.
Apple Announces New iPad Air Models: M2 Chip, First-Ever 13-Inch Model, and More
The new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air models feature the M2 chip, a front camera on the landscape edge of the devices, Wi-Fi 6E support, new color options, and a few other minor changes.
This is the first time that Apple has offered the iPad Air in two display sizes. In the U.S., the 11-inch model starts at $599, and the 13-inch model starts at $799. The devices are available to order now and launch on May 15.
Apple Pencil Pro Unveiled With New Squeeze Gesture, Haptic Feedback, Find My, and More
You can squeeze the Apple Pencil Pro to bring up a tool palette, and a built-in gyroscope allows users to roll the Apple Pencil Pro’s barrel for precise control of shaped pen and brush tools. You can also track the location of the Apple Pencil Pro in the Find My app if it is misplaced, and it supports haptic feedback for certain actions.
Apple Announces Redesigned Magic Keyboard for New iPad Pro Starting at $299
Key new features of the redesigned Magic Keyboard for the new iPad Pro include an aluminum palm rest, a larger trackpad, and a row of function keys with shortcuts for brightness, volume, and more.
The new Magic Keyboard is compatible with the new iPad Pro models with the M4 chip only. It is available in black and white, with U.S. pricing set at $299 for the 11-inch model and at $349 for the 13-inch model.
iPad 9 Discontinued, iPad 10 Now Starts at $349
While only the iPad Pro and iPad Air were updated this week, Apple did make some changes to the lower end of the iPad lineup.
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Another Apple event is in the books and, as expected, the Let Loose showcase was all about iPad. We now have our first Apple device powered by an M4 chip in the iPad Pro, with the company surprisingly choosing to debut it there rather than in a Mac. There’s also an upgraded iPad Air that’s available in two sizes: 11 inches and 13 inches.
There are some accessory updates too, which isn’t a big shock given that an Apple Pencil was prominent in the event’s teaser image. So, without further ado, here’s a rundown of everything Apple announced at its blessedly brief Let Loose event.
iPad Pro
It had been expected for a while that any updated iPad Pro would have an M3 chip, but Apple decided to upend the expectations of many by instead slotting the brand new M4 into its highest-end tablet. Apple says the new device delivers 50 percent faster performance than the M2 iPad Pro.
Rendering performance is said to be four times faster than on the M2 Pro as well. For the first time on an iPad, Apple is bringing support for dynamic caching, hardware-accelerated ray tracing and hardware-accelerated mesh shading to the Pro with the M4.
There are some power efficiencies here too. Apple says the M4 can deliver the same performance as an M2 using half the power. So, if you’re using the tablet for tasks that aren’t too strenuous, it stands to reason that the battery should last for longer.
The other major upgrade for the iPad Pro is new display tech called Tandem OLED. As the name suggests, it uses two OLED panels layered on top of each other. That means this tablet should have richer colors and deeper blacks on what Apple is calling the Ultra Retina XDR display. Apple says the brightness levels max out at 1000 nits for standard and HDR, and 1600 nits for HDR.
Despite the dual layer, the OLED panels are still thinner than an LCD display. To that end, Apple says the iPad Pro is now somehow thinner than an iPod nano (RIP, you beautiful thing), making it the company’s most slender product ever. There’s a nano-textured glass option for the first time on an iPad Pro too, but only if you opt for at least 1TB of storage.
One other notable change is that the Ultra Wide 12MP front-facing camera is now on the landscape edge. The Magic Keyboard users out there may be pleased about that tweak.
The new iPad Pro starts at $999 for the 11-inch model and $1,299 for the 13-inch, each with 256GB of storage. Add $200 to each of you want 5G cellular connectivity via eSIM.
We’ve already had a hands-on with the iPad Pro and, at first glance, the display seems like the show stealer.
M4
We have to chat a bit about what’s powering the iPad Pro: the all-new M4 chipset. The Pro is the first Apple product to use the M4, even before any Mac.
The M4 has a new CPU with up to four performance cores and six efficiency cores. There’s a 10-core GPU as well. Notably, the chipset’s neural engine is focused on machine learning and AI. Apple says the neural engine is capable of 38 trillion operations per second — it’s 60 times faster than the first neural engine that debuted in the A11 chip. AI features that the M4 will power on the iPad Pro will include real-time Live Captions, the ability to isolate subjects and remove backgrounds in videos in Final Cut Pro and automatic musical notation in StaffPad.
Odds are high that we’ll start seeing Macs with the M4 pop up later this year, which might put folks off from buying the M3 MacBook Air Apple started selling just a couple of months ago (though the company says the MBA is now the best-selling 13-inch and 15-inch laptop on the planet).
The main reason for Apple skipping a silicon generation with the iPad Pro is likely to start a transition into AI hardware ahead of its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Expect the company to talk much more about what it plans to do with AI across all its products next month.
iPad Air
Apple
The iPad Air was well overdue for an update after being stuck with an aging M1 chipset for over two years. The latest model (or models) boast an M2 chipset. Still recent enough to make it a notable upgrade from the previous Air while keeping the more powerful iPad Pro distinct.
As I mentioned, the iPad Air now comes in two sizes, the existing 11-inch form factor and the new, larger 13-inch variant. That makes the Air the most cost-effective large screen iPad as things stand. Oh, and the front-facing camera is also positioned on the longer edge of the Air now. Thanks, Apple.
The company has doubled the base storage from the previous generation to 128GB. The 11-inch model starts at $599 and the new 13-inch Air is $799. For 5G cellular connectivity, you’ll need to pay $150 extra. As with pretty much everything else Apple showed off today, the new iPad Air will drop next Wednesday.
We’ve also had some hands-on time with the new iPad Air. With the combination of the price and the various hardware updates, Apple could be onto another winner here.
Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard
Apple
There’s a new Apple Pencil around town and it has some nifty tricks up its sleeve, including haptic feedback. The Apple Pencil Pro supports a new squeeze gesture too. If you rotate the barrel, you can change the orientation of brush and pen tools, just as you would with a pen and paper.
Find My support for the first time in an Apple Pencil is very welcome, considering how easy it is too lose the dang thing if you don’t store it securely on the side of your iPad.
The Apple Pencil Pro costs $129. Preorders are open today and it ships on May 15.
Apple
Meanwhile, there’s a new Magic Keyboard that’s only compatible with the iPad Pro. This one is made from aluminum to give it a more premium feel and perhaps help users believe that the iPad Pro is the laptop replacement Apple has long envisioned its tablets being.
The latest version has a larger trackpad with haptic feedback, while there’s a row of function keys, à la a more traditional keyboard.
The new Magic Keyboard also ships next week. If you want one for the 11-inch iPad Pro, it’ll run you $300, while the larger variant is $350.
Follow all of the news live from Apple’s ‘Let Loose’ event right here.
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Apple gave the iPad Air a significant size increase at its “Let Loose” event Tuesday. You can get the new 2024 model with a 13-inch display in addition to the familiar smaller size, now 11 inches instead of 10.9. But no matter the size, the tablet runs an Apple M2 processor and features a front-facing Ultra Wide 12MP camera on the landscape edge and beefed-up speakers.
“Inspired by iPad Pro, where about half the users choose a larger screen, we created a 13-inch model of the new iPad Air, as well,” said Melody Kuna, Apple’s director of iPad Product Design. “[It] has 30% more screen real estate than the 11-inch Air.”
Despite the multi-year wait, this isn’t a tablet that needs frequent updates so it can stay at the cutting-edge of technology. The iPad Air line is made up of mid-range models, cheaper than iPad Pro but with more features than the budget iPad.
“The larger display gives users more space to express their ideas in apps like Freeform, or to see more participants in a video call on Zoom,” Kuna said. “It also provides more space to view multiple apps using Split View in iPadOS. And both displays have the same advanced features. So all your content looks absolutely gorgeous.”
11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air models become even more useful
The new iPad Air comes in a new 13-inch screen size and brings enhanced performance. Image: Apple
As a mid-range model, iPad Air never offered a screen as large as the biggest iPad Pro. That changed Tuesday. The first 13-inch version joins an 11-inch one in Apple’s lineup.
At the heart of the tablet is an Apple M2 processor, which Apple said is 50% faster than the M1 chip in the 2022 iPad Air and three times faster than iPad Air with the A14 Bionic chip. The new iPad Air increases CPU and GPU speeds and boosts the Neural Engine significantly, Apple said.
Front facing Ultra Wide camera and improved speakers
Additional updates include a front-facing landscape camera with Center Stage to keep everyone in the shot.
“So it’s perfect for connecting with friends and family over FaceTime,” Kuna said. “Or joining a video conference while using a keyboard.”
iPad Air’s 12MP Wide back camera captures high-resolution photos and detailed 4K video with support for 240-fps slo-mo, Apple said.
The new Air also features “landscape stereo speakers with Spatial Audio, so it sounds great,” Kuna added.
The new Air models support Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil models, as well, including the new Apple Pencil Pro.
“Under the hood, the new Air supports Apple Pencil hover for greater precision, letting you preview your mark before you make it,” Kuna noted.
Apple also noted it sped up Wi-Fi speeds with Wi-Fi 6E in the new models. Cellular versions pack 5G networking.
What’s not changing
The new iPad Air models work with the new Apple Pencil Pro (or the less expensive USB-C Apple Pencil) and Magic Keyboard. Photo: Apple
While the 13-inch iPad Air expanded the options for consumers, it’s not accompanied by a complete redesign. The tablets look much like their predecessors with flat edges and a nearly edge-to-edge screen.
The 2024 models do not use Face ID. Instead, a Touch ID fingerprint scanner is built into the power button on the right edge.
The tablet includes a USB-C port for power and accessories, not a Lightning port. It allows it to use many peripherals designed for Mac, like external hard drives and displays.
Order 2024 iPad Air now
The new iPad Air models are available in space gray and starlight, in addition to new purple and blue finishes. You can choose storage capacities of 128GB (double the starting storage of the M1 iPad Air), 256GB, 512GB or 1TB. The tablets come with Wi-Fi only or Wi-Fi and Cellular connectivity options. Each tablet comes with a USB-C charging cable and a 20-watt USB-C power adapter.
There’s no delay between today’s announcement and the 2024 iPad Air going on sale: the tablet is available for pre-order now. It will reach customers next week, Apple said.
The new 11-inch model starts at $599 and the new 13-inch base model starts at $799.
Watch the event in just 3.95% of the time. Photo: Apple
Today’s “Let Loose” Apple event overhauled the iPad lineup. Apple unleashed a new iPad Pro and iPad Air, the refreshed Apple Pencil Pro, a sleek new Magic Keyboard, and lowered the price of the regular iPad. The iPad mini was acknowledged, too.
While there weren’t any AI announcements to rival the launch of the iPad Pro (2024) or new M4 chip, Apple did uncharacteristically mention ‘AI’ on eight different occasions during the event – and those covered five different new announcements about the tech.
Apple has previously been reluctant to join the chorus of AI hype, preferring to stick to the less zeitgeisty (if often more accurate) ‘machine learning’ during its launch events. But back in February, Tim Cookstarted making unexpectedly bold statements about AI, calling it a “huge opportunity for Apple” and that AI tools would be coming to Apple devices “later this year”.
So what exactly were those subtle AI announcements at the iAPd-centric Apple event? Here are the times the Cupertino crew gave us a taster of what’s to come next month at WWDC 2024…
1. The M4 chip is more powerful than ‘any AI PC today’
(Image credit: Apple)
Apple’s next-gen silicon had been rumored for the iPad Pro (2024), but it was still something of a surprise to see the M4 appear for the first time during a tablet announcement. Naturally, Apple was keen to flag its serious AI potential.
Tim Millet, Apple’s VP of Platform Architecture, said that “the Neural Engine makes M4 an outrageously powerful chip for AI”, pointing to the simple example of it letting you isolate a subject from its background in 4K video with a tap in Final Cut Pro.
Clearly, Apple thinks its silicon makes for a strong foundation for AI apps, with Millet adding that “the Neural Engine is an IP-block in the chip dedicated to the acceleration of AI workloads”. And he finished with the bolder statement that “the Neural Engine in M4 is more powerful than any neural processing unit in any AI PC today”. We can’t verify that yet, but it doesn’t sound like an outlandish claim.
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2. The Logic Pro 2 app has AI-powered Session Players
(Image credit: Apple)
The Logic Pro app landed on the iPad about a year ago – and the new version that Apple’s just announced has some AI-powered ‘Session Players’ for you to dabble with.
These are designed to play alongside the existing Drummer feature to give you something like a virtual band. Will Hui, Apple’s Product Manager of Creative Apps, said: “Now Drummer is getting some new bandmates in a feature we call Session Players. We’re introducing an all-new Bass and Keyboard Player, and like Drummer,they’re built using AI.”
Given Apple’s digital audio workstation was already a lot of fun, we’re looking forward to giving them an audition.
3. The iPad Pro uses AI to help you scan documents
Image 1 of 2
(Image credit: Apple)
(Image credit: Apple)
This might not be the most wildly exciting AI use case, but sometimes the tech is best suited to helping us with more mundane tasks – and Apple reckons it does just that with the iPad Pro (2024)’s AI-powered document scanning.
This comes courtesy of a new ‘adaptive’ True Tone flash, which works in tandem with AI algorithms to adjust the lighting depending on the document and ambient lighting. John Ternus, Apple’s SVP of Hardware Engineering said: “We’ve all had the experience of trying to scan a document in certain lighting conditions where it’s hard to avoid casting a shadow – the new Pro solves this problem.”
“It uses AI to automatically detect documents like forms and receipts,” he added. “If shadows are in the way, it instantly takes multiple photos with the new, adaptive flash. The frames are stitched together and the result is a dramatically better scan.”
We’ll have to see how well that works in practice, but because it’s built into iPadOS it’ll also be in the Camera app, Files, Notes, and third-party apps, too.
4. The iPad Air 6 isn’t left out of the AI party
(Image credit: Apple)
Apple was keen to stress that the iPad Pro (2024) isn’t the only tablet in its range suitable for AI-powered tasks or future apps, despite that tablet being the only one with the new M4 chip.
Melody Kuna, Apple’s Director of iPad Product Design, said that “with M2, the new [iPad] Air is also an incredibly powerful device for AI. It’s blazing fast for powerful machine learning features in iPadOS, like Visual Look Up, Subject Lift, and Live Text capture.”
So while the iPad Pro’s M4 chip is capable of an impressive 38 trillion operations per second (which apparently makes it sixty times faster than Apple’s A11 Bionic neural engine from the iPhone 8), the iPad Air 6 won’t be left out of future AI apps and features on Apple’s tablets.
5. iPadOS is just getting started with AI
(Image credit: Apple)
On a similar theme, Apple’s final mention of AI during its long-awaited iPad launch was reserved for iPadOS.
Will Hui, Apple’s Product Manager of Creative Apps, said that “iPadOS has advanced frameworks like Core ML that make it easy for developers to tap into the Neural Engine to deliver powerful AI features, right on device”.
Clearly, Apple is treading carefully with AI in its own apps, with only Logic Pro’s session players and the iPad Pro’s document scanning making much use of it so far. But it also put out a call to developers to tap the potential of its software (and chips) for AI-powered features. And we can expect to hear a lot more about those next month at WWDC 2024.
Tim Cook described today’s Apple iPad event as “the biggest day for iPad since its introduction” – and hype or not, he might have a point. After all, the Let Loose event saw the launch of new iPad Airs and iPad Pros, a new Apple M4 chipset, plus new accessories and software. No, it doesn’t compare to what we expect to see at WWDC 2024, but it was a pretty big deal.
So, what were the highlights – and lowlights – of the 40-minute presentation? Here’s everything we learned from the May 2024 Apple iPad event.
1. The new iPad Pro 2024 looks seriously powerful and impressively thin…
Let’s start with the big one: Apple announced the new iPad Pro in two sizes, 11 inches and 13 inches.
These are Apple’s thinnest ever tablets, with the 11-inch model coming in at 5.3mm thick (or rather, thin) and the 13-inch at a mere 5.1mm; that makes them 0.6mm and 1.3mm slimmer than last generation’s models respectively. In fact, Apple says the 13-incher is the thinnest product it has ever created – yes, it’s even thinner than the iPod Nano.
Another couple of records set by the 2024 iPad Pros are they’re the first to feature OLED screen technology, and they’re also the first to use Apple’s new M4 chipset – which represents a major step up in performance over 2022’s M2-powered Pro tablets (more on both of those features below).
Both sizes are up for preorder today (May 7) – prices start at $999 / £999 / AU$1,699 for the 11-inch and $1,299 / £1,299 / AU$2,199 for the 13-inch iPad Pro, with orders shipping from May 15.
2. …but the iPad Air 2024 has to make do with 2022 tech
In addition to the new iPad Pro models, Apple also revealed two new iPad Air 2024 tablets. Like the Pros, these come in 11-inch and 13-inch varieties, but there the similarities end. There’s no OLED screen tech, obviously – you wouldn’t expect there to be – but it’s possibly surprising that the chipset is Apple’s M2, which debuted at WWDC 2022, rather than last year’s M3.
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On the other hand, that’s still plenty fast enough for most uses, and will have helped to keep the price down to $599 / £599 / AU$999 for the 11-inch tablet and $799 / £799 / AU$1,299 for the 13.
And it’s not like there’s nothing new here, either. For one, there’s the fact that the Air now comes in two sizes, for the first time. There’s also a landscape-oriented front-facing camera – great for video calls – and landscape stereo speakers with spatial audio. It will also come with up to 1TB of storage, and will be available in Blue, Purple, Starlight and Space Grey. Given the sizable saving over the Pro models, it might well make more sense for most people.
3. The new Apple M4 chip is a powerhouse
(Image credit: Apple)
The iPad Pro has skipped a generation on the chipset front, moving from M2 to the new M4 – which arrives on Apple’s tablet before it makes its way (presumably) into MacBooks and Macs later. That’s a pretty big deal for the iPad, and it makes for a massive step up in power.
The M4 chip brings the likes of mesh shading, hardware ray tracing, and dynamic caching to the iPad, and has a 10-core CPU that Apple says is 50% faster than the M2. On the graphics side, meanwhile, the 10-core GPU is supposedly 400% faster than that of the M2. Yes, 400%.
And then there’s AI, because of course no 2024 launch would be complete without it. Apple says the Neural Engine is capable of carrying out 38 trillion operations a second, making it one of the fastest NPUs on the market. This can only bode well for future AI-related advances from Apple.
4. OLED tech
It’s taken a while, but Apple’s iPad Pro tablets finally have OLED displays – and they aren’t just any old OLED panels. Rather, Apple has created the ‘Tandem OLED’ display to form the ‘Ultra Retina XDR’ screen of the new Pro iPads.
Tandem OLED is so called because it puts two layers of OLED pixels on top of each other to create a single consistent screen. The benefit of this is to double the resolution of the screen while mitigating concerns around OLED burn-in.
While OLED pixels are self-emissive, they tend to struggle to hit the brightness of LCD or mini-LED panels, and to bump up the brightness more power needs to be pumped into the pixels, which increases the heat of an OLED display and can lead to the dreaded burn-in, where by parts on a static image – think icons and taskbars – may be permanently visible on a screen, even when it’s displaying something else.
But by layering two OLED panels, the individual pixels can be run at a lower brightness than they would in a single-layer OLED screen yet still achieve a peak brightness of 1,600 nits in the new iPad Pros; that’s a lot higher than even some of the best OLED TVs.
This Tandem technique should also make for a more energy-efficient OLED screen that has a longer lifespan than traditional OLED displays. So not only could Tandem OLED offer a boost in display quality over previous generation iPad Pros, it could also evolve OLED screen tech as a whole.
5. Two OLED displays are approximately $200 more expensive than no OLED displays
There’s good and bad news on the iPad pricing front. On the positive front, the iPad Air costs almost the same as the previous model: $599 / £599 / AU$999 for the base 11-inch model, which is unchanged from the 2022 version in the US, but a a slight increase in the UK and Australia (where it was £569 / AU$929). However, you now get 128GB as standard, rather than 64GB.
What’s more, there are now 512GB and 1TB versions – though the latter of those will set you back $1,099 / £1,099 / AU$1,879, by which time you’re in Pro territory.
The bad news comes with the Pro, which now starts at $999 / £999 / AU$1,699 for the 11-inch model, compared to $799 / £899 / AU$1,399 for the 2022 model. Again, you get a storage upgrade, this time from 128GB to 256GB, but that’s a hefty jump all the same.
On the other hand, you’re getting an OLED screen here – and a ‘Tandem OLED’ screen at that (see number 4 above) – and the difference that should make can’t be understated. Plus, it has the effect of further differentiating the two models; if you want to go cheap, you’ll need to go Air.
Either way, the new iPads are available for preorders now, and will start shipping next week (15 May).
6. You’ll want to squeeze the new Apple Pencil Pro
(Image credit: Apple)
It almost goes without saying, but the Apple Pencil Pro looks like the most impressive iteration of the iconic stylus yet. Living up to the ‘Pro’ moniker, the new pencil offers a barrel sensor that allows you to squeeze the pencil to bring up a new wheel of tools and brushes on screen (in the same way you squeeze your AirPods to pause music), alongside haptic feedback.
Longtime users of the Apple Pencil will be pleased to know that the Pencil Pro will also finally support Find My – so (hopefully) no more losing your smart stylus. On the software front, meanwhile, Procreate and Procreate Dreams have also been prepped with a suit of new features just for the Apple Pencil Pro, including new brushes that take advantage of the barrel roll feature, plus the ability to hover and squeeze the pencil to select and swap between layers.
The Apple Pencil Pro charges and stores magnetically like older models, but it’s currently only compatible with the latest M2 iPad Air and M4 iPad Pro. Like the sound of it? It’ll set you back $129 / £129 / AU$219, and will be available from May 15. We can’t wait to get our hands on it.
7. Apple has turned the iPad into a live multicam studio
Pro video shooters will now be looking even more seriously at the iPad as a live production tool, thanks to a couple of new Apple apps.
The updated Final Cut 2 app has a new Live Multicam mode, which lets you connect up to four cameras to it simultaneously. And helping video teams to take those shots is a new, free Final Cut Camera app for both iPhone and iPad. This connects to Final Cut 2 and lets you control the exposure, white balance, focus, and more on each camera, with those shots then transferred and synced to your iPad in the Final Cut app.
If you don’t want to bother with all of that, Final Cut Camera can also just be used as a new standalone iPhone app to help you shoot better videos with much finer control than the standard Camera app. Now we just need Apple to do the same for photography…
8. Function keys are back, back, back on the new Apple Magic Keyboard
(Image credit: Apple)
You can’t underestimate the usefulness of function keys – though we’d prefer they weren’t stuck on a Touch Bar as on certain older MacBooks. So it’s good news that the new Apple Magic Keyboard has a row of function keys along the top, making it easier to control settings such as brightness and volume on your iPad Pro.
It’ll cost $299 (approximately £240 or AU$450) for the 11-inch version, and $349 (approximately £280 or AU$530) for the 13-inch version, and will ship from May 15.
9. Apple’s keeping back the big AI guns for WWDC… or is it?
It’s possible you might have been a little disappointed that there was only a cursory mention of AI in today’s Apple event. But don’t be.
Apple is widely expected to (read: it will) reveal its own take on AI at its WorldWide Developers Conference next month, with the smart money being that it will unveil a raft of upgrades to iOS, iPadOS and macOS that will bring on-device generative AI to its entire mobile and computing lines.
But while there was nothing here about generative AI coming to the iPad or iPadOS, the M4 reveal is nonetheless a big part of the picture. The M4 chip should make it possible for the iPad (and MacBooks, at some point) to handle some big AI-related tasks, and indeed Apple gave the example of how Final Cut Pro will be easily able to isolate a background with just a tap. It also boasted that the M4’s Neural Engine makes it “an outrageously powerful chip for AI”.
These mentions indicate that Apple is planning for the AI revolution – and we can expect much, much more about it at WWDC in June.
Apple’s iPads have been on the back burner since 2022—there have been plenty of iPhones and Macs since, even a mixed reality headset, but it’s been two years since we’ve seen a new tablet. Now the wait is finally over. During its virtual event today, Apple announced the next-generation iPad Pro and iPad Air, an all-new M4 chip, as well as updated accessories.
Here’s everything Apple announced.
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All-New M4 Chip
Since 2020, Apple has exclusively launched its M-series processors alongside another Mac. That’s no longer the case as Apple unveiled the all-new M4 chipset debuting inside the new iPad Pro.
The new chip is built on a second-generation three-nanometer process, packing more transistors into a smaller space, enhancing both power efficiency and speed. The CPU has four performance cores and six efficiency cores, which Apple says delivers up to 50 percent faster CPU performance than M2 in the previous iPad Pro. There’s also a 10-core GPU for four times faster performance. As with the M3, it comes with features such as ray tracing, mesh shading, and dynamic caching.
The shift in strategy makes sense, seeing as how Apple’s annual Worldwide Developers Conference (which focuses on new software capabilities coming to its entire product line) is next month. In April, Bloomberg reported that iOS 18 will include “a new slate of generative AI features” and that Apple was currently in talks with OpenAI to incorporate some of the company’s features into the next version of the iPhone operating system (this is in addition to reports that Apple is alsotalking to Google about licensing the Gemini assistant).
During its earnings calls, Apple CEO Tim Cook has been hinting at the company’s incoming AI features as well—both in February and, more recently, earlier this month. Although Apple didn’t get into AI-specific features, it’s seemingly laying the AI groundwork with the new M4.
It’s currently only available with the new iPad Pro, but we can expect Apple to implement the chip in the next-generation Macs.
An OLED iPad Pro
For the first time Apple has plumped for OLED screens in the panels of the new iPad Pro.
Photograph: Brenda Stolyar
The last two versions of the iPad Pro haven’t been all that innovative. In 2021, Apple added an M1 chip and a mini-LED display; in 2022, it came with an M2 chip, ProRes video capture, and support for Wi-Fi 6E. The latest iPad Pro, however, packs the largest number of notable upgrades we’ve seen in a while.
Apple has taken down its online store ahead of ‘Let Loose’ event Screenshot: Rajesh Pandey
Apple’s online store has gone down ahead of its “Let Loose” event later today. Rumors suggest the company will announce new OLED iPad Pros and Apple Pencil Pro at the event.
Additionally, the 12.9-inch iPad Air might also make its debut at the event.
Catch Apple’s “Let Loose” event live
Despite being one of the world’s biggest tech giants, Apple typically takes down its online store a few hours before a media event. More than a technical limitation, this appears to have become a way for the company to create hype around its new product launches. This time around, the company has taken down its online store only 30 minutes before the event.
Like its last few product launches, Apple is not holding an in-person briefing for its “Let Loose” event. Instead, the pre-recorded event will stream on Apple’s YouTube page and website. There’s a small in-person media event happening in the UK, but Apple executives are unlikely to attend it.
While Apple events typically start at 10 a.m. PT/1 p.m. ET, “Let Loose” starts a few hours earlier, at 7 a.m. PT/10 a.m. ET.
New iPads, Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard are coming later today
If Apple’s invite for the “Let Loose” event did not already make it clear, new iPad Pros and Apple Pencil will be the star of the show. Rumors suggest the 2024 iPad Pros will feature an OLED panel, offering higher brightness levels and better contrast. They will reportedly be Apple’s first AI-focused devices and feature an M4 chip. These improvements will come at a cost, though.
The new Apple Pencil will be another highlight of the event, featuring haptic feedback for the first time. Apple might also revamp the Magic Keyboard for iPad with a new design and better layout. All products that Apple unveils today should be available for pre-order immediately or later this week.
With WWDC just over a month away, the event would also provide Apple with the perfect stage to showcase some of the AI-powered features it is working on.
Apple’s “Let Loose” event kicks off today at the unusual time of 7:00 a.m. Pacific Time, and we’re expecting to see an iPad-focused event with new iPad Pro and iPad Air models, updated Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard accessories, and perhaps some other announcements.
Apple is providing a live video stream on its website, on YouTube, and in the company’s TV app across various platforms. We will also be updating this article with live blog coverage and issuing Twitter updates through our @MacRumorsLive account as the event unfolds. Highlights from the event and separate news stories regarding today’s announcements will go out through our @MacRumors account.
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