The new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro packs some big upgrades. Photo: Apple
Apple has finally given the Magic Keyboard for iPad the revamp it deserves. The new keyboard accessory is made from aluminum, making the iPad look like a laptop.
Given the big redesign, the new Magic Keyboard for iPad is only compatible with the M4 iPad Pros.
Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro gets a dedicated function row
Apple says the new Magic Keyboard is “completely redesigned” to make it thinner and lighter. It retains a floating cantilever design, letting you adjust the iPad’s display viewing angle. The dedicated 14-row function keys provide quick access to screen brightness, volume, and media playback controls.
You also get a much roomier glass trackpad featuring haptic feedback. These improvements ensure the new trackpad is a big step up from the cramped offering on the current-gen Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. Apple says the new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro has a durable cover that provides ample “front and back protection.”
Apple also announced the new Smart Folio for iPad Pro. Like the Magic Keyboard, it attaches magnetically and supports multiple viewing angles.
Preorders start today
Like the previous Magic Keyboard, there’s a passthrough USB-C port for topping up your iPad’s battery when using the keyboard accessory.
The new Magic Keyboard is available in black and white. Both variants feature an aluminum palm rest in the same color, another key upgrade over the current model. The keyboard accessory is only compatible with the M4 iPad Pros, and not the M2 iPad Airs.
Pricing starts at $299 for the 11-inch model and $349 for the 13-inch variant. You can preorder the new Magic Keyboard for your M4 iPad Pro today, and shipping is scheduled to start on May 15.
Apple today introduced a new version of the Final Cut Pro software that’s designed to run on the iPad, introducing capabilities designed specifically for the M4 iPad Pro.
A new Live Multicam feature allows users to capture up to four different angles of a single scene using connected iPhones and iPads. To make this feature work, Apple has created a Final Cut Camera app that captures video from each of the devices and feeds it into Final Cut Pro.
Users can get a director’s view of each camera in real time, and the settings can be adjusted from the Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 app. There are options for tweaking exposure, focus, white balance, ISO, shutter speed, and zoom to get the perfect shots. Preview clips are passed through to Final Cut Pro and then replaced with full-resolution files so users can quickly move from production to editing.
Final Cut Camera is available as a standalone app and in addition to feeding footage to Final Cut Pro, it can be used as a video capture app for recording video with precise manual controls.
The updated Final Cut Pro for iPad app supports external projects, so users can create or open projects on an external device and import media without taking up iPad storage space.
Apple added additional customization options to Final Cut Pro, including 12 color-grading presets, eight basic text titles, 20 soundtracks, and new dynamic backgrounds.
With the M4 chip, final rendering with Final Cut Pro is up to 2x faster, and it supports up to 4x more streams of ProRes RAW than the M1 chip. Final Cut for iPad works with the Apple Pencil Pro, adding support for barrel roll and squeeze, improving access to and control over tools.
Apple has also updated Final Cut Pro for the Mac, adding Enhance Light and Color, an AI feature that improves color, color balance, contrast, and brightness in one step. Smooth Slo-Mo, another new feature, blends frames of video intelligently to provide higher-quality movement.
Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 will be available this spring as a free update for existing users, with new users able to purchase it for $4.99 per month or $49 per year. Final Cut Camera will come later in the spring as well, and Final Cut Pro for Mac 10.8 will be available as a free update for existing users.
You may have heard Apple updated its top-of-the-line tablets at its Let Loose event on Tuesday. The 2024 model has some big improvements, including the new M4 chip, a “noticeably thinner and lighter” build, a superior OLED display and upgraded accessories. We broke down the key differences between the latest iPad Pro and its 2022 predecessor to help you figure out if it’s worth the (hefty) investment.
Display and dimensions
iPad Pro: 13-inch (2024) vs. 12.9-inch (2022) (Apple / Will Shanklin for Engadget)
In Engadget’s hands-on at Apple’s “Let Loose” event, Deputy Editor Nathan Ingraham said the new iPad Pro’s thinner and lighter build and its Tandem OLED display are the first big changes you’ll notice when you pick up the latest model.
“In Apple’s extremely bright demo area, the iPad Pro screen showed its quality — everything was extremely clear, blacks were pitch-black and colors really popped,” he said after using it at Apple’s event. “After looking at the iPad Air display, it was obvious how much better these screens are.”
iPad Pro: 11-inch (2024 vs. 2022) (Apple / Will Shanklin for Engadget)
Another change you’ll notice when you compare the two iPad Pros side-by-side is camera positioning. The 2024 model moves its front-facing camera to the top-center when viewed in landscape orientation. The older model used Apple’s original iPad configuration, where the camera was centered above the screen when holding it upright in portrait mode.
The new iPad Pro is also noticeably lighter and thinner than its 2022 predecessor. The 13-inch model is a mere 5.11mm (0.2 inch) thick and weighs only 579g (1.28 lbs), making it 20 percent thinner and 15 percent lighter than the 12.9-incher from 2022. Meanwhile, the new 11-inch variant is 5.3mm (0.21 inch) thick and weighs 444g (0.98 lb), making it 10 percent thinner and five percent lighter than the older one.
Considering the 2022 model was already a svelte machine, it’s no wonder we found the new iPad Pro surprisingly thin and light relative to its processing power. Speaking of which…
Processor
Apple / Will Shanklin for Engadget
The iPhone maker unveiled a new Apple Silicon version on an iPad instead of a Mac for the first time. The all-new M4 chip has up to a 10-core CPU configuration (four performance cores and six efficiency cores), which the company says translates to one and a half times faster performance than the M2 silicon in the 2022 model.
I say “up to” because, similar to MacBooks and some older iPad Pro models, Apple is shipping different chip variants depending on your pricing tier. The 1TB and 2TB versions of the 2024 model have that 10-core chip, while the 256GB and 512GB models drop down to a nine-core M4 with three performance and six efficiency cores.
The lower-tier and high-end M4 variants include a 10-core GPU with hardware-accelerated ray tracing, a 16-core neural engine, 120GB/s memory bandwidth and 16GB of RAM. So the different models don’t sound dramatically different — you just get an extra performance core in the more expensive tiers. We’ll have to wait until we get some extended time with them to see how that translates into real-world experience.
By comparison, the M2 in the 2022 iPad Pro has an eight-core CPU with four performance and four efficiency cores. It also has a 16-core Neural Engine (of course, an older version than the one in the M4), 100GB/s memory bandwidth and either 8GB or 16GB of RAM.
Accessories
Apple / Will Shanklin for Engadget
The new iPad Pro also has some new accessories you can’t use with the 2022 model. That includes a new Magic Keyboard that Apple claims makes “the entire experience feel just like using a MacBook.”
You can thank its bigger trackpad with haptic feedback (like on modern MacBooks) and an aluminum palm rest. The older model used a microfiber-esque material and physically clicking trackpad, so the new one should feel more solid underneath your hands and aligned with MacBooks’ look and feel.
The new Magic Keyboard also adds a new 14-key function row (also similar to a MacBook) with shortcuts for things like brightness, Spotlight search, Siri / dictation and media controls.
Meanwhile, the Apple Pencil Pro — exclusively compatible with the 2024 iPad Pro and iPad Air — looks much like its predecessor but adds some extra goodies. Those include a new sensor in its barrel that lets you squeeze it like the lovely little stylus it is.
The new squeeze gesture can bring up tool palettes or activate shortcuts. Third-party developers can even customize the actions for individual apps. For the first time, it also adds haptic feedback to let you know if your squeeze was accepted or if something you moved has landed in its intended spot.
The new Apple Pencil also works with Find My (another first), so you can check on its most recent location in Apple’s location app if you lose it.
Well, it can’t all be good news. With all those upgrades, Apple is once again asking you to consider paying more for a high-end tablet. The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $999, and the 13-inch model starts at a whopping $1,299. Those are each $200 higher than the starting prices in the 2022 model (when it was available).
But wait, it gets worse. Those prices don’t take into account the $299 (11-inch) or $349 (13-inch) you’ll pay if you want to add the new Magic Keyboard, nor does it factor in the $129 for the Apple Pencil Pro. You’ll have to pony up to make the new iPad Pro as much like a MacBook as possible: It will cost you almost what you’d pay for an entry-level 14-inch MacBook Pro with the M3 chip.
On the slightly brighter side, you get more storage this time around. The 2024 iPad Pro starts with 256GB, double the 128GB in the 2022 model. Moving up from there, the other storage tiers are identical to its predecessor (ranging up to 2TB for those with Scrooge McDuck bank accounts).
Full specs comparison
Here’s a table showing the full specs comparison between the 2024 and 2022 iPad Pro models, including separate charts for the 13 / 12.9-inch and 11-inch variants.
13-inch iPad Pro (2024) vs. 12.9-inch iPad Pro (2022)
12.9-inch iPad Pro (2024)
12.9-inch iPad Pro (2022)
Price
$1,299, $1,499, $1,899, $2,299
$1,099, $1,199, $1,399, $1,799, $2,199
Dimensions
281.16 x 215.5 x 5.1 mm
(11.09 x 8.48 x 0.20 inch)
280.6 x 214.9 x 6.4 mm
(11.04 x 8.46 x 0.25 inch)
Weight
1.28 pounds / 579 grams (Wi-Fi)
1.28 pounds / 582 grams (cellular)
1.5 pounds / 682 grams (Wi-Fi)
1.51 pounds / 685 grams (cellular)
Processor
M4
M2
Display
13-inch Ultra Retina XDR
2752 x 2064 (264 ppi)
12.9-inch Liquid Retina XDR
2732 x 2048 (264 ppi)
Storage
256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB
128GB / 256GB / 512GB / 1TB / 2TB
Battery
38.99 Wh
10 hrs (Wi-Fi), 9 hrs (cellular)
40.88 Wh
10 hrs (Wi-Fi), 9 hrs (cellular)
Camera
Back: 12MP, ƒ/1.8
Front: 12MP, ƒ/2.4
Back: 12MP wide, ƒ/1.8 / 10MP ultrawide, ƒ/2.4
Front: 12MP, ƒ/2.4
Compatible Apple accessories
Magic Keyboard (2024)
Apple Pencil Pro
Magic Keyboard (2020)
Apple Pencil (2nd generation)
11-inch iPad Pro (2024) vs. 11-inch iPad Pro (2022)
Apple just took the wraps off the 2024 iPad Pro, the first with an OLED screen rather than a traditional LCD. If that wasn’t enough, the tablet is the launch of the Apple M4 processor.
“With the breakthrough Ultra Retina XDR display, the next-level performance of M4, incredible AI capabilities, and support for the all-new Apple Pencil Pro and Magic Keyboard, there’s no device like the new iPad Pro,” said John Ternus, Apple’s SVP of Hardware Engineering.
2024 iPad Pro goes OLED
The LCDs in previous iPad screens look great but Apple wasn’t content. The 2024 iPad Pro has an OLED display. With an Organic Light-Emitting Diode screen, each pixel glows on its own. This leads to a bright, even image with strong contrast.
And if one is good, two are better. The tablet has what Apple calls tandem OLED technology that stacks two OLED panels to provide greater full-screen brightness. That’s 1000 nits of full-screen brightness for SDR and HDR content, and 1600 nits peak for HDR.
Apple says, “Specular highlights in photos and video appear even brighter, and there’s more detail in shadows and low light than ever before on iPad — all while delivering even more responsiveness to content in motion.”
The new display type comes to both sizes of the iPad Pro: 11 inches and 13 inches (up slightly from the previous model).
For the first time Apple is offering a nano-texture display glass option ($100) on 1TB and 2TB models.
Apple’s thinnest product ever
The 2022 iPad Pro (left) is slim, but the 2024 iPad Pro (right) is even thinner. Screenshot: Apple
The change to OLED let designers significantly slim down the tablets. The 11-inch version is just 5.3 mm while the 13-inch model is even thinner at 5.1 mm.
Specifically, the larger version is 11.1 inches by 8.5 inches by 0.2 inches. The smaller is 9.8 inches by 7.0 inches by 0.21 inches.
“The 11-inch model weighs less than a pound, and the 13-inch model is nearly a quarter pound lighter than its predecessor,” bragged Apple. That’s 0.98 pounds and 1.28 pounds, respectively.
“The new CPU offers up to four performance cores and now six efficiency cores, with next-generation machine learning (ML) accelerators, to deliver up to 1.5x faster CPU performance over M2 in the previous-generation iPad,” promises Apple.
The M4 is undoubtedly a surprise — and a shock to those who bought one of the M3-powered MacBook Pro and MacBook Air models that have only been on the market a few months.
The base model 2024 iPad Pro offers double the storage of its predecessor: 256GB. And storage tops out at 2 terabytes.
Most versions have 8GB of RAM, but the 1TB and 2TB models have 16GB.
Landscape camera means better video conferencing
The OLED iPad Pro makes a change tablet users have wanted for years: Apple moved the front-facing camera for better horizontal use.
In previous models, when the tablet is held horizontally — the way most people use it — the front-facing camera is way off to the left so users seem to be staring off to one side during video calls. The front-facing camera has now been relocated to the long edge of the tablet so show that users really are paying attention during video calls.
New Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil Pro, too
Those who want to use their iPad Pro as a convertible notebook have a new option: a redesigned Magic Keyboard. It’s thinner and lighter, and has an all-aluminum exterior. Other changes include a row of function keys and a glass trackpad with haptic feedback.
And there’s Apple Pencil Pro, an addition to the lineup. It has a gyroscope, users can squeeze it to open an on-screen menu, and there’s Find My support.
Plus there are also updated versions of Logic Pro and Final Cut Pro that take advantage of the M4 processor.
Order the 2024 iPad Pro now
The last iPad Pro was introduced in autumn 2022 — about 18 months ago. The new version offers a better quality screen and a faster processor, and clearly Apple didn’t want to make users wait.
There’s no delay between today’s announcement and the 2024 iPad Pro going on sale: the tablet is available for pre-order now. It will reach customers next week, on May 15.
The new 11-inch model is $999, while the first 13-inch one is $1299. They are available in silver or space black.
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.
The new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro models are equipped with OLED displays that support a refresh rate as low as 10Hz, but the devices still lack an always-on display option like the iPhone and Apple Watch have, according to Apple’s tech specs.
While the iPad Pro has supported ProMotion since 2017, the device only supported refresh rates between 24Hz and 120Hz until now. The new iPad Pro models use low-power LTPO technology, according to display industry expert Ross Young, allowing the display to ramp down to 10Hz for static content. This change will contribute to lower power consumption, but advertised battery life is unchanged overall compared to the previous iPad Pro generation.
The same situation happened a few years ago with the iPhone 13 Pro models, which also support ProMotion down to 10Hz, but lack an always-on display option. The feature finally arrived on the iPhone with the iPhone 14 Pro models, which can ramp down to 1Hz, and Apple Watch models with an always-on display also reach 1Hz.
All in all, the iPad Pro is unlikely to get an always-on display option until if and when it too supports a 1Hz refresh rate.
Apple says the iPad Pro now features “state-of-the-art tandem OLED technology that uses two OLED panels and combines the light from both to provide phenomenal full-screen brightness.” The new iPad Pro models can achieve up to 1,000 nits of full-screen brightness for SDR content, compared to 600 nits for the previous-generation models.
The new iPad Pro models are available to order starting today and launch on Wednesday, May 15.
Apple is expected to announce iOS 18 during its WWDC keynote on June 10, and new features have already been rumored for many apps, including Apple Music, Apple Maps, Calculator, Messages, Notes, Safari, and others. Below, we recap iOS 18 rumors on a per-app basis, based on reports from MacRumors, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, and others: Apple Maps: At least two new Apple Maps features are…
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It’s been a long time since the last one, but an Apple event is finally right around the corner! While it’s anticipated to be a fairly short pre-recorded affair, we’re expecting to see the first updates to the iPad lineup in over a year and half, so make sure to tune in to see what Apple has in store. Other news and rumors this week included a couple of product introductions from Apple’s…
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Final Cut Pro has been updated with live multi-camera recording on iPad and powerful new AI color correction on Mac. A free new app for iPad and iPhone, Final Cut Camera, allows for professional video capture in multicam or on its own.
These “amazing updates” will “take creativity to the next level,” said Will Hui, project manager for creative apps at Apple, during its “Let Loose” event today.
Updates to Final Cut Pro for iPad and Mac — and the new Final Cut Camera app — will be available later this spring.
Final Cut Pro 2 for iPad is now a multi-cam recording studio
Live Multicam brings the power of 1960s television three-camera videotape recording into the digital age — all on iPad. Photo: Apple
Last year, Apple released Final Cut Pro for iPad — letting users record, professionally edit and export videos all from its thin-and-light tablet. The entire interface was rebuilt from the ground up around multitouch input. Just a year later, the app is getting powerful new features that push the iPad version of the app forward.
Live Multicam lets directors switch between the live camera feeds of up to four iPhones or iPads, while recording directly into the Final Cut timeline. This “opens up entirely new video workflows,” says Hui.
On an iPhone- and iPad-based production, this significantly reduces the friction between independently recording video on four separate devices, importing footage and editing hours later.
Final Cut Camera can be used for Live Multicam or as a standalone camera app. Image: Apple
Powering Live Multicam is a new app for iPad and iPhone called Final Cut Camera. From the director’s iPad, you can remotely control focus, exposure, white balance and more. It can also be used as a standalone video recording app with more precise manual controls than what Apple can fit in the regular Camera app.
Other improvements to Final Cut Pro 2 for iPad include storing project files on an external drive, thanks to the iPad Pro’s Thunderbolt port. Final rendering is “up to two times faster than M1” on the new iPad Pro with M4, announced at the same event, according to Hui. The M4 also enables “up to four times more streams of ProRes RAW” video footage, a huge increase in bandwidth for editing high-quality video.
Final Cut Pro for Mac gets powerful AI color correction
Color correction is easier with the new update to Final Cut Pro. Image: Apple
Color correction is made easier with a new “Enhance Light and Color” button. Clicking it is a shortcut to getting improved “color, color balance, contrast, and brightness in one simple step, and is optimized for SDR, HDR, RAW and Log-encoded media,” according to the press release. Professional color correction takes years of skill and a great eye — this feature offers an easy starting point for those with less experience.
You can easily drag-and-drop the color correction made to one clip to other clips in the timeline, too. To make edits easily identifiable, you can give each tweak a different name — like Sepia, High Contrast, Desaturated Reds, etc.
AI now fills in the gaps when you slow down a clip from its original speed, too. “With Smooth Slo-Mo, frames of video are intelligently generated and blended together,” according to the press release. That means that slowing down a segment of video to 80% of its original speed will look more natural and less choppy.
These new features require a Mac with Apple silicon. These updates, alongside Final Cut Pro 2 for iPad and Final Cut Camera, will be available this spring.
Final Cut Pro for iPad costs $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year; Final Cut Pro for Mac is available as a one-time purchase for $299.99. Final Cut Camera will be available for free.
At Let Loose 2024, Apple revealed big changes coming to its Final Cut software, ones that effectively turn your iPad into a mini production studio. Chief among these is the launch of Final Cut Pro for iPad 2. It’s a direct upgrade to the current app that is capable of taking full advantage of the new M4 chipset. According to the company, it can render videos up to twice as fast as Final Cut Pro running on an M1 iPad.
Apple is also introducing a feature called Live Multicam. This allows users to connect their tablet to up to four different iPhones or iPads at once and watch a video feed from all the sources in real time. You can even adjust the “exposure, focus, [and] zoom” of each live feed directly from your master iPad.
Looking at Apple’s demo video, selecting a source expands the footage to fill up the entire screen where you can then make the necessary adjustments. Tapping the Minimize icon in the bottom right corner lets creators return to the four-split view. Apple states that previews from external devices are sent to Final Cut Pro so you can quickly begin editing.
Impactful upgrades
You can’t connect your iPhone to the multicam studio using the regular camera app, which won’t support the setup. Users will instead have to install a new app called Final Cut Camera on their mobile device. Besides the Live Multicam compatibility, Apple says you can tweak settings like white balance, shutter speed, and more to obtain professional-grade recordings. The on-screen interface even lets videographers monitor their footage via a zebra stripe pattern tool and an audio meter.
(Image credit: Apple)
Going back to the Final Cut Pro update, there are other important features we’ve yet to mention. The platform “now supports external projects”. This means you can create a video project on and import media to “an external storage” drive without sacrificing space on an iPad. Apple is also adding more customization tools to the software like 12 additional color-grading presets and more dynamic backgrounds.
Final Cut Pro for Mac is set to receive a substantial upgrade too. Although it won’t support the four iPhone video feeds, version 10.8 does introduce several tools. For example, Enhance Light and Color offers a quick way to improve color balance and contrast in a clip among other things. Users can also give video effects and color corrections a custom name for easy identification. It’s not a total overhaul, but these changes will take some of the headache out of video editing.
(Image credit: Apple)
Availability
There are different availability dates for the three products. Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 launches this spring and will be a “free update for existing users”. For everyone else, it will be $5/£5/$8 AUD a month or $50/£50/$60 AUD a year for access. Final Cut Camera is set to release in the spring as well and will be free for everyone. Final Cut Pro for Mac 10.8 is another free update for existing users. On the Mac App Store, it’ll cost you $300/£300/$500 AUD.
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We don’t blame you if you were totally unaware of the Final Cut Pro changes as they were overshadowed by Apple’s new iPad news. Speaking of which, check out TechRadar’s guide on where to preorder Apple’s 2024 iPad Pro and Air tablets.
When Apple unveiled the Apple Pencil Pro during Tuesday’s “Let Loose” event, the company seemingly bid adieu to the second-generation Apple Pencil. An Apple tool reveals that unspecified Apple Pencil 2 compatibility issues mean the older stylus won’t work with 2024 iPad Pro and iPad Air models.
So, if you’re an artist buying a new iPad, or someone who takes lots of handwritten notes, you probably need to budget an extra $129 for a new Apple Pencil Pro.
Apple Pencil 2 compatibility: Stylus doesn’t work with 2024 iPads
According to Apple’s device comparison tool, the new M2 iPad Air and M4 iPad Pro models are only compatible with the new Apple Pencil Pro and the budget Apple Pencil (USB-C). By comparison, previous iPad Pro models (11-inch tablets gen 1 through 4 and 12.9-inch tablets gen 3 through 6) and iPad Air models (gen 4 and 5) are shown as compatible with Apple Pencil (second gen) and the USB-C Apple Pencil.
Ultimately, this means that on top of the hefty price tag for getting a new iPad Pro or Air, you’ll potentially need to drop either $79 or $129, depending on which Apple Pencil model you want to pair with your shiny new tablet.
New features in Apple Pencil Pro
Features of the Apple Pencil Pro. Photo: Apple
During Tuesday’s event, Apple pointed out the need for a new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. And the pro tablet’s slimmest-ever design makes that obvious.
However, the company was less clear about whether owners of current Apple Pencils would need to upgrade if they bought a new iPad. Yes, the Apple Pencil Pro adds new features, including a “squeeze” gesture, haptic feedback and support for Apple’s Find My Network. But for existing iPad owners who don’t use their Apple Pencil 2 much, it would be nice if the older stylus still worked with the new iPad.
The sixth-generation M2 iPad Pro supports the second-generation Apple Pencil as well as the USB-C Apple Pencil. On paper, that tablet should run on the same chip featured in the new iPad Air. If the new iPad Air models truly don’t support the second-gen Apple Pencil, it could be due to a hardware limitation, possibly as a result of a new charging mechanism. (Apple moved the iPad Air’s front-facing camera to the tablet’s long edge so it works in landscape mode. And the Apple Pencil Pro attaches magnetically to the side of compatible tablets for charging.)
Alternatively, Apple could be restricting the functionality to boost Apple Pencil Pro sales. We’ll likely need to wait and see what early reviewers say when the devices launch on May 15.
Either way, for Apple’s most expensive iPad models (the M4 iPad Pro line), unless you already have last year’s USB-C Apple Pencil, you’re going to shell out a few extra bucks to add an Apple Pencil, and even more for the “Pro” pencil experience.
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 has finally given the Magic Keyboard for iPad the revamp it deserves. The new keyboard accessory is made from aluminum, making the iPad look like a laptop.
