Originally published at: https://appletalk.com.au/2019/03/tuesday-morning-news190319/
Apple has updated the iPad Air and iPad mini overnight. The iPad Air gets a new 10.5-inch form factor popularised by the iPad Pro, powered by an A12 Bionic processor paired with Apple’s Neural Engine, just like the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR. The iPad mini sees a similar upgrade, and while the form factor stays the same at a comfortable 7.9-inches, processor and display upgrades are the name of the game, with Apple Pencil support also making it to the iPad mini for the first time. Both iPads are available to pre-order starting today at $779 for the 64GB Wi-Fi iPad, or $599 for the 64GB Wi-Fi iPad mini, and will be available in-store starting next week.
Along with the new iPads, Apple is now also offering a few new accessories for the new iPads. There’s Smart Covers for the 3rd-generation iPad Air in both polyurethane and leather variants (four colours each), while the iPad mini gets slightly cheaper versions of the polyurethane Smart Covers. If you’re buying the new iPad Air, you also get the choice of a Smart Keyboard for $235, and if you’re still very happy with your iPad Pro, you can now get its Smart Folio cover in pink sand.
AppleInsider says that while the dimensions of the new iPad mini closely match the previous model, using an older case will mostly work if you have a fourth-generation iPad mini, with some minor compromises due to minor design differences. And no cases for any previous generation iPad Air will work with the new one, but if you have any spare 10.5-inch iPad Pro cases, there’s a good chance they will work.
Interestingly enough, the new iPad Air and iPad mini are compatible with the first-generation Apple Pencil, not the latest that was introduced with the updated iPad Pro. It’s probably not that big a deal for most people, but means Apple Pencil compatibility isn’t quite as simple as one device that works with everything. If you’re after a cheaper Apple Pencil alternative, the good news is that Logitech’s Crayon stylus works with both new iPads.
The sixth developer betas of iOS 12.2, tvOS 12.2, watchOS 5.2, and macOS 10.4.4 have been released by Apple. There’s a good chance we’ll see a public release in early April, or even perhaps just after Apple’s event next week, although that opens up even more questions: now that Apple has announced and released new iPads, what else will we be talking about next week? New AirPods hardware?
The debate of whether Apple should release thicker products with a different set of trade-offs is a debate as old as time, and this time around, 9to5Mac wonders if Apple should release a thicker MacBook Pro with a different set of compromises. While there’s no right or wrong answer, the fact that people want thicker laptops (although perhaps not as thick as the image suggests) is very curious.
Everyone’s favourite RSS reader for Mac is alive and in beta. Reeder 4 will be sold as a new app, with a companion iOS version that’s almost done. The Mac version is still missing a lot of features, but between Reeder 4 and NetNewsWire 5, the future of RSS is looking bright.
Macworld says that Apple dominates podcasting right now, but with Spotify investing millions into acquisitions, that’s only going to last so long. Apple seemingly does nothing to keep podcasts on its own terms, unlike the App Store, so it will be interesting to see if we’ll ever see any kind of competition in the podcasting space from big tech companies.
A story from earlier in March says Apple opposes the logo trademarked by a Norwegian political company, and looking at the logo it’s easy to see why. It bears a striking similarity to an earlier Apple logo, so it’s no wonder Apple are opposing the trademark.
Speaking of classic Apple, it’s hard to go past the story of Clarus the dogcow. Clarus was created by famed Apple designer Susan Kare as part of the typefaces included with the original Macintosh, and one of them featured a little black and white dog. The rest, as they say, is history.