A few thoughts on the Apple Special Event in Brooklyn today
by Volker Weber
Lots of new faces today, which I enjoyed very much. And the event was rounded out with a fantastic performance by Lana Del Ray. Play her latest song "Venice Bitch" from your favorite streaming service. Here it is on Apple Music. I am going to break up my thoughts into two sections. The old and the new.
- I was right on the money with my Mac predictions: a new MacBook Air and a new Mac mini. A new Mac Pro wasn't ready for this event. Well, welcome to 2018, MacBook Air and Mac mini. It's been years since they had an update. We don't need to talk about how much faster these machines are now, the old ones were completely outdated. Memory now maxxes out at 16 GB for the Macbook Air and 64 GB for the Mac mini. Macbook Air finally gets a Retina display and 8th gen notebook CPUs. Mac mini gets desktop CPUs. They start with entry level configurations but can go quite high on SSD storage, if you have the money to burn. Macbook Air gets Touch ID, a secure enclave, protected boot. It keeps its function keys instead of the whatsitcalled of the MacBook Pro. This is probably the MacBook to get. Apple toutes a 3rd generation butterfly keyboard. Let's hope it holds up better than the MacBook Pro keyboard.
- The real highlight was the new iPad Pro. While everybody was focused on small bezels, Apple delivered iPhone Xs technology to the iPad Pro, and made it better. FaceID works in every rotation you hold it. But best of all, the peripherals finally work. Pencil attaches to the side of the iPad Pro and the Smart Keyboard Folio is no longer a folding mess but a solid base that protects the front when folded. It holds on to the back via magnets and can tilt the iPad in two positionss for desk and lap use. This is going to be a superior device for tight spaces for instance when travelling. Pencil gets an upgrade too: it's no longer round so it won't roll away and it charges when magnetically attached to the side. iPad Pro replaces Lightning with USB-C, but I currently doubt it will be as versatile as the MacBook ports. Apple talks about Apple designed accessories like an SD card reader and the ability to drive 5k monitors but it does not mention external storage. We will see what it can do when we get there.
The new iPad Pro finally walks into professional territory. This is a beast, performance-wise. The keyboard and Pencil no longer look like an afterthought but are designed with the iPad Pro. I will prefer this much over a MacBook and possibly even over my trusted Surface. It's that good. Did I mention you can charge the iPhone from the iPad? Just buy the cable. I see new dongles in my future.
Just for kicks I maxxed out an iPad Pro with 1 TB of storage, added a keyboard and Pencil and got to 2453 €:
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Sounds outrageous? Wait a second. A maxxed out Surface Pro gets you even higher and does not contain LTE support:
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Comments
„iPad Pro replaces Lightning with USB-C“ - do you feel that this is a preview of the future also for the iPhones? Could Apple really be thinking about ditching the Lightning port?
Yes, they could. But I cannot predict if they will.
Hi,
Am I missing something or will it not be possible to hide the keyboard away with the new "Smart Keyboard"?
Looks like we'll need to get a second Folio without keyboard as well now...
Andreas
At some point of time they will have to unify their charging infrastructure for their mobile devices. However, for me that doesn‘t matter anymore, i carge my phone wireless.
I think USB-C on the iPad PRO was the right decision. However, it is now holding me back to buy any new accessories for the lightning port, therefore further port unification makes more than sense.
Das Photoshop-Demo war schon sehr beeindruckend, wie auch die Spiele-Grafik mit voller Auflösung und Bildschirmwiederholrate...
Da hat Apple ganz schön was vorgelegt.
Was iOS 12.1 announced/launched?
This Time, i may opt for the bigger Pro. Comparsion between the 2 new Models seems not sooo much bigger then the older comparsion between 10.5 and the unwieldy 12.9. Must see them in person and hold them in the Hand before i decide...
But man, prices! 334€ for Keyboard and Pencil alone. At least they are much better then last time.
If the mini is self-servicable with own-bought SDRAM and PCie Drives i may even opt to replace my i7-7700 Hackintosh with one early next year. But i guess they will not allow this, which is a shame. MacBook Air looks nice (and pricey) too, but with a iPad Pro i didn't have the need for a notebook.
Ok, das wird bestellt. Ich muss nur noch studieren, wie viel Speicher ich brauche. Da rätsle ich etwas. Mit meinem jetzigen iPad Pro habe ich 128GB, und die langen bist jetzt. Was macht man mit 512GB oder sogar 1TB??? Das macht doch nur Sinn, wenn die Apps auch nachziehen. Damit meine ich nicht die Games, die für mich persönlich irrelevant sind (aber das Basketball-Spiel war schon genial...). Cool wäre zB eine iPad Version vom FCPX, mit Sync mit dem Mac. Dann könnte ich grössere Projekte mitnehmen, bearbeiten, und dann auf dem Mac finalisieren. Ein aktuelles Projekt hat 200GB (nur die Proxies), da macht 1TB Sinn (wenn man die Datenmenge per Kabel reinkriegt, forget the cloud). Aber für PDFs, ein paar Filme und Word? iPad Word ist zB superlangsam mit grösseren Docs und kann nur 1 Dok gleichzeitig offen haben, obwohl doch die Hardware-Specs vergleichbar oder besser sind als aktuelle Laptops?!
If Apple now only matched the iPad with the MacBook Air giving the tablet a keyboard with a trackpad and the laptop a touchscreen ... - that's exactly why I stay with Surface Pro.
Volker, bekommt man das Lied jemals wieder aus aus dem Ohr? ;-)
Marc, da sehe ich schwarz.
Andreas, ich denke, man kann das Keyboard einfach nach hinten klappen. Oder man nimmt es ab. Mache ich bei Surface genauso.
Peter, die 1TB gibt es, weil das geht. Wie bei Surface auch. Ich denke, das ist vor allem was für Leute, die keinen anderen Rechnner mehr wollen, aber trotzdem satt Platz haben wollen. Meine Schwester würde das mit Fotos vollbekommen. Das Word wird vielleicht langsam, weil der Hauptspeicher zu Ende geht. iOS hat m.W.n. keine virtuelle Speicherverwaltung. Aber was weiß ich schon. Das 1 TB Modell bekommt übrigens 6 GB, die anderen nur 4, höre ich.
Horia: yes, it was. I am downloading iOS 12.1 as we speak.
I love the form factor, the design, the specs, the USB-C etc. But still, I do not know if it is worth the upgrade from my Pro 10.5, as I will never be able to use all the cool features and hardware. Hm.
I agree. But I am coming from a 9.7 Pro. A new 12.9 is worlds apart.
The only things I still use my Macbook Pro instead of my iPad currently are photo editing and printing. Seems with the new iPad I might be able to ditch the Macbook Pro.
I’m in the small minority but I’m really disappointed that this is the end of the line for the iPad mini, which is the perfect size for my needs. I like my iPhone XS and don’t want a bigger phone. I want an updated 7” tablet. I read the news every morning on it, use it to control my drone, and use it as my primary GPS/navigation device in my airplane. Nothing else will do.
I am not jumping to conclusions with the consumer iPads. Apple only talked about mini, MacBook Air and iPad Pro. Tim mentioned the iPad mini and regular iPad in passing before moving on the iPad Pro. There may be another time when Apple updates those iPads.
Did anyone notice? AirPower is dead.
I like the new Mac mini. But it was kind of rediculos to compare the old devices to the new ones, since the haven’t been updated for such a long time. It seems odd to sell that as apples achievement.
On the other hand: what should they do instead? Admit, that they screwed every iPad mini customer in the last two years? I think not.
I just read that the CPU in the MacBook Air isn't one of the 15 W Ultrabook CPUs, but instead an even newer version just announced by Intel called Amber Lake and using only 7W of power.
Source: https://appleinsider.com/articles/18/10/30/new-macbook-air-powered-by-7w-intel-amber-lake-cpu
Interesting insights. Thank you, Dirk!
Seeing the performance of the new iPad Pro I really consider to get rid of my Mac.
I still use the Mac at home but not that often as it would make sense to have that kind of machine.
Currently owning the small iPad Pro but as a Mac replacement it would be the bigger one for more screen space (especiall when using Split-Screen.
Better make sure you get Apple Care with the new iPad Pro - it costs over 600 GBP to repair it at Apple without: https://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/3065451/apples-new-ipad-pro-will-be-wallet-busting-expensive-to-repair
Excellent machine. Congratulations.
