It’s here! Another event by Apple that introduced new products today including a new iPhone colour, AirTags, new M1 iMacs, and a new Apple 4K TV!
New iPhone Colour
Apple’s Spring Loaded event kicked off with the reveal of a new colour for the 6.1-inch iPhone 12 and 5.4-inch iPhone 12 Mini: Gorgeous Purple!
The new finish is complementary to the flat-edges of iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini and features the same advanced dual-camera system, Super Retina XDR display and Ceramic Shield front cover, powered by an A14 Bionic chip and 5G. I’m a bit sadeneded that we didn’t get a Pro and Pro Max iteration here.
The Gorgeous Purple iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini will be available for pre-order beginning Friday, April 23, with availability beginning Friday, April 30. The iPhone 12 starts at $1,129 and the iPhone 12 mini costs $979.
AirTag Revealed
Next, the long-rumoured AirTags finally made an appearance after months of speculation and now they are official.
The AirTag is a round tile that you can attach to pretty much any item you can think of, but I’m planning on keeping one in my wallet, my keys, and backpack in the future. If at any time you lose an item that has an AirTag attached to it, you can open Find My and locate just as you would with your iPhone, iPad, MacBook and Apple devices. Similar to Tile, the AirTag uses Bluetooth connectivity to communicate with your phone to keep tabs on your items.
From there, if you ever do lose an item, you’ll get a notification on your phone which then you tap and give you an idea where your item is through a chime on your phone. I use a similar function on my Apple Watch at times to location my phone when it falls into the couch. With Apple’s tech, the Precision Finding helps users find their items using a combination of sound, haptics, and visual feedback.
If AirTag is separated from its owner and out of Bluetooth range, the Find My network can help track it down. The Find My network is approaching a billion Apple devices and can detect Bluetooth signals from a lost AirTag and relay the location back to its owner, all in the background, anonymously and privately.
A single AirTag retails for $39 CAD while a four-pack retails for $129 CAD with orders going live on April 30, and will be available beginning on April 30.
Apple TV 4K
I know I’ve been waiting to upgrade from my 1080p Apple TV and today’s reveal of a new Apple TV 4K is exactly what I wanted to upgrade to.
The new Apple TV 4K is a refresh of the fifth-generation and orders begin on April 30 with the 32GB version retails for $229 CAD with the 64GB model costing $249, respectively. With HDR and Dolby Vision support, the new Apple TV 4k is powered by Apple’s own A12 Bionic chip, giving your television experience a speed boost, thanks to the more powerful processor.
Siri Remote
I love the Apple TV remote, even though it is clearly misunderstood. My friends may something against it and while it is an extremely sensitive remote, I was fine with it as it was. Apple being Apple however, has reiterated on the device and now we’re getting the Siri Remote.
Its all-new touch-enabled clickpad lets you click titles, swipe through playlists and use a circular gesture on the outer ring to find just the scene you’re looking for. And with Siri, you can find what you want to watch using just your voice.
Orders go live on April 30 and it will be available in the second half of May. The Siri Remote retails for $69 CAD.
iPad Pro
Apple revealed an 11-inch iPad Pro and 12.9-inch iPad Pro with a Liquid Retina XDR display during today’s Spring Loaded event. This iPad like the new iMac, uses the powerful new ARM-based M1 chip developed by Apple.
Just as we’ve seen with the new line of MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini, the new M1 chip adds a “massive leap in performance.” Each year, the iPad feels like its closer to being a laptop more than ever and now, it’s got another edge over owning a laptop: the miniLED panel. The 12.9-inch iPad Pro uses a miniLED panel is capable of 1000 nits of full-screen brightness.
The new iPad Pro also comes equipped with a USB-C and Thunderbolt connectivity offers lighting speed when using external storage, connecting to docks or displays. Adding to the already impressive list of specs, is the new Ultra Wide camera with Centre Stage. iPad Pro uses a new Ultra Wide camera with a 12MP sensor and a 122‑degree field of view.
Centre Stage uses the Ultra Wide camera with machine learning to change how your video calls work. The idea is if you’re moving around and in a call, Centre Stage will keep you centred in the frame and as others join or leave the call, the view expands or zooms in. Centre Stage is compatible with FaceTime and other conferencing call software so whether on Teams, Zoom, or Webex, you’re front and centre.
Both the 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro models will be available to order on April 30 with the 11-inch display beginning from $999 CAD and the 12.9-inch display beginning from $1399 CAD. Both come in Space Grey or Silver, but I wish we had some more colours to choose from.
M1 iMacs
I absolutely fell in love with the new line of iMacs that were announced during today’s Spring Loaded event. Both the new iPad Pro and the new iMacs use the ARM-based M1 chip to power them and Apple even mentioned that thanks to the new M1 chip, they were able to shrink the size of the iMax down to just 11.5mm thick.
First, it is so nice to see the iMac in another colour than the gray Apple has offered for some time. Seeing some colour for the first time in ages brings me back to when my school lab opened up and the colourful iMacs powering the lab caught my eye from the moment I saw them. The new iMac includes a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display with 500 nits of peak brightness and 11.3 million pixels. It also has a 1080p HD webcam and includes a “studio-quality three-microphone array,” making you sound as good as you look. Apple also mentioned the iMac will include a six-speaker sound system so your audio will fill the room. Thanks to the redesigned speakers and advanced algorithms, iMac now supports spatial audio when playing video with Dolby Atmos.
Apple mentioned that the 8-core iMac reaches up to 85% CPU performance, and up to two times with GPU performance, when using Adobe’s suite of programs, including Photoshop. The 8-core GPU model will also have 8GB of memory and a 256GB SSD, two Thunderbolt ports, also two USB 3 ports and a 1Gbps Ethernet port. Both models have a Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard in the box, but the pricier model comes with a Magic Keyboard that also includes Touch ID.
