May 7 Apple Event, ?? iPad Air, ?? iPad Pro and more...
Damien Schreurs
Helping Mac-using solopreneurs save time and money by running their business more efficiently
Hello fellow Apple enthusiast, entrepreneur, business owner or professional using your Mac, iPhone or iPad to make a living!
Hope you and your family are in good health and not too impacted by the global events going on right now.
This is your monthly dose of Apple-related news, curated and summarised just for you ??
Here are the points covered today:
Before jumping into this news, here's a fun fact:
On June 5, 1977, the first Apple II computer was put up for sale. The Apple II was really special because it had a keyboard built right in, and a monitor that could show color graphics. You could also add more memory to it. It even had a sound card and eight slots where you could add more stuff. A few years later, the Apple II and a program called VisiCalc became really popular with businesses. This surprised other technology companies, and it made IBM hurry up and make their own PC.
May 7 iPad Event
On May 7, Apple released a pre-recorded video to introduce the next generation of iPad Airs & iPad Pros as well as a brand new Apple Pencil Pro and updated Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro.
In addition, Apple has unveiled updated versions of Final Cut Pro and Logic Pro for iPad & Mac, introducing several exciting features.
Final Cut Pro (for both iPad and Mac) now supports Live Multicam, allowing users to connect and preview up to four cameras simultaneously.
Additionally, the new Final Cut Camera app enhances video capture on both iPhone and iPad.
The iPad version of Final Cut Pro also supports external project editing via Thunderbolt.
Logic Pro 2 for iPad and Logic Pro 11 for Mac introduce AI-powered features such as Session Players for enhanced instrument capabilities, Stem Splitter to isolate audio parts, and ChromaGlow for adding warmth to tracks.
Following these announcements, Apple has removed the iPad 9 from the lineup and dropped the price of the following devices:
?? iPad Air with M2
By reusing the internals of the previous generation iPad Pro, while keeping the screen technology and camera from the previous generation iPad Air, Apple is now able to offer the iPad Air in two sizes: 11-inch and 13-inch.
Wait a minute, Damien! Didn't you just write that it's the same screen as the previous generation iPad Air?
Yes, they are but Apple's marketing department has decided to round the actual numbers, so about 10.9 and 12.9 inch respectively, so that it's easier to remember ??
There are a few more changes compared to the previous generation.
First, the front-facing camera is now on the longer edge of the device, so that it's centered when positioned in landscape orientation, which is more natural when doing FaceTime and Zoom calls.
Second, it now supports Wi-Fi 6E (vs. wi-Fi 6 before) and the new Apple Pencil Pro, which I'll talk about later.
Third, the base storage is now 128 GB (vs. 64 GB) and the maximum one is 1 TB (vs. 256 GB).
Finally, it only comes in four colours: Space Grey and Starlight, plus a more pastel version of purple and blue, which means the pink one is gone.
Here are the starting prices (128 GB storage):
You'll need to add $149 (+ tax) / 164€ (incl. VAT) to get the cellular model.
And please note that this new iPad Air is incompatible with the 1st and 2nd generation Apple Pencil, so you'll likely need to buy a new one, either the USB-C model or the new Apple Pencil Pro.
?? iPad Pro with M4
The latest iPad Pro is the thinnest Apple product ever, even thinner than the iPad Nano.
On top of that, it's lighter than the latest iPad Air, which questions the relevance of the 'Air' moniker now.
Connectivity-wise, very little changes compared to the previous generation except dropping support for two peripherals:
The three biggest improvements, apart from being slimmer, are:
The base model now starts with 256 GB of storage (vs. 128 GB before) and the maximum capacity is still a whopping 2 TB.
Please note that the nano-textured glass model is only available for iPad Pros with a minimum of 1 TB capacity.
Here are the starting prices (256 GB storage):
You'll need to add $200 (+ tax) / 242€ (incl. VAT) to get the cellular model and $100 (+ tax) / 126€ (incl. VAT) for the nano-textured glass option.
?? Apple Pencil Pro
According to Apple, the new Pencil Pro is a game changer for artists who are embracing digital art.
In addition to providing haptic feedback, it's possible to quickly bring up a palette of tools by squeezing it.
On top of that, it comes with a gyroscope that senses when the Apple Pencil is rotated around its main axis, allowing, for instance, to precisely control the shape of what is drawn, based on the chosen brush or tool.
And it doesn't hurt that this new Apple Pencil Pro can be now be found using Find My.
The other good news is that it's compatible with both the latest M2 iPad Air and the M4 iPad Pro.
Upcoming WWDC'24
领英推荐
On June 10, 2024, Apple will kick off its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) with a keynote introducing the next versions of its operating systems: iOS & iPadOS 18, macOS 15, watchOS 11, tvOS 15 and visionOS 2.
The keynote will most likely consist in live streaming a pre-recorded video, which will take place at 7pm Luxembourg time (10am Pacific, 1 pm Eastern, 6pm in the UK and 3am on the next day in Australia).
All the tech pundits that I follow expect Apple to unveil new generative AI-based capabilities across all its operating systems, which is fuelled by alleged negotiations between Apple and OpenAI.
As I've mentioned in episode 79 of the Macpreneur podcast, we, Apple users, are already experiencing the power of Artificial Intelligence without realizing it.
Predictive text and dictation already leverage AI, as well as the ability to detect text in images in videos.
In the Photos app, the automatic indexing and cataloguing of images based on their content relies on machine learning and AI, which runs locally and privately on our devices.
My biggest hope is for Siri to get a virtual brain transplant and to start, finally, understanding everything I say, especially through Carplay.
When I want to have a quick laugh while driving, I just start talking to Siri, and sooner rather than later, it starts spitting out nonsense or resorts to telling me to search the web.
Thanks, Siri!
Very helpful (not)!
If the rumours about a potential partnership between Apple and OpenAI are true, then I can't wait to beta test iOS 18 and Siri 2.0 on my older iPhone XR (provided that it will be supported, of course).
As usual, it’ll be possible to watch the WWDC Keynote (live and the replay) from various places:
Artificial Intelligence
OpenAI
On May 13, OpenAI unveiled and demoed GTP-4o (where 'o' stands for omni), the successor to GPT-4.
Even though it was possible to have a voice conversation with GPT-4, it was a bit laggy.
GPT-4o solves that, allowing a fluid discussion with it while adding a video component.
This means that with GPT-4o, you can point the camera of your iPhone to something while talking, and GPT-4o is able to recognise objects and text in real time, which is wild.
Not only did OpenAI improve the model's capabilities and speed, GPT-4o also requires much less compute power than GPT-4.
As a consequence, free users of ChatGPT now have access to GPT-4o, albeit for a limited amount of requests every single day.
On top of that, OpenAI is gradually rolling out access to a native Mac version of ChatGPT which requires both macOS 14 and a M1, M2, … processor. So, sadly, it won't be available on Intel-based Macs, like my 27-inch iMac.
At the Google I/O 2024 keynote on May 14, AI was a major focus, with the introduction of LearnLM for personalized learning, SynthID watermarking for text, and Gemini Nano bringing multimodality to Android.
Google is deeply integrating AI into Android with features like “likely scam” alerts, dynamic suggestions, and AI-organized search results.
Further Google Workspace enhancements with AI are coming too: Gmail will soon have a “summarize this email” feature, Q&A, and Contextual Smart Reply.
Google demoed Project Astra, a universal AI agent that is still being developed and is similar to what GPT-4o is capable of doing today.
Part of the Project Astra demo showed a person wearing smart glasses with a camera and built-in speakers, allowing her to have a fully hands-free conversation with Google's future AI agent, which I found pretty cool.
Threatened by OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude and Perplexity AI, Google decided to release to a subset of the US population what they call "AI Overviews".
It's Google's attempt to leverage their Gemini Large Language model to provide an overview summary of search results.
The issue is that sometimes, AI overviews provides incorrect and completely ludicrous information, like adding non-toxic glue to prevent cheese from sliding off a pizza or that elephants have only two feet, or that Barack Obama was the first muslim president of the United States.
International media quickly picked up on this, and as a result, many people wrongly believe that AI will never be able to accurately provide summaries based on search results.
The reality is that it only proves that Google's Gemini model is not up to the task, when it's fed with Google's own search results.
I have developed my own 'Search Summarizer GPT ' on top of ChatGPT and Bing, which managed to give a perfectly accurate answer to all the search queries I've tried and that tripped Google's AI Overviews.
In fact, I've almost stopped using Google Search in favour of my own GPT or DuckDuckGo, which is based on Bing too.
Microsoft
Microsoft’s new Copilot+ PCs bring advanced AI features to make the Windows 11 experience smoother and more intuitive.
With the Windows Copilot assistant, these PCs can help automate tasks, offer real-time assistance, and provide intelligent suggestions.
Additionally, Cocreator allows to combine ink strokes with text prompts to create images quickly, and Live Captions can translate audio into English subtitles in real-time across any app, even offline.
One standout (and somewhat controversial) feature is Recall, which acts like a photographic memory, helping users find what they’re looking for by remembering how they use their computer.
The way it works is by taking screenshots every few seconds then using Image Recognition to index all the text on each of them.
Microsoft assures that everything will be stored and processed locally on the PC and that it will be possible to pause Recall entirely or to exclude certain apps from being captured, like WhatsApp or a electronic password managers.
However, with Microsoft's current security track record, I'd recommend Windows 11 users to wait before activating this feature, provided that it'll be even possible.
And in large enterprises, this could give employers even more control and oversight on how employees use their corporate computers, which makes me shudder when I think about it.
Every Copilot+ PC comes with a dedicated Copilot key on the keyboard, giving instant access to powerful AI tools.
The integrated Windows Copilot provides contextual help and intelligent recommendations based on the user's activity, making everyday tasks simpler and more intuitive.
New features like the Eye Contact Teleprompter and improvements in voice focus and portrait blur ensure users always look and sound their best during video calls.
Finally, Microsoft’s partnership with OpenAI means Windows 11 users on Copilot+ PCs will soon get access to the latest AI models, including GPT-4o, for more natural voice interactions.
Disclaimer:?EasyTECH Sarl?is not affiliated with Apple Inc. Damien is not an Apple employee and he doesn't own Apple stocks. iPhone, iPad, MacBook, iMac and all other Apple product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of Apple Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.