For now, it’s just an iPad. The best iPad ever, I think — maybe even the best iPad you could reasonably ask for. But the story of the iPad — the “magic pane of glass,” as Apple is so fond of calling it — is actually all about software. The iPad’s software has let its hardware down for years. Apple has led us to believe that’s about to change, that this year’s WWDC will be the great turning point for AI and iPads and everything. We’ll see. Until then, the iPad Pro is almost too good for its own good.
The iPad Pro is so much faster than most people need it to be—so loaded with expensive, cutting-edge technology—that it seems like it exists more for Apple to show off what it’s truly capable of than it does for most actual user needs.
As with most things in life, you get what you pay for—but I’m not sure most of us need to pay this much to get what we need. The cheaper iPad Air—or even the even-cheaper regular iPad—will already exceed most people’s purposes.
If the iPad Pro works for you, you won’t be disappointed by this one. I just wish more people could fit in that category.
Apple’s John Ternus describes a “cowling” over the metal logic board cover that dissipates heat and creates a “central rib” that runs through the whole iPad Pro Pro to “tremendously” improves the device’s stiffness. Ternus says the cowling is a new part of the iPad Pro.
In a relatively specific set of circumstances, HDR highlights are blown out on certain blue shades including navy and indigo to a point that they almost appear white on screen. The best way to spot it would be to look at a character wearing a navy blue shirt — the creases appear to shimmer, like a spider’s web placed over the surface; at other times it appears like an inky blob morphing over it:
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Apple has confirmed to iMore that it is aware of the issue and is working on a software fix to address it.
I'm not sure I'd go so far as to call the new Airs the "default" iPad for most buyers—the now-$349 10th-gen iPad still does everything the iPad is best at for less money, and it's still all you really need if you just want a casual gaming, video streaming, and browsing tablet (or a tablet for a kid). But the M2 Air is the iPad that best covers the totality of everything the iPad can do from its awkward perch, stuck halfway between the form and function of the iPhone and the Mac.
My standard buying advice is to buy the best stuff you can afford and then keep it as long as possible. But I’m confident that even a two-year-old 10th-generation iPad is capable enough to do most things really well for a long time. So is the Air, obviously! But the bad news for Apple, and the good news for you, is that every iPad is a great iPad — including the cheapest one.
Apple has released the latest updates for virtually all of its actively supported devices today. Most include a couple handfuls of security updates, some new features for Apple News+ subscribers, and something called Cross-Platform Tracking Protection for Bluetooth devices.
Apple and Google have worked together to create an industry specification — Detecting Unwanted Location Trackers — for Bluetooth tracking devices that makes it possible to alert users across both iOS and Android if such a device is unknowingly being used to track them. This will help mitigate the misuse of devices designed to help keep track of belongings. Today Apple is implementing this capability in iOS 17.5, and Google is now launching this capability on Android 6.0+ devices.
Apple News+ introduced Quartiles, a new original spelling game, and a new Offline Mode that automatically provides recent and personalized News content for subscribers when they’re not connected to Wi-Fi or a cellular network.
While watchOS 10.5 is primarily a bug fix update, it does introduce a new Pride watch face to go along with the Pride band that Apple introduced earlier in May.
Get ready for the next cable-like streaming bundle: Comcast later this month will launch a three-way bundle — with Peacock, Netflix and Apple TV+ — offered at a deep discount, Comcast chief Brian Roberts said.
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The three streaming services, Peacock, Netflix and Apple TV+, will “come at a vastly reduced price to anything available today,” Roberts said, although he didn’t reveal any pricing.
According to MacPaw, Setapp will provide a "carefully selected assortment of apps" across categories like productivity, design, lifestyle, utility, and more.
Lately I’ve seen some people argue on Mastodon and Threads that folks who criticize iPadOS do so because their ultimate goal is to have macOS on iPads, and I wanted to clarify this misunderstanding. While I’m on the record as thinking that a hybrid macOS/iPadOS environment would be terrific (I know, because I use it), that is not the point. The reality is that, regardless of whether macOS runs on iPads or not, iPadOS is the ideal OS for touch interactions. But it still gets many basic computing features wrong, and there is plenty of low-hanging fruit for Apple to pick. We don’t need to talk about macOS to cover these issues.
Lastly, I wanted to provide readers with the necessary context to understand what I mean when I mention the limitations of iPadOS. My iPad setup and workflow have changed enough times over the years that I think some of you may have lost track of the issues I (and others) have been experiencing. This article is a chance to collect them all in one place.
I am pretty sure I will not be buying an iPad Pro anytime soon. Why? Because I don't need it. Just like the Mac Pro, it does seem that the 'Pro' status of iPad has graduated to the level where if you have to ask whether you should buy a Pro, you probably shouldn't.
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Thanks for reading.