On the night of Tuesday 20 April, Apple carried out an hour-long presentation, called ‘Spring Loaded’. During this presentation it made important announcements regarding some of its most emblematic and successful products, marking the trajectory this range of products will follow in coming years.
New design and capabilities for the Apple Podcasts app
As usual, the presentation was kicked off by Apple CEO Tim Cook, who laid the groundwork for everything presented, getting the crowd going with the announcement that the Podcasts app will be upgraded, providing a new, more functional, and more user friendly interface, through which you will easily be able to follow your favourite shows or discover new ones among the millions of podcasts available right now.
Besides redesigning it, there is an important change coming with to the Apple Podcasts app, as the company is starting subscriptions. During the event, Apple announced that users will be able to subscribe to content from the application for additional privileges, such as ad-free content and bonuses, as well as early access to certain shows. Subscriptions to Apple Podcasts will become available in 170 regions and countries next month.
New colour for the iPhone 12 and the AirTag revealed
Tim Cook had one more quick announcement before giving the floor to Carolyn Wolfman-Estrada; it was all about the new colour the iPhone 12 will be available in, Purple. The iPhone 12 model with the specific colour will be available from 30 April.
Then, Carolyn Wolfman-Estrada revealed what most people were certain was going to be revealed at the Spring Loaded event. AirTags, the Apple device locators are now a reality. These small round devices called AirTags allow you to monitor objects on the FindMy app, which is available on iOS devices. The AirTags will allow you to monitor and find objects such as keys or wallets, sending you a notification when you move away from them.
The AirTags will include a built-in speaker, an accelerometer, Bluetooth LE, and a replacable battery. Apple states that the AirTags will have a battery life of about a year.
The AirTags will appear on Apple’s FindMy app and the app will play a sound on the tracker when you are trying to locate the object. The AirTags are equipped with Apple’s U1 chip, which uses Ultra Wideband technology, audio and haptic feedback to guide you to the location of the object you are searching for.
Carolyn Wolfman-Estrada stressed the focus on privacy, stating that the AirTags do not store data or a location history on the device, while encryption is used for communication between the AirTags and the FindMy network.
The AirTags will be available from 30 April and will be sold individually or in a pack of four AirTags.
Apple TV 4K
Apple’s presentation returned to Tim Cook, who spoke of the evolution of the Apple TV+ service and Apple’s intention of investing further in the film and series subscription service. After the trailer for the new season of the successful show ‘Ted Lasso’, which will premiere on 23 July, the camera turned to Cindy Lin, who announced a new model of Apple TV 4K, replacing the 2017 version of Apple TV 4K. The new model has a more powerful A12 Bionic chip that allows it to play back Dolby Vision at 60fps via AirPlay from a compatible iPhone.
The Siri remote control of the AppleTV 4K has been completely redesigned, with an improved, more ergonomic design, and more capabilities. The new remote control has a circular touch system, the Siri search button has been moved to the side of the remote, while TV power and mute buttons have been added.
What was most impressive, however, was the capability to calibrate your television using an iPhone. This allows Apple TV 4K to optimise colours on your television screen, using the light sensor available on the iPhone. Lastly, Apple announced that it is working with several providers for the production of high-frame-rate HDR content for the new Apple TV 4K, including Fox Sports, NBC Universal, Paramount Plus, Red Bull TV, and Canal Plus.
The new Apple TV will be available in two versions, with 32GB or 64GB of storage. Both versions will be available from 30 April.
New, completely redesigned iMac with the power of the Apple Silicon processor.
Jon Ternus, SVP Hardware Engineering at Apple, took over the presentation of the new iMac, which is now following in the path of Apple’s other models and using an Apple Silicon chip, which will provide incredible power and speed in the use of any programme or game.
The new iMac comes with a 24-inch monitor and 4.5K resolution, with the thinnest frame on all sides. John Ternus mentioned that the new iMac is 11.5mm thick, with a 50% reduction in volume, while it provides lower system noise and temperature levels thanks to the system-in-a-chip M1 processor. Thus, using this technology, the new model has two small fans that replace the bulky thermal system of the previous generation iMac.
Following the general “clean” and tidy style that has characterised iMac computers for years, the new model has a new, magnetic power supply cable that is two metres long and connects to the back of the computer, while on the cable’s power supply there is an Ethernet cable for internet connections. This way, only one cable will need to be connected to the computer.
The new iMac basic model will come with two USB-C/ Thunderbolt ports, while the larger model will have two additional USB-C port. Lastly, on the side of the iMac there is a 3.5mm mini jack port. And since we are talking about sound, the new iMac has new speakers (six in total) specially designed not to transmit vibrations and to produce very clear sound. The basic model comes with 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD, but it can be upgraded to 16 GB of RAM and 2TB of storage. Lastly, as regards the colour options, there is a total of seven.
Alongside the new iMac, Apple presented three different keyboards, a mouse, and a trackpad, in various colours that match the computer. The first Magic keyboard contains Emoji, Spotlight, Dictation, and Do not Disturb keys, while the second Magic keyboard presented has a Touch ID button to connect to the iMac using special security protocols that will allow for secure financial transactions or user changes. Lastly, one more Magic keyboard was presented with a Touch ID button and a numeric keypad.
The new iMac will become available in the second half of May.
iPad Pro with M1 processor technology
Apple’s last announcement during the Spring Loaded presentation came from Raja Bose, iPad Product Marketing at Apple, and had to do with the new iPad Pro. The device presented had an 8-core M1 processor and it is essentially the same chip used on MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini computers. Apple claims that this processor changes the standard, bringing high performance graphics with the use of the next-generation 16-core Apple Neural engine and the previous image signal processor.
The new iPad Pro now supports Thunerbolt 3 and USB 4 ports, providing speeds of up to 40Gbps, as well as 5G connections for models that take mobile network cards, with speeds of up to 3.5 Gbps. As the M1 Processors from the company’s computers came to the iPad Pro, so did the iPhone cameras. The iPad Pro includes a wide angle 12MP camera with a 120o field of view, which automatically moves in order to follow you during video calls, via a function called Center Stage. As regards the cameras of the iPad Pro, Apple stated that with the Pro cameras the SP and LiDAR scanner will be able to record incredible details in low-light conditions.
The iPad Pro will support the Apple Pencil and the Folio Smart Keyboard, as well as the Magic Keyboard, which is now available in white. Lastly, it will also support PS5 (DualSense) and Xbox gaming controllers.
The iPad Pro will be available in two sizes. The first will have an 11-inch monitor and a resolution of 2388×1688, while the second will be equipped with a 12.9-inch Liquid Retina XDR monitor with 10,000 Mini Leds and a resolution of 2732×2048, a brightness of 1000 nits, and a contrast ratio of 1,000,000:1. They will weigh 1.03 and 1.5 kilos correspondingly, while their storage capacity will be up to 2 TB. They come with a one-metre USB-C charger cable and a 20W USB-C power supply.
Both models will become available in the second half of May.