Last week, Apple device users
that were curious as to when the venerable tech juggernaut was going to
introduce some new gadgets, were surprised when they posted such a question to
Siri. The digital assistant marked April 20 as the date of an event called “Spring
Loaded,” which initially was not listed on Apple’s website. It turned out to be
an advance date leak, with Apple confirming that there will be an event set.
There has been discussion as to what the company will showcase, and as this past
Tuesday, April 20, came and went, the reveals are now known.
The Verge has a nice good rundown of what the April 20 Apple Spring
Loaded event unveiled. As expected, despite the original Siri announcement
having a venue named the actual event was pre-recorded, with the Cupertino
Apple campus merely being the backdrop and CEO Tim Cook naturally as host of
the proceedings. And they had quite the spread of new stuff to share, all
across the broad Apple spectrum. There are new gadgets, new hardware, redesigns,
new color variants, new online service features and even a heads-up for a new
season of an Apple TV+ streaming series. Here they are.
Apple brought back to the
spotlight their company-designed M1 ARM64 System-on-a-chip, introduced back in
2020 with that year’s release of MacBook Air, MacBook Pro and Mac mini. It was boasted
by the tech giant to contain the world’s fastest CPU core and the best CPU
performance per watt in any chip yet. As such, they are including it in two
gadgets debuting for Spring Loaded: the latest iPad Pro tablets and new
ultra-thin iMac. The iPad Pro’s 12.9-inch version screen also packs a new
Liquid Retina XDR display with 10,000 mini-LEDs, and it and the 11-inch variant
have 12-megapixel ultra-wide cameras with auto tracking capabilities.
The new iMac is really looking to
see just how thin it can get and still retain impressive computing prowess. Its
screen of 24 inches and 11.3 million pixels boggles the mind with its slimness,
and the 1080p FaceTime camera plus wireless keyboard with Touch ID authentication
makes this iteration a worthy successor to the iMac line, which last saw a new
version of the name back in 2017, and a workstation-class edition at that. Then
there are the new Apple AirTags, tracker units one can stick to any object,
making them findable via Apple’s “Find My” app. Each AirTag is also
customizable by changing the emoji on its face.
Other updates on Spring Loaded
include a new Apple TV remote design, with an aluminum casing and including
both a Click pad and Siri button; then there is a new Purple color for the
iPhone 12; and lastly there is the announcement of season 2 for Apple TV+
comedy streaming series “Ted Lasso” starring Jason Sudeikis, if that is your
things. All in all, it was a nice and meaty product introduction, and a
showcase on how Apples M1 chip is gradually becoming the CPU for all future
Apple gadgets.
Image courtesy of CNet
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