What a week it has been! We now have brand new iPad Pros and iPad Airs, the first ever Apple Pencil Pro, improvements to the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, updates to iOS 17, a first look at new features coming in iOS 18 (specifically, accessibility improvements), and a massive iMessage outage for about an hour right at the end of the workday for many folks yesterday. And while I posted my review of the iPad Pro 13" M4 yesterday, there are lots of additional things to say about the new iPad Pro that I didn't address in my review but which others have addressed in posts across the Internet. So without further ado, here is the news of note from the past week:
- Last night, as I tried to text my wife to let her know when I would be leaving the office, my message wouldn't go through. After a while, some of my messages were delivered as green bubble SMS texts, but others were not. I thought it was just me, but it turns out that there was a worldwide iMessage outage for certain users on Thursday from around 5:40 Eastern to 6:40 Eastern, as reported by Wesley Hilliard of AppleInsider. As I'm typing this, everything seems to be back to normal. Whatever happened, hopefully it is fixed for good now.
- I liked the title of Samuel Axion's review of the iPad Pro M4 for Ars Technica: Well, now you’re just showing off.
- I noted in my review that the new iPad Pro 13" M4 is incredibly thin and light. Does that mean that it is less durable and can bend? Fortunately, that is not a problem. First, in an interview with Arun Maini, John Ternusof of Apple explains that the iPad Pro M4 has a central rib that is used not only for heat dissipation but that also improves stiffness. Second, Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac reports that some folks posted bend tests on YouTube and the conclusion is that "the new iPad Pro holds up well to extreme force and seems pretty resistant to bending during normal use."
- Ryan Christoffel of 9to5Mac reports that the iPad Pro M4 comes with a color-matched USB-C cable. If you get the space black version, like I did, it comes with a black braided USB-C cable that looks nice and which I find is easily distinguishable from the other cables that I carry around.
- Christoffel also says that the new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro is so nice that you might want to splurge on getting the iPad Pro just to use this accessory.
- You can purchase the new iPad Pro from Amazon and save a little bit of money.
- Mike Wuerthele of AppleInsider provides an early review of the new iPad Air M2 and concludes that it "really shines in the 13-inch size."
- Nathan Ingraham of Engadget calls the iPad Air M2 "the iPad to get."
- Harry McCracken of Fast Company interviewed two top Apple executives—Greg Joswiak and John Ternus—to discuss the new iPads. Ternus reiterated that Apple's goal with the iPad is to be "this magical sheet of glass that allows you to interact directly with your content." They also point out that Apple designs new processors, like the new M4, not just to be faster overall but also to enable specific technologies that were not previously possible, such as the tandem OLED display in the iPad Pro M4.
- It is pretty clear that the iPads have amazing hardware right now. But there is still more that power users wish that the software would do. Federico Viticci wrote a good article identifying all of the key items that Apple ought to add to the iPad software, such as background processes and system-wide utilities. We can always hope that some of these items will be announced next month at WWDC as a part of iPad OS 18.
- For the last few years, Apple has taken many of its upcoming accessibility improvements and has announced them on Global Accessibility Awareness Day in May instead of saving them for WWDC in June. Shelly Brisbin, who is an expert on Apple accessibility options, runs down what is coming in this post for Six Colors. For folks with speech that is difficult to understand, one new feature is the ability to record any word or phrase and have it trigger a command (without having to use the "Hey, Siri" before it). A new CarPlay feature will flash an alert when the iPhone hears certain traffic sounds, like emergency vehicles or car horns. And improvements to the Magnifier make it even easier for folks with limited vision to read signs.
- William Gallagher of AppleInsider reports that AT&T plans to bring satellite voice calls and data to all smartphones. Currently, the iPhone offers only emergency use of satellites.
- Apple released iOS 17.5 this week and similar updates for most of its other products. Justin Meyers of Gadget Hacks counted 32 features that are new, but there are not any major ones in here. One new change is the implementation of Cross-Platform Tracking Detection, a joint effort between Apple and Google designed to alert people when a compatible Bluetooth tracker has been moving with the person for a while. The idea is to reduce the risk of stalking. Unfortunately, a dedicated criminal could simply use a tracker that isn't compatible with Find My or this new standard.
- Felipe EspĂłsito of 9to5Mac explains how the new Cross-Platform Tracking Detection works in iOS 17.5.
- Another addition in iOS 17.5 is a new word game in Apple News+ called Quartiles. D. Griffin Jones of Cult of Mac explains how it works.
- And finally, this video showing the Procreate app on a new iPad Pro M4 does a good job of showing off some of the cool new features of the Apple Pencil Pro: