I am a season ticket holder at the Saenger Theatre in New Orleans for the Broadway shows that go on tour, and every season there are some shows that surprise me. Last weekend, I saw Mrs. Doubtfire, a show for which I had very low expectations because I didn’t think that movie would translate well to a musical. To my surprise, the show was quite good, and I’m so glad I saw it. One show that I can definitely see translating well to the stage is Schmigadoon!, a fun show on Apple TV+ that had a great first season and a pretty good second season but was unfortunately canceled after that. The TV show felt very much like a Broadway musical, so I wasn’t surprised when I saw the report from Greg Evans of Deadline that the musical comedy TV series is going to become a stage production in Washington, D.C. That has the potential to be a very good show. And now, the news of note from the past week:
The name “iPhone” has now become such a part of our vocabulary that we don’t think about it very much, but in early 2009, when the iPhone was still relatively new, I wrote a post called Why the “i” in iPhone? which explained that the “i” originally came from the iMac. But why the “i” in iMac? Carlton Reid of Wired asked that question to Ken Segall, the guy who convinced Steve Jobs to call the iMac the iMac, and it resulted in this great article.
When Apple released iOS 17.5 last week, it apparently had a bug that would resurface deleted photos for some people, as noted by John Gruber of Daring Fireball, but fortunately, iOS 17.5.1 came out to fix it.
Chance Miller of 9to5Mac provides additional details on this bug released by Apple. For folks who saw the bug, some of the resurfaced photos may have been deleted as long ago as 2010, but they got caught in a corrupt database that was passed from one device to another when restoring from a backup or performing a device-to-device transfer over the years. I don’t think that this bug affected me, but I’ve got over 65,000 photos on my iPhone/iPad so if there are a few deleted ones that came back to life last week, it might be a while before I discover them.
Joy of Tech has a cute cartoon based on the iOS 17.5 bug.
Wesley Hillard of AppleInsider reviews the new iPad Pro and calls it Luxury technology in an impossibly-thin package. He also does a great job of showing off the differences between the regular display and the Nano Texture display.
What do you do with an old iPad after you upgrade? When I purchased my iPad Pro 13" M4, I sold my prior iPad Pro back to Apple and got about $500 for it, which made a big difference on the purchase price of the new iPad. But Andrew Orr of AppleInsider reports that most iPad owners hold on to their old iPads and find a new use for them. This makes sense because even an old iPad can still do a whole lot. My kids have certainly had hand-me-down iPads over the years. My daughter still uses my old first-generation iPad Pro from 2015 for simple uses like YouTube and TikTok, and it works fine for her needs.
Charles Martin of AppleInsider shares the tale of Sigmund Judge, who bought two new Magic Keyboards for iPad and then replaced the keys on one with the keys on the other. The result is a keyboard that looks pretty darn good and matches the aesthetic of the Apple Siri Remote for the Apple TV.
As noted by Juli Clover of MacRumors, Apple debuted the second episode of its Adventure series on the Apple Vision Pro. The first episode, showing Faith Dickey walking across a tightrope thousands of feet in the air, is one of the most amazing things to watch on a Vision Pro. The second episode is called Parkour, and it takes place in Paris.
Wesley Hilliard of AppleInsider notes that Apple also updated the sizzle reel video on the Apple Vision Pro, and it includes lots of sports (soccer, football, basketball, golf), which is particularly nice to watch in an immersive environment.
I watched both of those new immersive videos on my Apple Vision Pro shortly before typing this paragraph, and my heart is still pumping fast. Apple’s immersive videos apparently take a long time to create, but the end result is so incredible and lifelike. I know of no other entertainment experience that is as engaging as this. It makes my head spin to think of what it might be like five or so years in the future when there is much more immersive content. In the meantime, if you don’t have an Apple Vision Pro, I encourage you to go to an Apple Store so that you can (hopefully) see the new sizzle reel for immersive video. I wish I could have you all over to my house to watch it. It’s great.
The Wirecutter shares 15 iPhone tips, and there are some pretty good ones on the list.
William Gallagher of AppleInsider notes that the Shazam app has added support for Live Activities. Thus, if you launch the app and then switch to a different app or the home screen, Shazam will continue running in the background—for a short time at least—and then notify you in the Dynamic Island when it recognizes the song. This is interesting, but I find that Shazam is usually so fast at recognizing songs that I don’t mind waiting.
This headline from The Verge doesn’t really mean very much today, but I would have thought that it was major news if you had told it to me in the 1980s: Atari acquires longtime rival Intellivision.
And finally, back on September 29, 2023, I posted a trailer for the movie Argylle, which came to theaters in February and then to Apple TV+ on April 12, 2024. After my initial enthusiasm for the movie, I then saw some horrible reviews such as the one that John Gruber of Daring Fireball posted on Letterboxd where he called the movie “[o]ne of the worst movies I’ve ever finished watching.” But then I saw some more positive reviews, and my wife and I decided to watch it on Apple TV+. I’m glad that we gave it a chance. Nothing remarkable, but it was a cute premise and fun to watch. If you have been scared away by the bad reviews, I recommend that you check it out anyway. Gruber says: “If you insist, and give it 10 minutes, believe me, it doesn’t get better.” I agree with the idea of giving it 10 minutes to see what you think, but for me, the first 10 minutes made me want even more. So here is the trailer for Argylle again. Or better yet, skip the trailer (which actually contains too many spoilers in my opinion) and just see what you think of the movie after 10 minutes.
Apple introduced the first iPad in 2010. In 2011, when Apple introduced the iPad 2, it also introduced the Smart Cover, a way to protect the iPad’s screen without adding much thickness or weight. The Smart Cover attached to the edge of the iPad using magnets. When covering the screen, it automatically put the iPad to sleep. When open, you could fold it into a triangle to prop up the iPad either slightly for typing or more for watching videos. It was a great Apple accessory. Apple produced Smart Covers for many different iPad models for many years, and still sells a Smart Cover for older iPad models, but none of the new iPads support a Smart Cover.
In 2018, Apple introduced the iPad Pro 12.9" (third generation), which replaced the curved and tapered edge of the prior iPad Pro with a flat edge. I’m not sure if the new edge would no longer work with a Smart Cover or if Apple simply opted for a change, but starting with that model, Apple replaced the Smart Cover with the Smart Folio. Like the Smart Cover, the Smart Folio covered the front of the iPad. But the Smart Folio also covered the back, and magnets on the back of the iPad hold the Smart Folio in place. When first introduced, I considered the Smart Folio inferior to the Smart Cover it replaced; I didn’t see any need to protect the back of my iPad, and covering the back added to the overall thickness and weight. Nevertheless, I grew accustomed to the Smart Folio over time, even if I never loved it quite as much as the original Smart Cover.
This year, with the new iPad Pro M4, Apple is changing this product once again. Apple did not consider the change significant enough to change the product name, so it is still called the Smart Folio. However, the new version folds up in to a triangle that is a different shape. And while the triangle on the original Smart Folio attached to the iPad in only one way, the new triangle attaches in two primary positions plus an infinite number of positions between those two primary positions.
The reason for the new triangle shape is that the panel closest to the open edge is now much thinner. In the following picture, the Smart Folio for the iPad Pro 12.9" 5th generation (introduced in 2021) is on the left and the new Smart Folio for the iPad Pro 13" (M3) is on the right:
When folded into a triangle, the prior Smart Folio only attached magnetically to the back of the iPad one way: with the triangle tucked near the bottom. The new Smart Foil works in this position too, but in this position with the iPad propped up, the iPad is in almost a 90º position. In the following picture, the prior Smart Folio is on the left and the new Smart Folio is on the right:
The new triangle shape also means that when your iPad screen is facing straight up (the position that many people use to draw on the screen using an Apple Pencil), the angle is smaller than ever before, resulting in an iPad that is at only a slight angle, closer to flat on a table.
Both of these new positions are interesting. When I am sitting at a table, having the iPad screen almost fully perpendicular makes the screen harder to see than if it is tilted back a little more, but I can imagine that there are other situations in which that almost 90º tilt makes the iPad even easier to see, perhaps if you are lying down and watching a movie.
With the iPad facing up as I draw on it with an Apple Pencil, I have quickly gotten used to the new angle and I may even prefer it. Others seem to disagree. For example, Jason Snell noted on Six Colors that “the iPad now sits much lower and flatter in this configuration. This change will probably make more people happy than sad, but I’m in the sad camp on this one.”
This new Smart Folio’s triangle also supports a second primary position. Instead of tucking the end of the Smart Folio near the bottom of the back of the iPad so that the triangle is snug with the bottom of the iPad, you connect it using magnets a little further up.
This is a nice position for the iPad when the screen is upright, and it is fairly similar to the position of the former Smart Folio with just a little more back tilt. In the following picture, the prior Smart Folio is on the left and the new Smart Folio is on the right:
If you are just looking at the iPad in this new position, it works great. Right now, for example, I am typing on a Bluetooth keyboard while I look at my iPad in this position, and it is a nice, comfortable position.
The problem comes when I go to touch the screen. In this position, if I touch or tap anything that is in the middle to the top of the screen, such as buttons in a toolbar at the top of the screen, the iPad rocks back and forth. The triangle held magnetically in this position simply isn’t very steady. And the rocking is annoying.
Even worse, if the triangle attached in this position isn’t on a flat table and instead is on something more uneven like my lap or in my hands, the triangle can come undone, causing the iPad to fall back. I’ve had multiple times where I thought that I was going to drop the iPad completely and have it fall on the ground, although fortunately, I have been able to grab the iPad before that happened.
Between the two positions—one where the triangle is snug and secure at the bottom of the iPad and the other where the triangle is attached somewhat securely by magnets on the back of the iPad—there are additional positions between the two extremes. I suppose there are infinite additional positions. There are apparently two rails of magnets on the back of the iPad so that you can slide the triangle up or down between the two extremes to adjust the angle to fit your preference. If you want, you can even make the new Smart Folio have the exact same angle as the prior Smart Folio:
This is the big selling point of the new design. It is a Smart Folio that can be adjusted to countless different angles. And if you are just looking at the screen, I suppose this is a nice advantage.
These in-between positions are also good because the iPad is more steady in these positions than the extreme position where the iPad is leaning back the most. In these in-between positions, the iPad doesn’t easily rock back-and-forth. You can touch and tap buttons near the top of the iPad’s screen and the iPad stays somewhat steady.
However, when the Smart Folio is in these in-between positions and you pick up the iPad (perhaps because you want to lean back in a chair with the iPad) even a slight touch on the Smart Folio triangle connected using one of these in-between positions can cause the triangle to unfold. And if you are not careful, this could cause the iPad to slip out of your hands.
So if the triangle is snugly behind the iPad, the 90º position isn’t a good viewing angle. The position at the other extreme looks good, but if I touch the iPad, it rocks back-and-forth. At an in-between position, the screen looks good, but if I pick up the iPad, the triangle easily comes apart. Every position has compromises, and all of these compromises can make it seem that the new Smart Folio is more frustrating than the model that it replaces. Yes, I get many more viewing angles, but none of them really add very much for me. I was perfectly happy with the single triangle position on the former Smart Folio. Most of the time, I just keep my Smart Folio in an in-between position that is almost exactly the same angle as the former Smart Folio. But unlike the former product, I need to worry about the triangle falling apart and the iPad potentially slipping out of my hand every time I pick up the iPad. Thus, the advantage of additional viewing angles is minor, and it comes with a downside.
To be fair, I should note that my frustration with the new Smart Folio has lessened over time. The new Smart Folio doesn’t annoy me right now as much as it did when I first started using it last week. I suppose that I’m getting used to treating the product with kid gloves to avoid having the folded triangle collapse. Maybe in a few weeks or a few months, I’ll learn to work around the problems. But I’m not there yet. When I asked Jason Snell about this issue on Mastodon, he responded: “I find it usable but not ideal, my problem is more with the laying-down orientation, which is much worse now.”
The new Apple Folio comes in three colors: black, white, and denim. The denim color is a bit of a misnomer; as you can see if you look at it, it is more of a slate blue. I have the black model, which looks good on the Space Black iPad Pro 13" M4.
Conclusion
Having spent the money to purchase this $100 product, I’m not yet ready to give up on it completely. Perhaps it will grow on me over time. But if you have been using a Smart Folio, or even a Smart Cover, for a long time, be warned that this product is different. If you like the idea of multiple viewing angles, you may be a fan of the changes. If you mainly use the triangle of a Smart Folio to put your iPad almost flat on a table with a slight angle so that you can write on it using an Apple Pencil, this new version works fine, and you may even consider the new angle to be an improvement. But if your main priority is to have your iPad in a safe and stable position while it is propped up and leaning at a slight angle, then be warned that you may consider this new design to be one step forward but two steps backwards.
The new iPad Pro M4 is now available for purchase, and I’m now using one every day. Thus, Brett and I begin this week’s episode of the In the News podcast by discussing all of the new features of the iPad Pro and the Apple Pencil Pro. We also discuss some of my initial concerns about the new Apple Smart Folio case. Then we discuss the new iPad Air, upcoming accessibility features, the new iOS 17.5, and more.
In our In the Know segment, I recommend a new word puzzle game from Apple available in the News+ app called Quartiles.
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 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.
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.
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:
Almost nine years ago, Apple introduced the first iPad Pro. It had three features that earned it the “Pro” name. First, it was the first large iPad, featuring a 12.9" screen that made it so much easier to work with documents without squinting. Second, it was faster than the regular iPad. And third, it added support for best-in-breed accessories: Apple’s new Pencil and the Smart Keyboard. With the second-generation iPad Pro introduced in 2017, Apple added another new feature that has, since then, been a part of what makes the iPad Pro a Pro: a better screen. And of course, the iPad Pro has always had those nice-to-have but not essential additional features that improve the experience of using an iPad. For example, Face ID has only ever been used in the iPad Pro, not other iPad models.
Recognizing that many people want a larger screen but don’t need the other features of an iPad Pro, this year, Apple added a 13" option to the mid-range iPad Air. That is a fantastic addition to the iPad Air that cements that model as the go-to device for just about any attorney or other professional who wants to get real work done with an iPad. The iPad Air features tons of features and design improvements that were first introduced with the iPad Pro, so it has Pro features without the Pro price.
Now that you can get a large iPad in a mid-range product, size is no longer a reason to need to pay more for an iPad Pro. But the other things that put the “Pro” in Pad Pro remain. The iPad Pro continues to have the nicest screen, the fastest processor, the best support for accessories, and the most nice-to-have but not essential features that make the experience of using an iPad more pleasant.
What this means is that the sales pitch for the iPad Pro is more simple than ever: this is the premium product. A regular iPad is great for simple needs and is inexpensive. An iPad Air is best for most folks because it has a perfect balance of features and price. But if you are someone who uses an iPad extensively, you may think that it is worth it to spend a few hundred dollars extra to get the nicest possible product. It’s like paying more for a nice car if you drive extensively, paying more for airline lounge access if you fly extensively, paying more for better seats at a concert, sporting event, or stage performance if you are a big fan or otherwise want the best possible experience at the live event. We have all splurged on something at some point, and it can be fun when you do so.
Now that it is clear that the iPad Pro is the premium iPad for those folks who don’t mind paying more to get more, Apple has done a great job of improving the features that truly let an iPad shine. The new iPad Pro has the best screen that Apple has ever used on any device, and that is a great feature to improve because the iPad is all about the screen; you look at it, you interact with it, and you hold it in your hand. The new iPad Pro is also thinner and lighter than any other product that Apple has ever made (even the iPod nano, which is rather astonishing) because it is nicer to have an object that you hold in your hands weigh even less. The new iPad Pro is the first product to use Apple’s new M4, the best processor that Apple has ever made. The new iPad Pro also works with the Apple Pencil Pro and the newest Magic Keyboard, both of which are best-in-class accessories. And the new iPad Pro has other nice advantages. Different improvements will appeal to different iPad Pro users, but put them all together and this is unquestionably one of the nicest products that Apple has ever made in any product category. For those who will appreciate having a nicer iPad, the 2024 version of the iPad Pro is simply amazing.
Thin and light
If you are like me and you previously used a 12.9" iPad Pro, the first thing that you will notice is how much lighter this new iPad Pro is. I know from the official statistics that the iPad Pro 13" weighs almost a quarter pound less than the previous iPad Pro 12.9", but what I didn’t know until I had one in my hands is how much of a difference this makes in actual life. Now, I can say: yes, this difference is noticeable. It is immediately noticeable. And you don’t even have to use the new iPad Pro 13" for very long before you find that when you pick up your prior iPad Pro 12.9" it suddenly feels dramatically heavier.
Thus, when using this new iPad Pro, it isn’t as heavy in your hand. That’s a nice change.
Also, when you are walking around and holding the iPad Pro in your hand—either by itself or covered by the new Apple Smart Folio—the device feels significantly lighter. It’s like the change from walking while carrying two books to carrying just one book. While walking with this new iPad Pro, I would frequently look down at my hand in amazement at how much lighter it is.
To be clear, in the almost nine years that I have been using a 12.9" iPad Pro, I would occasionally envy the relative lightness of a “normal” sized iPad, but I was really fine with the weight. Nevertheless, reducing the weight and size is an appreciated feature of a premium iPad.
Improved screen
If you have a high-quality OLED television in your house that supports 4K and HDR, then you already know how incredible video can look on it. The screen on the iPhone 15 Pro is really nice too, but because it is so small, that greatly reduces the “wow” factor.
The screen on the new iPad Pro 13" M4 is astounding and, in my opinion, better than both of those. It is better than even a nice larger TV because when I am holding my iPad in my hand, the distance from my eyes to the iPad is much shorter than the distance from my eyes to my TV when I’m sitting on the couch. Thus, the iPad seems to take up more of my frame of view.
The 1,000 nits of normal brightness plus 1,600 nits of peak brightness of the new iPad Pro mean that when you have an HDR picture (like one taken by an iPhone) with bright lights or a bright sun, those areas that ought to be bright are incredibly bright. But other colors and details also look amazing, and the dynamic range between colors and levels of brightness is simply jaw-dropping.
When I look at a high-quality picture on my iPad Pro 12.9" (fifth generation) that I bought three years ago, the picture looks quite good. But then when I look at the same picture on my new iPad Pro, the picture looks much more lifelike. The Apple Vision Pro gives me a similar feeling, but that feeling comes not just from the displays but also from spatial videos that put video all around me. With this new iPad Pro, I’m getting a similar feeling even though I can clearly see the bezels of the iPad. I’m surprised at how much the pictures look like real life even though I can see the frame around the edges of the iPad Pro.
The same is true for videos, and indeed, for videos, the effect is even more dramatic. I notice this in my own home videos taken with an iPhone 15 Pro Max. Additionally, if you go to YouTube and watch one of the many videos shot in 4K HDR—such as this one I randomly came across called The Craziest Dolby Vision – 4K HDR Video ULTRA HD 120 FPS, it looks pretty good on my fifth generation iPad Pro, but it looks completely lifelike on my new iPad Pro. I feel like I should be able to reach through the screen and touch the feathers of a colorful bird.
When I’m doing other things on the iPad Pro, such as reading email, taking notes, or checking off items on my to-do list, the nicer screen doesn’t make a difference. So the nicer screen isn’t something that I notice all of the time. But for high-quality photos and videos, the brightness, vividness, color range, and overall picture quality is astounding.
M4 Processor
It is nice knowing that the processor in this new iPad is faster and more powerful than the processor in any other device that Apple currently sells. It is also nice knowing that this new iPad has the power to handle sophisticated tasks—including, perhaps, some of the AI-on-device that many of us expect to see Apple announce next month at its WWDC conference.
So far, I have mostly used the iPad to do mundane tasks. For those tasks, the new iPad seems very snappy, but not in a dramatic way. There has been one exception. I frequently use an app called LogMeIn to use my iPad to connect to my work computer, essentially turning my iPad Pro into the PC located in my office. I was delighted to learn that everything in that app was noticeably faster on the new iPad Pro, making it seem much more like I was actually sitting in front of my work computer instead of remotely controlling it from miles away. Of course, this is exactly what you want when you use remote access software. It had never even occurred to me that processor speed had been limiting how quickly that app could run.
UPDATE: As another test of speed, I used the powerful TranscriptPad app to sync a video to the transcript of a deposition, a process that uses AI. For a short deposition of around 30 pages / 25 minutes, the process took 1:45 using my fifth generation iPad Pro with an M1 processor, and took only 1:00 using the new iPad Pro with an M4 processor. So with a longer deposition and/or multiple depositions, this speed increase could be really useful. The 1.75x speed increase from the M1 to the M4 that I saw is right in line with the Geekbench speed tests that Jason Snell of Six Colors ran as a part of his review.
Over the upcoming weeks and months, I’m sure I’ll discover other things on my iPad that are noticeably better thanks to the faster processor.
Accessories
I have never used the Magic Keyboard for iPad, although I hear from initial reviews that the improved version that works with the iPad Pro is fantastic, with a feel very similar to a MacBook Air.
I do have the new Apple Pencil Pro, but I haven’t yet used it very much. I especially love the new haptic feedback. When I double-tap the Pencil to switch between the pen and the eraser tool, that feedback instantly tells me that the Pencil registered my tap. And the new squeeze gesture seems to work really well. But as someone who has used an Apple Pencil almost every day for years to annotate documents and take handwritten notes, the Pencil is a very important accessory to me. I want to spend more time using the Pencil Pro and then I’ll write a more comprehensive review. I will say now that it is nice to see that the Goodnotes app is already updated with full support for all of the new features of the Apple Pencil Pro.
I also have the new Apple Smart Folio, and I need to spend more time with this one too. My immediate reaction is that I do not like the different way that it uses magnets to attach to the iPad in multiple different positions because I find it slipping when I put pressure on the iPad Pro. I find myself wishing I could go back to my prior Apple Smart Folio. Again, I want to spend some more time with this before I render an opinion on whether I recommend it.
Other changes
I haven’t yet joined a videoconference or participated in a FaceTime call. However, I did open the FaceTime app and it was immediately apparent that having the camera on the top of the iPad when it is in landscape orientation—the way that I use my iPad 99% of the time—is a vast improvement over having the camera on the left edge.
The new iPad Pro 13" has a few more pixels as compared to the prior iPad Pro 12.9". There are an extra 20 pixels on the long end and an extra 16 pixels on the short end. The first time that I open any app that I previously opened on my older iPad Pro, I notice that there is a little bit of extra space surrounding the window of the app. In other words, it is not quite full-screen. Here is an example:
Once I use the handle at the bottom right corner of the window to make the window even larger, it quickly snaps to the full-size screen. I suppose my iPad is remembering the old screen size and trying to show me the exact same view, and I need to tell it to take advantage of the very slightly larger screen on this model.
I’ve only tried scanning a few documents, but I have noticed that the new Adaptive True Tone flash system reduces instances when a portion of the scan would be darker because the iPad itself cast a shadow. This may cause me to start doing more scans with my iPad Pro instead of my iPhone.
Conclusion
With the nice new improvements to the iPad Air, very few users will have a reason to say that they truly need the iPad Pro versus the iPad Air. But anyone who enjoys using an iPad and does so regularly will have a reason to want a new iPad Pro because it is simply a better overall experience. The core of using an iPad is holding a screen in your hand and interacting with it. Making the iPad thinner and lighter, making the screen better, and giving you new accessories that improve the interaction with the screen are all improvements to the most important parts of the iPad. Add to that the M4 chip for even snappier performance and the other improvements and there is simply a lot to love. I’m sure that many people will decide to save several hundred dollars and go with an iPad Air, and that is a perfectly reasonable choice. It is even the choice that I would recommend to most attorneys. But if you are OK with spending more money for a premium experience, the new iPad Pro is not just the best iPad ever, it is one of the best Apple products ever. The iPad Pro 13" M4 is incredible.
Three years ago this week, Brett Burney and I discussed the iPad during the very first episode of the In the News podcast. As we start the fourth year of the podcast, we have tons of new iPad-related news to discuss in a jam-packed episode. In fact, I already have one of Apple’s new products, so I was able to discuss it in detail during the episode. We also talk about the impressive new features of the iPad Pro, the reason that the iPad Air is better than ever, Apple’s iPad cases that come with or without keyboards, the new Apple Pencil, some of the interesting but more minor announcements from Apple, the controversy surrounding Apple’s new ad for the iPad, and more.
Instead of our traditional In the Know segment, we finish up this week’s episode by each selecting a favorite announcement made by Apple this week.
Did you watch Apple’s “Let Loose” iPad announcement on Tuesday morning (or did you watch the stream after the fact)? If so, you saw that the quality of the video that Apple streamed was amazing. Once again, it was shot using an iPhone, so a video that was ostensibly about the new iPads was indirectly about how impressive an iPhone is for recording video. Filmmaker Stu Maschwitz notes that for a few shots, Apple used Panavision lenses connected to an iPhone to achieve a beautiful shallow depth-of-field that go far beyond what Cinematic Mode can produce when you only use the iPhone’s built-in lenses, but I see nothing wrong with adding an accessory to an iPhone to get a better result. Heck, I had fun using a $10 solar filter with my iPhone 15 Pro when I took pictures of the recent eclipse, and I’ve long been a fan of using the Studio Neat Glif + Hand Grip with my iPhone when I take video. Maschwitz also notes that this was the first Apple event that was streamed in HDR. I watched the video stream on an inexpensive and boring Dell monitor connected to my boring Dell PC in my office at work, so while I enjoyed the content of the video, the video quality that I saw was far from color-corrected HDR. However, I just re-watched a few minutes of the video on my iPhone 15 Pro, which does a beautiful job showing HDR, and many of the shots are incredibly vivid (albeit small) on my iPhone’s screen. Now that Apple has streamed its first event video using HDR, I suspect that Apple will continue to do so going forward. Thus, if you purchase the new iPad Pro 13" (M4), watching future Apple events on that impressive Ultra Retina XDR display featuring a Tandem OLED screen will likely be the best way to experience the full quality of Apple’s video stream. So now you have one more reason to purchase a new iPad. And now, the news of note from the past week:
Chance Miller of 9to5 Mac reports that if you purchase one of the new iPads, one thing that you won’t get in the box is a sticker with the Apple logo on it. I don’t know when Apple began this practice—at least the 1990s and maybe even the 1980s?—but apparently, it is now over. Miller reports that this is part of Apple’s environmental goals as it seeks to make its packaging plastic-free. And that makes sense, but the opposing view from John Gruber of Daring Fireball is: “Boo hiss. The fun of those stickers outweighs their environmental impact.” If you still want a sticker, fear not: you can ask for one at an Apple Store, although supplies are limited. If the Apple Stores run out, and as you can see from this photo I just took, I have what seems like thousands of them in my desk where I have stored them for decades without really doing anything with them.
One omission from the new iPads noted by Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac: support for 5G mmWave, presumably because carrier adoption has been so miserable.
Chris Welch of The Verge bids a fond farewell to Apple’s Smart Keyboard Folio, which Apple is no longer selling for the iPad Pro. It wasn’t the best keyboard because it was so thin, but it weighed far less than the Apple Magic Keyboard so it made it easier to carry around both an iPad and a keyboard.
The Smart Folio without a keyboard is still around, which is good news. I’ve been using either an Apple Smart Cover or an Apple Smart Folio since the very first iPad. It protects the screen and gives you a way to prop up an iPad on a table. However, as Dan Moren of Six Colors reported, the Smart Folio was updated this year to support multiple viewing angles.
Juli Clover of MacRumors discusses all of the new features in the Apple Pencil Pro. When I wrote my initial post earlier this week on Apple’s announcements, I neglected to mention that one of the new features is support for Find My. I edited my original post to add a reference to that feature and to explain that, as someone who previously lost an Apple Pencil in a hotel conference room, I wish that this feature had been available long ago.
William Gallagher of AppleInsider reports that the Apple Pencil Pro will come in five different artistic boxes that show the word “Pro” in different ways. Collect them all!
If you have ever walked through the French Quarter in New Orleans, you may have heard someone trying to hustle you by offering to bet you that they can tell you “where you got them shoes.” (Spoiler alert: their answer will be that you got them on your feet.) But as Gallagher of AppleInsider notes, you may be wondering where Apple CEO Tim Cook got them shoes that he wore during the recent Apple announcement, and it turns out that he was wearing one-of-a-kind Nike sneakers that were made especially for the launch.
The Apple Vision Pro needs to have additional fully immersive content, so it is always nice to learn that more is on the way. Marvel announced that it is releasing a “What If…” story as an immersive story coming exclusively to the Apple Vision Pro.
If I had released last week’s In the News post one day later, the video at the end definitely would have been this fun Star Wars-themed video focused on the precision finding feature called Find Your Friends.
And finally, you might want to watch the following video now because Apple may remove it soon. As a part of Apple’s announcement earlier this week, it showed a video called Crush! in which a large number of musical instruments and other devices are crushed together to produce an iPad. I thought that the video was moderately funny but others disagreed. For example, as reported by Ben Lovejoy of 9to5Mac, actor Hugh Grant interpreted the ad as Apple destroying traditional tools that allowed human creativity and replacing them with silicon. The backlash caused Apple to release an apology to Ad Age, reproduced by Chance Miller for 9to5Mac, and to cancel plans to run the video as a TV commercial. John Gruber said that now that Apple is at the top of our entire society, it needs to be ready for people to go after it and ought to predict this type of critique. The whole debate raises questions about the role of technology in society—questions that are far more interesting than the video itself, which is fine but nothing special. So if the following link doesn’t work because the video was pulled by Apple, I suppose you didn’t miss all that much.
I suppose one could joke that any lawyer looking to upgrade to a new iPad (or get a first iPad) was going to love the new models introduced yesterday no matter what they were just because it has been so long since Apple announced any new iPads (October 18, 2022). But fortunately, it looks like these new iPads were worth the wait. If you are a power user, the 2024 version of the iPad Pro is incredibly impressive for multiple reasons, so I’m going to start with that exciting announcement. The new Apple Pencil Pro, which works with all of the new iPads, also looks wonderful, so I’ll touch on that next. If you don’t need a high-end iPad, the iPad Air is the perfect iPad for most attorneys, especially since you can now get it in either the traditional size or a larger 13-inch size that will be the sweet spot for many. There is also a new Magic Keyboard. So let’s get to it then.
The iPad Pro M4
No longer talkin’ about my generation. Apple introduced the first iPad Pro in 2015. The next five times that Apple updated the iPad Pro, it referred to each model as a different “generation.” For example, I use the 5th generation iPad Pro 12.9-inch that was introduced on April 20, 2021, and the 6th generation was released on October 18, 2022, an upgrade that changed from the M1 to the M2 processor and added the hover function to the Apple Pencil.
The generations are over. Apple now identifies each model based on the processor and the size, such as the iPad Pro 13-inch (M4).
The iPad Pro used to come in an 11-inch and 12.9-inch size, and this year it comes in an 11-inch and 13-inch size. The difference between 12.9-inch and 13-inch seems pretty minor; you get an extra 20 pixels on the long end and an extra 16 pixels on the short end. But “thirteen” is easier to say than “twelve point nine” so even if this were nothing more than a name change to average up to the next inch, I’d be in favor of it. Thus, the two new iPad Pro models are the iPad Pro 13-inch (M4) and the iPad Pro 11-inch (M4).
I like this new naming method. I think it will make it easier to understand the differences between different models.
M4? Seriously? When Mark Gurman of Bloomberg reported recently that Apple was going to skip the M3 and have the iPad Pro leap from the M2 directly to the M4—a chip that Apple had not even announced yet—I was initially dubious. But the more I thought about it, the more sense it started to make. And now that we know that the rumor is true, I’m excited about what this could mean.
Any processor improvement is good because it makes the device faster, more responsive, and able to do more. And of course, that is true here. The M4’s CPU is 50% faster than the M2 in the last version of the iPad Pro—i.e., 1.5x faster. And the M4’s GPU is 4x faster than the one in the last version of the iPad Pro, something especially useful for 3D graphics and other complex processing. For this reason alone, this new device should feel more powerful.
But my gut tells me that there is more to this story. It has been all over the news that Apple is going to make AI a focus of its WWDC conference next month. And the rumor is that Apple will distinguish itself from other companies because Apple’s products will be powerful enough to run much of the AI on the device itself, which is good news for both speed and privacy. My theory is that Apple is going to have some big AI announcements this year and that Apple’s AI software will run best on an M4 processor—or the version of an M4 processor optimized for an iPhone that will start with the letter “A” and will be introduced this Fall in the 2024 version of the iPhone Pro. Before long, I suspect that the M4 (for the iPad and Macs) and what might be called the A18 Pro (for the iPhone Pro) will be considered the main platform for Apple’s AI efforts. And over the next few years, the M4/A18 may become the minimum required to use the newest AI from Apple.
If my gut is right on this theory, then it is fantastic that the M4 is available now for the iPad Pro. By skipping the M3 generation, Apple is future-proofing this device so that it will remain a high-end device for many years to come.
Thin and light. Another surprise was that the new iPad Pro is incredibly thin and light. The 13-inch model is 5.1 mm thick (.20 inch) versus the prior model’s 6.4 mm (.25 inch). The 13-inch weight is 1.28 pounds, compared to the prior 1.5 pounds. The 11-inch model is also thinner and lighter than the model it replaces.
Is this enough to notice? Apple says that it is, nothing that this is the thinnest product that Apple has ever made, even thinner than the iPod nano, if you can remember using that device long ago. And the initial reports confirm it, especially on the 13-inch model. For example, Federico Viticci of MacStories, who was able to try out the new model at an Apple event in London, said: “The first thing I noticed when picking up the new 13" iPad Pro wasn’t the new OLED display (more on this below); it was the thinness and lightness. It’s hard to convey in an article what it felt like, but I’ll try: the 13" model feels impossibly thin and light.” He says that the difference was one that he “felt right away when I picked up the larger iPad Pro” and he added that “I can’t get over how wildly thin and light the new 13" iPad Pro feels.” David Pierce of The Verge agreed, stating that “this new iPad is noticeably thinner and lighter than anything the company has made before.”
It has been almost a decade since I made the move from a “normal” iPad size to the large version of the iPad Pro, and I still remember when I first made the move that the larger iPad Pro was noticeably larger and heavier. I have gotten used to this change over time, but I often spend hours on end holding an iPad Pro as I read and annotate legal briefs, and I have often thought how nice it might be to have an iPad Pro that is thinner and lighter. So I think that having a thinner and lighter iPad Pro is a great change that professional users will greatly appreciate.
Vivid screen. When I take pictures on my iPhone 15 Pro, they often look considerably better on my iPhone versus any other device that I own (except perhaps for my LG 4K television) because the iPhone 15 Pro has 1000 nits, with the ability to go up to 1600 nits max for HDR content. The same pictures and videos look relatively flat on my computer and my iPad. The new iPad Pro looks like it has a screen that is just as good as a high-end iPhone—and considerably better because it is so much larger—thanks to a new display that uses OLED. In fact, it uses two OLED screens, a configuration that Apple calls Tandem OLED, to become what Apple is calling an Ultra Retina XDR display.
As a lawyer, I don’t need legal briefs to look this good. Having a home screen that is even more vivid is unnecessary eye candy. But I suspect that when you take a break from work and look at pictures and videos on the iPad that were taken with a modern iPhone, they will look stunning.
By the way, if you are annoyed with the glare that you see on an iPad screen—either because you are working outside or because lighting is an issue for you in your work environment—Apple will also let you purchase an iPad Pro with a Nano-texture display that has a matte finish and substantially reduces glare. Apple considers this a high-end feature, so it is only available as a $100 and-on for the most expensive models of the iPad Pro (starting at 1 TB).
A camera for video calls. I virtually always use my iPad in landscape orientation, which has traditionally meant that the camera is on the side. As a result, on a video call, it is difficult to appear to be looking at the camera. The new iPad Pro puts the camera on the long edge where it belongs while still having an area where you can charge an Apple Pencil on top. Thank goodness for this long-overdue change for the iPad Pro.
Adaptive True Tone flash. The new flash on the iPad works better when you are scanning documents because it can adapt the flash in different ways to avoid casting a shadow on a document that shows up in the scan. Without seeing this in action, I don’t yet understand how it works.
Cost. The iPad 13-inch M4 starts at $1299 for a model with 256 GB, which is sufficient for many lawyers. You have space to store even more documents and videos if you get the 512 GB model for an extra $200 at $1499. At the high end, $1899 for the 1 TB model and $2299 for the 2 TB model not only get you a ton of storage space but also these models (1) come with double the RAM and a slightly faster version of the M4 and (2) allow you to add the Nano-texture display for an additional $100. But the 512 GB model is likely the right size for many lawyers, even those who use the iPad enough to justifying splurging on the Pro model instead of the Air.
If the 11-inch” model is better for you, the iPad 11-inch M4 starts at only $999 for the 256 GB model, and then the price increases as you add more storage just like the iPad 13-inch M4.
Apple Pencil Pro
All of the new iPads support the Apple Pencil Pro. The Apple Pencil Pro takes everything that was great about the Apple Pencil second generation such as the ability to charge while attached magnetically to the top of the iPad and adds a few new features.
First, you can squeeze the Apple Pencil Pro, and this brings up a palette on the screen just above where the pen tip is located to make it quick and easy to change things like the color, tip size, type of pen, etc. Different apps can make the palette do different things. It looks like a nice and fast way to swap virtual pens.
Second, a gyroscope was added to the Apple Pencil Pro so that you can rotate the barrel of the pencil in your hands to change things like the brush thickness. This sounds cool if you are an artist, but I don’t yet know if it will make a difference if you are simply taking notes or annotating a document.
Third, a new haptic feedback engine provides feedback that you can feel. This makes it easier to confirm that the Apple Pencil Pro sensed a squeeze or a double-tap.
Fourth, you can use the Find My app to locate your Apple Pencil Pro if you misplace it. I remember many years ago leaving an Apple Pencil in a conference room after I gave a presentation to a group of lawyers. When I realized my mistake, the hotel told me that they had no idea where the Pencil ended up and I had to buy a new one. If the Find My feature had existed back then, I wonder if I would have been reunited with my Pencil. Hopefully, I won’t have to test this in the future, but it is nice to know that this feature exists just in case I need it.
With all of these changes, the Apple Pencil Pro adds quite a bit but remains at only $129. I had expected Apple to charge more for an Apple Pencil with “Pro” in its name. You cannot use an original and the second generation Apple Pencil with the 2024 iPad models, but you can use the $79 Apple Pencil (USB-C) that Apple introduced last year.
Magnetic charging is such a nice feature that even if that were the only difference, I would recommend spending the extra $50 for the Pro model of the Apple Pencil. Considering that you also get double-tap, squeeze, barrel rotation, haptic feedback, and Find My, the Apple Pencil Pro is the clear winner in my mind.
The iPad Air (M2)
The iPad Air (4th generation), announced on March 8, 2022, was the perfect device for most lawyers. It copied the key design features of the iPad Pro such as the thin bezels and the USB-C. And it was powerful enough that you could get real work done. Sure, the screen wasn’t quite as nice as the iPad Pro, but it was more than good enough for almost all tasks, and the price was right. For the past two years, whenever a lawyer has sought my advice on what iPad to get, as long as they were interested in the traditional iPad 11-inch screen size, I virtually always recommended the iPad Air (4th generation).
The new iPad Air (M2) is once again going to be the sweet spot for many lawyers. The M2 processor will be more than fast enough to get real work done, and the 11-inch model has all of the advantages of the iPad Air (4th generation) plus some cool new features brought to the iPad Pro such as (1) a camera on the long side that is so much better for videoconferencing, (2) support for the newest Apple Pencil Pro, and (3) the Adaptive True Tone flash.
By going with the 11-inch iPad Air (M2) instead of the same size iPad Pro (M4), you save $400 with a starting price of $599. And if you are not a power user, the features that you give up probably won’t matter to you:
• The nicer and brighter OLED screen: not a big deal because the iPad Air screen also looks great.
• The M4: not a big deal because the M2 is still plenty fast
• Face ID: not a big deal because you can instead use a fingerprint and use Touch ID
• Four speakers / four microphones: not a big deal because the iPad Air still has two speakers and two mics.
• Less storage capacity: not a big deal if you don’t need much space. And you can still pay more to get additional space on an iPad Air. For example, an iPad Air 11-inch M2 with 512 GB costs $899, so you save $300 versus the iPad Pro 11-inch M4 at $1199.
For a large number of attorneys, the extra features of the iPad Pro simply won’t matter, so the iPad Pro (M2) with its lower price will be perfect.
Better yet, you no longer have to pay more for an iPad Pro just because you want the larger 13-inch size. For the first time ever, the iPad Air now comes in a large size: 13-inch, just like the iPad Pro. Bravo!
When you are doing extensive work with documents—for a lawyer, this means reading briefs, highlighting caselaw, viewing exhibits and zooming in to see details, etc.—having a larger screen helps you to be so much more productive. It’s like the difference between working with standard 8.5 x 11 sheets of paper and the smaller paper that one might find on a notepad provided in a hotel room. Sure, you can still work with the smaller paper if you have to, but the larger size is so much nicer and feels right. Indeed, when you turn a 13-inch iPad to portrait orientation and account for the white space on the four sides, a 13-inch iPad is about the same size as a letter-size piece of paper.
In the past, when I have helped lawyers decide what iPad to buy, I have tried to temper my enthusiasm for the large screen because I felt bad talking a lawyer into an iPad Pro 12.9-inch when they didn’t need all of the power features that result in the higher price. That is no longer an issue. For only an extra $200, you can jump from an iPad Air 11-inch (M2) to an iPad Air 13-inch (M2) at $799. My only gripe is that the iPad Air starts at 128 GB, which I think might be a little tight on space. Spending an extra $100 for the $699 11-inch model or the $899 13-inch model is a wise upgrade.
Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro
Apple is continuing to sell the $299 Magic Keyboard and it works with the new iPad Air (M2). But if you buy an iPad Pro (M4), you’ll need a new and different model of the Magic Keyboard called the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro. The cost is the same, $299, and as a bonus, you gain a function row across the top with 14 keys to control things like screen brightness, volume, media playback, and more.
I’ve never owned a Magic Keyboard so I cannot say much about this new model other than I’ve heard people say that a function row would be useful. So now you have it, if you go with the iPad Pro (M4). But it seems that folks who have been Magic Keyboard users in the past like the new design For example, Jason Snell of Six Colors wrote: “It retains the clever cantilever design but takes advantage of the lighter iPad Pro weight to slide it further back, adding room for a larger trackpad (with haptic click!) and a full row of function keys. Oh, to finally adjust my iPad’s volume and brightness without taking my hands off the keyboard.”
Conclusion
Yesterday was a huge day for iPad hardware. The new iPad Pro (M4) adds impressive new features that power users will love. But for most attorneys and other professionals who just want a solid tablet to use to get work done, the iPad Air (M2) is perfect, especially now that you can get a larger 13-inch model. Apple will continue to sell the low-end iPad and the iPad mini, but folks trying to get significant work done are likely to be disappointed with those limited models.
My hope is that at WWDC next month, Apple previews some great new iPad software to go with these impressive new hardware devices. And as noted above, I’m especially interested to see how AI factors into all of this.
Whether you are ready now or will wait until later this year, such as perhaps the holiday season, these new 2024 iPad models are really impressive. Lawyers and other professional users are going to love them.
This morning at 7am Pacific, 8am Mountain, 9am Cental and 10am Eastern, Apple will stream a video announcing new iPads and new iPad accessories. You can click here to watch it on the Apple website. Or you can click here to watch it on YouTube. If you have an Apple TV, you can also watch the live stream using the Apple TV app.
I’ll post my initial thoughts on the announcements on Wednesday morning, and Brett Burney and I will be discussing the announcements in the upcoming Episode 146 of the In the News podcast, which we will record this Friday.
A few days ago, Apple released the results for its 2024 fiscal second quarter (which ran from December 31, 2023, to March 30, 2024) and held a call with analysts to discuss the results. Unlike Apple’s Q1 which contains all of the holiday sales, Apple’s Q2 is usually not a particularly interesting quarter. Two years ago, Apple set a new Q2 record of $97.3 billion. Last year, earnings in this quarter were $94.8 billion. This year, earnings were $90.8 billion. However, if you look at multiple quarters over the last few years—which is easy to do using the graphs prepared by Jason Snell of Six Colors—the big picture is that Apple revenue rose in late 2020 into 2021 as people upgraded equipment during the pandemic, then Apple reached a new higher-than-even plateau in 2022 that has stayed roughly even since then, without dropping back down to the early 2020 and earlier levels. Suffice it to say that Apple’s revenue is just fine. If you want to get all of the nitty-gritty details, you can download the audio from the conference call from iTunes, or you can read a transcript of the call prepared by Jason Snell of Six Colors. Apple’s official press release is here. Here are the items that stood out to me.
iPhone
iPhone revenue for the quarter was just shy of $46 billion, lower than the record $51.3 billion this time last year. Apple explained that the results one year ago were particularly high (about $5 billion higher than normal) because of pent-up demand from the prior quarter (the 2022 holiday season) when there were COVID-related supply disruptions for the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max. Apple says that if you ignore that bump from a year ago, the total company revenue would have grown from 2023 Q2 to 2024 Q2.
Apple CFO Luca Maestri said that the “iPhone active install base grew to a new all-time high in total and in every geographic segment, and during the March quarter, we saw many iPhone models as the top-selling smartphones around the world.”
iPad
iPad revenue for the quarter was $5.6 billion, lower than the $6.7 billion in 2023 Q2, $7.6 billion in 2022 Q2, and $7.8 billion in 2021 Q2. Of course, one might argue that it is amazing that there was significant iPad revenue at all in 2023 since no iPads were announced last year. I’ll be interested in learning what iPad revenue is in 2024 Q3 and Q4 in light of the new iPads being announced tomorrow.
Over half of iPads sales were to people who had not previously owned an iPad.
Other
Cook said that there has been great enthusiasm for the Apple Vision Pro, and he noted that more than half of the Fortune 100 companies have bought units and are “exploring innovative ways to use it to do things that weren’t possible before, and this is just the beginning.” As expected for a brand new device of this nature, there is not one single thing that people are doing, and instead people are kicking the tires on all sorts of ideas. Cook said: “People are using it for many different things in the enterprise, and that varies from field service, to training, to health care related things like preparing a doctor for pre-op surgery or advanced imaging, control centers, and so it’s an enormous number of different verticals, and our focus is on growing that ecosystem and getting more apps and more and more enterprises engaged, and the event that we had recently, I can’t overstate the enthusiasm in the room. It was extraordinary, and so we’re off to a good start, I think, with enterprise.”
Here is some anecdotal data on Apple Vision pro adoption. I work for a large law firm of around 300 attorneys, and to my knowledge, I am the only one in my law firm with an Apple Vision Pro. Also, a week ago, I gave a presentation at a large technology conference sponsored by the Virginia State Bar Association—so that was an audience with a special interest in technology—and of the attorneys in my session, I was the only one who had purchased an Apple Vision Pro. Don’t get me wrong: if anyone asks me, I actually tell them not to buy an Apple Vision Pro because it is still such early days. On the other hand, if they ask me if I enjoy using my Apple Vision Pro, my answer is a very enthusiastic yes, and it is going to be so amazing when this type of advanced technology becomes more common.
Cook acknowledged the fact that Apple will have a product announcement on May 7, saying that “we’re getting ready for an exciting product announcement next week that we think our customers will love,” and he also mentioned the upcoming WWDC conference in June.
Once again, Cook emphasized that AI will play an important role in Apple’s future. “We continue to feel very bullish about our opportunity in generative AI. We are making significant investments, and we’re looking forward to sharing some very exciting things with our customers soon. We believe in the transformative power and promise of AI, and we believe we have advantages that will differentiate us in this new era, including Apple’s unique combination of seamless hardware, software, and services integration, groundbreaking Apple Silicon with our industry-leading neural engines, and our unwavering focus on privacy, which underpins everything we create.”
There is a lot that makes up the services category for Apple. It includes Apple TV+, the App Store, the money that Apple makes from Google to use Google as the default search engine in Safari, and much more. But this is a killer category for Apple. For example, in this past quarter, Apple services revenue was an all-time high of $23.9 billion. Better yet, Cook said that about 75% of that was profit.
Speaking of Apple TV+, Cook announced that the compay would launch a movie called “Wolves” later this year “which reunites George Clooney and Brad Pitt.”
Masestri said that almost two-thirds of Apple Watch sales in the past quarter were to people buying their first Apple Watch. This is consistent with what I am seeing: I’m amazed to see so many people around me in different parts of my life wearing an Apple Watch.
