While you were sleeping, Apple launched a suite of new products and features to revolutionise your productivity, your home, your work, your leisure, essentially your life.
Apple’s highly anticipated Spring Loaded event unveiled new iPhones, new iMacs, iPads, Apple TV, new podcasting features, and a shiny new toy in the Find My ecosystem designed to help you locate lost items.
Below, we’ve rounded up the biggest announcements from the Apple Spring Loaded event, with a short and easy-to-understand guide for each new release.
Apple AirTag
Apple is expanding the Find My ecosystem with AirTag, an elegantly designed iPhone accessory that provides a private and secure way to easily locate the items that matter most. Attach it to handbag, keys, backpack, or pop it in your wallet, and engage it to play a sound if you happen to misplace the item it’s attached to. Available from Friday, April 30 for $45 for one and $149 for a pack of four.
A new iPhone 12 colour
The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini will now be available in a striking new purple colour. “This new colour beautifully accentuates the flat aluminium edges of iPhone 12, which are perfectly colour-matched to the precision-milled back glass,” Apple says in a release.
The Apple iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini in purple will be available for pre-order from Friday, April 23, with availability from Friday, April 30. With three storage sizes: 64GB, 128GB, and 256GB, models start at $1,349.
New iMac design in new colours
So this is why Apple discontinued the iMac Pro. Apple’s all-new iMac features a stunningly compact and remarkably thin design in a spectrum of vibrant colours. In addition, it comes with the breakthrough M1 chip, plus a brilliant 4.5K Retina display, 1080p FaceTime HD camera, studio-quality mics, and a six-speaker sound system. It also had Touch ID for the first time in iMac.
“The new iMac offers powerful performance in a design that’s just 11.5 millimetres thin, with a striking side profile that practically disappears,” Apple says. “iMac features a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display with 11.3 million pixels, 500 nits of brightness, and over a billion colours, delivering a brilliant and vivid viewing experience.”
Available in green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver, the new 24-inch iMac is available to order from Friday, April 30, for arrival in the second half of May. Prices start from $1,829 and climb to $2,199.
Improvements to Apple TV
The next generation of Apple TV 4K delivers high frame rate HDR with Dolby Vision for the best image quality yet. At the core of the device is the A12 Bionic chip that provides a significant boost in graphics performance, video decoding, and audio processing, Apple says.
The Siri Remote has also been redesigned for improved form and function. A new innovative clickpad control offers five-way navigation for better accuracy and is also touch-enabled for fast directional swipes. The outer ring of the clickpad also lets you make intuitive circular gestures that are perfect for skipping scenes during streaming. The remote is also designed to fit more comfortably in the hand.
The new Apple TV 4K will be available to order on Friday, April 30, for $249. Availability begins in the second half of May.
New and improved iPad Pro
Apple’s announcements include the most powerful and advanced iPad Pro ever made. “The addition of the Apple-designed M1 chip delivers a massive leap in performance, making iPad Pro the fastest device of its kind,” Apple says.
The 12.9-inch iPad Pro features a new Liquid Retina XDR display that offers a stunning visual experience. Models with 5G mean faster connectivity and interaction on the go, while a new Ultra Wide front camera enables Centre Stage, a new feature that automatically keeps users perfectly framed for even more engaging video calls.
The new iPad Pro is available to order beginning Friday, April 30, and will be available in the second half of May. Prices start from $1,649 for the Wi-Fi model $1,899 for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model.
Apple Podcasts Subscriptions
Apple Podcasts Subscriptions is a new global marketplace for listeners to discover premium subscriptions offered by their favourite creators alongside millions of free shows on Apple Podcasts.
“Starting in May, listeners in more than 170 countries and regions can sign up for premium subscriptions that include a variety of benefits curated by creators, such as ad-free listening, access to additional content, and early or exclusive access to new series,” Apple says. Podcasters will include NPR, the Los Angeles Times, The Athletic, and Sony Music Entertainment.
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