Remember when the first concrete rumors of the new iPad Air started making the rounds earlier this year? One of the standout features in those reports was an under-screen TouchID sensor. The fact that we might first see a new feature like that in a mid-tier device was pretty interesting at the time, but was also reason for skepticism.
So who is the iPad Air for, exactly? The fast answer to this question is pretty much anyone who is interested in using a tablet. After a few days of kicking the tires and comparing the new Air 4 to the iPad Pro, I feel very confident in the opinion that it is the new default Apple tablet. It is the Goldilocks iPad- not too much, not too little. It’s just right.
My time with the iPad Air 4 yesterday was about getting set up and started with it. Today was about leaning into a few specific features to see how they work, as well as how they stack up with the iPad Pro. Specifically, I tested the new TouchID sensor, and did some real-world testing on the processor and the speakers.
I came home from working out of town to a new iPad Air. Unfortunately, after a long couple of days on the road, it didn’t make it out of the box. However, after a good and long night’s sleep, I got the new Air out this morning and got started.
I’m still waiting for the last of the applications from my iPad Pro’s backup to make their over as I start writing, but I’ve spent enough time with the new hardware to form some initial impressions.
What better way to celebrate the arrival of mouse support in iPadOS 13.4 than by getting an Apple mouse? Weird Lightning changing port aside, this is an excellent mouse with touch gesture support that will be a perfect fit with your iPad running iPadOS 13.4. If you want the benefits of mouse support on your iPad before the new Magic Keyboard arrives, this is a good way to get it.
Even though I won’t be able to pre-order an iPhone until next month, I decided to go ahead and get a new MagSafe charger when they went on sale last Friday. I was already on the Apple Store app getting my iPad Air and figured, why wait?
Unfortunately, Apple’s MagSafe-compatible cases for the iPhone 12 Pro Max were not on sale yet, but at least buying early insured that I could try out Apple’s new magnetic charging puck on day one with my new phone when it shows up in a few weeks. The new MagSafe Charger arrived yesterday and it looks predictably unassuming, yet solid.
Before I get into the reason I am bringing this subject up, I want to say that not all of my interactions with Apple Support have been bad. In fact, almost all of them have been quite positive. Any time I have called about a device, I’ve gotten the help I needed. When I recently contacted Apple about Apple Care+ charges from a device that had been returned, they refunded the money even faster than the timeframe they quoted. Even when Apple botched my recent Apple Watch order, the people I talked to in support really tried to help and gave me a free Sport Loop band for the trouble.
Two fall Apple events are behind us and it looks very much like there’s one still left to go. We have two Apple Watches, an iPad, a new iPad Air, four new iPhones, a HomePod Mini and several new MagSafe accessories, but it still looks very much like Apple isn’t done for 2020. So what’s left to go?
Right off the top, I’m going to give a bit of a disclaimer- I am nowhere NEAR the level a profession photographer. I don’t even qualify as a pro-sumer these days. However, I have had an interest in getting the most out of the iPhone for photography since Apple put a really capable camera inside of a smartphone with the iPhone 4S.
This interest lead me to start looking at external lenses that add additional capabilities to the iPhone years ago. At the time, you needed external lenses to do any kind of zoom , macro or wide angle photography. While the rapid advances in smartphone cameras have changed the market for external lenses, there are a few companies still making high-quality models that take an already impressive current iPhone camera to the next level. Sandmarc is one such company making high-end, professional level mobile photography accessories.
We know for certain that preorders for Apple’s new 6.1″ iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro will begin at 5 AM Pacific tomorrow in the United States and 29 other countries. Normally I would be sitting this one out and going about my day when 7 AM Central rolls around, but the rumor mill just keeps me hanging on.
Say what you will about the thrill of the the hunt. Apple leakers have taken almost all of the fun out of the company’s events. It’s gotten to the point that anything we don’t know about ahead of time sticks out like a sore thumb. Add to this the difficulties of shipping new features posed by COVID in 2020 and you have today’s slick and polished, but fairly mundane and predictable Apple iPhone event.
All that said, there were a few new and interesting details that emerged from today’s streamed announcement.