“I think we can all agree that it’s about time for an iPad update,” Dan Moren writes for Macworld.
“The most recently updated model, the 9.7-inch iPad Pro, is approaching the year-old mark,” Moren writes. “And far be it for me to argue that every Apple product needs to be updated every year, but the iPad, well, the iPad has struggled a bit over the last few years, and it could use a jumpstart.”
“So, assuming that new iPads are coming down the pipeline—and the consensus seems to be that they’ll arrive sooner rather than later—what can we expect?” Moren writes. “Apple’s slowly been transitioning its iPad line to the Pro moniker, starting with the 12.9-inch iPad Pro released in November of 2015. But it’s still not clear what distinguishes a pro iPad: Apple Pencil compatibility? The Smart Connector? Four speakers?”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Just tell us where to click/tap for that 10.5-inch iPad Pro. If it’s half as good as is rumored, 10.5-inch display in the current 9.7-inch form factor via a new thin-bezel design, we’ll be ordering several units on Day One!
What apple needs to do is include pencil support in their own productivity apps..that fact that MS did this first and apple STILL HAS NOT is kinda strange.
A lot of decisions at Apple have been strange, Very strange in the past few years !
I wonder if the success of the various Apple App Stores has caused Apple execs to think that it is a waste of Apple’s efforts to write software? Of course, that won’t work for OSs and Apple apps whose code Indy devs aren’t able to access!
12.9″ iPad Pro user here. I fired up Keynote and went to scribble on a slide with the Pencil and nothing. Nothing in Pages either.
In fact, the Pencil really only works with Apple Notes, and the latency in that App worse vs a few third party Apps .
So this is not a seamless package. It’s like Apple isn’t even trying.
Microsoft has way better stylus support and it’s even baked into Word.
That’s because Tim Cook has idiots for department heads, aka Eddy Cue
Well every town and tech company needs it’s disheveled Town Drunk. And Eddy always looks like he’s just walked in from tying one on.
Eddie reminds me of a Puffin bird, or those penguins with big eyebrows.
Still say that iPads need a version of iOS that is tailored better for its size and purpose. If Apple wants iPads to supplant laptops, they can’t continue to operate like big iPhones. Need a file system for starters.
Or better still: stop advertising iPads as computers. They don’t replace Macs. Typing this on a touchscreen now and it is horrible. Editing takes twice as long as a real keyboard +mouse.
Putting on a pro label is an insult to people who need comprehensive computing capabilities. Apple needs to make its iPads all more user friendly for business and education use, yes, but its Macs across the board are overdue for Pro level love. Apple can only do one thing at a time and it is the Mac’s turn now.
Why do they need a file system?
A 10.5 inch iPad seems completely ridiculous
Only .7 inches larger diagonal and everybody is going nuts about it. Really ???
Apple is loosing its grip, loosing the innovative culture and becoming a standard large American corporation.
I rest 10 times more about how apple stand on this s legislature and this executive order and these right and those rights than we read about it new products, innovative and groundbreaking tech being launched.
Sad, but apple has lost to corporate America culture.
Time to go back to linux and standard of hardware again. Sad 🙁
Apple could improve the iPad lineup by axing the lowly entry level models and taking the Pro name off all of them. Look at what a fragmented mess Apple sells now: mini 2, mini 4, air 2, 9.7″ Pro, and 12.9″ Pro. Does this make any sense at all? What doe Air even mean? What pro user actually can use any Pro model for all his needs?
If Apple hires me as marketing chief, the old models would be for emerging global markets only. First tier markets would have 3 sizes, 2-3 capabilities per size. No iPad would have less than 64 GB. Top end may have 256 or 512 GB so you can store a week’s worth of data on it. All models would have cellular capability. Low end models would have lesser camera and no Pencil. Top spec models in all sizes would have best cameras, Pencil included, more battery, and the larger 2 screen sizes woul have a built in SD card slot for memory expansion and rapid file sharing from pro photographer tools. Apple might not understand this but in the field, cards still rule wireless file transfer is a slow pain in the ass. And in the end, shots all have to go to a Mac in the office for post processing and archival. The iPad is just for field review and basic communications. Finally: I would add 0.5 mm thickness to all models just to spite Ives. Everyone deserves more battery.
I agree that Apple needs a serious upgrade to its productivity apps. It’s done a good job with its pro-level media apps like Logic, but iWork is in great need of a performance boost. I’m close to giving up on Pages, it crashes all the time on my iPad, and in many cases doesn’t even open.
I love my 12″ iPad Pro in terms of hardware, but Apple needs to step back and do a major overhaul on iOS support of this pro-level hardware. It also needs to continue developing iCloud, which is still really clunky and barely usable.