The new iMac may be my favorite announcement in today’s Apple event, but I do have thoughts on the other hardware that was announced:
Tim Cook
Dude has been hitting the gym. Daaaaaamn.
Purple iPhone 12 and 12 mini
I think it looks great. Apple has done a mid-cycle color change with Product RED phones, but this is a nice change.
AirTags
These things have been rumored forever, and I’m excited to toss one in my backpack next time I travel. I’m even more excited the battery can be replaced.
Also, only Apple could sell a $29 product with a $449 accessory for sale.
Apple TV 4K
My Apple TV 4K doesn’t seem slow, but I am psyched I can buy a good remote for it next week.
iPad Pro
Both iPad Pro models are getting the M1, which I did not see coming. This brings with it Thunderbolt support, and a few interesting questions:
- If an M1 iPad Pro can have 5G, why can’t an M1 Mac notebook?
- Why does the iPad Pro still just have one external port?
- With the M1 and Magic Keyboard, the iPad Pro is basically an iPadOS laptop, so why can’t it do more than the iPad mini? Being faster is fine, but Apple hasn’t give iPadOS many ways to put that power down on the road.
The new ultrawide front camera and its ability to keep you in the frame during a video call looks really neat… but why is that not a feature of the new iMac?
The 12.9-inch iPad Pro’s mini-LED display seems bonkers. It has 10,000 LEDs across the entire back of the display, up from 72 on the previous model. This gives it 2,500 local dimming zones.
My 32-inch, $5,000 Pro Display XDR has just 576 dimming zones.
Gulp.
10 Gigabit Mac mini
A good $100 spent if you’re going to use this a server for years into the future.