#432 - Let’s talk about Apple’s new hardware!

This week: our reactions to Apple’s new hardware! Plus, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about the new Mac mini, MacBook Air, iPad Pro, and Magic Keyboard.

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On the show this week

@erfon / @lkahney / @lewiswallace

This week's stories

Surprise iPad Pro refresh brings LiDAR Scanner, Ultra Wide camera, trackpad support

Apple on Wednesday surprised us with a brand-new iPad Pro that packs a LiDAR Scanner, Ultra Wide camera, and studio-quality microphones. It’s powered by an improved A12Z Bionic chip that makes it faster than many laptops.

New MacBook Air announced with $999 starting price, Magic Keyboard and 6K display support

Apple updated its MacBook Air lineup Wednesday with a re-designed scissor-switch Magic Keyboard, twice the storage, a reported two times faster CPU performance, and a lower price tag starting at $999.

Apple doubles SSD storage capacity for Mac mini

Apple announced Wednesday an update of its entire Mac mini line, offering double the SSD storage capacity at the regular price.

5 reasons why iPad Pro’s new Magic Keyboard blows our minds

Apple’s exciting new Magic Keyboard is going to make working on iPad Pro better than ever when the accessory debuts in May. It’s a huge improvement over the Smart Keyboard Folio in so many ways.

Movies Anywhere tests letting users loan out iTunes movies

Movies Anywhere combines films bought through iTunes, Google Play, etc. into one service. And now it’s testing a new feature called Screen Pass that enables loaning your movies to other people.

 

Hardware notes

 

Mac Mini

Now comes with double the storage capacity on the standard configurations. $799 now gets you 256GB instead of 128GB, and $1099 gets you 512GB instead of 256GB. Still using the same 6th-gen 4-year-old intel processor.

 

MacBook Air

$100 price cut. Standard storage has been doubled too.   You get 256GB for $999 now, and 512GB for $1299. Features the same scissor-mech keyboard as the new 16-inch MBP. Using Intel's newest 10th gen chip, Quad Core 1.2GHz i7, Apple claims speeds are about twice as fast as previous gen. Probably cause last gen was dual-core.  GPU performance increase of up to 80%.

 

iPad Pro

Now with triple lenses, kind of. Still the same 11" and 12.9" sizes. A12Z Bionic chip which supports a 8-core GPU. Apple says this setup is faster than most PC laptops. Apple says you can edit 4K videos with the iPad Pro. Pro Motion 120hz display Five-studio quality microphones, just like Apple packed into the 16-inch MBP Now features a 10MP ultrawide camera Also includes a 12PM main camera, which is probably the same one found in the iPhone 11/11 Pro Brand new LiDAR so depth sensing.  LiDAR is the same technology that self-driving cars use for depth sensing and object tracking.  It's what the Mars Rover uses too. How will iPad Pro use it?  Definitely for Virtual Reality, but who knows what else. Now supports WiFi 6. 60% faster gigabit LTE for LTE models. Size is about the same, but slightly thicker and heavier. Price is the same, but now the base level of storage has been upgraded from 64GB to 128GB. Upgrading to 256GB of storage is $50, so $1200 instead of $1250. 1TB is $1300 instead of $1350.

 

New Magic Keyboard 

Coming in May.   Features passthrough charging to the iPad via its own USB-C port on the hinge. Features a full-size Magic Keyboard with backlighting, scissor keyboard switches, and trackpad with multi-gesture support. iOS 13.4 will feature cursor support.  Works with both the older and new ipad 11" Pro for $300. Or $350 for the 12.9" keyboard....