Apple recently held a virtual event titled “Spring Loaded”, unveiling seven products and services.
Apple Card
CEO Tim introduced Apple Card Family, enabling people to share Apple Card. The feature allows owners to share cards with anyone in their family over the age of 13, with an adjustable spending limit for each additional user.
Apple Podcasts
Apple unveiled a newly-designed Podcasts app, including options for paid subscriptions (monthly or annually) to individual podcasts.
iPhone 12
The tech giant didn’t launch a new iPhone, but introduced new purple finish for iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini.
AirTag
Apple also unveiled AirTag, an accessory that helps keep track of items, such as keys, wallets, and bags, using the ‘Find My’ app, which has previously been used to locate various Apple devices that have gone missing.
Apple says the AirTag’s price varies from USD29 for a unit to USD99 for a four-unit package. AirTags will be available on April 30, 2021.
Each AirTag has a built-in speaker to help users track lost items, and can engrave them with text and/or select emojis for free when buying them online.
Apple TV 4K
Apple announced a major update on the Apple TV 4K which was first launched in 2017. The updates include the latest Apple TV 4K powered by Apple’s A12 Bionic chip.
Consumers can use iPhone to calibrate images by placing the iPhone’s front camera near the TV, The Apple TV 4K will automatically optimize its own color/contrast output.
Apple has also redesigned the remote. Moving away from a remote touchpad, the company introduced a five-way clickpad complete with an iPod-like scroll wheel. There’s also a Siri button on the side if you want to talk to the TV when you don’t want to press a button. It will be sold separately for USD59.
iMac
Apple also announced the release of a new iMac with the M1 processor. It has a 24-inch screen with a 4.5K graphic quality and a 1080p FaceTime display.
The iMac comes in seven colors – green, yellow, pink, orange, blue, purple and silver. The models are equipped with a 256GB SSD, and two Thunderbolt ports. The device keyboard is also equipped with a Touch ID fingerprint sensor.
Apple sells the iMac with an 8-core / 7-core GPU CPU setup for USD1,299, while the 8-core CPU / 8-core GPU costs USD$ 1,499.
IPad Pro
Finally, Apple officially introduced the iPad Pro with the M1 chip. This chipset was previously used by the Macbook Air, Macbook Pro, and Mac Mini. The same processor is also used for the new iMac which was announced at the same time as reported by The Verge.
Apple said the changes to the processor provide a performance increase of up to 50 percent when compared to the previous iPad Pro.
The latest iPad Pro uses an 8-core GPU / 8-core CPU. Interestingly, the latest iPad Pro also supports 5Gm and Thunderbolt and USB 4 via the USB-C port.
The 12.9-inch model has a ‘Liquid Retina XDR’ display which according to Apple contains 10,000 mini LEDs with a brightness of 1,000 nits of brightness and up to 1,600 nits at the highest point.
A feature Apple calls “Center Stage” will automatically keep the user’s face in the center of the frame during FaceTime calls, even while moving around the room.
The new iPad Pro has up to 2 TB of internal storage and 16 GB RAM. This product can go on order in the United States on April 30 and is available in the market in the second week of May.
The sale price for the new iPad Pro with an 11-inch screen starts at US $ 799. The 12.9-inch model starts at US $ 1,099.
According to CNBC, investors did not seem impressed by the news. Apple shares fell about 2 percent after the event ended.
Read now: Computer Chips are Rare, Apple Shipments Increased 115%
