One article to understand Apple's May press conference: M4 is coming, and iPad Pro is alive

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Sina Science and Technology News On the evening of May 7, it was reported that Apple held a product conference today, and the new generation iPad Pro and iPad Air were officially released. The former became the biggest change in the iPad product line since the emergence of 2010, not only replacing OLED material screens, but also directly leaping from the previous generation of M2 chips to M4. For the first time, Apple's tablet has used the latest chips before its own computer.

This press conference is still recorded

In addition, today's iPad Air and Apple Pencil stylus have also been updated. This conference has become a warm-up part of WWDC Global Developers Conference.

　　 1) A special press conference

This is an unexpected press conference. Apple did not update the iPad product with the new MacBook Air at the spring press conference in March and April, or launch the new iPad product at the WWDC World Developers Conference in June, but chose May for the first time. This is a time when no new product has been released before.

The launch was also very fast, only 35 minutes in length, and the two main products of the iPad series were updated.

Uncle Cook said at the opening that the iPad is a special product, which brings artists, designers, students and other people different ways of use and helps them improve their efficiency in work and learning.

Let's see John Ternus, Apple's senior vice president of hardware engineering, explain in detail.

　　 2) New generation iPad Air: more sizes, more laughter

This link was explained on the subway. John probably deliberately reminded users that the use environment is really casual, and the iPad is very portable. Then the camera came to the library of a school and announced that the iPad Air had two sizes this time.

The iPad Air has been updated for 5 generations, and has a 13 inch version for the first time (Er... 13 inch can also be called Air?)

Well, anyway, Apple said that practicality is the only criterion to test the truth. Both sizes are equipped with M2 chips. They are equipped with a new horizontal FaceTime camera, which makes video calls easier to use. The performance of this M2 is nearly 50% faster than that of the previous generation iPad Air with M1 chip. Compared with the iPad Air equipped with A14 Bionic chip, its performance is improved by three times.

The iPad Air also has 13 inches

However, the new 13 inch iPad Air has 30% more display area than the 11 inch one, and the sound effect of the speakers is also better. The 13 inch iPad Air "aims to provide the first functions on the iPad Pro at a more affordable price" - translation is that, before you wanted a large tablet, you could only buy a Pro. That's expensive. Now there is a cheaper Air option in the same size. Happy?

Larger iPad Air

The new iPad Air is equipped with Liquid Retina display screen, LCD material, and two sizes are available in a variety of colors, including blue, purple, starlight and deep space gray. The material is 100% recycled aluminum shell.

Here comes a new color scheme

The starting storage capacity of iPad Air has been increased to 128GB, and 256GB, 512GB and 1TB are also available. The domestic price is from 4799 yuan for the 11 inch iPad Air and 6499 yuan for the 13 inch iPad Air.

128GB start

　　 3) New generation iPad Pro: thin, bright, and lively

With the screen moving from the library to Apple's R&D laboratory, the real protagonist of this conference has come!

Since I bought the hydraulic press, there are only hydraulic presses left at home

First of all, a hydraulic press came out. Apple wanted to say that this time the iPad was pressed to the thinnest, but it also felt that the iPad meant to compress the piano, computer, player and camera together. As the saying goes, "Since I bought a hydraulic press, there is only a hydraulic press left at home." When everything comes together, today's protagonist iPad Pro appears.

The iPad Pro is also available in two sizes

Thinnest iPad ever

Is this a new generation iPad Pro model, or are these two 11 inch and 13 inch models, whose appearance looks like the previous generation? No, it has changed inside and outside.

The external changes are the fuselage and weight. The 11 inch model is 5.3mm thick and weighs 444g; The 13 inch model is only 5.1 mm thick and weighs a quarter of a pound lighter than its predecessor. The official data is 13 inch 579 grams. This makes the new iPad Pro the thinnest iPad product ever.

It used to be two M chips stuck together, but now it's the screen?

The external change is more obvious than the screen. The iPad Pro uses a display called "Ultra Retina XDR", which is made of OLED material, but not only OLED. Apple superimposes two OLED screens together, and the light is superimposed and fused to achieve better brightness and color performance. Boy, that is to say, the screen can also be glued together and changed?? Apple is officially known as "double-layer serial OLED". The conventional brightness of SDR and HDR is 1000 nits, and the peak brightness of HDR is 1600 nits.

In addition, the appearance is more profound and realistic, the details under shadow and weak light are richer, and the response to the movement content is faster. Also, for the first time, Apple has provided the iPad with nano texture glass material, which makes it more like a direct drawing. The paper like film that art students often buy is no longer needed. (Of course, you need to pay more to choose this screen)

Nano textured glass

Inside the fuselage, the change is more obvious. The M4 chip, the latest achievement of Apple's self-developed technology, is made with the second generation 3nm technology, with a new display engine, hardware accelerated grid coloring, and ray tracing capabilities.

M4 chip arrived ahead of schedule

You should know that the previous generation of iPad Pro uses M2 chip, but this time it is M4 instead of M3 in the plot, and it is still used preferentially by the tablet, instead of MacBook first and iPad next.

Compared with M2 in the previous generation iPad Pro, this M4 chip can improve CPU performance by up to 50% and GPU rendering performance by up to 4 times. This makes it more likely to be used in some drawing and video editing applications, which will be discussed later.

In order to dissipate heat, a graphite heat dissipation layer is added to the back of the fuselage this time. Even the Apple logo has become a copper radiator. Also, the iPad Pro's 12 megapixel front camera has been moved to the side of the device to improve the video call experience. The rear camera now supports ProRes video recording and Smart HDR 4. It is also equipped with an adaptive TrueTone primary color flash. Apple's presentation video mentioned that it can better scan documents. For example, in the past, when you used it to shoot a document, there was a shadow. This time, you used flash+multi image synthesis. The shadow is gone, so you don't need to buy the scanner.

What kind of scanner do you buy

The iPad Pro is available in silver and deep space black this time, with memory starting from 256GB, 11 inch price starting from 8999 yuan, and 13 inch price starting from 11499 yuan.

　　 4) Accessories make your next Mac possible to be an iPad

The MIAOKEN keyboard has been changed. The MIAOKEN keyboard specially made for iPad Pro adopts a new design. It still has a USB-C port, a suspension bracket design, a wider glass touch panel, and an aluminum metal palm rest, which brings a superb typing and touch panel experience. It is more like a MacBook when combined with the iPad.

Metal keyboard+iPad is more like MacBook

Apple Pencil Pro also arrives on time as mentioned in the news, with new sensors built in so that it can feel the strength and direction, so there are light pinching, lateral rotation, tactile feedback, and more new interaction methods, such as pinching the pen, a color palette appears on the screen, or turning the pen, the strokes can change direction.

The third party drawing app "Procreate" came to tell us: we work closely with Apple to create more possibilities. For example, with a pinch of the pen, the layer will be obtained. Previously, things that had to be picked up by the PS+mouse on the computer for a long time are now finished with such a gentle pinch.

What is technology changing work.

Of course, accessories are not cheap. The new Mickey keyboard costs 2799 yuan, and the Apple Pencil Pro costs 999 yuan.

　　 5) IPadOS warms up WWDC in advance

The most unexpected thing today is not only the M4, but also the iPad OS.

The iPad Pro became the camera console

Apple didn't say it was a new version of the iPad OS, but it just gave you a look before the WWDC conference. It is mainly to cooperate with the new iPad Pro launched today. Later, Apple's own Final Cut Pro 2 and Logic Pro 2 will perform.

Multi slot shooting is really ecological

Final Cut Pro is a post video software, but on the iPad, it does not demonstrate how strong it is, but how tough it is to match Apple's product ecology. In the past, there were several camera positions+several monitors for shooting, and then later transmission; Today, Apple said that you should stop doing this. This new iPad Pro+Final Cut Pro 2 and four iPhones. For mobile phone shooting, the tablet monitors four images and multiple camera positions at the same time. Final Cut Pro 2 also undertakes the part of monitor+console. On the tablet, you can directly adjust the depth of field, zoom and lens switching of the four camera positions. After shooting, you can edit it directly on the tablet. M4 makes it render faster.

Logic Pro 2 audio software is "more intelligent than ever" and has AI based studio assistant function. Apple has added new bass and keyboard effects here, as well as Stem Splitter for extracting works of various parts in a single audio recording. The latter allows artists to divide mixed audio into different parts: drums, bass, vocals, and other instruments. Separating tracks makes it easier to apply effects, add new parts, and change the mix. Users can also tune out better tones and choose from five different saturation styles to add warmth, presence or impact to the track.

Other manufacturers are using AI for image cancellation, while Apple is using AI for audio separation. The audio production crowd looks cooler.

　　 6) In conclusion, only the iPad is enough to amaze

I thought it was an iPad conference for changing OLED screens, with more unexpected things. Because M4 appeared ahead of time, Apple may show more of it.

M4 and double-layer serial OLED are strong, but the parameters are just passing by. More focus on the practical part, such as using iPad+Procreate. Previously, only computers+mice+keyboards could do things. Today, the work style of designers who have been dominated by Adobe has been realized by a stylus that Jobs once disliked. This is the way Apple reversed the past. The slogan "Your next Mac, why a Mac?" used to be a stumbling block, but today it seems to be a step closer to us.

By the way, what about the iPad mini... next time?

(Wen/Xiaoguang)