Apple has recently announced some massive new products and ideas for 2020: there's a new MacBook Air with a new keyboard and a lower price, a new iPad Pro with a new camera system, a Magic Keyboard for iPad that even has a Trackpad, and Mouse Support for iPad Pro is coming in 13.4.
The first iPad Pro launched in 2015 and since then, they’ve become the standard of iPads now. From pencil support to the four speakers around the device, they’ve easily become consumer creation devices. With the latest iPad Pro, it brings a few improvements to the mix.
New iPad Pro 2020 specs
The camera from the iPhone 11 series has come over, alongside a LiDAR Scanner. Here, it improves the AR capabilities, making the world be rendered much faster and more in detail for games and lifestyle apps.
The new chip, the A12Z Bionic, is a gradual improvement on the last model’s A12X which seems to focus more on faster wireless standards, such as WiFi 6 and better cellular LTE speed.
There’s also one more hardware improvement, in the form of five-microphones. The 16” MacBook Pro introduced this late last year, but these iPad Pro’s take it up a level, with even more microphones, which could be great for recording podcasts and videos as the press release states.
New iPad Pro 2020 price
All in all, these iPad Pro’s are the ‘S’ series to the 2018 models. Faster, more powerful, and slightly cheaper at £50 less than before for each storage size.
The 11-inch display version starts at £769, and the 12.9-inch display one starts at £969. You can order either from the official Apple website.
These new versions of the iPad Pro also start at 128GB rather than 64GB, which is very welcome in an age of 4K video recording. But that wasn’t the main focus of this announcement.
Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro with Trackpad
This, arguably, is the most important of Apple's new additions.
Previous keyboard accessories for the iPad have been okay, with them getting the job done somewhat. But they could have been better.
The ‘keyboard folio’ for the 2018 iPad Pro line seemed worse than the keyboard that came before; it didn't fold in, so the iPad couldn’t stand up without having the keyboard out, while the two viewing angles barely benefited.
But here, Apple has gone all out. This is the exact same keyboard from the MacBook line, complete with backlit keys. And the iPad now floats when attached to the case, so it can be viewed at multiple angles when needed. And there's also the Trackpad, which will fulfil a long-held dream for a lot of iPad owners.
Every one of these features helps make the iPad Pro a fantastic laptop replacement.
The Magic Keyboard will be released in May for £299 for the 11-inch iPad Pro, and £349 for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. You can order direct from Apple.
iOS 13.4 details for iPad Pro
iOS 13.4 releases on 24th March, and it will introduce full cursor support, alongside API libraries that enable developers to take full advantage of the cursor. It also works across the whole iPad line, so if you have a Bluetooth mouse, you can pair it with your iPad Mini, and enjoy a mouse cursor.
But it’s not a simple copy and paste of a mouse cursor; it seems like an advancement of the mouse cursor itself since it was first introduced in the Xerox days. Here, the cursor is manipulated to highlight anything it hovers over.
The benefits of this are manifold: app icons give this nice sheen when the cursor is dragged over; in a document, text can be easily dragged and manipulated; video can be scrubbed from one scene to the next; and games have basic support, such as DOOM.
New iPad Pro trackpad
The trackpad also has the same gestures as macOS, so if you want to use a three-finger swipe to switch between apps, just like on Mac, now you can. Or a two-finger swipe to go back or forwards in Safari, just like on the Mac, now you can.
This enables the iPad to be even more accessible to those who had a fear of leaving their Windows 98 PC, and to transfer over to a touch-only ecosystem. Now, they can easily transition over and reap the benefits of a new OS with a next-generation cursor.
The trackpad with gestures will, for now, be supported on the Magic Keyboard, the Magic Trackpad 2, and the Magic Mouse.
It looks as though many more third-party mice can now work with iOS 13.4, as Twitter has suddenly lit up with tweets stating that their once abandoned mouse now works on their iPad, with a cursor ready to be used.
New iPad Pro 2020 release date
The new iPad Pro will be available from 25th March 2020. And since Apple stores are currently closed because of coronavirus, your best bet is to order from the Apple website.