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This week on AI: Apple's budget iPad gets the Pencil, Apple Watch rumors, iOS 11.3 & more
Roger Fingas
Apple launched its latest education offensive at a Tuesday press event, led by a refreshed 9.7-inch iPad. The week also saw key updates to iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS, and some of the first detailed rumors about the Apple Watch Series 4.
To keep up on the latest in the Apple world, download the official AppleInsider app, and subscribe to our email newsletter.
Everything you need to know:
- The $329 iPad now has an A10 chip and Apple Pencil support > >
- Apple's Chicago event saw many software updates, such as Pencil support in iWork > >
- A fourth-generation Apple Watch could have a bigger screen, more battery life and yet more health features > >
- Apple's big-budget TV slate could premiere as soon as March next year > >
- iOS 11.3 arrived with ARKit 1.5, battery monitoring features and more > >
- Belkin and Linksys products may soon be under Apple manufacturer Foxconn > >
- watchOS 4.3 restored iPhone music browsing and added a vertical Nightstand mode > >
For in-depth discussion of this week's hottest stories, listen to the AppleInsider podcast. Subscribe here, or stream the embed below:
Malcolm Owen
Amber Neely
Marko Zivkovic
David Schloss
Wesley Hilliard
Mike Wuerthele and Malcolm Owen
9 Comments
no new macs - we are in the great mac draught of little timmie cookie and his lazy elves.
April fools - three months = 1 cutdown recycled technology iPad.
Bring back the Guy and let the good times roll again!!!
So disappointing. A big event that basically only has a speed bumped iPad (and a bunch of education focused sw that won’t gain any traction.
what happened to the Mac? There is hardly anything worth buying in the lineup. The MacPro and Mac Mini are 4+ years old. Why are they even around anymore?
How about going back to slightly thicker laptops and desktops ( truthfully, does anybody care how thin their desktop computer is? ) that have the features and the ports that people want. Slightly thicker pro that has legacy ports and better battery life? I am in! It’s great that Apple has a very fast SSDs in their laptops, but they are priced so far out of the stratosphere that the majority of folks cannot afford them. If you’re a professional, you have no options that offer any expandability. The iMac Pro is beautiful, but in two years it will be a mid range machine with hardly any ability to update it.
They need to make a lower-cost consumer laptop line and a full-featured, no compromise professional line. Pricing between the current pros and other window space machines shows that the macs are almost double the price.
For the desktops, the iMac is fine for the consumer grade, but you should have a lower-cost headless one that actually has current technology a.k.a. the Mac Mini, and they should go back to more of the box pro line that offers expandability.
It’s great to have cutting edge design, and computers it look great. But if they are overpriced and functionally inferior to much cheaper windows models, what’s the point?
If Apple really wants to focus all their energy on the iPad and iPhone, maybe they need to spin off the Mac division into another company. But what they’re doing right now is not working. Sure the stock price is good for now, but if they don’t listen to customers, and build products that people want, eventually it’s going to catch up to them
Education offensive is a good way to put it. "Apple's budget iPad gets the pencil." ($99 Pencil not included.)
I guess I don’t know how many times I need to say that what AI readers want (author included) is not the same as what joe public does.
Joe Public wants thin. They don’t give a crap about upgradeability.