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Apple Reveals New Keyboards and the Apple Pencil Pro

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Along with the iPad Pros, Apple today introduced new keyboards and an Apple Pencil Pro.

The new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro, at long last, has a function row of half-height keys similar to what you’d find on a Mac. The trackpad is bigger, the palm rest is aluminum, and the whole thing is thinner and lighter than before, which are all great additions. The keyboards come in black (with a black aluminum palm rest) and white (with a silver palm rest). What hasn’t changed is the cantilevered design of the keyboard, which some had predicted would be replaced by a more laptop-like hinge.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

There’s a new Smart Folio for iPad Pro, too. According to Apple’s press release:

The new Smart Folio for iPad Pro attaches magnetically and now supports multiple viewing angles for greater flexibility. Available in black, white, and denim, it complements the colors of the new iPad Pro.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

The new Apple Pencil Pro sounds as though it’s a big step forward. There’s a sensor in the device’s barrel so that, with a squeeze, users can summon a tool palette on the iPad Pro or iPad Air. The new Pencil also incorporates haptics, allowing it to provide a bit of feedback when a user squeezes the Pencil. There’s even a built-in gyroscope that senses when the barrel is rotated, which can be used to rotate brushes and onscreen objects. The rotation functionality is incorporated into the hover feature, allowing users to see the rotation of a brush before placing the Pencil on the screen, for example. The new model Pencil also supports Find My. As before, the new Apple Pencil Pro connects to the iPad Pro magnetically for pairing, charging, and storing.

I like the look of the Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro and Apple Pencil Pro a lot. The previous Magic Keyboard always felt too cramped, and it was frustrating to not have function keys. And, although I’m not a heavy Apple Pencil user, I’m excited to see how developers implement the new Pro features.

The new Smart Folio comes in black, white, and denim and is $79 for the 11” iPads and $99 for the 13” iPads. The new Magic Keyboard comes in white and black and is $299 for the 11” iPad Pro and $349 for the 13” iPad Pro, with $20 off those prices for education customers. The Apple Pencil Pro is $129 and $119 for education customers.

You can follow all of our May 2024 Apple event coverage through our May 2024 Apple event hub or subscribe to the dedicated May 2024 Apple event RSS feed.

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Apple Announces New 11” and 13” iPad Pros

At its Let Loose video event today, Apple introduced new 11” and 13” iPad Pros. Both models come in Silver and Space Black and feature OLED displays, the M4 chip, and more. Based on the specs Apple shared, both iPad Pro models appear to be significant upgrades over the existing M2 models.

The Design

Apple has made its thinest device ever with the iPad Pro. The 11” model is 5.3 mm thick, and the 13” model is 5.1 mm thick. That’s a remarkably thin device, achieved though a combination of new display technology and power efficiency, which allow it to use a smaller battery.

The Display

It’s not surprising that the new iPad Pros have OLED displays. That’s been rumored for a while. However, Apple says these are the most advanced OLED displays available.

The display, which Apple calls Ultra Retina XDR, is made from two OLED panels, allowing the device to achieve higher brightness than a single-panel setup. So in addition to the deeper blacks and high-contrast that OLED typically achieves, Apple says the new iPad Pros will support 1,000 nits of full-screen brightness for SDR and HDR content and 1,600 nits peak for HDR.

A nano-textured display is also available for the first time in the 1TB and 2TB configurations of both iPad Pros.

The M4 Chip

The new iPad Pros are the first devices made by Apple to include the new M4 chipset, skipping the M3 generation altogether. Apple says that the M4, which is built with a second-generation 3-nanometer process, builds on the technologies found in the M3 chips, including features like Dynamic Caching and hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing that were only available on certain Macs before.

The 256GB and 512GB configurations of the new iPad Pro include a 9-core CPU with three performance cores and six efficiency cores. Those models also have a 10-core GPU and 16-core Neural Engine. The 1TB and 2TB models add one performance core to the CPU but have the same GPU and Neural Engine.

Apple spent a lot of time talking about the M4 and its ability to handle difficult AI tasks, pointing out that the latest Neural Engine can handle 38 trillion operations per second. The company says that’s 60x faster than its first Neural Engine in the A11 Bionic chip. Apple also claims that the Neural Engine is faster than any equivalent chip in PCs, implying that it’s the rest of the AI industry catching up to it and not the other way around.

Cameras

The front camera has been moved to the landscape side of the iPad Pro, which will make video conferencing less awkward. Plus, there’s a new Adaptive True Tone flash that removes shadows by taking multiple exposures of documents when scanning, and neither model includes an Ultra Wide camera anymore.

I’m excited about the new iPad Pro. It remains to be seen how the advances in hardware translate into everyday experiences, but it’s still good to see Apple pushing the iPad’s capabilities forward aggressively, which should encourage developers to push the boundaries of what is possible with a tablet.

The new 11” iPad Pro starts at $999, and the 13” model starts at $1,299. Both models can be ordered today and ship next week.

You can follow all of our May 2024 Apple event coverage through our May 2024 Apple event hub or subscribe to the dedicated May 2024 Apple event RSS feed.

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Apple’s May 2024 Let Loose Event: Replay Today’s Keynote

If you didn’t follow the livestream of today’s ‘Let Loose’ Apple event, you can replay it on Apple’s Events site or YouTube.

The keynote video can be streamed here and on the Apple TV using the TV app. A high-quality version will also be available through Apple Podcasts as a video and audio podcast. An American Sign Language version of the event keynote is available on the Apple Events page too.

We’ll be adding links to the product videos released by Apple today as they appear on YouTube after the break.

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Apple Announces New and Updated Apple Arcade Games Coming in May and June

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Apple announced that four new games are coming to Arcade early next month:

In addition, on May 30th, Where Cards Fall, the excellent indie game by The Games Band that was published by Snowman and is already part of Apple Arcade, will be coming to the Vision Pro for the first time.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Where Cards Fall is a beautiful game that won an Apple Design Award in 2020. One of the game’s core mechanics is building structures from cards that help you advance from one level to the next, which strikes me as an excellent match for the Vision Pro’s spatial gestures.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Return to Monkey Island is getting the Apple Arcade ‘+’ treatment too. As Apple describes it:

Return to Monkey Island+ is an unexpected, thrilling return of series creator Ron Gilbert that follows the legendary adventure games The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge. The game continues the story of Guybrush Threepwood, his zombie pirate nemesis LeChuck, and his true love Elaine Marley. Return to Monkey Island+ is playable across iPhone, iPad, and Mac. Players will solve puzzles and explore the islands with a clever evolution of classic point-and-click adventure game controls.

Anyone who grew up in the 90s on The Secret of Monkey Island should enjoy this game a lot. I’m also curious to try Tomb of the Mask+, a retro platformer.

In addition to the new games coming to Arcade and the Vision Pro, Apple announced updates to some fan favorites throughout May and June, including WHAT THE CAR?, Ridiculous Fishing EX, and Crossy Road Castle. For a complete list, be sure to check out Apple’s press release.

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Apple Reveals Its 2024 Pride Collection, Spotlighting LGBTQ+ Communities

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

Today, Apple introduced a new Pride collection highlighting LGBTQ+ communities. The collection includes a new Apple Watch Pride Edition Braided Solo Loop, a matching Apple Watch face, and dynamic iPhone and iPad wallpapers. The band goes on sale beginning May 22nd, and the watch face and wallpapers are coming in watchOS 10.5, iOS 17.5, and iPadOS 17.5.

Here’s how Apple describes the new brightly-colored Watch band:

The new Pride Edition Braided Solo Loop evokes the strength and beauty of LGBTQ+ communities with a vibrant, fluorescent design inspired by multiple pride flags, and features a laser-etched lug that reads “PRIDE 2024.” The colors black and brown symbolize Black, Hispanic, and Latin communities, as well as those impacted by HIV/AIDS, while the pink, light blue, and white hues represent transgender and nonbinary individuals.

Source: Apple.

Source: Apple.

The watch face is called Pride Radiance and, along with the wallpapers, uses dynamic multi-colored neon-style lighting:

Users can choose from a spectrum of colors to personalize their watch face and wallpapers. On Apple Watch, the colors trace each numeral of the watch face and react in real time as the user moves their wrist based on input from the gyroscope. On iPhone and iPad, beams of color spell out “Pride” and dynamically move when the user unlocks their device

The new Apple Watch Pride Edition Braided Solo Loop will be sold in retail stores, on apple.com, and via the Apple Store app for $99 on May 22nd in the US and Canada and on May 23rd in other locations.

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MacStories Unwind: An Ant BBQ→

This week on MacStories Unwind, we return to an animal kingdom to discuss invading fire ants, raccoons, and wild boar before recommending a Mario classic and Amazon’s TV adaptation of the Fallout videogame series.

Ghost in the TV

John Versus the Fire Ants

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Apple Reports Quarterly Revenue of $90.8 Billion for Q2 2024

Last quarter, Apple reported revenue of $119.6 billion, which included the holiday season and the first full quarter of iPhone 15 sales. Although Apple hasn’t provided financial guidance since the COVID pandemic, the company warned investors to expect a $5 billion year-over-year drop in revenue for its second fiscal quarter. However, the actual Q2 results were better than expected.

Today, those earnings are out and Apple reported Q2 revenue of $90.8 billion. As Apple reminded investors last quarter, Q2 2023’s revenue numbers were unusually high due to pent up demand for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max, which were in short supply during the company’s first quarter of 2023 due to COVID-related factory shutdowns.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook:

“Today Apple is reporting revenue of $90.8 billion for the March quarter, including an all-time revenue record in Services,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “During the quarter, we were thrilled to launch Apple Vision Pro and to show the world the potential that spatial computing unlocks. We’re also looking forward to an exciting product announcement next week and an incredible Worldwide Developers Conference next month. As always, we are focused on providing the very best products and services for our customers, and doing so while living up to the core values that drive us.”

Going into today’s earnings call, the consensus among Wall Street analysts was that Apple would earn 90.37 billion an expected decrease that would a little less than the projected decrease cited by the company during its last earnings call. However, Apple beat both Wall Street expectations and its guidance.

The iPhone remains the cornerstone of Apple’s revenue. However, with sales down in China, analyst concern over whether Apple will incorporate AI into its products this year, and regulatory and antitrust pressure in the US and EU, the company’s outlook for the remainder of 2024 and into 2025 is more uncertain than ever.

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Apple Changes How the Core Technology Fee Works and Confirms that Its Alternative Business Terms Will Apply to iPad Apps This Fall

One of the most controversial aspects of Apple’s response to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) was the introduction of a Core Technology Fee (CTF), which must be paid by developers who opt into Apple’s alternative business terms. Today, in a post on its developer website, Apple announced changes to the CTF and regarding the treatment of iPadOS, which was added to Apple’s DMA compliance obligations earlier this week.

The problem was that the CTF as originally conceived applied to all apps, including free apps. If a developer offered a free app and had first annual app installs of over 1 million installations, they would owe the €0.50 per installation fee, regardless of the fact they earned no income from the app. The fee, as proposed, would likewise be a problem for developers with other sources of income that weren’t enough to pay the CTF.

Today, Apple made two changes to the way the CTF works:

  • First, no CTF is required if a developer has no revenue whatsoever. This includes creating a free app without monetization that is not related to revenue of any kind (physical, digital, advertising, or otherwise). This condition is intended to give students, hobbyists, and other non-commercial developers an opportunity to create a popular app without paying the CTF.
  • Second, small developers (less than €10 million in global annual business revenue*) that adopt the alternative business terms receive a 3-year free on-ramp to the CTF to help them create innovative apps and rapidly grow their business. Within this 3-year period, if a small developer that hasn’t previously exceeded one million first annual installs crosses the threshold for the first time, they won’t pay the CTF, even if they continue to exceed one million first annual installs during that time. If a small developer grows to earn global revenue between €10 million and €50 million within the 3-year on-ramp period, they’ll start to pay the CTF after one million first annual installs up to a cap of €1 million per year.

The first change should take care of the free app scenario regardless of its popularity. The second change is designed to transition small businesses into paying the CTF. The first time a business with less than €10 million of global annual revenue crosses the CTF threshold, they won’t pay the fee. They will, however, have to start paying the fee up to a €1 million cap if the business’ global annual income grows to between €10 million and €50 million in that 3-year period. If revenue exceeds that range, the cap on the CTF presumably would not apply.

In the same post, Apple confirmed that the same EU rules that apply to iOS will begin to apply to iPadOS this fall and that a download of an app on both iOS and iPadOS will only count as one annual installation for CTF purposes.

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Apple Introduces Three of the Distinguished Swift Student Challenge Winners

Earlier this week, Federico and I interviewed two of the Swift Student Challenge winners on AppStories, which was a lot of fun. A new feature of the 2024 competition was the addition of Distinguished Winners. As Apple explains it in a press release published today:

Out of 350 winning submissions, 50 students have been named Distinguished Winners for building app playgrounds that stand out for their innovation, creativity, social impact, or inclusivity. These 50 students have been invited to a three-day in-person experience at Apple Park that includes tailored programming and the special event at this year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), where they’ll join like-minded creators from all over the world.

Apple’s press release includes profiles of three of the Distinguished Winners: Elena Galluzzo, a college student from Canada, Dezmond Blair, from Canton, Michigan, and Jawaher Shaman, who is studying at the Apple Developer Academy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Elena Galluzzo’s winning app is an assistant for seniors:

Galluzzo designed Care Capsule to be an all-in-one assistant for elderly people. She used Apple’s machine learning framework Create ML to build a chatbot that analyzes interactions with the user to deduce whether they are experiencing loneliness or depression. The app also lets users track their medications, connect with community resources, and keep a record of positive memories.

Dezmond Blair, who attended the Apple Developer Academy in Detroit, built MTB XTREME, an app that

…puts users behind the handlebars of a mountain bike, offering a 360-degree view of the trails around them.”

Finally, Jawaher Shaman created an app called My Child to help people with speech conditions:

My Child tells Shaman’s story through the eyes of a child who stutters, and features characters inspired by her father and grandfather. The app guides users through exercises that help slow down their breathing and prepare them for real-life experiences like reading a story in class. Shaman used AVFAudio to add sounds that mimic the way her father would break sentences into small, more manageable parts.

Every year, I’m impressed with the projects students come up with for the Swift Student Challenge, and this year is no exception. Harshitha Rajesh and Roscoe Rubin-Rottenberg, whom Federico and I spoke to Monday, as well as the Distinguished Swift Student Challenge winners whose projects Apple featured today, are great examples of the sort of impactful projects that students from 35 countries and regions have created for the Challenge. It’s great to hear that 50 of the students will be at WWDC this year. Hopefully, Federico and I will have the chance to meet a few of them.

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