Apple Releases New Mac Mini, iPad Pro and iPad Pro Keyboard With Trackpad

Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Today Apple released some new hardware. Let's take a look.

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So Apple had an event today. But it was a quiet event. There was no big keynote. They just released some new hardware online. Let's start by talking about the new MacBook Air. The new MacBook Air improves performance starting with a 1.1GHz dual-core i3 processor and going all the way up to a quad-core i7 processor at 1.3 GHz. The low end storage starts at 256 GB now and goes up to 2TB. The graphics, as you can expect in MacBook Air, are still integrated GPU graphics. But speed has improved and it actually now can drive a 6K screen or two 4K screens. 

What's a minor change, but actually kind of a big deal, is this includes the new keyboard. So the same keyboard that's in the 16 inch MacBook Pro with the scissor mechanism. You don't have to deal with the butterfly keyboard that's been so problematic for these lasts few years. The price is also new. The low end model is $999. So for $999 you get a 9 3 processor, 8G of ram, 256GB SSD, and the new scissor keyboard. It's actually not a bad deal.

Now Apple also updated the MacMini. Just one little minor change. Instead of the low end model having a 128GB SSD it's got a 256GB SSD. So basically double the amount of storage for the same price. Other than that the MacMini is the same. 

The big announcement though is the new iPad Pro models. We expected that at some point this year. This new Pro is an 8 core, A12Z chip in it. It's designed to handle 4K video editing and also 3D model creation. It also has a new camera array on the back. One camera is a 

12 megapixel regular camera. There's also a 10 megapixel ultra wide camera. So similar to what's on the new iPhone Pro. 

The third camera really isn't a camera at all. It's a LiDAR scanner. A LiDAR scanner tells distances. Not just the distance of one object directly in front of your iPad but of all of the objects seen by the camera. So you can use this for  augmented reality applications. The new iPad Pro also has a faster WiFi, a faster LTE if you get the cellular data model, and also ten hour battery life. The microphones have been improved with an array of five microphones now. The sizes are the same. It comes in an 11 inch model and a 12.9 inch model. The smaller one starting at $799 and the larger one starting at $999. Those come with 128G of storage. You can go up to one 1TB of storage in them. Of course you can add the ability to connect via LTE mobile networks. You can order these today and they should be ready to ship next week.

Now if Apple did have a live event probably what would have stolen the show would have been the new MacPro Magic keyboard. So this is a new keyboard that attaches to iPad Pros. It will work with the new models and with the old iPad Pro models from 2018 as well. It includes a keyboard and a trackpad. So the new version of iPad OS version 13.4 which comes out next week is supposed to have more trackpad support and we can see why now.

Now check this out. When you attach the keyboard to your iPad the iPad itself actually hovers up in the air using these cantilevered hinges. I think this is going to be a much better typing experience than how you currently type on an iPad with the keyboard where the iPad is really low. The keyboard, of course, is full size. It seems to be using the same scissor mechanism that the 16 inch MacBook Pro and the new MacBook Air keyboard's do. It's also backlit and includes USBC passthrough. It will be interesting to see how that actually looks. 

It's kind of expensive though. You have to pay $299 for the magic keyboard if you've got an 11 inch iPad Pro and $349 if you have the 12.9 inch iPad Pro. It's also not going to be available right away. It shows now as shipping in May. It'll be interesting to see if when we get the new iPad OS next week if we can use existing trackpads to use the same features. Because the way the trackpad is going to work looks really cool. Apple is showing a demo of it and you could see that there's a circle that moves around but it also kind of blends into user interface elements as you bring the circle closer to them. You could use multi finger gestures, pinch and rotate gestures and everything.

So I'm really looking forward to this. I think that people that want the MacBook Air want a really inexpensive machine and aren't looking to do anything too powerful on it. A $999 model is going to be great. Also having iPad Pro that seems like it may finally be a true laptop replacement is going to be really interesting. It's great to see Apple coming out with new products right at this time. I mean Apple stores aren't even open right now. So the fact that Apple's coming out with new hardware is a really great feeling.