Apple Reveal 2021 

On the 20th of April, we were treated to a massive Apple Event. Where we were given lots of great new information and a look at some brand-new products that will release in the coming weeks. We are going to go over what has been announced in this blog, and the information that has been given out.

 

Apple’s Environmental Aims:

As the event began, we were given a nice update on Apple’s objective to help the environment. Apple are confident that by 2030, they will be 100% carbon neutral across their whole international footprint. With use of products and supply chain being two of the targeted areas.

We were also reminded that this month, Apple launched the Restore Fund in partnership with Conservation International and Goldman Sachs. Offering environmental returns that are measured both financially and by the amount of atmospheric carbon that is removed. And Apple’s goal here to remove over 1 million tons of carbon a year.

Although they have already done a lot for make their business and products more environmentally viable, it is great to see that they are doing more.

 

Apple Card:

Apple Card has provided an easy and safe method of purchase for a while now, but there is always room for change. And Apple have made some great ones. Wanting to ensure that finances are as equal as possible, Apple Card will now allow partners and spouses to share and combine their credit lines, allow equal rights to Apple Card accounts and build Apple credit equally.

And now, for your whole family: Apple Card Family. Allowing your whole family to get an Apple Card under one family account. Anyone over the age of 13 can get an Apple Card, and there are optional spending limits and controls for any children.

 

Apple Podcasts:

For many years, Apple has helped build the world of podcasts, offering hundreds of different podcasts through the Apple Podcasts app. Apple have announced that the Apple Podcasts app will receive a design rework. Each podcast show and episode will have newly designed pages that allow for brilliant ease of use.

“Channels” have been introduced to help find new podcasts that are the best for you. Allowing you to find new stories and episodes to listen to.

And now, Apple are introducing a subscription option for Apple Podcasts. Granting access to exclusive benefits, like ad-free listening, early access to new shows and episodes and much more. Apple Podcasts subscriptions will become available next month.

 

Apple iPhone 12:

A quick announcement was made by Apple about the iPhone 12. New purple model iPhone 12s will be available on the 30th of April. With pre-orders for new purple iPhone 12s available on Friday 23rd.

 

Apple Air Tags:

And now we get to the new products that Apple have announced, beginning with Apple Air Tags. The Air Tag is a new device from Apple, that allows you to easily track the location of your belongings when you cannot find them.

Apple Air Tags use the Find my Network feature designed by Apple, allowing you to track the location of the Air Tag and the item attached to it, from your iPhone. To track an Air Tag, simply install the Find My app, set up your devices and track your belongings.

It’s not an Apple product without customisation. And there is plenty of customisation you can get with the Apple Air Tags. Air Tags can be personalised to make it unique to you, using text or emojis to give a unique look. Numerous accessories are also available, making it so you can attach your Air Tag to anything, or just give it a bit extra.

Apple are also working with Hermès to bring hand crafted leather edition Air Tags. This includes a bag charm version, luggage tag and keyring.

Precision finding is a powerful feature built for the Apple Air Tags. Precision Finding is available on any iPhone with the U1 chip (like iPhone 12). This uses overlays to allow you track an item with far more precision. While moving, Precision Finding will calculate your distance from the Air Tag using the U1 chip. Then with that information, your iPhone will use the input from your camera, accelerometer, and gyroscope to give you feedback to accurately guide you to your Air Tag.

And to ensure your privacy is kept intact, Apple revealed that Air Tags can only be tracked by you. Meaning no one else, including Apple, can track the device. Safety features are included to prevent any unwanted tracking.

An Air Tag individually will cost around £29, whereas a four pack will cost around £99. Engraving on your Air Tags will be free. Air Tags will be available from April 30th, with pre orders available on Friday the 23rd.

 

Apple TV:

Apple TV 4K is the next entry into Apple’s TV series. Apple TV 4K is now made with the A12 Bionic, increasing its performance level. Now making it capable of playing HDR at a far greater frame rate. Allowing for a higher quality, and extremely smooth visual experience. And to match this, Air Play has now been improved to support the new high frame rate HDR.

But that is not all, a new colour balance feature has been included to elevate the experience. This feature works in part with your iPhone, to improve the picture quality on Apple TV. Your iPhone uses the proximity sensor and camera to guide you to a target on your TVs screen. Measurements will start automatically to determine colour, the light sensor on your phone is used by Apple TV to compare colour balance to set specifications. Once this is done, Apple TV will adjust its video output for the best possible quality.

Of course, with Apple TV, you get that Siri remote to traverse the shows. Now, with the Apple TV 4K, the Siri remote has been redesigned, fitted with new controls and functionality. This controller is now a single aluminium design, with a new click pad and simple buttons. Click pad has five-way navigation for easy selection, and is also touch enabled. Making the experience faster and much easier.

Apple TV 4K will be available for $179 at 32GBs and $199 at 64GBs and can be pre-ordered on the 30th of April. It will fully release in late May.

 

Apple iMac:

One of the big announcements made is the introduction of a new iMac. A new re-designed iMac that is more powerful, personal and capable. Quoted as “bursting with colour.” And it truly is. Available with 7 different colour variants. Completed with a front design that is clean and simplistic, and a back design that is vibrant and full of colour.

This new iMac is made with an A1 chip allows for smaller and thinner design, but far more powerful performance and greater efficiency. And because of this smaller, but more powerful, chip, this new iMac lets out under 10 decibels of noise during typical use. Wondering how thin this iMac is? Well, this iMac is around 11mm thin.

There is so much great about this new iMac, and the display is one of the many great parts to it. The display is 24 inches and the narrower borders help allow this. But that is not all, the display also grants: 11.3 million pixels, 4480 x 2520, a 4.5K retina display, P3 wide gamut and over a billion colours, 500 nits of brightness, coating with low reflectivity and more. True Tone is another feature that adjusts colour temperature as you go into a different environment, allowing for a fine visual experience.

With more and more people doing work and having calls over teams' software, the new iMac has been greatly improved. With a new camera, microphone and speakers being added to bring it to the next level.

The camera is now a 1080p FaceTime HD camera, with double resolution and far greater quality compared to previous models. With a Larger sensor allows for greater light performance. Paired with the Apple M1, the new iMac uses Apple’s most recent image signal processor to enhance image quality. With this new camera you will also find: more intelligent exposure and white balance, powerful noise reduction and image fusion, tone mapping and highlight details used.

With the microphone, we are looking at a studio quality, three-mic array that allows for reduced feedback. Beamforming from the microphone also allows for greatly reduced background noise and increase the quality of your voice.

The speakers within the iMac are the most powerful sound system made so far. Using two pairs of force-cancelling woofers for accurate noise, granting incredible bass response, reduction of unintended vibrations. While also being balanced with high-performance tweeter. This is a six-speaker system, that supports spatial audio.

The performance of the iMac is extraordinary. Using an M1 and macOS Big Sur. Because of this, the Mac starts up almost instantly. With apps launching extremely quickly. Thanks to the stunning responsivity, everything you use on the iMac is extremely fast and smooth. Having 85% faster CPU and 2x faster graphics than previous Mac models. With up to 50% faster than the 21.5-inch iMac and 3x faster machine learning.

Thanks to the great continuity from iPhone to iMac, you can run iPhone and iPad apps on the iMac thanks to its same chip architecture. Because of this, messages from iPhone will appear on iMac, and more. Meaning that you do not have to switch devices and regularly because all your content is available across all of your Apple devices.

Connectivity is a key part of any device. And the new iMac has plenty of it. With 4 USB ports, including two Thunderbolt ports that allow for super-fast data transfer. Along with that, a new power connector that connects magnetically to the iMac is present. Including a 2-meter colour matched woven cable which goes to the small power adapter. Ethernet can also be connected to the adapter, leading to less wiring issues

With every computer, you need some good extra devices to make it work fully. Three new types of keyboards for the new iMac. The first magic keyboard has new emoji, spotlight, dictation, do not disturb and lock keys. The second magic keyboard brings touch ID. Your fingerprint data is protected through the secure processor, and allows you to easily switch between users, or make purchases with the swipe of a finger. The third magic keyboard does the same as the second, but includes a numeric keypad along with the touch ID.

Magic mouses available now have colour-matched aluminium and the magic trackpads have a new shape to match the new keyboards.

And back to Apple’s environment goals. The iMac is built to minimise environmental impact. With 100% of wood fibre used in iMac packaging being from responsibly managed forests and 100% recycled rare earth elements in all magnets being used.

The iMac will cost around £1299 in four colours, £1499 in seven colours and extra features. You can pre-order an iMac starting on the 30th of April, and will be available in May.

 

iPad Pro:

The new iPad has been revealed, and it looks absolutely phenomenal. Holding an M1 chip, you will find that the iPad Pro is one of the most powerful Apple devices you can get.

With an extraordinary performance, you will quickly find that the CPU is 50% faster than the previous iPad Pro. Based on the world’s fastest CPU core; the powerful CPU of the new iPad Pro is 75x faster than the first-generation iPad.

This is the fastest device of its kind, not only in terms of CPU, but also GPU. The 8-core GPU of the iPad Pro has 40% faster graphics, and is 1500x faster than the first-generation iPad. Extraordinary.

There is so much to the new iPad Pro. And for those people who love filling up their device, a new 2TB variant will be available.

With the connectivity, you will experience super-fast connections. With a USB port that supports super-fast data transfer. And on the greater 12.9-inch iPad Pro, there is a Thunderbolt port being added along with USB-4 support, making for the fastest mobile port ever. With 4x more bandwidth, you will find that wired connections work up to 40 gigabits per second.

And to make sure that connectivity remains on the go, 5G is built into the iPad Pro. Granting extremely fast connection and the ability to complete tasks on the go. Using download speeds up to 3.5 gigabits a second. But for those in compatible countries, the iPad Pro supports millimetre wave. Which is essentially a better 5G. Working at 4 gigabits a second rather than 3.5.

Now, with iPad Pro, you can take stunning images with its pro camera. Boasting motion tracking, LiDAR scanner, super accurate depth data and much more. Now with smart HDR 3, the ISP and Neural Engine work to adjust the colour, noise and contrast in different parts of a photo. ISP and LiDAR scanner focus images and videos very quickly to a high quality, even in extremely dark areas.

But some of the great camera features come from the front camera. Using a True Depth camera, you have secure access to your device with face ID. But the greatest feature comes from the True Depth front camera’s ultra-wide capabilities. Designed for iPad, this 12MP ultra-wide camera has a 122-degree field of view. Using a new feature called Centre Stage, the ultra-wide camera and machine learning keeps you in the centre of the camera. Automatically panning to keep you in shot when you are moving. It also recognises other people when they also enter the camera’s view. Then it adjusts to make sure everyone is in frame.

The 11-inch iPad Pro displays 4 million pixels and the 12.9-inch iPad Pro display 5.6 million pixels. With Pro Display XDR coming to the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. The Liquid retina XDR display (only on 12.9) grants so much. Including: 1000 nits of full screen brightness, 1600 nits of peak brightness, a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio and 10,000 mini-LEDs deliver that high XDR level brightness. Mini-LEDs grouped into around 2500 local dimming zones. This allows you to change the brightness of each zone.

With the iPad Pro, you will find that the Apple Pencil has great usage on iPad Pro. With Scribble on iPad Pro now supporting 7 languages. Smart keyboard, magic keyboard, integrated trackpad also works with the iPad Pro.

The iPad also uses 100% recycled aluminium enclosure and 100% recycled rare earth elements in the magnets. To help Apple meet its environmental goals.

Available in both black and white, the 11-inch iPad Pro costs around £799, whereas the 12.9-inch iPad Pro (with extra features) will cost around £1099. You can pre-order an iPad Pro from 30th April and will become available in May.