#432 - Let’s talk about Apple’s new hardware!

This week: our reactions to Apple’s new hardware! Plus, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about the new Mac mini, MacBook Air, iPad Pro, and Magic Keyboard.

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On the show this week

@erfon / @lkahney / @lewiswallace

This week's stories

Surprise iPad Pro refresh brings LiDAR Scanner, Ultra Wide camera, trackpad support

• Apple on Wednesday surprised us with a brand-new iPad Pro that packs a LiDAR Scanner, Ultra Wide camera, and studio-quality microphones. It’s powered by an improved A12Z Bionic chip that makes it faster than many laptops.

New MacBook Air announced with $999 starting price, Magic Keyboard and 6K display support

• Apple updated its MacBook Air lineup Wednesday with a re-designed scissor-switch Magic Keyboard, twice the storage, a reported two times faster CPU performance, and a lower price tag starting at $999.

Apple doubles SSD storage capacity for Mac mini

• Apple announced Wednesday an update of its entire Mac mini line, offering double the SSD storage capacity at the regular price.

5 reasons why iPad Pro’s new Magic Keyboard blows our minds

• Apple’s exciting new Magic Keyboard is going to make working on iPad Pro better than ever when the accessory debuts in May. It’s a huge improvement over the Smart Keyboard Folio in so many ways.

Movies Anywhere tests letting users loan out iTunes movies

• Movies Anywhere combines films bought through iTunes, Google Play, etc. into one service. And now it’s testing a new feature called Screen Pass that enables loaning your movies to other people.

 

Hardware notes   Mac Mini

• Now comes with double the storage capacity on the standard configurations.
• $799 now gets you 256GB instead of 128GB, and $1099 gets you 512GB instead of 256GB.
• Still using the same 6th-gen 4-year-old intel processor.

  MacBook Air

• $100 price cut.
• Standard storage has been doubled too.  
• You get 256GB for $999 now, and 512GB for $1299.
• Features the same scissor-mech keyboard as the new 16-inch MBP.
• Using Intel's newest 10th gen chip, Quad Core 1.2GHz i7, Apple claims speeds are about twice as fast as previous gen. Probably cause last gen was dual-core. 
• GPU performance increase of up to 80%.

  iPad Pro

• Now with triple lenses, kind of.
• Still the same 11" and 12.9" sizes.
• A12Z Bionic chip which supports a 8-core GPU.
• Apple says this setup is faster than most PC laptops.
• Apple says you can edit 4K videos with the iPad Pro.
• Pro Motion 120hz display
• Five-studio quality microphones, just like Apple packed into the 16-inch MBP
• Now features a 10MP ultrawide camera
• Also includes a 12PM main camera, which is probably the same one found in the iPhone 11/11 Pro
• Brand new LiDAR so depth sensing.  LiDAR is the same technology that self-driving cars use for depth sensing and object tracking.  It's what the Mars Rover uses too.
• How will iPad Pro use it?  Definitely for Virtual Reality, but who knows what else.
• Now supports WiFi 6.
• 60% faster gigabit LTE for LTE models.
• Size is about the same, but slightly thicker and heavier.
• Price is the same, but now the base level of storage has been upgraded from 64GB to 128GB.
• Upgrading to 256GB of storage is $50, so $1200 instead of $1250.
• 1TB is $1300 instead of $1350.

  New Magic Keyboard 

• Coming in May.  
• Features passthrough charging to the iPad via its own USB-C port on the hinge.
• Features a full-size Magic Keyboard with backlighting, scissor keyboard switches, and trackpad with multi-gesture support.
• iOS 13.4 will feature cursor support.  Works with both the older and new ipad 11" Pro for $300.
• Or $350 for the 12.9" keyboard....