saltycaramel

Both on Windows and macOS there's an "underground city" of power user features that "moms" living on the surface will never know about. The same could eventually be true for iPadOS, no harm done to "surface level" users. It is kinda true already, I doubt "moms" on iPads use Stage Manager, automate the crap out of their flow with Shortcuts, constantly cmd+tab and multitask, use an always-on clipboard like Yoink (with the PiP trick), use a shell like iSH, etc. But there are still a number of limitations that (if one insists in trying to use an iPad the same way one would use a Mac) make iPadOS feel like trying to pick your nose while wearing oven mittens compared to what a power user (or even just a user that knows his way around the system) can do on macOS. On the other hand I also can see the reasoning behind Apple's "one step at a time, slowly but surely" approach to adding complexity (and potentially clutter) to iPadOS. 2010 for iPadOS is like the early 80s for PC/Mac. We're still "only" 14 years into the history of this platform. We'll see what they're adding this year at WWDC. In iPadOS 18 we trust.

It’s from here (an analyst firm making predictions based on the supply chain) https://omdia.tech.informa.com/blogs/2024/feb/apples-new-oled-it-roadmap-can-help-boost-oled-penetration-rate-in-the-mobile-pc-market-to-14-by-2028 Non-Pro devices will get single layer OLEDs. Pro devices will get tandem OLEDs. MBPs will get M4 Pro/Max before the end of 2024. Then probably M5 Pro/Max in late 2025. In late 2026 the current MBP design will be 5 years old and ripe for a redesign. Said redesign will include the tandem OLED. And by then the SoC would be M6 Pro/Max. So if you wait for the OLED MBPs you’re getting the M6 generation.

I just caved. 13”, coming from an 11” M2 iPad Pro (soon to become an hand-me-down in the family). They did it, with that weight and that thinness they finally convinced me to go 13”, 9 years after the unveiling of the original 12.9” iPad Pro. It took six unwieldy 12.9” iPad generations, but seventh time’s a chance. And, nano-texture. (yeah yeah I know the whole internet right now likes to advice against it if you don’t have a specific professional need for it, “if you have to ask it’s not for you”, but I have plenty of glossy screens in my life already, and it will be nice to have something different for a change after more than a decade of glossy iPads) May God have mercy of my wallet.

10-core M4 in fanless 5mm chassis, apparently: https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/6013825 12-core Snapdragon X Elite top SKU (X1E-84-100), apparently: https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/5863405

28 months to go

1) thinner display assembly 2) thinner bezels I wonder if it will at least become a dynamic island on the late 2026 MacBook Pros with tandem OLEDs and touch.

Nanotexture glass upgrade locked behind 1TB/2TB storage requirement

M4 - confirmed N3E node - new display engine block tailored for the tandem OLED - new CPU - same GPU gen as M3 and A17 Pro - most powerful Apple NPU ever (38 TOPS, sounds similar to the 35 TOPS in the A17 Pro)

Apple's marketing name for tandem OLED: "Ultra Retina XDR".

Event started. "HUGE day of announcements", "BIGGEST DAY for iPad since its introduction".

Apple Store is down. T minus 26 minutes.

I think Apple will stop selling the M2 iPad Pros immediately after the event and the new M4 iPad Pros will be available to order by Friday and ship next week. Yeah when I heard about the new SoC (codenamed T8132) my first thought was an M3_on_N3E (i.e. an M3 with the bare minimum adaptations to be manufactured on the new node, which is not IP-compatible with N3B, so they couldn't just "copy and paste") or an "M3X". But then Mark Gurman from Bloomberg grew more and more confident about calling it "M4".

I think the following SoCs were released later than originally planned: - M1 Pro/Max - M2 - M2 Pro/Max - possibly even the M3 The thing is, while the unveiling of the above SoCs was being delayed, it’s not like the development of the M4 and M5 was being delayed as well, it would just go on as planned behind the scenes. So now it’s all “catching up”. Additionally, M3 is fabbed on TSMC N3B node, and that by itself make it short-lived. N3B was a “temporary” Apple-only node TSMC and Apple developed to give Apple bragging rights of having a couple of months of 3nm exclusive. N3B is expensive, time-consuming and not IP-compatible with subsequent 3nm nodes. Both TSMC and Apple can’t wait to leave anything based on N3B in the rearview mirror, and move on to N3E, N3P, etc.

Summary Tomorrow (Tuesday May the 7th, at 7:00 AM PT, 10:00 AM ET, 15:00 London and 16:00 CET) Apple will stream their “Let Loose” event. (YouTube stream at the end of the post) The event will last about 35 minutes. Rumors point to the following products being introduced the new M4 chip iPad Pro 11” OLED with M4 iPad Pro 13” OLED with M4 Apple Pencil 3rd gen Magic Keyboard with aluminum chassis iPad Air 10.9” with M2 iPad Air 12.9 with M2 Quotes My thoughts In a world of speed bumps and iterative releases, this is a rare occasion in which we can look forward to something actually new. And whatever new design is unveiled tomorrow, we’re stuck with it for the next 5-6 years, the next major redesign of the iPad and its accessories may very well be in 2029-2030. The new iPad Pros will be the first devices to use a dual-stack OLED display (which means they’ll benefit from more brightness, eye-piercing HDR highlights, more longevity and less image retention). Their front camera will move to the long side (landscape orientation). The bezels will get slightly thinner, and the tablet itself will get thinner as well. Things may get even more interesting when it comes to the new accessories. The new Magic Keyboard is rumored to have an aluminum chassis and palm rest (probably with a soft anti-slipping bottom), a larger trackpad, Esc and function keys, and above all a new latching mechanism that will make the docked tablet look and operate more like a proper laptop (as opposed to the current cantilever system). The new Pencil will get slightly shorter, it will have haptic feedback, probably interchangeable tips for various kinds of stroke. The wild card: spatial interactions with the Vision Pro. The M4 will be Apple’s first chip to be manufactured on TSMC’s N3E node. (the M3 family and the A17 Pro are fabbed on the short-lived and expensive N3B node) Its development almost certainly started before the current AI craze, but nowadays any improvement to the Neural Engine may be rebranded to be about “AI”. Also, that was fast. Apple’s last event was the unveiling of the M3, and we’re already about to see the M4 be unveiled and quickly become available. I’m curious to see all the above be unleashed upon us (again, it’s not something that happens every day, more like twice in a decade), but that is the “what” part. Then there’s the “why”. Why the iPad. What story are they going to tell, how do these new hw/sw features contribute to the iPad’s trajectory. Where is the iPad headed. We’ll know soon enough. Sources https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-03/apple-ipad-event-2024-new-ipad-pro-air-magic-keyboard-pencil-coming-may-7