Apple has announced several new products during its special online-only event held at the Steve Jobs Theater on Apple Park campus in Cupertino, US, this morning (Apr 21, 1am Singapore Time). All of them will be available in Singapore on Apple Store soon.
IPAD PROS
As expected, both 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro have been refreshed. But what many did not expect is they are being refreshed with Apple’s super fast M1 chip.
With the M1 chip, it offers 50 per cent faster CPU performance and 40 per cent GPU performance over its predecessors. In addition, it uses a Thunderbolt port and features up to 16GB of memory and up to 2TB of storage. Cellular models will support 5G.
The new 12.9-inch iPad Pro features a Liquid Retina XDR display with mini-LED technology. It is said to use over 10,000 LEDs across the entire back of the display to deliver up to 1,600nits of peak brightness and 1 million-to-1 contrast ratio.
Not to mention, this tablet now has an all-new Ultra Wide front camera that automatically keeps you in frame even when you are moving about.
The new iPad Pro is available to order beginning next Friday, Apr 30 and will be available in the second half of May. Prices for the 11-inch iPad Pro starts from S$1,199 while the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is priced starting from S$1,649.
ALL-NEW IMAC
At the same time, an all-new iMac – featuring a major design overhaul and equipped with 8-core M1 chip – has been introduced.
The new iMac has a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display with 11.3 million pixels, 500 nits of brightness and P3 wide colour gamut. It also comes with a 1080p FaceTime HD camera for your endless web conferences.
Its frame is only 11.5mm thin and features a more compact design. Yet, it still houses two Thunderbolt ports and two USB-C ports at its rear, with a headphone jack on the side.
Available in 7 colours of blue, green, pink, yellow, orange, purple and silver, the new iMac will be available in the second half of May with pricing starting from S$1,849. Pre-order of the new iMac starts on Apr 30.
APPLE TV 4K
This came out of the blue, but we are excited to see the next generation Apple TV 4K set top box. The last model was released in 2017.
The new Apple TV 4K is armed with the A12 Bionic chip and supports high frame rate HDR and Dolby Vision video as well as fast-moving action at 60 frames per second. It can even work with an iPhone to improve your TV’s image quality.
More excitingly, it now comes with an all-new Apple TV Remote with a click-pad control that offers five-way navigation and touch-enabled for fast directional swipes. Furthermore, its outer ring supports circular gestures like a jog control for you to fast forward or rewind to find a scene in a movie. The remote also comes with a side button for Siri, so you can ask for specific movies to be be shown.
Priced starting from S$269, you can pre-order the new Apple TV 4K on Apr 30 with availability beginning second half of next month.
AIRTAG
Rumours of AirTag have been swirling for 2 years and now it has become a reality.
The AirTag is a small but elegantly-designed accessory that can attached to a handbag, keys, backpack, or other items. It works by tapping into the global ‘Find My’ network and can help locate a lost item, while keeping location data private and anonymous with end-to-end encryption.
Equipped with Apple’s U1 chip using Ultra Wideband technology, the AirTag features Precision Finding for iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 users. It is said to accurately determine the distance and direction to a lost AirTag when it is in range.
The AirTag will be available in one and a pack of four for S$45 and S$149 on Apr 30. You can pre-order them at 8pm this Friday, Apr 23.
ONE MORE THING: PURPLE IPHONE 12
This is quite a surprise. But Apple unveiled a new purple colour for the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini.
It is essentially the same iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini launched last year. But now, it comes in a beautiful purple shade to add to the existing blue, green, black, white, and red colours.
The purple iPhone 12 (from S$1,299) and iPhone 12 mini (from $1,149) will start selling on Apr 30, with pre-orders starting this Friday (Apr 23).
