Ondrej Holzman Much attention was paid to iPads during Monday's WWDC keynote. And that's not only because Apple introduced the expected 10,5-inch iPad Pro, but especially with regard to the significant changes that iOS 11 brings to the apple tablet. "A monumental leap for the iPad," he even writes about Apple's news.
But first let's take a look at the new tablet iron. Apple did not rest on its laurels and continued to improve the already very powerful iPad Pro. In the case of the smaller one, he also modified its body – he was able to fit a fifth larger display into practically the same dimensions, which is very pleasant.
Instead of 9,7 inches, the new iPad Pro offers 10,5 inches and a 40 percent smaller frame. Dimensionally, the new iPad Pro is only about five millimeters wider and ten millimeters higher, and it hasn't gained much weight either. Thirty extra grams can be accepted for the convenience of a larger display. And now we can also talk about the larger, 12,9-inch iPad Pro. The following news applies to both "professional" tablets.
The iPad Pro is powered by the new A10X Fusion chip, and both have significantly redesigned Retina displays that take the experience a little further. On the one hand, they are brighter and less reflective, but above all, they come with a much faster response. ProMotion technology can ensure a refresh rate of up to 120 Hz for even smoother scrolling and playback of movies or playing games.
Apple Pencil also benefits from ProMotion technology. Thanks to the higher refresh rate, it reacts even more accurately and quickly. Twenty milliseconds of latency ensures the most natural experience possible. Finally, ProMotion can adapt the refresh rate to the current activity, resulting in lower power consumption.
But back to the aforementioned 64-bit A10X Fusion chip, which has six cores and has no problem cutting 4K video or rendering 3D. Thanks to it, the new iPad Pros have a 30 percent faster CPU and 40 percent faster graphics. Nevertheless, Apple continues to promise 10 hours of battery life.
iPad Pros are now even better at taking photos, even though that's not usually their primary activity. But it may be useful that they are equipped with the same lenses as iPhones 7 - 12 megapixels with optical stabilization at the back and 7 megapixels at the front.
A kind of tax for the larger display and redesigned body of the small iPad Pro is its slightly higher price. The 10,5-inch iPad Pro starts at 19 crowns, the 990-inch model starts at 9,7 crowns. The advantage of a slightly larger body, however, lies in the fact that even the smaller iPad Pro can use the full-sized Smart Keyboard (which finally has Czech characters) as a bigger brother. And finally, an equally large software keyboard, which was not possible on a smaller display.
Many will surely be interested in new leather cover, in which you can also store the Apple Pencil in addition to the iPad Pro. However, it costs 3 crowns. Anyone who would only need a pencil case can buy one for 899 crowns.
iOS 11 is a game changer for iPads
But we can't stop here yet. Hardware innovations in iPads are also important, but what Apple will do with its tablets in terms of software was much more fundamental. And in iOS 11, which will be released in the fall, it really distinguished itself - several very important innovations have the potential to change the way users use iPads.
In iOS 11, of course, we will find common news for both iPhone and iPad, but Apple has prepared many changes exclusively for tablets in order to take full advantage of their larger displays and performance. And it cannot be denied that the iOS 11 developers took inspiration from macOS in many cases. Let's start with the dock, which is now customizable and viewable at any time on the iPad.
As soon as you slide your finger up anywhere on the screen, the dock will appear, from which you can both switch between applications and launch new ones side by side, because multitasking has also undergone major changes in iOS 11. As for the dock, you can add your favorite applications to it, and applications activated via Handoff, for example, smartly appear in its right part.
In iOS 11, the new dock is complemented by the aforementioned redesigned multitasking, where you can launch applications directly from it in Slide Over or Split View, and the new thing is the Application Switcher, which resembles Exposé on the Mac. In addition, it groups together the applications you use within the so-called App Spaces, so you can very easily switch between multiple desktops as needed.
For greater efficiency when using multiple applications at the same time, iOS 11 also brings the drag&drop function, i.e. moving texts, images and files between two applications. Again, a practice known from computers that can significantly affect and transform work with the iPad.
And finally, there is one more novelty that we know from Macs – the Files application. It's more or less the Finder for iOS that integrates many cloud services and also opens the way for better file and document management on the iPad. Importantly, Files also acts as an enhanced browser for files of various types and formats, which is handy.
Apple also focused on expanding the use of its smart pencil. Just touch the open PDF with the Pencil and you will annotate immediately, you don't have to click anywhere. Similarly, you can easily start writing or drawing a new note, just tap the locked screen with the pencil.
Annotating and drawing also applies to Notes, which, however, add another novelty, and that is document scanning. There is no need to use third-party applications anymore. Only for iPads, Apple in iOS 11 also prepared the QuickType keyboard, on which it is possible to write numbers or special characters by simply moving the key down.
Add Terminal with gcc and Python and maybe one day it will really be possible to work with it.
That would be pretty cool.
Apple did not rest on its laurels and continued to improve the already very powerful iPad Pro. In the case of the smaller one, he also modified its body – he was able to fit a fifth larger display into practically the same dimensions, which is very pleasant.
a fifth bigger display?
from 9.7 to 10.5 is not a fifth...
isn't it 5% bigger?
That's a 5% diagonal, not the display area ;-).
during the presentation they said 20%, I immediately noticed that they calculate almost as well at Apple as Bureš.
Anyway, I'm surprised by the new, larger size of the iPad and disappointed that it isn't lighter. I had a 9.7 pro but I sold it, mainly because it was just heavy - not too heavy, but just heavy and I didn't use the stylus nearly as much as I imagined - for example, I really missed any stylus support in Keynote. For (hints of) work, I prefer a similarly compact Macbook (I would immediately upgrade to a higher processor if I could, since the processor is the Macbook's biggest pruser, along with the camera). Jobs coined a strategy (with which I did not agree) that he knows I need (email, web, photos, music) and I don't need (everything else). Cook wreaks havoc. It's like a computer, but it can't do things like a computer, it's a smart reader, but damn heavy.. At the same time, the hw they have on iPads seems decent. Anyone know how much RAM it will have?