- [Man On Device] We look forward to seeing you again sir.
Have a great day.
- I wasn't expecting all that.
Apple announced so many exciting things
at their Spring Loaded event that
I don't even know what to talk about first. (scoffs)
Actually,
of course I do.
(soft upbeat music)
- The all new completely redesigned iMac.
(upbeat music)
- We haven't really seen a substantial redesign
of the iMac since the aluminum unibody was released
in 2009.
That's over a decade ago.
But here we are now with something
that is colorfully refreshing.
Seven colors, that is.
They really do harken back to the fruity colors available
on the old iMac G3 of, oh, so long ago.
Allowing users to really personalize their office space.
No fruity names though.
The press release lists the available colors
as blue, green, pink, yellow,
orange, purple, and silver.
I'm really digging this design.
The white frame around the display's
a refreshing contrast to the black
and aluminum we've been placing on our desks for years now.
And the hinge is very reminiscent
of the old Apple cinema design,
from way back when.
It really takes me back
to when I was a kid, wowed by all the bright colors
of the original iMac, and just how outside of the beige box
they were.
(loud sigh)
Just look at that orange one.
I really want that on my desk.
Clearly, this is a replacement for the old 21.5 inch iMac,
the desktop for normal people.
Supporting a brand new 24 inch, 4.5K retina display,
the new design is very thin at 11.5 millimeters,
which Apple says is possible,
thanks to the efficiency of the M1 chip, which yes,
it gets in here,
That thinness has dictated quite a few
of the design choices on the iMac.
Interestingly, the chin remains.
Though, now it's behind the front glass
and no longer sports the Apple logo.
Within the chin is where Apple has placed the new,
much smaller board,
speakers and cooling.
And Apple claims the whole thing will run
at under 10 decibels,
during normal use.
That small footprint also means
that the power supply is external now,
which I'm pretty sure is a first for the iMac.
This power brick, which has meant to sit
under your desk has an optional gigabit ethernet port
keeping those infrastructural connections down below.
This will leave only a woven color matched cable visible
up on the surface of your otherwise clean desktop.
It connects magnetically too.
Apple also took quite a bit of time
to note the updated speakers, camera, and microphone.
Because of the thin enclosure,
there are now six speakers to drive all the frequencies,
with support for Dolby Atmos.
This smaller iMac also gets the 1080p FaceTime HD camera
we saw in last year's Intel 27 inch iMac update.
Connectivity has slimmed down quite a bit with the new iMac.
The headphone jack remains, but there are only
up to four USB type C ports, two of which are Thunderbolt,
and they can support a 6K Pro Display XDR.
No word on multiple lower res screens though.
On the peripheral front, keyboards, mice,
and track pads are also color matched,
and better still is the addition of optional touch ID.
It communicates wirelessly through what the company says
is an encrypted channel that links
with the secure enclave in the M1.
It's about time fingerprint readers made it to the desk.
Starting at 1299,
the basic iMac has a 7-core GPU M1,
eight gigs of RAM,
256 gigabyte SSD, only two Thunderbolt ports,
no ethernet,
and four of the seven available colors.
Personally, I'm disappointed to see the limited connectivity
on this cube, which will make it harder to recommend.
So perhaps the grandma model or the, I love dongles model.
The upgraded 1499 iMac is where you'll get
the full 8-core GPU M1,
an extra two USB type C three ports,
ethernet, the magic keyboard with touch ID.
And you can choose from all the available colors.
After this event, it's clear
that the M1 chip is becoming a centerpiece
of Apple's hardware.
Unifying, quite a line of devices
which now includes the iPad Pro.
In a funny action packed interlude,
featuring Tim Cook disguised as a MI,
Apple showed the M1 gets stolen
from a Mac and inserted in an iPad.
It shows just how efficient and powerful the M1 is.
But I think it's also good for Apple,
because during the great Silicon shortage of 2021,
they can rely on fewer chip varieties for their products.
It's also a substantial spec bump
for the iPad Pro, enabling a Thunderbolt port,
and 5G connectivity, but blah, blah,
there's a new screen.
MiniLED is a thing now.
With the larger 12.9 inch iPad Pro,
Apple has added what they call the Liquid Retina XDR screen.
They're claiming it matches the performance
of the Pro Display XDR.
What they've done is use 10,000 miniLEDs,
which they grouped into 2,500 local dimming zones.
The claims are 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio,
and 1000 nits full-screen brightness.
I'll have to see it to believe it.
For that screen,
you're looking at paying a minimum of 1099,
while the entry price
for the basic small iPad Pro remains at 799.
The iPad Pro has always been an expensive technical showcase
for what Apple has to offer in it's mobile devices.
Like the new ultra wide movement tracking front camera
for web calls.
But iPad OS is still iPad OS.
And I worry that while it's being provided real truth
desktop class hardware, the mobile class software
still can't fully let you take advantage of it all.
I'll explore this a little more
in another video,
get subscribed for that.
But how about an entirely new product?
I have to confess
that I never thought AirTags were going to happen.
Rumors of their impending release have persisted
for years now, but here they are.
At $29 for one, and 100 for four,
they provide an interesting solution
for the forgetful among us.
If your iPhone has a U1 chip, you can be led
with an arrow to your lost AirTag, with Precision Finding.
And if it's really lost, it integrates
with Apple's recently announced, Find My network.
So it will connect
to any nearby iPhone and ping its most up-to-date location.
If you put it in lost mode,
a helpful stranger can NFC connect
to the AirTag and be taken
to a website that will display the owner's contact info,
if provided.
It's powered by one of those small replaceable,
but not rechargeable cell batteries though,
which Apple claims should last for over a year.
Pretty neat.
But the only thing I seem to misplace are my AirPods,
which by the way.
In the world of the Apple TV
there were two things that many of us wanted.
One, a redesign of the Siri remote,
God that touch pad was finicky.
Two, lower prices.
The streaming box market is flooded with simple to use,
low cost devices that get viewers connected.
Well, we got one of those things.
The new Siri remote is very exciting.
There's a five-way D-Pad, like we got years ago,
but it's touch enabled.
So you can use a circular gesture
to jog through your content,
as well as still use directional swipes,
though, if that works like the outgoing remote,
I hope that can be turned off.
There's a power button now too.
And the Siri button has moved to the side,
next to the D-Pad.
It does look like it might be easy to mistakenly press it,
but I'll have to hold it to find out.
The prices however, are the same.
149 for the Apple TV HD, and 179 for the Apple TV 4K.
For that price, you get an updated A12 chip
which supports higher frame rates
at 4K HDR and Dolby vision.
Cleverly, you can calibrate the new iPad TV screen,
by using your iPhone,
simply by holding it up to the display.
How well it compares to a proper calibration tool
is something I'm very curious to try.
But regardless,
that sounds a lot easier than faffing with the TV settings.
Grandma will love it when you do it for her.
There were a couple of service announcements too.
Apple Podcasts gets an updated app,
that I hope is much improved from the old one.
But more interestingly is Apple podcasts subscriptions.
They didn't provide too many details on this,
but creators can register
with the Apple Podcasters Program for $20 per year,
and then set their own pricing for their subscriptions.
I'm curious how much
of a cut Apple will be taking from that.
There's also Apple Card Family,
which sounds like a way to share your credit card
and score with your partner,
and provide allowance to your children digitally.
Oh yeah.
And the iPhone is available in purple,
if that's your favorite color
and you haven't got one already.
(scoffs)
I hope this and the new iMac shows a playful new direction
the company is looking to take with their consumer designs.
Perhaps a MacBook Air ally clamshell iBook.
That'd be cool.
There's still a lot to parse through
as we get our hands on the products to really try them out.
So, keep your eyes peeled
on the channel for more coverage in the coming weeks.
Thanks for watching this Mac address.
Thanks for popping by.
If this is your first time here,
you can watch my first video,
and the end screen cards will now be working,
which is great.
See you (indistinct).