The long-awaited Apple “Spring Loaded” event took place on Tuesday April 20th, 2021. Like the fall events of last year, this one too was held as a virtual event, pre-recorded at the Apple Park.
I thought the most interesting and relevant announcements were the following:
AirTags, a completely new product category for Apple.
Updates to Apple Podcasts, especially the new subscription mechanism for monetization.
The completely revamped iMac featuring the new M1 chip.
The updated iPad Pro, which now also comes with the new M1 chip, as well as a Liquid Retina XDR display in the larger 12.9” version.
Intro with Tim Cook
The intro segment was shot in a cool way featuring CEO Tim Cook walking and talking in a sunny Apple Park. Again, Cook spoke about the climate work Apple is doing and accentuated the goal of becoming 100% carbon neutral by 2030, which includes their entire supply chain.
Cook also brought up new Apple Card features, of which the most relevant was Apple Card Family. It allows all holders of a shared Apple Card to build their own credit score history. Previously only the main card holder got the benefit of history accumulation.
Apple Podcasts
In a quick segment on Apple Podcasts, Cook introduced big changes not only to the Podcasts app itself but also to the way content creators can monetize through a new subscription mechanism. Here’s how The Verge reported on this right after the event:
The company is launching subscriptions within the Apple Podcasts app […] People will be able to subscribe to content from the app for extra perks, like ad-free and bonus content, as well as early access. It’ll launch in 170 regions and countries next month. It appears that content creators will have to pay Apple $19.99 per year in order to offer subscriptions, and Apple will take 30 percent of revenue for the first year and 15 percent for the years following.
The app will also get a redesign with channels to help people find new content curated by their favorite creators. These channels will feature artwork, titles, and descriptions unique to Apple Podcasts.
It’ll be interesting to see how these new features will stir up the podcasting landscape, where Spotify has gained a lot of new ground lately, but where we have other interesting products as well, such as the highly acclaimed independent Overcast player.
AirTags
As I wrote a few days ago, it was expected that Apple will release the AirTags in this event – and for once the rumors were true. Already earlier this month, Apple announced that it will enable third-party companies to locate lost items in the Find My app, but now they came out with their own new tracking product.
An AirTag looks and works pretty much as anticipated, i.e. you can attach it to keys, wallets, or anything else you want to find quickly and easily when lost. Your iPhone, together with the Find My app, acts as a compass guiding you visually and haptically to the AirTag you wish to locate. It’s apparently very accurate thanks to the U1 ultra-wideband chip found in iPhone 11/12 and in Apple Watch Series 6.
As expected, besides talking about accuracy and “precision finding”, Apple also wanted to tackle concerns regarding security and privacy. AirTags feature unwanted tag detection and rotating bluetooth signal identifiers to prevent unwanted location tracking.
And naturally, there are accessories even for this little device! Can’t wait to see the price of that handcrafted Hermès leather “Bag Charm” accessory.
Apple TV 4K
In this segment, we got some updates on Apple TV+ content, but the main announcement was the new Apple TV 4K device. It’s a new version of the Apple TV “puck”, featuring an A12 bionic chip and capable of 4K high frame rate HDR output.
There’s also a nice new color balancing feature. Together with an iPhone, you can analyze and calibrate the color output of the puck, which instantly makes your television (i.e. your actual third party viewing screen) look better. Sure, color calibration is not a new thing per se, and most televisions have that functionality, but this does look like a simple and easy way to do it.
Oh, and finally the remote control got a much needed new design, including a touch-enabled clickpad. It was high time Apple did something here considering how utterly useless the old remote control was. You couldn’t even tell if it was upside down when you picked it up in a dark room.
The completely revamped iMac
Apple began the segment by reminding us that they are making good progress in their 2-year transition to Apple silicon. The M1-powered Macs we got in November (MacBook Air, MacBook Pro 13”, and Mac Mini) have been exceptionally well received. People have been blown away by the performance, low heat, and battery life of M1-powered Macs.
Now it was time to introduce a completely new M1-powered iMac – and I have to say that the new form factor looks stunning! It’s basically just a single sheet of glass, very thin and elegant, and it comes in seven playful colors.
The colors are especially prominent on the back side, because the front side consists mostly of the 24” display. That’s the only size the new iMac comes in, at least for now.
The new M1-powered iMac comes in seven colors and is only 11.5mm thin. Image credit: Apple
The display is a 4.5K Retina display with 11.3 million pixels, True Tone, 500 nits of brightness, and over a billion colors. It also features a new kind of coating, which should be less reflective. The incredible 11.5mm thinness is thanks to the M1 chip, which allows for a smaller logic board containing just two small fans due to less heat.
Remote working and video meetings will get a boost thanks to an improved 1080 HD FaceTime camera, a studio-quality three-microphone array, and a six-speaker sound system. Apple claims the new iMac delivers the best sound system ever in a Mac.
When it comes to connectivity, the new iMac features four USB-C ports, of which two are also Thunderbolt ports. There’s also a new magnetic power cable, which also has Ethernet running through it, which means that the RJ45 port is now in the power brick (and thus there’s one cable less on your desk).
Apple has also made some updates to the peripherals. The Magic Mouse and the Trackpad look more or less the same as before, but now they also come in seven different colors. The Magic Keyboard, however, now comes with Touch ID, which also works wirelessly.
Looking at the pricing, the basic iMac comes at $1299 and the high-end model at $1699, but even that one will require some updates (e.g. RAM from 8 to 16GB and storage from 512GB to 1TB), which will drive the price even higher.
In any case, a very compelling update to the iMac and I’m guessing it will be a huge hit.
iPad Pro
Finally, there were also updates to the iPad Pro, which (surprise) no longer comes with an A-chip, but with the new M1 chip. Apparently the new iPad Pro is 50% faster in terms of CPU power than the previous iPad Pro.
It now also comes with a faster USB-C (Thunderbolt) port and supports 5G.
The new 12MP TrueDepth front-facing camera allows for some neat tricks in video meetings, i.e. it can automatically pan and zoom when you're on a video call, making sure you're always in the center of the frame. Apple calls this feature “Center Stage”.
The biggest iPad Pro update was the new Liquid Retina XDR display, which unfortunately only comes in the larger 12.9” version. It contains innovations previously only seen in the high-end Pro Display XDR and comes with crazy specs, like 1000 nits full screen brightness.
Conclusion
All things considered, the “Spring Loaded” event delivered a solid package of relevant updates and we even got a completely new product – the Airtag – which of course is a rare treat. I’m also very excited to see how the new updates to Apple Podcasts will impact the entire podcasting ecosystem.
The new iMac with its stunning new sleek design stole the show, at least in my opinion, and I’m definitely going to take a deeper look at the specs, because soon I will need a Mac capable of editing 4K video. The new iMac can handle up to five streams of lossless 4K video and its Retina display is beautiful.
The iPad Pro, especially the larger 12.9” version with the Liquid Retina XDR display, continues to be an impressive device. So much power in such a thin mobile device is incredible – and it’s not crazy expensive. I would expect that more and more people will choose an iPad Pro, together with a Magic Keyboard, to function as their primary mobile computer instead of a MacBook Air or Pro.