iPad Pro 2018 and MacBook Air 2018: First impressions

The good, the bad, and what we didn't get at this latest Apple event, and all the new features from iOS 12.1. Let's get right to the core of this week's Apple News and Rumors. [MUSIC] Apple announced three new products at its latest launch event in Brooklyn, New York. And there were really no surprises here because we pretty much expected all of it based on the rumors. iPad Pros, Mac Book Air and Mac Mini, well I guess in this case it would be five products because there's two iPad pros and we also got an Apple pencil, then you would have to count the keyboard. So let's just call it three for now. Now What was kind of surprising or at least disappointing on my end was that there was no mention of that air power mat. Now something must have gone terribly wrong with this product because it's very unlike Apple to wait over a year to take a product to market. That they had already announced. Now let's talk about the products that we did end up with, starting with those new iPad Pros. Now we have an 11 inch display, and a 12.9 inch display, but that 12.9 inch display will have Have a much smaller footprint than the previous 12.9 inch iPad Pro. That's because it now has an edge to edge display, which we kind of already know about as well. It doesn't have a home button, and it does have face id But it doesn't have a notch which is great. The other important thing to point out about the display is that its LCD and not OLED like some of the rumors were speculating, and has those rounded edges, The frame of the iPad itself has also changed. Aside from being slimmer, it's kind of flat. So, it's reminiscent of the iPhone 5S, which is good for some people. Some people don't like it. I'm okay with it, I guess. Now this is gonna be very very powerful iPad it's running an error A12X bionic so that means you can run a full version of Photoshop like was noted in the key note, now the other thing that could be persuade is good or bad is. Is that Apple has eliminated the lightning port and now changed it for a USBC connector. So this is good because it gives the iPad more flexibility to connect to other devices, to transmit videos to other displays. And even connect other Apple products. The downside is you will have to switch up your cables. Now, the smart connector is located right above the USBC port which is different than the iPads previously but also had been noted in some of the rumors. But probably the worst news for a lot of people is the fact that it doesn't have a headphone jack. That means they're forcing you to buy one of these, and spend $9 On a dongle, because it's not included in the box. Apple also announced a new Apple pencil for these iPads, which now has controls on the sides and it now snaps magnetically to the top of the iPad and charges wirelessly, which is kind of brilliant because at least You don't have to do this. But the downside is it's $30 more expensive than the original Apple Pencil which was already priced at $99. That, and it's only compatible with the new iPads, which aren't cheap. The cheapest model of the iPad is the 11 inch with 64 gigs of storage, which runs at $799, but you can spend Up to $1,900 for the largest model with 1 terabyte of storage. That's not even counting the Apple Pencil and the keyboard. And the product they announced, much like what the rumors had predicted, was a MacBook Air. And it had been over four years since Apple had updated this laptop. And ten years since its launch, so it was in desperate need of a refresh, Now, a lot of lines up with what we had heard of before, so a 13 inch retina screen, slimmer bezels, it has touch ID on the keyboard, but all the design changes are kind of in line with what we had been seeing from the other MAC books, so It's great but it's not necessarily new. Now they did get rid of a lot of the ports but it now has two Thunderbolt 3 ports on one side and and luckily a headphone jack on the other side. And another cool thing is, that it's EDU compatible, which means you could have an even more powerful computer. Now, what makes me kind of sad is, that the apple on these devices, the new ones, it doesn't light up. The other sad thing is, that it no longer starts below $1,000. The new price point for this one, at least the cheapest model Is $1,199, and you can spend up to $2,600 if you want all the bells and whistles. The other notable product that doesn't get enough airtime is the new Mac Mini, in this case a refreshed Mac Mini, which we were also expecting. And All of the upgrades were in line with the rumors so better processor, more storage space, and plenty of ports. It also has a T2 security chip which brings data encryption to the Mac Mini which is also a plus. Now this one also got a price hike and it now costs $799. Next up, in 2019, thanks to Tim Cook teasing it is the Mac Pro update which is also in desperate need of a refresh. [SOUND] Now this week, Apple also released its latest software updates for tvOS, macOS, watchOS, and iOS. Now let's talk about iOS for its mobile devices, in this case 12.1, which brings your general bug fixes and some new emojis. Redheads, kangaroos, mangoes, among others. You can go check them out now. But the most important thing here is that it finally allows group FaceTime. It's a feature we've been waiting for since the iOS 12 update, but it got delayed. This means You can video chat with 32 of your closest friends, if you have that many friends. Honestly, I don't know why you would want to video chat with 32 people, but the option's there. Now, if you've just purchased an iPhone XR, XS, or X MAX, You now have live control of the blur in portrait mode, which is kind of cool, and it also comes with a dual-sense support that Apple had promised for these newer devices. The Watch OS 5.1 update did not go so well. That is because maybe twelve hours after it was released Apple had to take it back, that's because users complained on Twitter and Reddit that the update was actually rendering their Series 4 completely useless. So it was bricking their device. Now if you've already updated to Watch OS OS 5.1 and your device is still running then you're probably good. But if this happen to you, you might wanna consider contacting Apple Care, at least that's what Apple suggest. Now the biggest update to watch OS 5.1 had to do with fall detection. Once the Apple watch detects a fall, it will not only be able to alert emergency services but now it will actually play a recorded message telling them that you've fallen, and giving them your exact coordinates which is pretty important. [MUSIC] That does it for this show but we will soon be publishing the four of you all these Apple products, so come back to c.net after that And also, I haven't said this in a while but if you like this show please like this video and subscribe so you don't miss another episode of The Apple Core. [MUSIC]