Apple’s April 2021 Event: All the Little Things
Apple events are always packed with little details that don’t make it into the main presentation or are easy to miss in the flurry of announcements. Some tidbits are buried in footnotes, while others are tucked into word clouds on Keynote slides or in release notes. Today’s event was no exception, so after having a chance to dig in a little deeper, here is an assortment of details about what Apple announced.
Note: you can also check out our standalone overviews for the new iPad Pro, iMac, Apple TV, and AirTags with more details about each product.
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In Praise of the Apple iPad Air (Premium)
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Some will be amused by this, and I suppose some will even be outraged. But there is just something special about the new iPad Air.
I wasn’t planning to write about the iPad Air. I mentioned it last week in New Year, New Travel Tech (Premium), in which I described a few of the travel and tech items that I recently purchased now that my wife and I are vaccinated and travel can happen again. And it will pop up in future “What I Use” columns, of course. But what can I possibly add to this discussion? I use the iPad only for entertainment (or “content consumption”) purposes, meaning reading and watching videos, mostly. So, much of the magic of this device, from its ability to replace a laptop, sort of, to its Apple Pencil 2 support, is just not of much interest to me day-to-day.
Today, the iPad is almost as good for creating as it is consuming
Apple launched the iPad as an aluminum-and-glass slab, reminiscent of the iPhone, that worked best for content consumption. While the same materials and shape prevail in today s designs, keyboard and stylus accessories can turn it into a full-fledged productivity device.
In a 2018 ad campaign, as Apple pivoted the tablet towards productivity capabilities that rivaled its consumption abilities, the company challenged customers to rethink their definition of a computing device by asking, What s a computer?
Apple s slate runs a tablet-focused fork of iOS called iPadOS. Apple released the latest version, iPadOS 14, in September 2020.