April 2021
The Untitled Newsletter Apr 2021
Let's Talk about the New iPad Pro
April 20th, 2021, a day that will live in infamy. No, not really, but Apple did announce new iPad Pro's. I'm sure everyone reading this is very well aware of them. Now that we've had some distance from the actual event I wanted to take a minute to go over the major upgrades to this iPad and how they could effect iPad Pro users.
The M1 and Lots of RAM to Spare
The biggest surprise to me was the addition of the M1 chip. I would have put money on the fact that the M chip line was for the Mac and the iPad Pro would get a A14x. It does make since though for Apple to move the iPad Pro line to the M chip line, they don't have to a Ax chip anymore.
I've been extremely happy with the performance of my M1 Mac Mini, but I don't use it for any creative tasks. I'm really excited to unleash the M1 on my creative workflow. For iPad users that edit videos in LumaFusion, have a ton of layers in Procreate, or edit a lot of Photos in Lightroom this is going to be a massive jump.
One of the interesting piece of the M1 is the fact that the RAM is attached to the chip. So this means we have the same RAM options on the iPad as we do in the M1 Macs. Now this isn't in the configurator, but if you get the 128, 256, or 512GB option you get 8GB of RAM now. This is up from 6GB on the 2020 model. BUT on the 1TB and 2TB models you now get 16GB of RAM. You'll be able to keep more apps alive in the background. For those with a creative workflow, this should dramatically help. If you use LumaFusion and have a lot of 4k clips this means scrolling through library's should be smoother. Procreate users should be able to increase the amount of layers they users.
Just like the RAM, the storage is also attached to the M1 chip. According to Apple the storage speed is double the previous iPad Pro. This means stuff locally on the device will load faster. It's not like the storage on the iPad was slow, but as with everything when a computer gets faster it means we can do more with it on the software side.
Thunderbolt
Speaking of speed the iPads USB-C port is now a Thunderbolt port. This means not only can iPad Pro users use thunderbolt devices but they will get up to 40GB/s for transfer speeds. If we read the tealeaves I'm hoping this means a couple of things for iPadOS 15.
The first is true external monitor support. Apple during the keynote made a point to call out the fact that this iPad Pro can now drive the Pro Display XDR. That's great, but I'm not a big fan of the idea of spending $6000 on a monitor having the content stuck at 4:3, this isn't the Synder Cut after all.
The second thing is local backups. While this is technically possible with previous iPads, even those that use Lightning, with Thunderbolt backups can happen faster. Plug in an external drive and let Time Machine do it's thing. For me this is a huge feature I want Apple to add. I kind of feel like I'm playing with fire right now.
Center Stage
One of the biggest hardware change request I've seen from iPad users over the last year is to move the camera to the long edge of the iPad. While I agree it would be better position, I don't think it would be physically possible with the Apple Pencil charger in that spot.
Apple did change the camera in an interesting way though. A new feature called Canter Stage. They added a ultra wide camera to the front of the iPad, and using software it tracks where you are. This will smartly crop as you move around in the frame. If somebody else jumps in it will widen the frame to include them. I think this is such an interesting way to solve this issue. Apple isn't the first to do this, but I can't think of a product that does this that has the market the iPad has.
Mini LED XDR Display
The new Mini LED XDR display is kind of hard to talk about with out seeing it first. It sounds amazing, and watching the keynote the tech looks super interesting. For now though I'm reserving judgment until I can actually see one.
I am excited that the iPad Pro is gaining HDR again. The iPad Pro second generation added HDR, but it lost it in 2018 when they moved to the Liquid Retina display. This will make watching movies a better experience on the iPad.
The PRO Hangover
Adding all these new features up it's pretty clear that this truly is pro hardware for the iPad Pro. But like I talked about in my video after the event it's so unbelievably clear that there is another shoe that needs to drop. That's the software.
WWDC is just around the corner and we should see the next version of iPadOS announced then. I'm personally hoping to see major changes to the OS that help pro's with their workflows. One of those is pro apps like Final Cut, Logic and, Xcode.
Shortcut - Get Link to File
This is a simple but useful shortcut. I use this anytime I need to send somebody a link to a file. Which lately has been often.
It starts by opening a view to files. Browse through and pick a file. Once selected it will generate a iCloud link to it. Then it opens the share sheet for you to send it to wherever it needs to go.
Wallpaper
This is one of my favorite photos I've taken. It's tunnel view in Yosemite right at sunrise. You can see the outline of El Cap and Half Dome.
This Months Videos
Tips for Using Craft & New Features
How I Turned a Spare iPad into a Server/Dashboard (ft. Pushcut, Zapier, MFC Deck, and HomeDash)
My Task & Project Management Workflow using Things 3 (2021 Edition)
iPad Pro 2021: Let’s Talk About This Newly Announced Game Changing iPad
