Apple Spring Loaded Event was exciting at the very least. It included the new redesigned 24 inch iMac, the new iPad Pro with the M1 chip, Air Tags, Apple TV 4K, new Redesigned Apple TV Remote, Purple iPhone 12 and in-app podcast subscriptions. Three of these announcements piqued my interest. They are Air Tags, M1 iMac and the M1 iPad Pro.

Air Tags

We have been waiting too long for this announcement. If you don't already know what they are, Apple AirTags are mini battery-powered devices. You will tag your valuables with one. Should you lose them (ex: your pair of keys), you can use your iPhone to now locate them.

Apple is true to its commitment to be carbon neutral and environmentally friendly. Unlike some of its competition, Apple Air Tags come with replaceable CR2022 batteries and IP67 water resistance. This will increase the longevity of the product.

You can purchase a pack of 4 Air Tags for $99. That is not a bad price for an Apple product.

M1 iMac

Last year we saw the introduction of a few Apple Silicone M1 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models. We were expecting a 2021 iMac line up with a new design and M1 powered internals. That is exactly what Apple delivered in this Spring Loaded Event.

The new generation iMacs are very thin. You could say that they are almost iPad like. They come in a variety of vivid colours. Although I am a fan of the space-grey iMac, I must admit that the new colours are refreshing.

The new M1 iMacs have similar RAM limitations as their MacBook siblings. They have an upper limit of 16GB of RAM. I have a 2019 iMac with a Core i9 9900KF processor and 64GB of RAM, and 26GB consumed at the moment. I believe this would get addressed in the upcoming 31" iMac model that is anticipated to be released later this year.

The new iMac will be available to order starting April 30^th.

M1 iPad Pro

The new iPad Pro now comes with an M1 processor with up to 16GB of RAM. This puts it on par with the new MacBook Air, MacBook Pro, MacMini and the recently announced iMac. The device comes with 2 RAM configurations - 8GB and 16GB. That is the most RAM we have seen in an iOS device. This makes me wonder why Apple would do this? I have a theory.

Apple has already ported MacOS to run on Apple Silicone M processors. What if Apple intends to bring MacOS to the iPad? It wouldn't be the MacOS we have on our Macs, but an interface optimized to touch similar to iPadOS. This would be a paradigm shift in computing. For the first time, we could see a fully-featured operating system in a tablet form factor that is powerful than most of the competition out there. 🤯

Conclusion

Apple has come up with some great ideas, and I think it is about time we get some new toys. I am happy about the direction Apple is taking. I wonder what would be the position of the TRC regarding tech similar to Apple Air Tags. I could use one in my key-tag soon.

Apple would be making announced products on April 30^th. We can expect them to be available in Sri Lanka by June. I pray that the microprocessor (chip) shortage would not limit the global availability of the devices. I will be checking Abans, FutureWorld and MacXeon for their availability. Would you know of any other reputed stores that sell Apple products?