Spring loaded obviously means Air Tags will be self winding.
A variant that is powered by regenerative braking, in the United States, will be called Apple/Jack.
Air Tags Pro will come with a free subscription to Apple Fitness+, to track your calorie-burn while you track down your lost Starbucks half caf decaf mint mocha latte (hint, you set it on the roof of the car while putting junior in the baby seat).
Note: These predictions are valid only during the month of April; the earlier in the month, the better.
My guess is that they'll add 120 Hz Pro Motion support and processor upgrades to both iPad Air and (maybe?) the base iPad, as well as support for Apple Pencil 2 on the base iPad.
Of course this begs the question of what happens to the iPad Pro? I'm thinking spec bumps on the processor, chipset (additional security and UWB support), cameras, Lidar, and display - plus a second USB-C port on the long edge, and a new Apple Pencil that's supported only on the new iPad Pro models.
Would love to see a new iPad Mini with all the key components spec'd up, UWB support, and Apple Pencil 2 support. I'm ready to be surprised on the mini, but I'm not holding my breath.
AirTags, if announced, will be welcome but there's nothing groundbreaking here. But AirTags will compel Apple to normalize support for UWB across more of their devices.
Why would they upgrade the Air again less than 6 months after the last upgrade? Do you know how many people Apple would piss off by doing that? Me, for one. The next Air upgrade is rumored for early 2022, and it might get the Pro Motion treatment then. But, next week? How did you even come up with that idea? I agree about a Pencil 3 possibility, as there have been rumblings about it for a few months now. Maybe one with AR drawing capabilities, as the event logo may or may not suggest.
Breathe in ... breathe out. Repeat this a couple of times until you feel calm.
This isn't a competition and it doesn't have to make sense for everyone. Apple decides when they need to upgrade their products and we all get to play the "Maybe Apple will do this and maybe Apple will do that" game leading up to each product announcement. It's fun, a lot more fun than listening to the so-called experts who try to make a name for themselves based on their prediction prowess. If you ignore all of the times they fail miserably, their success rate seems pretty good. So why not play along and throw out some things that the pundits haven't been parroting each other on for the past 6 months? AirTags ... ho hum.
I think Apple needs to get some foundational support for new system-level capabilities like Find My rolled out into as many products as possible as quickly as possible. If they add this capability to the base iPad the (fairly) new Air is going to feel a little left behind. But they still have to provide a big enough reason to refresh the Air, and adding more of the current "Pro" features may make a refresh more attractive. I really don't think Apple cares about how often they refresh their products and what an "early" refresh may mean to current owners. They've short cycled the iPad in the past, and the M1 Macs were kind of a gut punch to their Intel siblings.
Let's see how it goes next week. I like surprises and there is no penalty for being way off the mark. I'm not being paid for my opinions, so if you are not getting what you're paying for, which is zero, why the animosity?
Lol, fair enough. But Apple does care about pissing off it’s customers. Very deeply. And to upgrade a 5 month old product would not only anger many many people, it would simply not make any sense. And say what you will about the analysts and pundits (I will probably agree with you), but if there was even a remote possibility of this upgrade, there would have been at least whispers about it the past 5 months. An iPad Air now with Pro Motion would differ very little from a Pro model and would canibalize that product for Apple. No, they will need to update the Pro first, then add 120 to the Air at a later date in order to preserve the differences between them, and justify the added cost of the Pro.
Anyway, apologies for the hostile tone of the previous post. I meant to express incredulity, not animosity.
No problem, I understand what you're saying and would never advocate that Apple would indiscriminately piss off its customers by pulling the rug out from under them by "obsoleting" or kicking an existing product down a notch by replacing it in their lineup too soon. But they have made some product's time in the spotlight rather short, like the iPad3 to iPad4 transition, and the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13 (and to a lesser extend the Mac mini) last year with the M1 versions - because they were laying down some seriously new foundational stuff, like Lightning support with the iPad 4 and Apple Silicon with the MacBooks.
For the most part Apple does seem to stick with fairly predictable upgrade cycles, at least on what they consider to be their mainstream products. I'm speculating that Apple will want to bring UWB support to more products as soon as possible and doesn't want to leave the iPad Air 4 behind. I'm also speculating that the next iPad Pro will be a very significant upgrade that creates more than a performance and one or two features delta between itself and the Air, meaning the Air becomes the top of the "traditional iPad" lineup and the new Pro is the archetype for a new species of iPad altogether. If you're going to dream, you may as well dream big. But also be prepared for another round of somewhat predictable Spec Bump-itus.
I’m almost hoping for 90 minutes of slick camera pans through Apple HQ, moving from leader to leader who just grin and wave, just for the fun of people slowly getting impatient of not seeing anything getting announced.
Apple doesn’t seem to use event names too literally, but perhaps it’s referring to new springy stands for new iMacs? They could do a Pixar-inspired jumping iMac commercial that would be pretty great.
Hopefully a new M1 iMac will be able to Time-Machine itself from a 2009 iMac running Sierra.
I'd be bummed (but would understand) if it can't make such a big jump.
The most important thing to us is our enormous Photos Library. I've seen one can sometimes place the package in the right place and a fresh-Photos will up-convert. That would be the 2nd attempt.
I’m so tired of hearing about Air Tags. This isn’t going to be a big product,
the same as the iPhone, iPad and watch, right?
I dunno - they could have helped my dad find a few pairs of glasses. $40 would be a cheap insurance policy.
Then again since you have no need, no one else could be possibly be interested, eh?
Air Tags isn’t the same as a phone, a watch and an iPad, mall of which I, my wife and daughter have. This is a very specialized product. It serves one purpose, and that’s it. At $39 each, that’s a lot for a one trick pony, particularly since there are other ways to find some of the things being touted by companies trying to sell these things, not terribly succ4ssfully, by the way.
‘’and how could these big disks have helped find glasses? You’re going to attach it to the glasses? That’s nuts!vi see other companies saying that it could be used to find your keys. Same problem. And really, how often do we lose our keys? It happens to me once every several years. If there’s ten items you want to tag with these, it will be $390, if you do it one at a time. Somewhat less if they off them in multiples. That’s more than most products cost. It’s a big investment for just finding things around the house. Because if you lose something somewhere else, someone will find it for you, and keep it for themselves.
I’m so tired of hearing about Air Tags. This isn’t going to be a big product, particularly if they’re $39 each as the new Samsung product is. I just don’t see that many being sold at that price. Even the third party products at $29 aren’t doing that well.
Yeah people aren’t interested in tags at all there is no market for them. Look at Tile what a failure they have only sold 26 million tiles since they got crowdfunded.
Specially people within the Apple’s ecosystem will not be interested in a first party Tag.
/s
Tile isn’t doing that well financially. And the question is whether Apple’s product will only work with Apple products, or those having an Apple account. If so, it’s really limited.
I also remember that files product costs $29, whereas Apple’s is thought to cost $39. Bit difference.
I’m so tired of hearing about Air Tags. This isn’t going to be a big product, particularly if they’re $39 each as the new Samsung product is. I just don’t see that many being sold at that price. Even the third party products at $29 aren’t doing that well.
Because you're not willing to spend the money doesn't mean others aren't. And what facts do you have to support that "third party products at $29 aren't doing well." ?
Financial information released, anecdotal info in articles about the market for them, etc.
I suppose you’re planning on buying a half dozen, or so? And I guess you have bought a few Tile products.
I’m so tired of hearing about Air Tags. This isn’t going to be a big product, particularly if they’re $39 each as the new Samsung product is. I just don’t see that many being sold at that price. Even the third party products at $29 aren’t doing that well.
The real (already announced) news it is it built in to other devices. Stand-alone trackers will probably be niche.
To be painfully honest. Apple's "events" have been horrible, borderline step ford wife creepy, (reference to a movie) and boring for quite some time now. I'll save the waste of an hour or more, and just read the highlights, if any.
Fortunately, most people don’t feel that way, just the opposite.
I’m so tired of hearing about Air Tags. This isn’t going to be a big product, particularly if they’re $39 each as the new Samsung product is. I just don’t see that many being sold at that price. Even the third party products at $29 aren’t doing that well.
I have mixed feelings on this one. Part of me wants them to be released so rumor sites will move on and talk about something else. Part of me enjoys how ridiculous rumor sites look for incorrectly predicting their release for last two years.
Also, hat tip to Apple, no one really knows what they are up to for next week.
Considering that the "AirTags" name was in an Apple-produced video more than a year ago, I'd like them to get released too.
I’m so tired of hearing about Air Tags. This isn’t going to be a big product, particularly if they’re $39 each as the new Samsung product is. I just don’t see that many being sold at that price. Even the third party products at $29 aren’t doing that well.
I agree. I hope they don't get more a few minutes of stage time, as otherwise Apple are really stretching for news.
There's more to these than meets the eye. These are by definition tracking devices. Think about that. This from the world's most valuable corporation that has made privacy - the antithesis of tracking - a flagship product feature. WCGW?
Last time i checked, my iPhone sends my data to Apple who sells it for “Personalized ads.” this setting came turned on by default in iOS 14. Please enlighten me about how Apple makes you feel so safe with your privacy?
Basically, nothing new except another copy of another company product, Tile. Sounds like the foreign influence Apple has is designed to copy and disadvantage all smaller US innovators.
I’m so tired of hearing about Air Tags. This isn’t going to be a big product, particularly if they’re $39 each as the new Samsung product is. I just don’t see that many being sold at that price. Even the third party products at $29 aren’t doing that well.
I agree. I hope they don't get more a few minutes of stage time, as otherwise Apple are really stretching for news.
There's more to these than meets the eye. These are by definition tracking devices. Think about that. This from the world's most valuable corporation that has made privacy - the antithesis of tracking - a flagship product feature. WCGW?
Last time i checked, my iPhone sends my data to Apple who sells it for “Personalized ads.” this setting came turned on by default in iOS 14. Please enlighten me about how Apple makes you feel so safe with your privacy?
What was turned off in iOS 14 is other companies doing that, which is easy enough to google. Facebook for instance are hostile to Apple on this. iAD is dead and Apple don't do this anymore.
Keys. I assume the tags will beep if you need them to. I bet the delay was perhaps battery life. The battery needs to last a long time, Months preferably.
Comments
it’s the return of the eMac!!!
yaaaaay!!!
👀
I'd be bummed (but would understand) if it can't make such a big jump.
The most important thing to us is our enormous Photos Library. I've seen one can sometimes place the package in the right place and a fresh-Photos will up-convert. That would be the 2nd attempt.
We'll see.
Cheers!
E.
‘’and how could these big disks have helped find glasses? You’re going to attach it to the glasses? That’s nuts!vi see other companies saying that it could be used to find your keys. Same problem. And really, how often do we lose our keys? It happens to me once every several years. If there’s ten items you want to tag with these, it will be $390, if you do it one at a time. Somewhat less if they off them in multiples. That’s more than most products cost. It’s a big investment for just finding things around the house. Because if you lose something somewhere else, someone will find it for you, and keep it for themselves.
I also remember that files product costs $29, whereas Apple’s is thought to cost $39. Bit difference.
I suppose you’re planning on buying a half dozen, or so? And I guess you have bought a few Tile products.
luggage
https://appleinsider.com/articles/20/04/02/unreleased-airtags-name-spotted-in-apples-own-support-video
Keys. I assume the tags will beep if you need them to. I bet the delay was perhaps battery life. The battery needs to last a long time, Months preferably.