Apple's new iPad Pro ads tout augmented reality & mobile notetaking

AppleInsider · January 14, 2018 1:38AM

Apple on Saturday released a pair of video ads for the iPad Pro, concentrating on some of the possibilities brought with September's iOS 11.

The first, "Augment Reality," shows an actress using an ARKit-enhanced app to drop furniture into a public park. In the second, "Take notes," the same actress sits in a tree, using an Apple Pencil and iOS 11's drag-and-drop features.

Both spots are only 15 seconds long, and use the song "Go" by Louis the Child.

The iPad often takes a backseat to the iPhone in advertising, but Apple has been intensifying its efforts to cast the iPad Pro as a legitimate replacement for a laptop. iOS 11 in particular introduced several Mac-like features, some others being a new dock and a dedicated Files app.

mavemufc · January 14, 2018 1:40AM

We need the new ones now though, still don’t have a Pro but don’t see the point in buying one now, waiting for what’s next..

1stntenderbits · January 14, 2018 2:52AM

Hate to be the guy that threadjacks but not sure why AI isn't all over Microcenter offering the base config of the iMac Pro for $1000 off the regular price. They have them for $3999. Must buy in store. Stores average about 5 units per location. A lot of the locations had up to 10 available. I'm guessing that's a better story than Apple has some new ads. Apologies if I'm breaking protocol here.

ihatescreennames · January 14, 2018 3:43AM

I’ve really been waiting to see what great things AR will provide. Dropping furniture in a park will be so handy!

/s

macky the macky · January 14, 2018 6:39AM

Good ads, too short.

georgebmac · January 14, 2018 10:48AM

The iPad Pro offers extraordinary capabilities and potential.
But, until Apple bestows it with a cursor, it's potential as a laptop replacement will be limited because its functionality will be restricted to things you can do with your fingers on a touchscreen laptop.

firelock · January 14, 2018 2:04PM

The notes ad is accurate. My iPad Pro 10.5 with Apple Pencil, Smart Keyboard, iOS 11, and GoodNotes 4 has transformed the way that I take notes. The built-in document scanning with the Apple Notes app is also a huge help to my note taking. I tend to use the Apple Notes app for note taking that involves mostly typing. And then I use GoodNotes 4 for my handwritten note taking using Apple Pencil. I do a lot of process schematics for work, and I will now sketch those out in GoodNotes first. Being able to sketch out workflows using the stylus as if I was working on paper, but also being able to make changes easily because it is digital, has truly fulfilled the idea of “digital paper” in my case. Once I get the process worked out on my iPad I’ll redraw the diagrams in PowerPoint on my Mac so that they are clean. I find it easier to build the initial diagram on the desktop, but I frequently make changes to the deck using the PowerPoint app on my iPad. I also prefer presenting the deck (using a projector in a conference room) on my iPad because I can use the Apple Pencil to mark up my diagram like John Madden and also add notes to the diagram as people comment and add input.

bulk001 · January 14, 2018 2:04PM

I am in the market for a new iPad as my current one is four years old and slow. As someone mentioned though, is this what it has all come to - placing furniture into a live scene? Remember when wearables at CES were the next great thing in fashion and lifestyle that was going to change everything? Or 3D TV was going to change the way we consumed media? For all the billions spent by these big companies I was hoping for a little more I guess. Till it does I’ll buy furniture the old fashioned wayand go to a furniture store and try stuff out. Who is using AI successfully right now? Big businesses where I suspect were we are the furniture! I will probably wait another year before upgrading I guess.

flaneur · January 14, 2018 2:18PM

bulk001 said:

I am in the market for a new iPad as my current one is four years old and slow. As someone mentioned though, is this what it has all come to - placing furniture into a live scene? Remember when wearables at CES were the next great thing in fashion and lifestyle that was going to change everything? Or 3D TV was going to change the way we consumed media? For all the billions spent by these big companies I was hoping for a little more I guess. Till it does I’ll buy furniture the old fashioned wayand go to a furniture store and try stuff out. Who is using AI successfully right now? Big businesses where I suspect were we are the furniture! I will probably wait another year before upgrading I guess.

I hope you read @Firelock's post above. I think drawing on top of pages or images in real time and projecting this to a live audience qualifies as an excelkent use case of augmented reality.

edit: maybe "human-augmented reality" if you want to split hairs about it.

edited January 2018

strangedays · January 14, 2018 2:57PM

bulk001 said:

I am in the market for a new iPad as my current one is four years old and slow. As someone mentioned though, is this what it has all come to - placing furniture into a live scene? Remember when wearables at CES were the next great thing in fashion and lifestyle that was going to change everything? Or 3D TV was going to change the way we consumed media? For all the billions spent by these big companies I was hoping for a little more I guess. Till it does I’ll buy furniture the old fashioned wayand go to a furniture store and try stuff out. Who is using AI successfully right now? Big businesses where I suspect were we are the furniture! I will probably wait another year before upgrading I guess.

If you need an ipad today for your current use cases, what does the AR stuff matter, and how could they possibly make you wait?

thanx_al · January 14, 2018 4:27PM

bulk001 said:

I am in the market for a new iPad as my current one is four years old and slow. As someone mentioned though, is this what it has all come to - placing furniture into a live scene? Remember when wearables at CES were the next great thing in fashion and lifestyle that was going to change everything? Or 3D TV was going to change the way we consumed media? For all the billions spent by these big companies I was hoping for a little more I guess. Till it does I’ll buy furniture the old fashioned wayand go to a furniture store and try stuff out. Who is using AI successfully right now? Big businesses where I suspect were we are the furniture! I will probably wait another year before upgrading I guess.

This other things you mentioned are called HYPE. Apple's detractors like to accuse it of being "late to the game" when in reality they are much better at filtering out such crap. In some instances that have been noticeably slow (keyboard+pencil for iPad), but when the innovation comes it really works (usually, with notable exceptions and missteps). So AR has uses, just not all the hype and "shiny objects" of VR or voice assistants launched by others. If Apple took the same approach as Amazon, for instance, there would be Siri on my toaster, Siri on my water bottle, Siri on my socks. This "burns out" a potentially useful tool just to get it out there and try to get early market share. We know the lack of success Our Lady of Perpetual Beta has had making that strategy work.

bulk001 · January 14, 2018 5:39PM

You may not understsnd context so I will lay it out for you a little. Apple is presumable spending millions of dollars telling people that the AI in the new iPad is something customers should consider when buying s tablet and presumable the iPad excels in some way in doing this. In that context I personally will stick with the old one I have. Clearly this sort of AI could be important to you so please have at it and decorate the virtual world. Have fun with that!

StrangeDays said:

bulk001 said:

I am in the market for a new iPad as my current one is four years old and slow. As someone mentioned though, is this what it has all come to - placing furniture into a live scene? Remember when wearables at CES were the next great thing in fashion and lifestyle that was going to change everything? Or 3D TV was going to change the way we consumed media? For all the billions spent by these big companies I was hoping for a little more I guess. Till it does I’ll buy furniture the old fashioned wayand go to a furniture store and try stuff out. Who is using AI successfully right now? Big businesses where I suspect were we are the furniture! I will probably wait another year before upgrading I guess.

If you need an ipad today for your current use cases, what does the AR stuff matter, and how could they possibly make you wait?

bulk001 · January 14, 2018 5:41PM

Thanks flaneur for pointing that out. Yes, I personally (evidently if I don’t say that I am presumed by some to be speaking for the whole world) do see value in that that goes beyond the “Gee wiz” kinda thing.

flaneur said:

bulk001 said:

I am in the market for a new iPad as my current one is four years old and slow. As someone mentioned though, is this what it has all come to - placing furniture into a live scene? Remember when wearables at CES were the next great thing in fashion and lifestyle that was going to change everything? Or 3D TV was going to change the way we consumed media? For all the billions spent by these big companies I was hoping for a little more I guess. Till it does I’ll buy furniture the old fashioned wayand go to a furniture store and try stuff out. Who is using AI successfully right now? Big businesses where I suspect were we are the furniture! I will probably wait another year before upgrading I guess.

I hope you read @Firelock's post above. I think drawing on top of pages or images in real time and projecting this to a live audience qualifies as an excelkent use case of augmented reality.

edit: maybe "human-augmented reality" if you want to split hairs about it.

bulk001 · January 14, 2018 5:43PM

Yeah, Apple Watch was kinda hyped I guess. At least as a fashion accessory.

thanx_al said:

bulk001 said:

I am in the market for a new iPad as my current one is four years old and slow. As someone mentioned though, is this what it has all come to - placing furniture into a live scene? Remember when wearables at CES were the next great thing in fashion and lifestyle that was going to change everything? Or 3D TV was going to change the way we consumed media? For all the billions spent by these big companies I was hoping for a little more I guess. Till it does I’ll buy furniture the old fashioned wayand go to a furniture store and try stuff out. Who is using AI successfully right now? Big businesses where I suspect were we are the furniture! I will probably wait another year before upgrading I guess.

This other things you mentioned are called HYPE. Apple's detractors like to accuse it of being "late to the game" when in reality they are much better at filtering out such crap. In some instances that have been noticeably slow (keyboard+pencil for iPad), but when the innovation comes it really works (usually, with notable exceptions and missteps). So AR has uses, just not all the hype and "shiny objects" of VR or voice assistants launched by others. If Apple took the same approach as Amazon, for instance, there would be Siri on my toaster, Siri on my water bottle, Siri on my socks. This "burns out" a potentially useful tool just to get it out there and try to get early market share. We know the lack of success Our Lady of Perpetual Beta has had making that strategy work.

dewme · January 14, 2018 5:53PM

firelock said:

The notes ad is accurate. My iPad Pro 10.5 with Apple Pencil, Smart Keyboard, iOS 11, and GoodNotes 4 has transformed the way that I take notes. The built-in document scanning with the Apple Notes app is also a huge help to my note taking. I tend to use the Apple Notes app for note taking that involves mostly typing. And then I use GoodNotes 4 for my handwritten note taking using Apple Pencil. I do a lot of process schematics for work, and I will now sketch those out in GoodNotes first. Being able to sketch out workflows using the stylus as if I was working on paper, but also being able to make changes easily because it is digital, has truly fulfilled the idea of “digital paper” in my case. Once I get the process worked out on my iPad I’ll redraw the diagrams in PowerPoint on my Mac so that they are clean. I find it easier to build the initial diagram on the desktop, but I frequently make changes to the deck using the PowerPoint app on my iPad. I also prefer presenting the deck (using a projector in a conference room) on my iPad because I can use the Apple Pencil to mark up my diagram like John Madden and also add notes to the diagram as people comment and add input.

Thank you for the useful tips and workflow description from an actual user of some specific apps. With over three quarters of a million iPad-optimized apps in the App Store it is incredibly difficult for users to even know about the existence of anything but a tiny fraction of what's available. Apps like GoodNotes 4 and one of my favorites, Pythonista, show that there is an amazing amount of untapped potential in the iPad platform waiting to be discovered.

edited January 2018

ihatescreennames · January 14, 2018 9:37PM

flaneur said:

bulk001 said:

I am in the market for a new iPad as my current one is four years old and slow. As someone mentioned though, is this what it has all come to - placing furniture into a live scene? Remember when wearables at CES were the next great thing in fashion and lifestyle that was going to change everything? Or 3D TV was going to change the way we consumed media? For all the billions spent by these big companies I was hoping for a little more I guess. Till it does I’ll buy furniture the old fashioned wayand go to a furniture store and try stuff out. Who is using AI successfully right now? Big businesses where I suspect were we are the furniture! I will probably wait another year before upgrading I guess.

I hope you read @Firelock's post above. I think drawing on top of pages or images in real time and projecting this to a live audience qualifies as an excelkent use case of augmented reality.

edit: maybe "human-augmented reality" if you want to split hairs about it.

Huh? I’m confused how @Firelock’s comment is an example of AR. I thought AR meant using the device’s camera to view the reality around you and then augmenting it somehow (like by inanely dropping virtual furniture into a park). Firelock’s examples, to me, read as if documents are being marked up in real-time and projected. Doesn’t come off as AR to me, but is still a great use of the iPad.

Maybe I’m just not understanding what AR is supposed to be.

tmay · January 14, 2018 10:45PM

ihatescreennames said:

flaneur said:

bulk001 said:

I am in the market for a new iPad as my current one is four years old and slow. As someone mentioned though, is this what it has all come to - placing furniture into a live scene? Remember when wearables at CES were the next great thing in fashion and lifestyle that was going to change everything? Or 3D TV was going to change the way we consumed media? For all the billions spent by these big companies I was hoping for a little more I guess. Till it does I’ll buy furniture the old fashioned wayand go to a furniture store and try stuff out. Who is using AI successfully right now? Big businesses where I suspect were we are the furniture! I will probably wait another year before upgrading I guess.

I hope you read @Firelock's post above. I think drawing on top of pages or images in real time and projecting this to a live audience qualifies as an excelkent use case of augmented reality.

edit: maybe "human-augmented reality" if you want to split hairs about it.

Huh? I’m confused how @Firelock’s comment is an example of AR. I thought AR meant using the device’s camera to view the reality around you and then augmenting it somehow (like by inanely dropping virtual furniture into a park). Firelock’s examples, to me, read as if documents are being marked up in real-time and projected. Doesn’t come off as AR to me, but is still a great use of the iPad.

Maybe I’m just not understanding what AR is supposed to be.

I'm not seeing that as an example of AR either, but it's an interesting workflow. A compositing of real and virtual images, with notes onscreen using AR with a screen capture and the Pencil, could certainly be employed in that workflow.

soundsinamotion · January 14, 2018 10:50PM

And then she drops the iPad from the tree and it breaks.

macseeker · January 14, 2018 11:11PM

Neat story here:

https://the-ipad-artist.com/dear-tim-cook-abc3fbffba1b

fastasleep · January 14, 2018 11:12PM

flaneur said:

bulk001 said:

I am in the market for a new iPad as my current one is four years old and slow. As someone mentioned though, is this what it has all come to - placing furniture into a live scene? Remember when wearables at CES were the next great thing in fashion and lifestyle that was going to change everything? Or 3D TV was going to change the way we consumed media? For all the billions spent by these big companies I was hoping for a little more I guess. Till it does I’ll buy furniture the old fashioned wayand go to a furniture store and try stuff out. Who is using AI successfully right now? Big businesses where I suspect were we are the furniture! I will probably wait another year before upgrading I guess.

I hope you read @Firelock's post above. I think drawing on top of pages or images in real time and projecting this to a live audience qualifies as an excelkent use case of augmented reality.

edit: maybe "human-augmented reality" if you want to split hairs about it.

This is not an example of AR, by any stretch. Also not sure why AI is getting thrown in here as well, that also has nothing to do with this.

fastasleep · January 14, 2018 11:17PM

bulk001 said:

I am in the market for a new iPad as my current one is four years old and slow. As someone mentioned though, is this what it has all come to - placing furniture into a live scene? Remember when wearables at CES were the next great thing in fashion and lifestyle that was going to change everything? Or 3D TV was going to change the way we consumed media? For all the billions spent by these big companies I was hoping for a little more I guess. Till it does I’ll buy furniture the old fashioned wayand go to a furniture store and try stuff out. Who is using AI successfully right now? Big businesses where I suspect were we are the furniture! I will probably wait another year before upgrading I guess.

So, you don’t want a new, faster iPad because it has capabilities you dont see a use for? That makes zero sense. You think it is *only* capable of AR furniture applications or maybe they mean it’s powerful enough to do amazing things and here is just one possibility among thousands of possible ways you could use that power? Seems like you’re limiting your imagination here.

Apple's new iPad Pro ads tout augmented reality & mobile notetaking

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