sflagel

We are seeing clearer delineation between Pro and Consumer (the colourful ones). The Pros are really becoming Pro again and the Consumer levels are becoming more powerful.

iMac/Mini - Studio
MacBook Air - MacBook Pro
iPad Air - iPadPro
iPhone - iPhone Pro

(plus entry levels iPhone SE and iPad).

Thankfully, the Pro line is now mostly overkill for consumers.

entropys said:

Well this is a dilemma. 

I just bought an iPad Air to take advantage of the back to school offer (closed 7 March)  for free AirPods and assuming the new Air would just be A15.
it arrives on 11 March. Do I take it back for a swap, and does that mean I have to give up the AirPods?

Take it back.
Pay for the AirPods.

Xed said:

sflagel said:

Great product, and would have been incredibly useful even only three years ago, but COVID means that everyone accepts Contactless or Apple Pay now. I never take my wallet anywhere anymore, unless I am travelling - rental car companies need the drivers license and often need to swipe. I would expect that many Apple users do the same.

Not everywhere. This are the major holdouts but there are many others:

• Walmart (You can use Walmart Pay)
• Kroger (You can use Kroger Pay)
• Dick's Sporting Goods
• Home Depot
• Kmart
• Lowe's
• Sam's Club

Lowe's and Home Depot I deal with often.

I remember people bitching about the number of places that accept ApplePay the it first came out but I had no problem with that since I knew it would take a few years to get a tipping point of acceptance, but this holdouts are just annoying at this point, especially if they're reason is to pimp their own crummy system.

What does this mean? These shops accept credit cards but not Contactless payment with those same credit cards? If they accept Contactless, this would automatically enable contactless payment by iPhone or Apple Watch.

I live in the UK. Only place I had to pay cash or physical card in Europe in the last two years were two privately run taxis and a horse-drawn "ski lift" in a ski resort in Italy, for obvious reasons. Oh, and a parking garage in Germany, Germans notoriously like to pay in cash so all retail POS have moved to Contactless but administrators of large automated machines don't upgrade. In the UK on the other hand, most vending machines and all parking garages now accept Contactless. Even some cash machines ("ATM") now accept Contactless. Just saying that this product is aimed at Apple clients (pretty sophisticated ones, probably), and they will move to payment by phone already; or watch - still quite a novelty.

Great product, and would have been incredibly useful even only three years ago, but COVID means that everyone accepts Contactless or Apple Pay now. I never take my wallet anywhere anymore, unless I am travelling - rental car companies need the drivers license and often need to swipe. I would expect that many Apple users do the same.

Nice review. If Apple just made the back stiff and pivot around the main hinge, rather than having the extra fold, they could move the keyboard up and increase the size of the track pad. Not sure why they did not do this - probably wanted to differentiate more from the Keyboard Folio?
I am seriously considering getting a 12.9 inch iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard as a replacement to my MacBook Air. Anyone had experience with this? It is heavier but the benefit of being able to switch seamlessly between keyboard and pencil, and scan documents (and integrate them) could outweigh the drawbacks? Any thoughts?