charlesn

This is really not surprising. The reviews for the new Pro models tell an iPad story that's been the same for a looong time now: hardware improvements without an OS to justify them. So, for most iPad users, might as well keep what you have. We'll see if this year's WWDC will finally change that narrative. 

Seems like the slowest rumor season ever for the next iPhone Pro. Four months from launch and we're talking about potentially slightly bigger and somewhat brighter screens. As a regular (non-Max) Pro buyer, I don't want a bigger screen and increased brightness will solve a problem that mostly doesn't exist. Either Apple has gotten better at keeping a lid on things or the Sept presentation will be a snooze. They did a pretty good job at keeping the iPad Pro under wraps... the leak about the M4 possibility didn't get out until close to launch--and even then, it was highly speculative--and I don't remember reading anything about the tandem OLED screen they used or the significant trims to thickness and weight. 

Since we know that M-chips are capable of booting into either iPadOS or MacOS, why couldn't an iPad be capable of booting into either one per the choice of the user? If you boot into iPadOS, it behaves like a normal iPad. If you boot into MacOS, you lose touch screen capability, it behaves like normal MacOS and and you use it (with a Magic Keyboard attached) exactly as you would use a Macbook. Of course, we know that Apple doesn't want to sell us just one device, so this will never happen. But it's certainly possible to do.

In the realm of what Apple at least MIGHT do: will this be the year, finally, that they unveil an iPadOS worthy of iPad hardware? Joanna Stern's "Ferrari on a golf course" description is exactly right, and has been for years. 600 horsepower and nowhere to go. 

As I fully expected, this ad has already been permanently shelved. It will never be shown on television. This was a massive marketing blunder for the reasons I previously outlined. But here's what I didn't expect: a RARE public apology from Apple: 

“Our goal is to always celebrate the myriad of ways users express themselves and bring their ideas to life through iPad,” Apple marketing VP Tor Myhren told Ad Age, an advertising trade publication. “We missed the mark with this video, and we’re sorry.”

tmay said:

If some creatives are upset about Apple's ad, wait til they consider the AI tools on the horizon threatening to replace them.

But sure, who doesn't want to have all those AI tools in their creative toolbox...

"Who doesn't....?" Hold my beer.

Tyler Perry, to choose but one example, recently cancelled a long-planned, nearly billion dollar expansion of his Atlanta studios after getting a personal demo from OpenAI of what will be possible with Sora. (For those who don't know, Sora can generate video from simple text descriptions.) In announcing the cancellation, Perry lamented the devastating job losses this would entail... and not just the workers who would have built that expansion. In seeing a near-term future where shooting in a studio or on location wouldn't be required, he was talking about scenic designers, lighting designers, costume designers, painters, grips, audio staff, camera ops, craft services, etc. who would either no longer be needed at all or would have hugely minimized roles. But as a businessman, he continued, he has to make a business decision, and I can appreciate that. 

Hey, I get it... the future is coming, and soon, like it or not. That's just a fact. But there will be tens of thousands of people, and likely more, who invested an education and maybe decades of life into learning a creative craft who will be out of work permanently, at least in their chosen field. That is also a fact. But we don't have to be gleeful about it.