Friday, November 8, 2024
Friday, November 8, 2024
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AI-focused iPad Pro with M4 chip to hit shelves next week

The neural engine and M4 is more powerful than any neural processing unit in any AI PC today, Apple says

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  • The new iPad Pro is thinner than the iPod Nano, making it the thinnest Apple product, and comes with a new 10-core GPU.

Apple unveiled a new artificial intelligence-focused iPad Pro and a larger iPad Air rather than a laptop, aiming to reinvigorate a tablet lineup that has languished over the past two years.

The new chip – M4 – is more power-efficient and can handle AI tasks.

Apple said the iPad Pro – its highest-priced model – will have upgraded OLED displays and start at $1,000 for an 11-inch model and $1,300 for a 13-inch model.

The iPad Pro comes in silver and space black colours 256GB, 512GB, 1TB and 2TB storage configurations  while the new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Air models will be available in blue, purple, starlight, and space grey colors, with options for 128GB, 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB storage configurations.

The new iPad Pro is thinner than the iPod Nano, making it the thinnest Apple product, and comes with a new 10-core GPU that supports raytracing making the iPad Pros the first device to support raytracing in games. 

Overhauled pencil

Apple also unveiled an overhauled Pencil today too. The Apple Pencil Pro, priced at $129, has a new sensor in the barrel that accepts your squeezes. This action can do things like bring up tool palettes so you don’t have to manually tap into them with your free hand.

The refreshed Magic Keyboard accessory is designed to specifically work with the M4 iPad Pro line, though it doesn’t integrate with the iPad Air or any other model.

Apple says you can also use the gesture to activate shortcuts or and other actions. 

“The neural engine makes M4 an outrageously powerful chip for AI,” Tim Millet, vice president of platform architecture at Apple, said during the presentation.

“In fact, with this level of performance, the neural engine and M4 is more powerful than any neural processing unit in any AI PC today.”

Apple chips have featured a neural engine since 2017, but rivals such as Intel  and Qualcomm  have begun to tout their competitive technologies for personal computers.

M4 chip: A formidable contender

According to Apple, the M4’s neural engine boasts a staggering performance boost, purportedly surpassing its predecessor, the A11’s Neural Processing Unit (NPU), by a staggering margin of 60 times. The processing power positions the M4 chip as a formidable contender against established AI heavyweights, including Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm.

Pre-orders are open today, with shipping scheduled for next week.

The announcement of the M4 chip arrives hot on the heels of Microsoft’s impending Windows and Surface AI event scheduled for May 20th in Seattle. With speculation rife about the unveiling of new Arm-powered hardware, anticipation mounts as tech enthusiasts eagerly await Microsoft’s response to Apple’s latest gambit.

Apple also introduced new models of its mid-priced iPad Air, which will now come in a larger 13-inch screen size at $800, as well as the 11-inch size it previously came in for $600. The models come with Apple’s M2 chip, which first came to market in Apple’s MacBooks in 2022.

Apple rivals Microsoft  and Alphabet’s Google  have dived headlong into AI, introducing chatbots that aim to act as virtual assistants for tasks such as writing emails or tapping out lines of computer code.

Apple is developing a chip which will run on artificial intelligence (AI) software in data centres, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The project, internally codenamed as Project ACDC (Apple Chips in Data Centre), aims to leverage Apple’s chip design expertise for its server infrastructure.

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