If you’ve been holding out on a possible iPad purchase (or upgrade), this might be the time to strike. Apple’s newest base model iPad is now on sale, and we’ve got a detailed review on what is an incremental upgrade on what is, at heart, the same design we’ve had for many years now.
If you’re looking for an iPad with a design twist — or at least a smaller footprint — there’s the iPad mini, pulling some of the redesigned iPad Pro DNA into a smaller package. That includes something close to an “all-screen” design, with an 8.3-inch Liquid Retina display and power button with TouchID on the edge that supplants the need for a home button.
Meanwhile, the OG iPad design, so very lightly refreshed for 2021, doesn’t put a foot wrong — and it’s the cheapest new iPad you can get. For that $330, as Nate Ingraham’s review lays out, the hardware is powerful and the battery life is outstanding.
It has Apple’s A13 Bionic chip, which first appeared inside the iPhone 11, circa 2019, but still an upgrade from the last vanilla iPad iteration. But yes, it’s not as powerful as the newer chips in the iPad Air and just-updated iPad mini.
If we sidestep the Pro models, tablet shopping will boil down to the iPad mini, Air or this new standard model. You could say this is some degree of choice — I just wish there was more tablet competition that didn’t run an Apple OS. Android tablets are still, typically, cheaper options that always leave me wanting.
The former employees were outspoken critics of many Amazon policies.
Amazon was supposed to defend its decision in court to let Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa go last year. The former Amazon employees were outspoken critics of the company, and both were, according to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), illegally fired. The e-commerce giant didn't have to defend itself, however, because it has settled with the affected parties shortly before the hearing could take place.
The settlement still needs to be approved by the NLRB regional director in Seattle, but Cunningham and Costa are already considering the settlement a victory. In a joint statement, they said the development is a "win for protecting workers’ rights."
Subaru has shown the first video of its first EV, the 4x4 Solterra crossover, essentially confirming it's a slightly reworked version of Toyota's upcoming bZ4X EV. We’re still waiting on key details, like price and battery capacity. It's set to arrive in the US and other markets next summer. For now, take a closer look at the teaser.
Sonos has added Dolby Atmos support to the original Beam, which turned out to be a popular soundbar for those looking to upgrade their TV sound system in a simple way — and introduce them to the Sonos cinematic universe of speaker add-ons and upgrades.
The new Beam, while more expensive than a lot of the competition, is another compact soundbar that sounds far more immersive than you’d expect. According to Devindra Hardawar, it also does a decent job with music and still works well with other Sonos speakers. Read on for his full review.
Chinese company Nreal has launched a new model of augmented reality glasses called Air, designed with streaming shows and playing mobile games in mind. The glasses still need to be tethered to a phone, like their predecessor, the Light, but they're a lot lighter (77 grams to Light's 106 grams) and look more like an ordinary pair of sunglasses.
Nreal also improved the display, which has the capability to project a massive virtual screen up to 201 inches in size, and refreshes at up 90Hz. The new model has no motion tracking at all, and a company spokesperson told us that, based on Light's usage, Nreal expects most owners to use the Air simply to watch shows on YouTube.
The Kiyo X webcam costs $80, while the Ripsaw X capture card is $140.
Razer’s latest streaming gear aims directly at newbies, starting with its new Kiyo X USB webcam. As with a lot of current games, you can choose between optimizing your webcam feed for fidelity or framerate with 1080p 30 fps and 720p 60 fps options.
There’s also the Ripsaw X capture card, for footage up to 30 frames per second in 4K. Razer says the device delivers "near-zero latency" through its HDMI 2.0 and USB 3.0 connectivity. You can hook it up to a camera with HDMI output to use it as a high-end webcam or capture gameplay from a console. The Kiyo X cam costs $80, while the Ripsaw X will run you $140. Both are available now.
Apple says the basic iPad is its most popular tablet. And why not? Back in 2017, the company introduced its cheapest-ever iPad as a budget option for schools or people who don't need top-of-the-line specs. This device has always used hardware that’s a few years old — but Apple’s chips are so powerful that this hasn’t been an issue. Now in its ninth generation, though, the form factor is starting to feel stale; it's virtually unchanged from the iPad Air that Apple released back in 2013. Then again, at this price who cares?
It’s not a tablet meant for early adopters like me. It’s for those who want a fast, lightweight tablet with a nice display and tons of apps, without having to spend too much or consider whether a device like the iPad Pro is the future of computing. As such, there are just a few basic questions I want to answer with this review. If you have an old iPad, what’s new and better about this one? And if you don’t have an iPad, is this the one to buy?
What’s new
To make that evaluation, let’s recap what’s new about the ninth-gen iPad. The processor powering it is Apple’s A13 Bionic chip, which first appeared in inside the iPhone 11 from 2019. It’s one year newer than the A12, which powered last year’s iPad, and it’s faster and more efficient than its predecessor. Naturally, it’s slower than the newer chips powering the iPad Air and the just-updated iPad mini, but it still delivers more than enough horsepower for a $330 tablet.
I didn't experience any noticeable slowdowns, whether I was multitasking between Slack, writing this review in Google Docs, juggling various tabs in Safari or playing Apple Arcade games. Since this iPad has less RAM than the iPad Pro I use as my daily driver, I noticed that apps needed to refresh their content more frequently when I was heavily multitasking. But everything was quick to load up and I was back on my way again in no time.
For most people’s “standard iPad” use cases — browsing the web, editing photos, playing games, watching movies, messaging, drawing or taking notes with the Apple Pencil, writing emails or working on documents with the Smart Keyboard folio — the A13 Bionic is more than powerful enough. In fact, in our review of last year’s iPad, we found the device capable of easily transcoding and exporting 4K video into 1080p clips. It wasn’t as fast as the iPad Pro, but it was still faster than we anticipated. The A13 will only help if you’re the kind of person who likes to push their hardware.
Another new thing about the 2021 iPad is you get double the storage for the same amount of money. That means the $329 iPad has 64GB of storage this year, while the $479 comes with a healthy 256GB. As usual, you can also add LTE connectivity to these devices for an additional $130. (I reviewed the 256GB model with LTE, which costs $609.) This change is easy to evaluate: More storage is better, and it was sorely needed, particularly on the base model. 64GB should be enough for most people, but if you want to load up the iPad with games and save a lot of movies and photos to local storage, spring for the 256GB model.
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
The iPad’s display is essentially unchanged from the prior two models. It’s a 10.2-inch touchscreen with 2,160-by-1,620 pixel resolution. There is one change to the screen, though: It has Apple’s True Tone technology for the first time, which automatically adjusts the color temperature based on the ambient light in the room around you. Apple has offered this feature on more expensive iPads and all of its iPhones for years now, so it’s nice to see it finally in use at the lower end.
The display otherwise looks good whether you’re watching videos, playing games or browsing the web. It’s not nearly as good as the screens on the other iPads that Apple sells, though. I’m used to my iPad Pro screen, which is laminated directly to the front glass and has a 120Hz refresh rate with support for the wide P3 color gamut. But, after just sitting down and using the new iPad, I mostly didn’t think about these things. For a $330 device, it’s perfectly usable; pleasant, even. I did notice the “air gap” on the new iPad that comes from not having its display bonded to the glass, but I can accept that as a cost-cutting measure.
Finally, Apple put a new front-facing camera on the new iPad. In a somewhat surprising move, it’s the same one used on the iPad Pro (minus all the depth sensors and extra hardware needed for Face ID). It’s also identical to the one inside the new iPad mini. It’s a 12-megapixel shooter with an extremely wide field of view. That wide angle enables a feature Apple calls “Center Stage.” When you’re on a FaceTime call, the camera automatically crops in around you, rather than show the full 122-degree field of view. But since the camera has all that space to work with, it can follow you as you move around the frame. It’s an interesting feature, though usually I’m stationary during video calls. It does do a decent job of making up for the fact that the iPad’s front camera is off-center when you’re using the iPad in landscape mode, though.
I imagine Center Stage is something that will feel handy once you start to use it regularly, and I’m generally glad to see that Apple seems to have recognized that the iPad needed a better front camera. The 1.2-megapixel FaceTime camera on older iPads just doesn’t cut it in this current moment where we're all constantly on video calls.
What’s old
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
Everything else about the new iPad remains unchanged. It’s the same size and weight as the last two models and features the same size screen. It has the same sizable bezels, 8-megapixel back camera, Lightning port for charging (not USB-C) and a home button with Touch ID built in. It works with the first-generation Apple Pencil (sold separately for $99), which Apple has offered since late 2015, plus the Smart Keyboard folio ($159) that Apple built for the 10.5-inch iPad Pro back in 2017. There are still two speakers at the bottom when you’re holding it in portrait orientation, which means audio still comes at you from one off-center spot when you’re watching a video. But, there’s a headphone jack!
This means it’s not the most exciting device for someone like me, but there are otherwise a lot of benefits to Apple keeping things unchanged. For one, someone replacing an iPad they bought a few years ago will be able to use the same chargers and accessories as before — something that’s particularly important for education programs and other institutions that bought iPads in bulk.
As always, Apple says the iPad’s battery lasts for 10 hours of browsing the web or watching videos over WiFi. I got a little less than that when using the iPad and its keyboard for a full day of work, but the iPad far surpassed that estimate when I was watching videos. I got closer to 14 hours before the battery finally kicked it. Naturally, you’ll enjoy less runtime when doing more intensive tasks like gaming.
Living with iPadOS 15
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
Despite the ho-hum design, the user experience felt fresh, thanks largely to iPadOS 15. I’ve been using the updated software in beta since the summer, and I’m glad to say that the final release is solid. Apple addressed the biggest problems I had with iPadOS 15 (some illogical design changes to Safari), and many of the changes make the iPad experience significantly better.
Quick Notes is a great feature for Apple Pencil users and makes the iPad a much better note-taking device. Obviously, it’s handy to be able to quickly summon a new space to scribble in, but the fact that Notes recognizes when you’re on a website or specific Map location and lets you save them to the note is particularly useful.
Now that Safari has restored a traditional tab view instead of the cramped compact view from iPadOS 15 betas, I can appreciate some of the other changes this year to the browser. Tab Groups are a convenient way to organize things when you want to separate out what you’re browsing by category; I often use it to keep research for stories all in one place. And being able to find links that were shared with me through the Messages app is handy, too.
The variety of new multitasking gestures took a little getting used to, but they make it easier to set up various spaces with the right combination of apps for what you’re trying to do. The iPad’s 10.2-inch screen is almost too small for doing much in multitasking mode, but it’s still useful to have a bunch of my most-used apps a swipe aways in Slide Over. And the new “shelf” that appears when you launch an app to show you other spaces the app is running in is another smart addition I’ve been using a lot.
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
Other new changes are taking me longer to set up the way I’d like. The notification summary feature, which lets you set up a time for notifications from specific apps to be delivered, is a clever idea in theory. But I haven’t yet figured out which apps I want to relegate to the summary and which ones I'd rather show up immediately. Similarly, the new Focus features let you set up multiple do not disturb scenarios, each of which can have its own schedule, apps or people allowed or blocked and home screens that are hidden or active. It’s extremely flexible, but I haven’t yet figured out how to make the most of it.
The learning curve aside, iPadOS 15 is a solid release, and it runs well on the new iPad. If you buy this tablet now, it should receive similar updates for years to come, which will go a long way toward keeping it fresh even though it was never a cutting-edge device.
Wrap-up
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget
Coming from the iPad Pro, I was pleasantly surprised at how capable the new iPad is. I’ve gotten used to using the Magic Keyboard and its trackpad for work, so I found the new iPad’s $159 Smart Keyboard folio lacking. Between that and the smaller screen, it’s not my first choice for tasks that require me to keep an eye on multiple things simultaneously.
But it was a great device for drafting this review plus all the “iPad things” I want to do when I’m not working. I found myself using the iPad handheld, with its keyboard tucked away, more often than I expected. Being able to quickly flip back the keyboard t and use the iPad with two hands and then switch to typing when I wanted to bang out an email or reply to a message became a pretty common couch workflow.
Overall, I could do just about everything I can with my iPad Pro on the new iPad. There are a few slight changes and compromises here — but for the consumers Apple is targeting, those things might be moot. The iPad remains a very good tablet at a fair price. If you want something more modern, I don’t blame you, and would instead point you toward the iPad Air, which hits a sweet spot of performance, features and price.
If you’ve bought an iPad in the last two years, there’s no need to upgrade — but people with one older than the fall 2019 iPad will find some significant improvements here. If you’ve never bought one before, the new iPad delivers a surprisingly deep experience, despite its aging design.
Shortly after the new iPad mini was released, people started complaining about seeing a weird "jelly-like" effect on their screens while scrolling. It appears as if one side of the screen scrolls at a different rate than the other, making it look like the screen is wobbling. Those who were hoping for a fix to the problem would probably be disappointed by Apple's response, because the tech giant has told Ars Technica that the device's screen wobbling problem isn't a problem at all.
A spokesperson told the publication that the jelly-like effect people are seeing is typical for LCD screens, because they refresh line by line. As such, it's normal for the lines at the top of the display to refresh at a different rate than the lines at the bottom. Ars Technica insists, though, that the effect is much noticeable on the iPad mini than it is on other 60Hz LCD iPads, including the latest entry-level model that was released with the mini. Further, there's a visible line dividing the screen in the middle when the tablet is in portrait mode.
It remains to be seen whether Apple would do something about this jelly scrolling effect in the future, considering people are airing complaints about it. For now, it looks the tech giant's stance is that it's par for the course for an LCD screen and that users will just have to get used to it.
Apple is rolling out updates to its iWork suite of Keynote, Pages and Numbers on iPhone, iPad and Mac. The next time you deliver a presentation with Keynote, you'll be able to include live video feeds directly in the slides. You can resize the video feed and change the look with masks, frames, drop shadows and reflections.
With the Mac version of Keynote, you can add feeds from multiple external cameras, and share a connected iPhone or iPad screen, which could prove useful for interactive demos. There are more collaboration features too. A new multi-presenter function lets anyone control a shared slideshow and advance slides remotely using a Mac, iPhone or iPad. This could come in handy for group presentations.
The changes to Pages are largely iPhone-focused. The Screen View feature arranges text, images and other aspects of the document into a single-column view. Apple has increased the text size, while images are sized to fit your phone's screen. You can also view tables by scrolling left and right. Users will still be able to edit documents as usual when Screen View is active. You don't need to do anything to set up the feature, and it works with all word processing documents. Apple says you can toggle off Screen View so you can see the proper layout before you're ready to share or print the document.
As for Numbers, you can now get to grips with pivot tables across Apple devices. You'll be able to summarize, group and rearrange data to spot and study trends and patterns. There are options to visualize the pivot tables with charts and to share pivot data without disclosing the source data. You can also import pivot tables from and export them to Microsoft Excel.
Elsewhere, there's a new chart type called radar charts. Apple says this "makes it easy to visually compare multiple variables with similarities shown as overlapping areas, allowing differences and outliers to really stand out." There are new filters you can use to highlight unique entries or duplicate data.
All three apps now support Apple's new translation tools on iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and macOS Monterey. The latest versions of Keynote, Pages and Numbers are now available on the App Store and Mac App Store.
YouTube Music is rolling out to some Wear OS 2 smartwatches starting today. Gen 6 smartwatches from Fossil and Michael Kors will be able to stream music from the service, as will Mobvoi’s TicWatch Pro 3 GPS, Pro 3 Cellular/LTE and E3 models. The app was previously released for Wear OS 3 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 4.
It's the first YouTube Music smartwatch app that supports offline listening. If you're a YouTube Music Premium subscriber, you can download songs you can listen to offline and without ads. You'll be able to leave your phone at home and still listen to music while you work out or go for a walk.
The app includes the Smart Downloads feature, which updates the songs on your device when it connects to WiFi. Google says Premium subscribers can listen to more than 80 million songs and thousands of playlists from their wearable. The app, which is available through the Google Play Store, will hit more Wear OS 2 devices later this year.
Spotify rolled out an updated version of its Wear OS app last month. It also lets users download music to their smartwatch and stream tracks without the need to have a phone nearby.
Amazon's latest one-day sale on Anker devices presents a good opportunity to grab a charging brick for that new iPhone you just bought. The sale includes up to 45 percent off a handful of Anker accessories, including the Nano 20W charger in the new lavender grey color that came out recently. That's $5 off and down to $15, while the standard white Anker Nano charger with a foldable plug is on sale for $12.
Either of these bricks makes a good substitute for Apple's own 20W charger, which is bulkier and slightly more expensive at $19. Both support iPhone fast-charging with the proper USB-C to Lightning cable and they also work with other USB-C devices like other smartphones, wearables, earbuds and even the Nintendo Switch (just be aware that, for the latter, neither support charge-and-play in TV mode).
We've also been fans of Anker portable battery packs and two are included in this sale. The 10,000mAh PowerCore Slim is down to $28 and can charge an iPhone 12 up to 50 percent in 30 minutes. It includes one 18W USB-C port and one 10W USB-A port, so it'll power up even your older devices. You're only getting the battery pack with that deal, but Anker has another 10,000mAh, 18W PowerCore Slim bundle that includes the battery along with a USB-C cable and the compatible charging brick for $30, or 25 percent off its normal price. This is the bundle to get if you don't want to worry about finding an appropriate brick to recharge the battery itself — the PowerPort III Nano charger that comes with it will fully power up the battery pack in 4.5 hours.
Those are the highlights in this sale, but there are a few other gadgets that have been discounted. A couple of wireless chargers are on sale, including a magnetic PowerWave disc that looks similar to Apple's MagSafe charger, and you can get a two-pack of three-foot, MFi-certified Powerline+ II USB-C to Lightning cables for $20, or 46 percent off its normal price.
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Some new iPad mini customers aren't enjoying the tiny tablet's new screen as much as they'd like. 9to5Macreports that users (includingThe Verge's Dieter Bohn) have noticed a "jelly scrolling" effect where one side of the screen scrolls at a different rate than the other, producing a wobble occasionally noticeable in portrait view. The effect is harder to spot if you tilt the iPad to a landscape orientation, but that's not much consolation if you like to read websites and social feeds
We've asked Apple if it can comment on the jelly effect. It's unclear if the quirk is linked to hardware (such as the screen itself or a display controller) or can be addressed through software. We'll let you know if we have a chance to replicate the issue.
This won't necessarily hurt functionality, especially if you tend to use the iPad mini in landscape mode or view content that doesn't produce the effect. It's also uncertain just how widespread the issue really is. With that said, you probably won't be thrilled if you notice this wiggle on Apple's small-but-premium slate.
Are you unable to unlock your brand new iPhone 13 with your Apple Watch? Don't despair just yet. According to MacRumors, Apple has promised to fix a bug that prevents the unlock through an "upcoming software update." You can turn off the feature in Settings and rely on passcodes until that solution is in place, Apple said, although it didn't offer a timeframe for the patch.
The flaw typically tells users the iPhone is "unable to communicate" with the Apple Watch. Others can't setup the unlock feature in the first place. As you might imagine, that's a significant hassle if you're wearing a face mask and can't use Face ID to sign in.
You might not have to wait too long. While Apple only recently started testing an iOS 15.1 beta, the company has a long history of delivering small-but-quick updates that fix glaring bugs and security holes. While this certainly isn't how Apple wanted the iPhone 13 launch to go, the issue isn't likely to last.
The iPhone 13 series is barely in stores, but that isn't stopping a growing chorus of leaks surrounding next year's model. As 9to5Macnotes, Bloomberg's historically accurate Mark Gurman claimed the iPhone 14 will represent a "complete redesign" — the first since the iPhone X arrived in 2017. The relatively modest iPhone 13 update was a hint that bigger things were coming, he said. Gurman was shy on details of what that new hardware would entail, but earlier rumors might offer a clue as to what to expect.
Most notably, frequently accurate analyst Ming-Chi Kuo recently claimed Apple would begin dropping the display notch entirely in 2022, starting with an iPhone 14 Pro that would use a hole-punch front camera like many Android phones. YouTuber Jon Prosser also claimed to have renders based on real-world photos of the new iPhone. The new model would supposedly resemble a supersized iPhone 4 with a band-like titanium outer ring, flush rear cameras and a thicker chassis.
Other rumors suggest Apple might drop a mini iPhone from the lineup, replacing it with a larger 'regular' model as well as the usual Pro offerings. There have been murmurs of under-display Touch ID, but it's not certain if this would be ready for 2022, if at all.
We'd take the reports with some caution. No matter how accurate the reports might be, the next iPhone is roughly a year away. There's still a chance Apple could make substantial changes before it locks in the design for production. Whatever the end result, the common theme of the leaks suggests the iPhone 14 could be an important revamp.
Don't worry if you missed out on an earlier deal for Apple's 2021 iPad. Amazon is selling the 64GB entry-level iPad for $299, or $30 off the usual price. The 256GB variant has dropped by a similar amount to $449. That matches a previous discount at Walmart, and is currently the lowest price we've seen for Apple's latest 10.2-inch slate. Just don't fret over color choices or shipping times — only Space Gray models appear to be in stock, and you'll have to wait one to three weeks.
The basic design of the iPad hasn't changed much in recent years, but the under-the-hood upgrades are particularly notable this year. The tablet now uses an A13 Bionic chip that's reportedly 20 percent faster than in the previous iPad, making it a better fit for gaming or creative tasks. This may also be a good pick for an era of remote work and virtual friend visits, as an ultra-wide 12MP front camera offers Center Stage to keep you in view as you move around.
Just don't expect a revamp on par with the new iPad mini or 2020's iPad Air. You won't find an all-screen design, USB-C, second-generation Pencil support or an improved rear camera. This is for anyone who wants a no-frills tablet that should still last a long while — if that's all you're looking for, you'll probably be happy.
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