Another Apple event is in the books and, as expected, the Let Loose showcase was all about iPad. We now have our first Apple device powered by an M4 chip in the iPad Pro, with the company surprisingly choosing to debut it there rather than in a Mac. There's also an upgraded iPad Air that's available in two sizes: 11 inches and 13 inches.

There are some accessory updates too, which isn't a big shock given that an Apple Pencil was prominent in the event's teaser image. So, without further ado, here's a rundown of everything Apple announced at its blessedly brief Let Loose event.

iPad Pro

It had been expected for a while that any updated iPad Pro would have an M3 chip, but Apple decided to upend the expectations of many by instead slotting the brand new M4 into its highest-end tablet. Apple says the new device delivers 50 percent faster performance than the M2 iPad Pro. 

Rendering performance is said to be four times faster than on the M2 Pro as well. For the first time on an iPad, Apple is bringing support for dynamic caching, hardware-accelerated ray tracing and hardware-accelerated mesh shading to the Pro with the M4.

There are some power efficiencies here too. Apple says the M4 can deliver the same performance as an M2 using half the power. So, if you're using the tablet for tasks that aren't too strenuous, it stands to reason that the battery should last for longer.

The other major upgrade for the iPad Pro is new display tech called Tandem OLED. As the name suggests, it uses two OLED panels layered on top of each other. That means this tablet should have richer colors and deeper blacks on what Apple is calling the Ultra Retina XDR display. Apple says the brightness levels max out at 1000 nits for standard and HDR, and 1600 nits for HDR.

Despite the dual layer, the OLED panels are still thinner than an LCD display. To that end, Apple says the iPad Pro is now somehow thinner than an iPod nano (RIP, you beautiful thing), making it the company's most slender product ever. There's a nano-textured glass option for the first time on an iPad Pro too, but only if you opt for at least 1TB of storage.

One other notable change is that the Ultra Wide 12MP front-facing camera is now on the landscape edge. The Magic Keyboard users out there may be pleased about that tweak.

The new iPad Pro starts at $999 for the 11-inch model and $1,299 for the 13-inch, each with 256GB of storage. Add $200 to each of you want 5G cellular connectivity via eSIM.

We've already had a hands-on with the iPad Pro and, at first glance, the display seems like the show stealer.

M4

We have to chat a bit about what's powering the iPad Pro: the all-new M4 chipset. The Pro is the first Apple product to use the M4, even before any Mac. 

The M4 has a new CPU with four performance cores and six efficiency cores. There's a 10-core GPU as well. Notably, the chipset's neural engine is focused on machine learning and AI. Apple says the neural engine is capable of 38 trillion operations per second — it's 60 times faster than the first neural engine that debuted in the A11 chip. AI features that the M4 will power on the iPad Pro will include real-time Live Captions, the ability to isolate subjects and remove backgrounds in videos in Final Cut Pro and automatic musical notation in StaffPad.

Odds are high that we'll start seeing Macs with the M4 pop up later this year, which might put folks off from buying the M3 MacBook Air Apple started selling just a couple of months ago (though the company says the MBA is now the best-selling 13-inch and 15-inch laptop on the planet). 

The main reason for Apple skipping a silicon generation with the iPad Pro is likely to start a transition into AI hardware ahead of its Worldwide Developers Conference in June. Expect the company to talk much more about what it plans to do with AI across all its products next month.

iPad Air

Apple

The iPad Air was well overdue for an update after being stuck with an aging M1 chipset for over two years. The latest model (or models) boast an M2 chipset. Still recent enough to make it a notable upgrade from the previous Air while keeping the more powerful iPad Pro distinct.

As I mentioned, the iPad Air now comes in two sizes, the existing 11-inch form factor and the new, larger 13-inch variant. That makes the Air the most cost-effective large screen iPad as things stand. Oh, and the front-facing camera is also positioned on the longer edge of the Air now. Thanks, Apple.

The company has doubled the base storage from the previous generation to 128GB. The 11-inch model starts at $599 and the new 13-inch Air is $799. For 5G cellular connectivity, you'll need to pay $250 extra. As with pretty much everything else Apple showed off today, the new iPad Air will drop next Wednesday.

Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard

Apple

There's a new Apple Pencil around town and it has some nifty tricks up its sleeve, including haptic feedback. The Apple Pencil Pro supports a new squeeze gesture too. If you rotate the barrel, you can change the orientation of brush and pen tools, just as you would with a pen and paper.

Find My support for the first time in an Apple Pencil is very welcome, considering how easy it is too lose the dang thing if you don't store it securely on the side of your iPad. 

The Apple Pencil Pro costs $129. Preorders are open today and it ships on May 15.

Apple

Meanwhile, there's a new Magic Keyboard that's only compatible with the iPad Pro. This one is made from aluminum to give it a more premium feel and perhaps help users believe that the iPad Pro is the laptop replacement Apple has long envisioned its tablets being.

The latest version has a larger trackpad with haptic feedback, while there's a row of function keys, à la a more traditional keyboard.

The new Magic Keyboard also ships next week. If you want one for the 11-inch iPad Pro, it'll run you $300, while the larger variant is $350.

Follow all of the news live from Apple's 'Let Loose' event right here.

Near the end of its “Let Loose” event that brought new versions of the iPad Pro and iPad Air, Apple made some changes to the cheaper end of its tablet lineup. The 10th-generation iPad Pro, the newest version of the budget model, now starts at $349, down from its original $449.

Alongside the price drop, Apple’s 9th-generation model (which was still rocking a Lightning port and home button) is now kaput. Its successor replaces it with a more modern design, USB-C and Touch ID on its lock button.

Apple

The 10th-generation iPad launched in 2022. Back then, Engadget’s Nathan Ingraham described it as “a complete redesign from [the 2021] model that cribs heavily from the iPad Air while also bringing a handful of compromises to upsell potential customers on Apple’s more expensive tablets.”

Although the 10th-gen model officially gets the $100 price cut, the model was already frequently discounted to that price at Apple’s retail partners. That price now gets you the 64GB base model, while the 256GB tier now costs $499, also a $100 drop from its 2022 launch.

Follow all of the news live from Apple's 'Let Loose' event right here.

Apple has announced a refreshed Magic Keyboard accessory at today’s iPad event. The new keyboard is designed to specifically work with the M4 iPad Pro line, though it doesn’t integrate with the iPad Air or any other model.

When connected to the iPad Pro, it makes the tablet look like an actual laptop. Apple says “the entire experience feels just like using a MacBook.” To further assist this laptop mimicry, the keyboard boasts a larger trackpad with haptic feedback. There’s also a new function row for quick access to convenient controls, like brightness and the like.

Apple

The keyboard now features an aluminum palmrest and is available in two colors. Magic Keyboard ships with the iPad Pro next week. The keyboard costs $300 or $350, depending on which iPad Pro model it aligns with. The company also announced new iPads today, including an OLED iPad Pro and a refreshed iPad Air. 

Amazon’s entry-level 16GB Kindle is on sale for $80, which is a discount of 20 percent. This is the latest iteration of the standard ereader, dating back to 2022. Amazon doesn’t do too many Kindle hardware updates, so we don’t know if this sale precludes a forthcoming refresh. The sale covers both the black and blue denim versions.

The Kindle is one of the most iconic brands in the ereader space, and for good reason. Amazon has been pumping them out for 17 years. This model actually made our list of the best ereaders, and we recommend it for anyone shopping for a budget-friendly reading tablet. We loved the price, which is made even more alluring by today’s sale, and the huge ebook selection via Amazon.

We also liked how easy it is to use. Even if you’ve never held an ereader in your life, you’ll be quickly turning pages in no time. There are a bunch of customization options, allowing you to fiddle with font type, font size, margins and more. You can even save a bunch of settings together as a “theme”, which is handy in households with more than one reader. The integration with audio books is also nice, as it ensures you’ll be on the same page no matter how you absorb the content.

This ereader isn’t waterproof and it lacks many of the add-ons common with more expensive models. The standard Kindle is about as basic as this tech gets, but as a one-purpose device, are extra bells and whistles really necessary? I splurged for the fancier Kindle Scribe, which comes with a stylus, but I kind of wish I didn’t. Since buying it, I’ve read like 150 books and written approximately zero notes. Simple is better, and cheaper.

As with most Kindles, there are ads on the lock-screen, which may be a dealbreaker for some. I fully understand aversion to advertisements, they generally suck, but I’ve never found them to be a problem on Kindles. I barely notice them. 

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Microsoft says the April security updates for Windows may break your VPN. (Oops!) “Windows devices might face VPN connection failures after installing the April 2024 security update (KB5036893) or the April 2024 non-security preview update,” the company wrote in a status update. It’s working on a fix.

Bleeping Computer first reported the issue, which affects Windows 11, Windows 10 and Windows Server 2008 and later. User reports on Reddit are mixed, with some commenters saying their VPNs still work after installing the update and others claiming their encrypted connections were indeed borked.

“We are working on a resolution and will provide an update in an upcoming release,” Microsoft wrote.

There’s no proper fix until Microsoft pushes a patched update. However, you can work around the issue by uninstalling all the security updates. In an unfortunate bit of timing for CEO Satya Nadella, he said last week that he wants Microsoft to put “security above else.” I can’t imagine making customers (temporarily) choose between going without a VPN and losing the latest protection is what he had in mind.

At least one Redditor claims that uninstalling and reinstalling their VPN app fixed the problem for them, so it may be worth trying that before moving on to more drastic measures.

If you decide to uninstall the security updates, Microsoft tells you how. “To remove the LCU after installing the combined SSU and LCU package, use the DISM/Remove-Package command line option with the LCU package name as the argument,” the company wrote in its patch notes. “You can find the package name by using this command: DISM /online /get-packages.”

Microsoft is celebrating World Password Day (IT folks deserve holidays, too!) by helping to kill them. The company has finally rolled out consumer passkey support for Microsoft accounts, nearly two years after Apple and Google.

Once you set it up, the passkey lets you sign into your Microsoft account using your face, fingerprint or device PIN. It works not only on Windows but also on Apple and Google’s mobile and desktop platforms.

Passkeys are an easier and more secure way to access your account. They use what’s called a cryptographic key pair to ensure only you can get in. One half of the pair is stored on your local device, only accessible via your secure local login. The other part stays on the app or website. Requiring both of them to sign in acts as a deterrent for things like password leaks and phishing attacks.

In addition to Apple, Google and now Microsoft, companies adopting passkeys include Amazon, 1Password, Dashlane, Docusign, eBay, PayPal and WhatsApp (among others). Google said on Thursday that its passkeys have already been used a billion times.

Microsoft’s passkey support works starting today on the company’s desktop apps and websites, including Microsoft 365 (Office) and its Copilot AI assistant. The Windows maker says passkey support for its mobile apps “will follow in the coming weeks.”

You can get started by signing into your Microsoft account here and following the instructions.

As part of World Password Day (yes, that's a thing), Google is hyping up its security achievements and sharing updates on its latest endeavors. The company revealed passkey adoption metrics for the first time and said they have been used more than one billion times by 400 million Google accounts. "Since launching, passkeys have proven to be faster than passwords, since they only require users to simply unlock their device using a fingerprint, face scan or pin to log in," Google wrote.

The company launched broad support for passkeys in 2022 and rolled them out across its services a year ago. Over the past 12 months, the technology has been adopted by Amazon, 1Password, Dashlane, Docusign and others, joining companies like eBay, PayPal and WhatsApp. Google boasted that the tech helped Kayak users sign in 50 percent faster and said Dashlane has seen a 70 percent increase in conversion with passkeys. 

Google will soon be expanding passkeys to users at the highest risk of targeted attacks as part of its Advanced Protection Program (APP). That offering is aimed at individuals including campaign workers and candidates, journalists, human rights workers and others, according to the company. 

"APP enrollment traditionally required the use of hardware security keys as a second factor, but users will soon have the option to enroll with any passkey in addition to using their hardware security keys," Google wrote. "This expanded passkey support will help reduce the barrier of entry to APP while still providing phishing resistant authentication... [and] is coming during a critical election year." 

It's also expanding Cross-Account Protection to safeguard users on multiple platforms. That system lets Google share security notifications about suspicious event with non-Google apps and services. "This is a critical benefit since cybercriminals often use an initial entry point as a foothold to gain access to more of your information." 

Google suggests creating a passkey for your account to benefit from the new protections. In the meantime, practice good password hygiene by using long passwords with a mix of characters, numbers and symbols, applying two-factor authentication (2FA), never recycling passwords and more. According to HIPAA, attackers can crack a simple 8-number password in just 37 seconds, but it takes 19 quadrillion years to break an 18-digit cypher with a mix of numbers, upper and lowercase letters and symbols. 

Anthropic is making its Claude AI easier to access on mobile. The company has released a Claude mobile app for iOS that any user can download for free. Similar to the mobile web version of the chatbot, the app syncs users' conversations with Claude across devices, allowing them to jump from a computer to the app (or vice versa) without losing their chat history. Users will also be able to upload files and images straight from their iPhone's gallery — or take a photo on the spot — if they need Claude to process or analyze them in real time. They'll be able to download and access the Claude app whatever plan they're using, even if they're not paying for the service. 

If they do decide to pay for Claude, they now have a new option other than Pro. The new Team plan provides greater usage than the Pro tier so that members can have more conversations with the chatbot. It also enables users to process longer documents, such as research papers and contracts, thanks to its 200,000 context window. The Team plan gives users access to the Claude 3 model family, as well, which includes Opus, Sonnet and Haiku. It will cost subscribers $30 per user per month, with a minimum head count of five users per team. 

Back in March, Anthropic claimed in a blog post that its Claude 3 language model had outperformed ChatGPT and Google's Gemini in several key industry benchmarks. It was better at graduate-level reasoning, multilingual math and coding (among many other metrics), the company said, showing Claude 3's benchmark results against its staunchest rivals. The most powerful Claude 3 model, the Opus, even apparently showed "near-human" abilities with rapid response rates that make it ideal for more complex and time-sensitive tasks. 

Another day, another company tests Apple's resolve. This time, it's TikTok allegedly violating the company's rules for apps, with the video platform seemingly allowing some users to purchase its coins directly from its website. TikTok has apparently given some iOS users the option to "Try recharging on tiktok.com to avoid in-app service fees" — namely Apple's 30 percent commission on purchases.

According to photos shared on X (formerly Twitter) by David Tesler, co-founder of the app Sendit, TikTok is prompting users to save around 25 percent when purchasing coins (used to tip creators) thanks to lower third-party service fees. They can then use Apple Pay, PayPal or a credit or debit card to complete their transaction. It's unclear why only some users have access to this circumnavigation; one hypothesis is the feature was turned on for individuals who previously purchased a large number of coins.

Apple notably kicked Fortnite off its app store in 2020 after Epic Games introduced discounts on the game's currency for anyone who directly purchased it. The incident set off a multi-year legal battle, with Apple reinstating Epic Games' developer account in March after the European Union began looking into the situation. More recently, Apple has faced pushback from Spotify and rejected updates that would have displayed the music streamer's pricing and allowed in-app plan purchases. 

Microsoft has officially announced the next Xbox Games Showcase. In a blog post, the company said the summer version will be on Sunday, June 9, at 10AM PT / 1PM ET.

The event will be followed by a cryptic “[REDACTED] Direct” that probably isn’t much of a mystery. The teaser logo looks like something ripped from the Call of Duty franchise, and reports already pointed to the military shooter’s next installment arriving this year. Microsoft describes the direct event as “a special deep-dive into the next installment of a beloved franchise.”

Further squashing any intrigue, The Verge says it’s confirmed the event will focus on Activision-Blizzard’s long-running franchise. This will be the first Xbox showcase with the Call of Duty maker officially within Microsoft’s grasp.

The company wants to turn heads with its new post-acquisition portfolio, and Xbox will use the entire week (which coincides with Summer Game Fest) to pump up its lineup. “June 9’s double-feature broadcast also kicks off a week’s worth of coverage here on Xbox Wire and The Official Xbox Podcast, featuring updates and deep-dives on a ton of games,” the company wrote.

Engadget will have all your Xbox Games Showcase and Summer Game Fest news in early June.