Week in Review: Apple's event was big on spectacle but short on glasses
Plus: disappointment from Disney, and taking the fast track to Alpha Centauri | Apple shows a lack of Glass | The new iPhone SE is a lot like the old iPhone SE
Created for techradar.com@quicklydone.com | Web Version
It's been quite the week in the world of tech, mostly because Apple managed to do that rarest of things: spring a surprise – if you can call not announcing something springing a surprise.
At its March Peek Performance event, Apple unveiled all manner of new gadgets – and none of it was the much-hinted-at augmented reality reveal we were hoping for.
There were plenty of other big announcements though, and there's lots to discuss – so let's get right to it.
Apple CEO Tim Cook on stage at the company's Peek Performance event (Apple)
The thing that annoyed me about the Apple launch was the bait-and-switch from the company regarding the name of the event.
The title 'Peek Performance', and a prominent AR-style invite tweeted one an Apple exec, gave many people the impression that the event would include the big reveal of the long-rumored Apple Glass VR/AR headset… but no such luck.
The second Apple launches the Apple Glass (or Glasses, or whatever the device is called), the tech world will have a huge topic to talk about. Will you buy one? If not, why not? How much will you mock those who buy the first model?
But no, instead we got the standard lineup of devices: a phone, a tablet, computers, monitors and a powerful new chipset. I'm being a bit harsh when I say 'standard', as we saw some impressive new hardware, but I couldn't help feeling a slight sense of anti-climax.
Click the link to read our full 'as-it-happened' live blog, featuring me losing my mind slightly as the event went on longer than I thought it would.
At the start of the year I wasn't sure if Apple was going to launch a new iPhone SE, largely because of the four-year wait between the first and second iterations. However, I'm glad we only had to wait half long for this new affordable iPhone, mostly so that I can moan about it.
Before I begin said moan, it's important that you know I don't think the new iPhone SE 2022 is a terrible phone. It's compact, it has an easy-to-use fingerprint scanner, and it's far cheaper than any other iPhone.
But there's one big issue: it's not massively different from the previous SE, yet it costs $30 more. Yes, manufacturers are facing rising costs as the price of pretty much everything goes up, but I can't really see what's been upgraded in the last two years to warrant the price hike.
The new device has more RAM, a bigger battery, 5G and a new chip inside, all of which is welcome. But none of it feels groundbreaking, and I'm also surprised that Apple has decided to stick with the same design, which is the exact same design as the iPhone 8 from half a decade ago.
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Here's another reason why the rumor mill can't always be trusted in the world of tech: at the start of the year it was seen as pretty much a given by many observers that if Apple held an event in March we'd see new iPad Pro models – after all, we'd seen Apple's most powerful tablet launched at this point in the year before.
But as we got closer to the event itself, we saw more leakers talking up a new iPad Air instead… and that's what we got. The main change, and the focus of most of the leaks, was that the new Air, which nestles nicely in the middle of Apple's iPad lineup between the iPad Pro and the 'standard' iPad, now comes with the powerful M1 chipset.
It's an impressive tablet, bringing a lot of what makes the iPad Pro cool (second-gen Apple Pencil support, the Smart Connector for compatibility with the Magic Keyboard) to the Air range, but the main question is: does the new chipset make it enough of an upgrade?
When Apple launched the new M1 MacBooks, the battery life was the big upgrade, but with the iPad Air, Apple is still claiming the same "Up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi or watching video" as last year's model.
We'll have to wait until we get it in for testing to see just how much of an upgrade this really is.
Following the launches of the M1 Pro and M1 Max chips last year, Apple has upgraded the lineup again with the new M1 Ultra.
What's interesting about this is that it's actually just two M1 Max chips joined together, with Apple hiding a connector at the bottom of the chip that even the leakers didn't spot.
This chip, as you can imagine, is more powerful and more efficient than anything Apple's done before, with the brand talking up how great it is for creatives who need the ultimate level of power.
Honestly, this is where I get out of my comfort zone, but our US Computing Editor Jackie Thomas has a much better handle on all things M1, so do check out her in-depth piece.
In the days leading up to the Apple event we started to hear word of a souped-up Mac mini, going under the codename of 'Mac Studio'. It wasn't clear, though, if this was coming in March, or at Apple's WWDC developer shindig in June.
But Apple managed to spring a surprise by not only launching it this week, along with the Studio Display, but also by sticking with the codename for the product name.
The computer will use either the M1 Max or M1 Ultra chip inside, and comes with a boatload of connectivity options: it brings support for four Pro Display XDR monitors and a 4K TV as well.
This tiny box is 80% faster than a Mac Pro, with 28 cores, so this little grunt-nugget is going to pack some serious power in a small footprint – and you can hook it up to the Studio Display, another surprising addition from Apple.
What's interesting is that the display comes with an A13 Bionic chip inside, a built-in 12MP ultrawide camera from the iPad, P3 color gamut coverage with 10-bit color depth, 600-nit brightness, a three-mic array, and a six-speaker sound system with spatial audio support.
Essentially, it's an iPad turned into a much larger screen, and it's got 5K resolution for professional people who need to do professional things… although apparently it doesn't play nice with Windows 11, Microsoft fans, and nor does it support HDR for some reason.
The Mac Studio starts at $1,999 / £1,999, but can go all the way up to $7,999 / £7,999, while the Studio Display starts at $1,599 / £1,499.
Turning Red will now only be released on Disney Plus (Disney / Pixar)
I wanted to call out this excellent exclusive that our entertainment writer Tom Power got this week, when he talked to the director and producer of the new animated movie from Disney, Turning Red.
The film was supposed to be released in theaters, but missed its launch window due to the pandemic and is now only being released on Disney Plus – which Tom got the movie's producer to admit "sucked".
It's rare to see that kind of raw emotion from a movie-industry figure in today's media-savvy environment – but while the film's crew understood that the pandemic has played havoc with plans and schedules, the realization that a production they'd put so much time and effort into will be seen by a considerably smaller audience than they'd expected must be hard to take.
It's a great piece – and despite the disappointment you really get a strong sense of the pride the crew has in what they've achieved. I think I'll be cajoled into watching Turning Red tonight, so I'm talking this one up for myself as much as anything.
You'll need to click through and read the full story to find out what's going on here
"Miniature spaceships the size of cellphones could fly across the solar system using sails propelled by lasers," is how this story starts. I don't really need to say any more, do I? You're clicking.
There's so much going on here. There are solar sails. There's the idea that these little spaceships would need a colossal laser to fire them, and that they could travel at one-fifth the speed of light, enabling them to reach Alpha Centauri in just 20 years rather than thousands.
Just go and read the whole thing for yourself, and prepare to be amazed.
This is from the editor
This has been a rather Apple-heavy newsletter, I know, but these are the big stories that we've been talking about on the team all week. Is that Studio Display the ultimate screen for creatives, or can you get a better monitor – with HDR – and just buy an iPad?
Is the new iPad Air with the M1 chip overkill? And does it matter that the iPhone SE 2022 sticks with an old design if it's powerful and affordable?
Let me know what you think about Apple's new gadgets (and anything else – I've had some lovely, simple 'I really like this newsletter!' missives recently) – via email, remembering to include NEWSLETTER in the subject line. And please subscribe if you haven't already, and help spread the word.
Have great weekends, and stay tuned to TechRadar – we've got some great content in the pipeline for you to enjoy.
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