Apple’s iPhone XS occasion, while predictable, may have disappointed some Apple fans. Especially those who anticipated more than just a new iPhone or a new Apple Watch. Especially those who were desiring for a new iPad Pro. It might be too early to stretch up all hope, though, because new hints are popping up pointing to precisely that, probably next month even. But even improved, the new iPad Pro might not be as bad as some might have believed it would be.
On the one hand, it wasn’t completely surprising that Apple would devout its phase time to just the three new iPhones and the Series 4 Apple Watch. Those alone previously took up a lot of time. In fact, even the option of new iPads, exactly iPad Pros, wasn’t that certain anyway. The signs say they do exist, but it has always been a question of when.
If iOS 12.1, which has just landed in beta, is any hint, the answer is “this fall”. 9to5Mac dug into some code to reveal orientation to an “iPad2018Fall” in the Settings app. iOS 12.1’s “Memoji syncing” feature also “confirms” that this iPad would have a TrueDepth camera for Memojis and, of course, Face ID.
Of course, that was now expected but it was also supposed that the camera would force the iPad Pro into a portrait alignment. Not so, says developer Steve Troughton-Smith. His investigation of iOS 12.1 reveals support for landscape alignment for Face ID, at least for iPads only. That could mean Apple didn’t move the location of the iPad camera after all. More exciting is the theory that the iPad Pro would have a USB-C port rather than a traditional Lightning port, again implicit by iOS 12.1.
Face ID has support for landscape positioning (presumably for iPad only), and iOS 12.1 seems to care a lot more about whether an outside display is connected (perhaps due to iPad USB-C rumors; it won't have the Lighting HDMI adapter as an intermediary for video-out)
That may have just made the upcoming iPad Pro even more attractive to those who may have been on the fence because of the forced portrait alignment. All that’s left now is to wait if Apple will actually launch a new iPad this year. If the Fall launch is on the spot, we might be looking at an October declaration for what could be the biggest change in the iPad line since the iPad Pro in 2015.
Comments
Post a Comment