“ I would never want to be in the iPhone case business , ” a friend of mine aver the other daylight , and I could n’t aid but concur . plan accessories for Apple products means you ’re in trigger-happy competition for mostly low allowance , you have to gamble on former design making water to get get down with your own creations , and you are utterly at the notion of Apple ’s own design decision .
There ’s one seller of Apple accouterment who does n’t have to worry so much , though : Apple itself . Apple has the domicile - subject vantage of knowing all the details of its coming product . It ’s fetch commodious upsell capacity in Apple Stores and the ability to sell Apple - branded products at much larger profit margins . But then there ’s perhaps the cock-a-hoop reward of all : Apple can operate the very Cartesian product design itself as a way to turn on the add-on it wants to build .
No product embodies Apple ’s own synergism between hardware and accessary like the iPad . Stripped down to its basics , it ’s just a pill . But it can be fit out with Smart Folios , Magic Keyboards , and Apple Pencils , often with connectivity furnish by ports never seen on any other Apple ware . And it await like we ’re about to see another turn of iPad accessory innovation .
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This hebdomad , Bloomberg ’s Mark Gurman reported thata new iPad Pro is due next year . And , he say , it ’ll come with a “ revamped ” Magic Keyboard that “ hit the iPad Pro look even more like a laptop than the current setup and tote up a turgid trackpad . ”
Today ’s iPad Pro uses a design specifically built to enable interesting accessories : a secure array of magnets and a Smart Connector ( three metal battery-acid that transfer mightiness and data ) , all on the back of the gimmick . The Smart Connector was previously on the side , but clearly , Apple decided that placement along the back would be a better fit with the next accessories it had in mind .
So , what would accessories would the 2024 iPad be plan to fit ? Gurman adduce the Magic Keyboard , and we ’ll get to that in a moment , but first , let ’s meditate the riddle of the Apple Pencil . Thesecond - generation Pencilattaches to a set of magnets and a wireless charger on the side of the iPad , contrive specifically for the Pencil . ( See how nice it is when the product and add-on are designed together ? )
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The second - generation Pencil is corking . No notes . But when Apple redesigned the downhearted - end iPad last yr , it start the iPad ’s webcam to the equipment ’s long side – apparently blocking the space where the Pencil 2 could have gone . Instead , the iPad uses theoriginalApple Pencil . As a answer , it ’s possible that Apple is going to have to reconsider its approach to the Apple Pencil yet again . I assume that Apple will find a way of life to make it all work , even if it means creating a young Pencil intention to make it all make sense .
So what about the Magic Keyboard ? Apple’scurrent excogitation , infix in 2020 , floats the iPad above the keyboard via a magnetically attached cantilever . The reason for that extra engine room is right-down purgative : without moving the equipment ’s heart of passel over the keyboard , the whole shell would topple over backward . It ’s a clever solution , but it reduces the amount of useable outer space for keyboard rows ( there are no function keys ! ) , and the Magic Keyboard ’s trackpad is pretty small , as Apple trackpads go .
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Gurman ’s report says the new accessory is big and more laptop computer - like . Laptops , of course , do n’t cantilever over their keyboards – they’re just attached by a hinge all the way at the back . laptop do n’t tip over backward when you open them up because the bottom portion is a lot heavy than the top portion .
If Gurman ’s reporting is exact , then I ’ve got to assume that the next propagation of Magic Keyboard is going to put all its weight in good order underneath the keyboard . This is the approach thatiPad Bluetooth keyboard have used , and they managed to make it run .
The winder is going to be in how Apple project the iPad to connect to such an accessory . Will there be some specific floater on the side of the iPad that will allow a hinge at the back of the keyboard to grab grip and keep it upright , laptop - dash ? Or will Apple continue to rely on strong attraction in the back of the iPad to attach to a relatively wakeful Earth’s surface tie in to the keyboard with a hinge ?
no matter , Apple ’s get to take to add some weight to that keyboard . And while you might mean that add weight is a bad affair , it ’s got welfare . Even a slightly toilsome Magic Keyboard wo n’t make the combined unit of measurement any heavier than a Mac laptop . A toilsome keyboard would be able to have that larger trackpad and an extra words of part keys .
But here ’s the beneficial part : Apple could , for the first sentence , include a battery under that keyboard . PreviousiPad keyboardsfrom Apple have been powered by the Smart Connector , but conceive of a keyboard that duplicate as a battery inner circle and courser , allowing an iPad in the case to dramatically extend its stamp battery life . That ’s a pretty great set of lineament .
A luck of Gurman ’s reports about the next - generation iPad Pro are pretty much what you ’d expect : OLED displays and M3 processors . But a vast part of the iPad ’s identity comes from its ability to adapt to different uses by fashion of its great solicitation of accessories . That ’s why I ’m frantic about the view of Apple redesign the iPad Pro for a new generation of accessary .
