Mobile Devices, Tablets & Phones News - Page 1

If you're waiting for the Apple Store to open on May 15 so you can rush in and buy one of Apple's shiny new M2 iPad Airs, you probably aren't alone. But as excited as you might be and as impressive as the M2 chip is, there is always going to be something better - and according to a new leak, the M3 iPad Air is already something that we should all be considering.

That leak comes via a private X account that has a proven track record of sharing information about future Apple products and has been picked up by MacRumors. According to that report, the next iPad Air to come out of Apple Park will ditch the current M2 chip in favor of the M3, the same chip that powers the latest and best Macs right now.

That of course isn't all that surprising when you look at Apple's history of updating iPads and iterating the chip, but it does mean that the iPad Air won't skip the M3 and go straight to the M4. That's exactly what the new iPad Pro did of course, but it seems that the M3 iPad Air will be a thing - although we don't yet know when that will happen.

We're now just hours away from Apple's M4 iPad Pro and M2 iPad Air officially going on sale after being made available for preorder last week. May 15 is the big day, and that's when people will be able to walk into an Apple Store and then walk out with a new tablet. It's also when those who got their preorders in quickly should see their iPad Pro or iPad Air land on their doorstep, too. No matter where the new iPad came from, the unboxing experience will include a new software update after the release of iPadOS 17.5.

That new update is already available and ready for download by people who have other compatible iPads. And while those with the new hotness can expect the same new features, there is actually one that's exclusive to the new tablets as well. For that reason alone, we would suggest that every new iPad buyer download and install iPadOS 17.5 as soon as they can.

The iPadOS 17.5 update brings with it a number of improvements and there's a special build number 21F84 that will be offered to the new iPads alone. In fact, they will ship with a version of iPadOS 17.4 that was never made available to the older models, too.

When Apple announced the new M4 iPad Pro last week it confirmed, albeit via the company's tech specifications website rather than via the announcement event, that the new chip came in two different core configurations. The base model comes with a 9-core CPU whereas those who buy the iPad Pro with 1TB or 2TB of storage gain an extra performance core, making it faster when performing multi-core workloads. The upgraded chip also comes with twice as much RAM, so 16GB rather than the standard 8GB.

Now, new Geekbench test scores for the lower-core-count M4 have started to appear online and it gives us our first proper look at how that compares with the version of the iPad Pro that has an extra core built in.

The results suggest that the loss of a core is worth around 10% of the Geekbench results, as noted by MacRumors. In terms of cold, hard, figures, the 10-core CPU manages a score of around 14,600 during multi-core testing. For comparison, the 9-core version of the same chip manages around 13,000. Looking for added context? The M3 chip that the M4 replaces has just eight CPU cores and manages around 11,600 while the 8-core M2 chip posts scores of around 9,600.

Apple has today finally made the iOS 17.5 software available for download by everyone who has a compatible iPhone after weeks of beta testing. The app update is of course free to download and it brings with it a number of new improvements. We'd suggest that everyone downloads the new update sooner rather than later, too.

Apple made the update available alongside other software updates for the iPad, Mac, and the rest of its platforms, and this one, in particular, brings with it some interesting changes. The most notable change, albeit one that only affects people in the European Union, means that users can now download apps directly from the websites of individual developers for the very first time. The change comes as part of Apple's attempts to comply with the EU's Digital Markets Act. Other changes that have already been applied include the allowance for third-party app stores and more.

Other changes of note in iOS 17.5 include the new Cross-Platform Tracking Detection system that will alert people if a compatible Bluetooth item tracker is moving with them but is not owned by them. It doesn't matter which device that tracker is paired with - meaning those paired with Android devices will still alert iPhone users and vice-versa.

Last week Apple announced the brand-new iPad Pro complete with a super-fast new M4 chip and an OLED display that is brighter than anything the company has put into a tablet to date. It's the best tablet that Apple has ever made, and it also has one other accolade to go with all of that - it also happens to be the thinnest device that Apple has ever made, too.

Apple made quite the big deal about the new iPad Pro's lack of thickness when it was announced at the Let Loose event alongside the new M2 iPad Air. The 11-inch iPad Pro measures 5.3mm while the 13-inch iPad Pro is even thinner, coming in at just 5.1mm thick. That's incredibly thin and it makes the new tablet even thinner than the iconic iPod nano. But when you make something that thin - especially something as physically big as the 13-inch iPad Pro - there is one obvious problem that needs to be overcome. How do you make sure that something like that won't bend in the middle? Apple, it says, has the answer.

The news came via someone who really should know the correct answer, too. Apple SVP John Ternus told YouTuber Arun Maini that Apple has redesigned the iPad Pro's internals to try and make sure that it's as rigid as possible. One of the changes includes a new metal cowling that sits above the logic board and then runs down the middle of the tablet to essentially form a sort of rib. That rib then adds additional rigidity to a device that could otherwise flex in ways that would be problematic.

If you're waiting for May 15 to roll around so that you can get your hands on a hot new M4 iPad Pro or M2 iPad Air, you won't have to wait too much longer, thankfully. We're just a couple of days away from the big release, and there's yet more good news for people who are concerned that they might have to deal with a huge fee should they accidentally damage their new device.

The displays on the new iPad Pro and iPad Air are big and look stunning, especially the OLED display found on the 13-inch iPad Pro. So the thought of accidentally breaking one would be enough to give anyone the cold sweats. Thankfully, MacRumors reports that Apple has extended its $29 iPhone screen repair program to the iPad Pro and iPad Air for the first time. The move means that it will be cheaper than ever to get a new display installed. The catch? You'll need to be an AppleCare Plus subscriber to benefit from the reduced pricing. Unfortunately, breaking the rest of the iPad will still result in a $99 fee.

All of this makes the AppleCare Plus subscription a no-brainer if you're someone who tends to drop things or is likely to take the iPad on trips. It's easy for something to bang into a bag and accidentally damage what's inside, and replacing the display on one of Apple's new tablets is a very expensive experience. Without AppleCare Plus, a new display will cost between $449 and $999 which is a huge sum of money.

Apple last week announced a flurry of iPads during the Let Loose event, adding the M4 chip and an OLED display to the iPad Pro and an M2 chip and all-new 13-inch display size to the iPad Air. But there was no mention of updating the iPad mini and the beloved mature tablet hasn't received any attention since it was last refreshed in 2021. That will surely change soon enough, but how soon that will happen is a matter for debate. Now, a new report suggests that while a new iPad mini is indeed part of Apple's plans, we shouldn't expect it to debut any time soon.

Writing in the paywalled version of the Power On newsletter that was reported by MacRumors, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman noted that the updated iPad mini isn't something that is likely to be announced within the next couple of months. In fact, the way Gurman was speaking, it seems possible that the new iPad mini might not arrive until 2025 although there remains hope it could debut before then.

When answering a reader's question about when the new iPad mini would debut, Gurman said that they would likely have to wait until the end of this year at the earliest, perhaps hinting that Apple could choose to hang fire on the new launch until 2025. It's absolutely clear that there won't be any iPad mini news at the WWDC event that is set to take place on June 10, however.

When the European Union allowed third-party app stores onto the iPhone as a result of the Digital Markets Act earlier this year it meant that Apple would be forced to allow people to install apps from somewhere other than the App Store for the first time/. While the EU's DMA only applies in the European Union, it's a change that brings real opportunity for companies that want to compete with Apple. And Microsoft is one of those.

Microsoft had already confirmed that it intended to launch a store that would allow users to download content onto their iPhone and now we know when it will arrive. According to a Bloomberg report, Microsoft says that it intends to launch its new mobile game store in July, and it's being run by the Xbox portion of the business. And notably, it won't be an app as such but rather a website instead.

Xbox President Sarah Bond confirmed the news and the company intends to make its own games available for download initially. However, the company also apparently intends to open the doors to other publishers who want to distribute their wars via the Xbox store as well, and that could be pretty huge.

In the build-up to the announcement of the new OLED iPad Pro earlier this week, we started to see some rumors that the company was planning to not give the device an M3 chip as was previously expected. Instead, there was a suggestion that Apple would move to something all-new, giving us our first glimpse at the M4. That ultimately happened of course, and early benchmark results suggest that buyers of the new tablet can expect something that will be very capable indeed.

Those benchmarks have started to appear online as people start to put the tablet through its paces ahead of the review embargo that will likely drop early next week. The figures produced by the M4 chip show scores of around 3,700 for its single-core CPU score and around 14,500 in the multi-core test.

To put that into perspective, the M3 MacBook Air wasn't released all that long ago and it managed to score around 3,100 in the single-core test and 12,000 in the multi-core tests. With that in mind, it's clear that the M4 is notably faster than the M4, making the new iPad Pro not only the fastest iPad Pro ever but also one of the fastest devices that Apple currently offers for sale.

Apple announced the M4 iPad Pro alongside the refreshed M2 iPad AIr earlier this week and the high-end tablet immediately went up for preorder, giving people the chance to place an order ready to receive their new computer on May 15. But as we get closer to the big day of release, it's going to prove more difficult for people to buy the iPad Pro for the big day.

While those who placed an order quickly were able to guarantee that they would be among the first to receive a new iPad Pro, a check of the Apple Store online right now suggests that people placing an order today are going to have to wait a good while before their tablet will be delivered.

Right now buying an iPad Pro in many configurations, including the cheapest one, will see buyers wait for either three or four weeks before taking delivery. Apple could well be able to get your tablet to you sooner than that, but its online delivery indicator right now suggests that might not be the case. Thankfully, it wouldn't be the first time that Apple has shipped devices sooner than the expected window suggested.