However what’s grinding my gears is the truth that the brand new Apple Pencil Professional solely works with the brand new 2024 iPad Professional and iPad Air fashions. Sure, even in the event you spent $1,099 on the 2022 iPad Professional two years in the past, you can not use this new “Professional” stylus on that mannequin. You may should improve. That is most likely a great time to say that the 2024 iPad Professional fashions are dearer throughout the board, beginning at $999 for the 11-incher and $1,199 for the 13-inch mannequin (a $200 and $100 soar, respectively).
Know what’s worse? When you thought you possibly can improve to the brand new iPad Professional or iPad Air from an older iPad and maintain utilizing the second-gen Apple Pencil you already personal, suppose once more. The brand new iPad Air and iPad Professional tablets solely work with the 2 latest styli: the Apple Pencil (USB-C) that got here out final 12 months and the brand new Apple Pencil Professional. So if you’re an avid Pencil consumer and wish one of many new slates, you most likely have to purchase a brand new Apple Pencil.
Apple wouldn’t touch upon the file about this after I attended an iPad hands-on occasion as we speak. The corporate’s advertising supplies do spotlight a “new magnetic interface” for the Apple Pencil Professional, which is the interface the Apple Pencil makes use of to recharge, pair, and keep connected to the pill. Nevertheless, there aren’t any particulars on what precisely is “new” about this interface apart from the truth that Apple needed to transfer its placement barely to accommodate the iPad’s front-facing panorama digital camera. The brand new interface would not supply quicker or extra environment friendly charging, quicker pairing, or safer magnets—nothing of the kind. It feels virtually an identical to the prevailing system.
And the Apple Pencil is a stylus. For the love of god, it needs to be one of many best issues to make backward appropriate. So what if the “Squeeze” gestures won’t work on an older iPad? I do not suppose it is tough to point that sure new options will not be obtainable on older tablets; Apple already does this with its software program updates. Sure new features in iOS do not work on older iPhones, even when the {hardware} continues to be supported. On the very least, let the purchasers who’ve purchased your stylus from years previous apply it to the brand new fashions. I can not discover a good motive why a second-generation Apple Pencil would simply not be appropriate in any respect.
The one reply I’m drumming up is the shortage of processing energy on older slates, but when the M2 chipset contained in the 2022 iPad Professional is already not highly effective sufficient to deal with a couple of new stylus methods, that does not converse very effectively to the efficiency prowess of Apple’s silicon.
It is all very foolish. The Apple Pencil Professional, second-gen Apple Pencil, and USB-C Apple Pencil at least ought to work on all of Apple’s present lineup, regardless if sure features should not obtainable. There most likely additionally should not be 4 Pencils to select from within the first place.
“It simply works” is the motto that is usually equated with the whole lot Apple. Not so with the Apple Pencil.
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