CultCast #361 - The big problem with iPad Pro

Everyone is drooling all over the new iPad Pro

“Nothing is ever slow, and it always feels like there’s more headroom to work with. We were able to import several minutes of 4K footage into Adobe Premiere Rush, edit them, and export without breaking a sweat.”

The new iPad Pro is “pretty much a laptop in terms of performance thanks to the new 7nm processor,”  “Side-by-side with an iPad Pro 10.5 we have noticed a considerable difference in app loading times, certainly on processor intense apps like iMovie, Affinity Photo, Procreate, and games like Fortnite or Asphalt 9: Legends.”

“No apps or games I’ve used have been able to make the Pro break a sweat at all and benchmark numbers have been impressive,” adds Jeffrey van Camp of Wired. “By every measure I can think of, these are the best, most powerful, most capable iPads I’ve ever used.

“It would be a total waste of $999 (or more) to use the iPad Pro 12.9 just for bingeing Netflix, but damn does this screen look good,”

Wired also noted the new Liquid Retina screens are “gorgeous and packed with pixels.” “Color is vibrant and precise enough for Photoshopping and minute color tweaking if needed.”

Nilay Patel on lack of storage support:  Like everything about the new iPad Pro, that USB-C connector is both remarkably powerful and incredibly frustrating,” writes Patel. “With one huge exception, most normal stuff you’d plug into a USB-C port works without fuss, and a bunch of other things work if you have an app that supports it … But one extremely important category of devices will definitely not work: iOS does not support external storage

Just when I thought I’d seen it all, there is now a USB C hub that plugs right into the bottom of the iPad Pro

Accessory-maker Hyper just unveiled a six-port USB-C hub for the new iPad Pro.

4K HDMI Port

USB A Port

SD and Micro SD card readers

And an additional USB-C port so you can plug in an charge other USB C accessories

“This laptop feels a lot nicer than the old MacBook Air,”  “It fits the same size screen in a smaller body, but it’s not as thin or as light as the thinnest and lightest of laptops you can get today. When the first Air came out, it amazed everybody. This one, though very well-built, does not stand out from the pack when it comes to size or weight.”

“This new MacBook Air is faster than the old MacBook Air, but not by the kind of margin you’d expect after three years,”

“I once bought and returned the smaller MacBook, because it comes with a less powerful processor that slugged when I had too many browser tabs and apps open. The MacBook Air doesn’t have that issue,” says Haselton.

“I appreciate the speed, but I wish Apple included its Face ID technology above the screen instead,” says Haselton. “I’m used to it on my iPhone XS Max, and there seems to be plenty of room above the display to fit the cameras required. Touch ID feels outdated

There’s one big thing reviewers don’t like about the MacBook Air’s new look, though, and that’s the lack of connectivity. Just like the MacBook and MacBook Pro, the new Air does away with MagSafe, USB-A ports, and an SD card reader and replaces them with just two USB-C ports.

Battery life on the new Air is 9.5 hours, about an hour less than the old MacBook Air.

Confusing