With the launch of the iPad Pro coming up shortly, technology and education expert Fraser Speirs got some hands-on time with the device at an invitation-only event in London yesterday. Speirs has been sharing his thoughts from his one-hour session with the iPad Pro and its accessories and answering questions on Twitter, offering an interesting perspective on the user experience.
Overall, Speirs was impressed by the iPad Pro, finding it most ideal for productivity tasks in noting the device "is expansive where the Air 2 is intimate. It definitely has a 'work' feel to it, although photos/media are fantastic." Multitasking in particular is "a whole different thing" on the iPad Pro with a true feeling of "two iPads stuck together," an experience that makes it "a great device for serious work and creativity."
If you’re the kind of person who uses Editorial, Keynote, Pythonista, Office, Adobe, Omni and Panic apps, you should look at iPad Pro.
— Fraser Speirs (@fraserspeirs) October 23, 2015
Speirs is a bit less enthusiastic about other use cases, noting that "if you just use it to browse and Netflix" there may not be enough benefit from the iPad Pro to make it worth the increased size and weight compared to iPad Air 2. For reading, he feels "it's not a device to snuggle up with" but would be solid for reference work.
Turning to the Apple Pencil, Speirs calls it "extremely impressive" and "certainly the best iPad stylus I have used by a country mile." Palm rejection is described as "near-perfect" and the "best I have ever seen on iOS," making for a smooth experience with writing and drawing apps.
Speirs was less impressed with the Smart Keyboard, calling it "a bit fiddly" due to its size and complexity but a "decent enough" keyboard. As far as the keyboard feel, Speirs compares it most closely to Logitech's Keys-to-Go among accessories iPad users might already be familiar with.
For more of Speirs' thoughts on the iPad Pro and its accessories, check out his Twitter timeline, which is full of tidbits and other impressions.
Apple may have canceled the super scratch resistant anti-reflective display coating that it planned to use for the iPhone 17 Pro models, according to a source with reliable information that spoke to MacRumors.
Last spring, Weibo leaker Instant Digital suggested Apple was working on a new anti-reflective display layer that was more scratch resistant than the Ceramic Shield. We haven't heard...
Apple has completed Engineering Validation Testing (EVT) for at least one iPhone 17 model, according to a paywalled preview of an upcoming DigiTimes report.
iPhone 17 Air mockup based on rumored design
The EVT stage involves Apple testing iPhone 17 prototypes to ensure the hardware works as expected. There are still DVT (Design Validation Test) and PVT (Production Validation Test) stages to...
Wednesday April 30, 2025 3:59 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple is preparing to launch a dramatically thinner iPhone this September, and if recent leaks are anything to go by, the so-called iPhone 17 Air could boast one of the most radical design shifts in recent years.
iPhone 17 Air dummy model alongside iPhone 16 Pro (credit: AppleTrack)
At just 5.5mm thick (excluding a slightly raised camera bump), the 6.6-inch iPhone 17 Air is expected to become ...
Apple will likely manufacture its 20th anniversary iPhone models in China, despite broader efforts to shift production to India, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman.
In 2027, Apple is planning a "major shake-up" for the iPhone lineup to mark two decades since the original model launched. Gurman's previous reporting indicates the company will introduce a foldable iPhone alongside a "bold"...
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Apple Watch, which launched on April 24, 2015. Yesterday, we recapped features rumored for the Apple Watch Series 11, but since 2015, the Apple Watch has also branched out into the Apple Watch Ultra and the Apple Watch SE, so we thought we'd take a look at what's next for those product lines, too.
2025 Apple Watch Ultra 3
Apple didn't update the...
Tuesday April 29, 2025 1:30 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Despite being more than two years old, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 still dominate the premium wireless‑earbud space, thanks to a potent mix of top‑tier audio, class‑leading noise cancellation, and Apple's habit of delivering major new features through software updates. With AirPods Pro 3 widely expected to arrive in 2025, prospective buyers now face a familiar dilemma: snap up the proven...
Wednesday April 23, 2025 8:31 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices.
Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of April 2025:
Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
Tuesday April 29, 2025 3:36 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
All upcoming iPhone 17 models will come equipped with 12GB of RAM to support Apple Intelligence, according to the Weibo-based leaker Digital Chat Station.
The claim from the Chinese leaker, who has sources within Apple's supply chain, comes a few days after industry analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said that the iPhone 17 Air, iPhone 17 Pro, and iPhone 17 Pro Max will all be equipped with 12GB of RAM.
...
Next year, apple will release the iPad Pro 2, featuring 3D touch, 20% lighter body. But that's not it! They will release iOS 10 to make your iPad Pro 1 30% slower!
As an owner of a 12" Macbook, I still don't see the benefits of an iPad Pro other than the pencil. Anything else, like Office work or some Adobe photoshop, OS X is simply much better and the mouse interface is more useful than iOS and touch interfaces.
I recently bought the SP3. I was just so intrigued by the concept. I had been wishing for an iPad running OS X or at least giving us file system access and the possibility of external storage. I wanted to love the SP3 but there were too many reasons not to. Windows is not good for touch (and having abandoned windows as my main system more than 10 years ago, I have to say I didn't like coming back at all, even though I still use it for some things on a VM but as a main system it's just so cluttered). The tiles were ugly so I was only in desktop mode and it's so fidly on touch that you have to use a mouse if you want to do more than start a movie or browse some websites. Battery lasted 5 hours tops, huge disappointment. The screen was reflecting too much. Even when watching a movie, something which shouldn't use a lot of resources, the fan often started blowing. For a laptop it was just too weak, for a tablet not that great. I guess there are some who have use for it but I much more prefer the combo of a Macbook Pro and an iPad. I sold the SP3 and am considering the iPad Pro. I haven't paid a lot of attention to the SP4 but from what I read, it still has most of the weaknesses I described and the Surface Book having only 3 hours of battery without the keyboard is the biggest joke (apart from that, it would make a cool hackintosh).
One thing the SP3 made me realize is that an iPad running OS X might not be that great. An open and (really) professional iOS is probably better. Perhaps we'll get there by iOS 20.
Near perfect palm rejection? I'm a stickler for this, it needs to be perfect or else I'm always going to have issues while taking critical notes. Why near perfect and not perfect?
Anyone know if palm rejection is implemented by the app or if it's handled by iOS?
