Essential Apple User Magazine June 2021

team players//

James Gale Managing Editor As the magazine’s resident square eyes, it’s the new Apple TV for me. High frame rate HDR and Dolby Vision video at 60 frames per second? Yes please! Martin Smith Group Senior Designer An M1 chip in a tablet? It’s amazing how powerful Apple Silicon chips are, and this one takes the iPad to the next level. I can’t wait to get my hands on one. Alan Hulme Staff Writer I’m always losing my keys, so I love my AirTag on my keyring. I just grab my iPhone and with a few taps, I can find my errant keys in a jiffy. David Hayward Staff Writer Living so far from most of the team, I have to video chat a lot for work. The addition of 5G to the iPad Pro will make my life easier when…

editor’s letter//

At the time of writing, the products unveiled in the spring keynote are just arriving. In this issue, we take a hands-on look at the new iMac and iPad Pro. Are they really as good as people say they are? Does the iMac look as good in the flesh as it does in the pictures? And what about those AirTags? Take a look at this issue’s cover feature and find out what we thought. These days, most tech is of a high quality. That’s ignoring fake products sold on eBay and knock-down market-stall tat, of course. If you buy a reputable brand from a respectable outlet, standards are likely to be high. This doesn’t mean a product is the right thing for you, though. When you check out our review section,…

apple springs into action!

No one was surprised when Apple announced the new 2021 iMacs, powered by the new Apple Silicon M1 system-on-a-chip processor. The company is committed to moving its entire range of Macs from Intel chips to Apple Silicon over the next two years. But the Spring keynote also gave us a new iPad Pro which is also powered by an M1 processor, as well as AirTags, Apple’s long-expected tracking device. Now they’ve arrived, should we be excited? Is it worth upgrading? What do the new iMacs and iPad Pro mean to us? And what’s so good about the new M1 processor anyway? Let’s take a look. “The M1 ushers in a whole new era for the Mac. When it comes to low-power silicon, M1 has the world’s fastest CPU core, the world’s…

imac to the future

Apple’s new iMacs are here, and they’re awesome. Based around the new Apple Silicon M1 system-on-a-chip processor, they’re packed with exciting new features, and like early iMacs from the turn of the century, they’re available in a range of colours. The new iMacs are built from the ground up around the M1 processor. Contrary to several predictions and concept mock-ups that appeared on the Internet, they still have a ‘chin’ at the foot of the screen, albeit without the customary Apple logo in the middle. In fact, this chin houses the entire computer, allowing the iMac to be very thin. When you look at it from the side, it almost disappears; it’s just 11.5mm thin. Because the entire system is built into the new M1 processor, the iMac needs far fewer…

what’s so good about apple silicon?

Apple is no stranger to designing and manufacturing processors. It has been making chips for the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch for years. But the new M1 CPU, Apple’s most powerful chip yet, is its first designed for the Mac. The M1 is an entire system on a single chip. In the past, a Mac needed several chips running alongside the CPU. There was a controller for data transfer in and out, and another for the Thunderbolt ports alone. Solid state memory required more chips, as did the Apple T2 for security features. Not any more. The M1 combines all these technologies into a single unit, which is great for efficiency, and therefore, performance. The M1 chip uses five nanometer technology. What this means is an individual transistor, the things that…

mission: possible for the ipad

The iPad Pro has been upgraded from the previously-used Apple A12Z Bionic processor to an Apple Silicon M1 chip, the same one used in the latest Macs. Having an M1 chip in an iPad Pro is useful for two key reasons. Firstly, it offers a significant performance boost. Its processing power is 50% faster than the previous iPad Pro, which was in itself an industry leader. The integrated graphics processor is up to 40% faster. These are extremely significant improvements which will be welcomed by high-end graphical designers, photo editors and others who require considerable processing power. Secondly, the inclusion of the M1 represents another significant step in the integration of Mac and mobile technologies, making it even easier to develop for both side by side. Externally, the newer iPad Pro is…