Anyone buying a 2020 iPad Pro from Apple.com will need patience. Orders placed on Thursday won‘t ship until next month.
It’s not really clear why, as this tablet is widely available at Apple retail locations.
It should come as no surprise that the iPad is one of our favorite devices here at Cult of Mac. Ever since the introduction of the 2018 iPad Pro models and iPadOS 13, Apple’s tablet has made huge strides in being more capable and powerful for tons of things I do. So, needless to say, when I saw the Magic Keyboard, I had high hopes.
One critical factor for the iPad to be a useful tool for me has been a good keyboard experience. Even more important is the ability to shift from typing on the keyboard to interacting with the touchscreen when I want to go mobile around the house or office.
Now, with the Magic Keyboard, Apple offers a new option for the iPad Pro. The new case lets you effortlessly jump between keyboard and tablet mode whenever you want. Or you can forget about the touchscreen entirely, turning the iPad into more of a laptop than ever before.
This week on The CultCast: Our reactions to Apple’s new hardware! Plus, we’ll tell you everything you need to know about Apple’s new Mac mini, MacBook Air, iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard.
Out thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast, and use offer code CultCast at checkout for 10% off your first purchase.
Buyers already snapped up the Apple’s initial supply of one version of the 2020 iPad Pro. A 12.9-inch model ordered now won‘t ship until early April. The 11-inch model is still available on launch day, however.
In what’s likely an attempt to prevent hoarding, Apple put a restriction on how many iPad Pro units each customer could buy.
Anyone who longs for the days when MacBooks came with tons of ports can look to the Doqo, an iPad Pro keyboard case that includes a pair of USB-A ports, HDMI, memory card readers, and more. There’s also a trackpad and full-size keyboard. This could be the touchscreen laptop you’ve been hoping for.
I’ve extensively used the Doqo keyboard with a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, and explore its advantages and problems in this review.
Huawei has often been guilty of introducing products “inspired” by Apple designers, and it’s apparently doing so again with an upcoming tablet. Leaked images of the Huawei MatePad Pro show it looks almost exactly like an iPad Pro. Even the name is copied.
The newly-unveiled Surface Pro X is a 13-inch tablet that seems designed to take on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro. Apple dominates tablet sales but Microsoft clearly wants a bigger piece, is hoping this slim and light Windows device will accomplish that.
Microsoft also finally added a USB-C port to the Surface Pro line in the seventh-generation model.
DoBox is looking for funding for a desktop docking station that gives the 2018 iPad Pro an array of additional features. A keyboard and trackpad are the most obvious, but there’s also a built in hub with HDMI and other ports.
On top of all that, the proposed DoBox Pro will have a slot capable of adding up 2TB of additional storage.
Libra is angling to be the first-out-of-the-gate iPad Pro case that includes not only a keyboard but also a trackpad. This wasn’t possible before, but the just-released iPadOS adds support for mice and trackpads.
The designers are looking for backing on Kickstarter to defray the costs of developing an accessory that lets an iPad mimic a MacBook more closely than any before.
The iPadOS beta Apple introduced this week offers something none of its predecessors did: reliability. Stability, even. After days of testing on an iPad Pro, I found it close enough to the final version that an average person can access a mouse or thumbdrive with their iPad nearly hassle-free. That hasn’t been true of earlier betas.
Less rigorous testing of iOS 13 on an iPhone XS Max indicates it’s also relatively stable.
