According to a report on CNBC, startups may not get government money from the coronavirus relief bill if they have already taken venture capital or private equity money.
“So-called affiliation rules from the Small Business Administration could prevent startups from getting loans as part of that stimulus package,” says CNBC report Kate Rooney. “According to SBA rules, a startup should be affiliated with their investors. For example, if a VC backed company has 30 employees, it is grouped in with thousands of other employees at fellow portfolio companies.
“The head of the National Venture Capital Association tells me that startups don’t have access to emergency capital in the meantime and there could be waves of job losses for the countries 2.2 million startup employees,” says Rooney.
While it may seem 5G is taking a long time to roll out, new data shows deployment is moving along much faster than its predecessors.
According to 5G Americas, citing research by Omdia, 5G adoption has actually far outpaced previous generations of wireless technology. For example, “it took roughly 10 quarters, or until Q1 2012, for 4G LTE to reach 17.9 million connections – roughly where 5G is today. 3G did not reach that mark until December 2010, after 11 Quarters and 2G reached it in December 1995, after 14 quarters.”
As a result, the 17.7 million 5G connections globally in Q4 2019 represent a 329% growth rate over the previous quarter. Even more impressive, that number is five million subscribers ahead of projections.
“We truly had a great year in 2019, as 5G adoption has surpassed most forecasts,” said Chris Pearson, President, 5G Americas. “With the first year of 5G completed, 2020 is shaping up to be focused on the growth of new 5G devices, increasing coverage, increasing network densification, and probably the first 5G Stand Alone deployments.”
The research is good news for the 5G industry and customers alike, especially given the revolutionary speeds the technology promises.
iFixit has done another of their in-depth teardowns of a new computer and the results are good news for owners of Apple’s most recent MacBook Air.
Apple released a significant refresh of the MacBook Air last week, improving the processor and storage, as well as replacing the much-maligned Butterfly keyboard with the new Magic Keyboard. The new keyboard is a return to the scissor mechanism that has been the basis of keyboards for decades, and has proven to be far more reliable.
iFixit’s teardown, however, reveals a number of other improvements under the hood. First and foremost, the new model is more repairable than previous generations. Significantly, re-routed trackpad cables make it possible to replace both the battery and trackpad. The speakers also gain screws, making it easier to replace them if needed.
Another significant improvement is a larger heatsink over the processor. Apple has said nothing about a larger heatsink, but it’s likely the addition will improve the Air’s sustained performance by helping to keep it cooler.
All-in-all, iFixit gave the new model 4 out of 10 on their repairability scale, up one point from the previous model. The upgrades are welcome improvements and demonstrate that Apple may finally be listening to customers wanting more control over their own repairs.
For the second time in two years, HPE is warning of a firmware bug in its SSD drives that will brick them unless an update is applied.
In a support advisory, HPE details the issue involving HPE SAS SSDs running firmware older than HPD7. Those drives running the earlier firmware will completely fail once they reach 40,000 hours of operation.
“IMPORTANT: This HPD7 firmware is considered a critical fix and is required to address the issue detailed below,” reads the advisory. “HPE strongly recommends immediate application of this critical fix. Neglecting to update to SSD Firmware Version HPD7 will result in drive failure and data loss at 40,000 hours of operation and require restoration of data from backup if there is no fault tolerance, such as RAID 0 or even in a fault tolerance RAID mode if more SSDs fail than can be supported by the fault tolerance of the RAID mode on the logical drive. Example: RAID 5 logical drive with two failed SSDs.”
HPE says it was “notified by a Solid State Drive (SSD) manufacturer of a firmware defect affecting certain SAS SSD models” that were used in HPE server and Storage products. The company also makes it clear that, because the failure only occurs after “40,000 hours of operation and based on the dates these drives began shipping from HPE, these drives are NOT susceptible to failure until October 2020 at the earliest.”
Even so, IT professionals should begin upgrading the firmware on impacted drives as soon as possible to ensure no data loss when the 40,000 hour threshold is crossed.
While some industries may be reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, ecommerce ad spending is experiencing a boon.
According to Search Engine Land, a recent report details the growth ecommerce ad spending is currently undergoing, jumping “from $4.8 million the week of February 17 to $9.6 million the week of March 9. The data, released by media sales intelligence firm MediaRadar on Friday, encompasses advertising spend across national TV, print and digital media, including websites, Snapchat, YouTube and podcasts.”
The data is another indication that the U.S. and world economies are experiencing fundamental shifts as a result of the pandemic. People are practicing social distancing, working from home, turning to social gaming for human interaction, relying on cloud environments, communicating via Slack or Microsoft Teams and turning to videoconferencing in never before seen numbers. Similarly, the increase in ad spending corresponds to people sheltering in place and relying on ecommerce for their day-to-day needs.
The longer the pandemic goes on, the more likely such trends will become permanent, forever changing how people go about their personal and work lives.
Firefox has announced the launch of a new Test Pilot program, Better Web with Scroll, aimed at improving the web experience for both publishers and users.
Firefox is one of the most privacy-oriented companies in the world, and is constantly working to tackle problems related to privacy and the overall health of the web. Its latest initiative is designed to help publishers who have been hard hit by various privacy features, while at the same time incentivizing them to focus on quality content, rather than ad-driven quantity.
“If we’re going to create a better internet for everyone, we need to figure out how to make it work for publishers,” writes Matt Grimes. “Last year, we launched Enhanced Tracking Protection by default and have blocked more than two trillion third-party trackers to date, but it didn’t directly address the problems that publishers face. That’s where our partner Scroll comes in. By engaging with a better funding model, sites in their growing network no longer have to show you ads to make money. They can focus on quality not clicks. Firefox Better Web with Scroll gives you the fast, private web you want and supports publishers at the same time.”
The new initiative is based on Mozilla’s previously announced efforts to find alternative ways for publishers to monetize their content, without relying on ads. This is what led the non-profit to partner with Scroll. To join Firefox Better Web, users need to sign up for a Firefox account and install an extension. For the first six months, the service is discounted 50%, costing $2.50 a month. The money goes into a fund that is used to compensate writers and publishers. According to Mozilla, early tests show sites make at least 40% more than they would relying on ads.
“Firefox Better Web combines the work we’ve done with third-party tracking protection and Scroll’s network of outstanding publishers,” adds Grimes. “This ensures you will get a top notch experience while still supporting publishers directly and keeping the web healthy.”
Apple has announced that developers can now include macOS versions of their apps as part of a universal purchase.
iOS users have enjoyed universal purchases for some time, paying once to have access to both an iPhone and iPad version of the same app. As Apple began separating tvOS, watchOS and iPadOS, developers could include a version of their app for each of the devices in a universal purchase. macOS, on the other hand, was not included. With Monday’s announcement, that finally changes.
“The macOS version of your app can now be included in a universal purchase, allowing customers to enjoy your app and in‑app purchases across iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS by purchasing only once,” reads the announcement. “Get started by using a single bundle ID for your apps in Xcode and setting up your app record for universal purchase in App Store Connect.”
Apple’s announcement is good news for developers and customers alike, and provides a good way for developers to incentivize purchases.
Apple may still release its AirPower wireless charging mat that was cancelled roughly a year ago.
Apple first announced the AirPower mat in September 2017, promising it would be released by the end of 2018. By March of 2019, AirPower was still a no-show and the company finally called it off, saying it would not release the product.
According to a tweet by Jon Prosser, founder of the YouTube channel Front Page Tech, Apple is still working on AirPower and has been trying to solve some of the issues that caused the company to initially cancel the project.
AirPower isn’t dead
The project is back on, internally. No guarantee that they’ll finalize and release it, but they haven’t given up yet and they’re trying to re-engineer the coils to displace heat more effectively. Prototyping is underway.
MacRumors reported that noted Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo has said the company would release a “smaller wireless charging mat” in the first half of 2020. He did not say whether the new mat was the AirPower, or some other project Apple is working on. Either way, it seems that Apple users may be able to buy a wireless charger of some kind from Apple in the near future, rather than relying on third-party solutions.
T-Mobile has announced it is launching its T-Mobile Connect plan March 25, rather than waiting till after the Sprint merger is complete.
As more and more Americans are impacted financially by the coronavirus pandemic, T-Mobile hopes its Connect plan will help people experiencing financial hardships. The plan is the company’s cheapest smartphone plan it has ever unveiled, and offers unlimited talk and text plus 2GB high-speed smartphone data, for $15 plus tax. The plan will also have full access to T-Mobile’s 5G network. For $25 per month plus tax, customers can upgrade to 5GB of monthly data.
“Right now, having a reliable, low-cost connection is absolutely crucial for Americans, and with many facing financial strain, time is of the essence. We knew we couldn’t wait for the merger to finalize to launch T-Mobile Connect, our lowest priced smartphone plan, so we’re rolling out ahead of schedule,” said John Legere, CEO of T-Mobile. “With T-Mobile Connect, we’re giving those hardest hit an even more affordable way to stay in touch. Half the price of our lowest-ever priced smartphone plan. So everyone can stay connected.”
Kudos to T-Mobile for deploying this plan early. With countless Americans being laid off, or otherwise losing their jobs, this plan may be a life-saver to people trying to stay connected at an affordable price.
Apple is donating millions of masks to medical personnel across the U.S. and Europe as health professionals grapple with the coronavirus pandemic.
As the pandemic continues to spread across the U.S., officials have been calling on other industries to help create or provide medical products. Kentucky bourbon makers are making hand sanitizer and auto makers have been called on to help make ventilators.
In an announcement on Twitter, Apple CEO Tim Cook said the company is donating millions of masks to health professionals.
Our teams at Apple have been working to help source supplies for healthcare providers fighting COVID-19. We’re donating millions of masks for health professionals in the US and Europe. To every one of the heroes on the front lines, we thank you.
Cryptocurrencies may be gaining traction around the world, but they aren’t welcome in another major country, as Russia takes steps to ban them.
According to Forbes, reporting on an interview with the Russian news agency Interfax, a Russian official said an upcoming digital assets bill will ban buying and selling cryptocurrency.
“We believe there are big risks of legalizing the operations with the cryptocurrencies, from the standpoint of financial stability, money laundering prevention and consumer protection,” said Russia’s central bank head of legal, Alexey Guznov.
“We are opposed to the fact that there are institutions that organize the release of cryptocurrency and facilitate its circulation,” Guznov continued, saying the bill “directly formulates a ban on the issue, as well as on the organization of circulation of cryptocurrency, and introduces liability for violation of this ban.”
Russian officials recognize they will not be able to completely stop cryptocurrency transactions, with Guznov saying authorities will not pursue individuals who made their deals in a country where it was legal.
Either way, however, Russia’s announcement is a big blow to cryptocurrencies around the world.
Zoom may be benefiting from unprecedented numbers of users flocking to the platform, but that newfound popularity comes with some downsides.
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Zoom and other video conferencing solutions have become the new way many individuals are working, worshiping and keeping in touch with loved ones. While that has resulted in the company having many more users, it has also significantly raised the cost of doing business and it’s not clear how many of those users are paying subscribers.
In a regulatory filing with the SEC, the company said: “While we have seen increased usage of our service globally, there are no assurances that we will also experience an increase in paying customers or that new or existing users will continue to utilize our services at the same levels after the outbreak has tempered. Furthermore, such increased usage by free Basic account users during this time could require us to expand our network capacity which would increase our operating costs.”
The company also fears the increased number of users will raise its infrastructure cost as it works to keep up with demand. “We expect our cost of revenue to increase for the foreseeable future, both in absolute dollars and as a percentage of total revenue, as we expand our data center capacity and third party cloud hosting due to increased usage stemming from the recent outbreak of the COVID-19 virus,” the statement continued.
Zoom also expressed concern that any perceived issues or performance problems could irreparably hurt its reputation. This is especially a concern as the platform, and the meetings it hosts, become a greater target for hackers as a result of its growing popularity.
Zoom should serve as a good example for other companies whose business is booming during the coronavirus pandemic. While the added users and potential income are welcome, it will almost always come with greater scrutiny, expense and potential for things to go wrong.
VMware is synonymous with virtualization software. Everyone from data centers to end users rely on the company’s software to be able to run multiple operating systems on a single set of hardware.
In an interview with Mad Money’s Jim Cramer, VMware COO Sanjay Poonen commented on the current state of telecommuting during the coronavirus pandemic, as well as VMware’s role in 5G.
On The Impacts of the Coronavirus Pandemic
“This is unprecedented times. We’ve always been a trusted advisor and, as you know, we know a thing or two about virtualization. Our customers run their critical apps on our infrastructure.”
On How Long-Lasting the Impacts Will Be
“I think there’s part of our life, Jim, that’s going to change forever. Behind me I have a saying from Winston Churchill that says, ‘when you’re going through hell, go through it.’ Another one I like from Winston Churchill is ‘never waste a crisis.’
And I think that’s part of our life that’s forever going to change. We will, perhaps, have a place where, for instance, less travel is good for the planet.”
On Collaboration
“We want to make sure that if you are at home, you are productive, you’re able to work continuous, just like it was at work…We were one of the early customers that used Zoom. We love it. We use Slack. We use Microsoft Teams. These are all ways in which you can collaborate.”
On VMware’s Role in 5G and the Network Strain the Pandemic Is Causing
“We have tremendous relationships with the telco players—they are some of our biggest customers—and the cloud infrastructure players. In many cases, we are between software, compute, storage and networking. Software defined architecture is really where the world of 5G is going.
“So a lot of these big companies have started relying on us for that future world of 5G. And software is a lot easier to manage. It’s also just as reliable, more reliable, because you can fix things. And we’re working very closely with our customers. Bandwidth is going to be something we watch very carefully.”
“There’s been a lot of advances in machine learning that take things that would have been literally impossible ten years ago and made those things much more possible today,” says Etsy CEO Josh Silverman. “With 62 million products for sale, picking for any given buyer the 20 or 30 that should be on page one of search results is a pretty interesting and pretty challenging task. The key is understanding what an item is with relatively little data and then being able to determine for each individual person how to personalize search results.”
Josh Silverman, CEO of Etsy, discusses how Etsy has increased growth by standing out in a world of sameness and by employing machine learning technology to personalize the Etsy experience for their customers. Silverman talks about his strategy for success in an interview with Fortune:
We Started Doing Much Fewer Things Much Better
Etsy has never been more relevant. In a world where so many of our products are being commoditized and we’re surrounded by a sea of sameness, Etsy stands for something really different. I think it’s really important that we stand out in the world and I’m proud of what the team has done to achieve that. The definition of success was really clear. I think from day one it’s about growing the size of the pie for everyone. The actual tactics that it was going to take to do that we’ve learned together as a team over time.
When I arrived, there were maybe eight or ten different metrics of success that we all held relatively equally. I said there’s one metric that matters much more than every other, which is what we call gross merchandise sales. In other words, the total sales of our sellers. When we stopped saying what’s a good idea, what moves any one of these 10 metrics and started saying, what are the fewest things we need to do to really accelerate gross merchandise sales, we came to a very different answer. We started doing much fewer things much better. That’s really been the key to our success.
There’s Been a Lot of Advances In Machine Learning
Change is hard. When running a marketplace we have access to a lot of data and insights that each individual seller won’t necessarily have. Our job is to really look after the good of the whole and be willing to make some decisions that sometimes, in the moment, may not feel obvious to every seller but really do lift all boats and make our sellers as a whole much better off. We’ve really focused at a high level on doing two things really well. One, make it much easier for people to find great products on Etsy. And two, once they’ve found those products to actually buy them.
With 62 million products for sale, picking for any given buyer the 20 or 30 that should be on page one of search results is a pretty interesting and pretty challenging task. There’s been a lot of advances in machine learning that take things that would have been literally impossible ten years ago and made those things much more possible today. The key is understanding what an item is with relatively little data and then being able to determine for each individual person how to personalize search results. We’ve made leaps and bounds in the science of search and machine learning. That’s more relevant at Etsy than almost anywhere else.
The mission of Etsy is incredible. As the nature of work changes creativity can’t be automated. The role we play for creators and makers being able to harness their creative passions and power and turn that into a way to earn a living for their families is a mission that I think is ever more important in this fast-changing economy.
There’s Been a Lot of Advances In Machine Learning, Says Etsy CEO Josh Silverman
In the race to create a COVID-19 vaccine, Rescale has partnered with both Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
Rescale is a leader in enterprise big compute and is offering its high performance computing resources to research teams working on vaccines or test kits—at no cost. Thanks to the partnerships, “researchers can rapidly run simulations in the cloud without setup time or IT teams using Rescale’s turnkey platform combined with cloud computing resources from Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure.”
Another significant advantage of the cloud partnership is the ability for research teams around the globe to seamlessly collaborate and combine their efforts.
“Rescale’s platform can provide access to high-performance computing resources that can help accelerate key processes and enable stronger collaboration,” said Manvinder Singh, Director, Partnerships at Google Cloud. “As a partner of Rescale, we’re grateful that they will make these resources, including Google Cloud computing capabilities, available to more researchers and organizations.”
Greg Moore, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft Health added, “We’re inspired to team up with Rescale in the fight against time to help provide answers to address COVID-19. To enable researchers and organizations to develop new therapeutics and vaccines faster, we’re working together to accelerate the availability of Azure supercomputers in the cloud.”
Rescale is to be commended for offering their HPC resources at no cost to researchers who are desperately trying to develop vaccines and more efficient ways of testing. The announcement is also a prime example of how the coronavirus pandemic is hastening a large-scale migration to cloud computing.
Amid supply chain constraints as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Apple is limiting online iPhone orders.
According to CNBC, “Apple’s online store began limiting U.S. customers to two units of each iPhone model per person this week. Customers can still buy more than two iPhones in one order, but they would have to be different models — for instance, two iPhone 11s and two iPhone 11 Pros.
“The restriction applies to the iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone XR, iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Max.” Apple is also limiting orders of the new iPad Pro the company announced on Wednesday.
The news is the latest indication the coronavirus has had a significant impact on Apple’s supply chain. The company previously announced it would miss its quarterly guidance as a result of the virus, while analysts believe the supply chain issues could persist and impact Apple’s 2021 earnings. Apple also warned its store personnel that warranty replacement iPhones were in short supply.
Apple taking the drastic step of limiting purchases is further evidence the company doesn’t see its supply chain catching up anytime soon.
In a call to investors, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has said the company is losing significant business because of the coronavirus, but has enough funds on hand.
According to Business Insider, Khosrowshahi told investors the hardest hit areas have seen a 60-70% decline in rides, and that could go as high as 80% for the year. In spite of that, the CEO said the company has $10 billion in unrestricted cash.
“We have plenty of liquidity on the books which positions us to come out of this crisis strong and capable,” Khosrowshahi said.
Another bright spot is Uber Eats, the company’s food delivery service. As people forgo restaurants, Uber Eats is seeing growth in even the worst hit areas. Between the news that Uber has enough cash to survive the crisis, and news its food delivery service is growing, the company’s stock was up as much as 43% Thursday.
Uber should serve as an example for other companies. Between having enough cash to weather a storm, and diversifying into a disruptive business, the company seems well-positioned to survive any temporary hit to its core business.
Microsoft has announced that Teams has topped 44 million users as more individuals work from home and rely on virtual interactions during the coronavirus pandemic.
Microsoft has been locked in a rivalry with Slack for the business chat market. In November Microsoft doubled Slack’s user base. Now, just four months later, the company has hit 44 million, growing from 32 million in the last week.
“In the face of COVID-19, there are countless stories from customers who are using Teams to connect and thrive in inspiring ways,” said Jared Spataro, Corporate Vice President for Microsoft 365. “A professor at University of Bologna in Italy shared on Twitter how the school moved 90 percent of courses online to Teams within four days, which is definitely a first in the university’s 900-plus year history. Doctors at St. Luke’s University Health Network in Pennsylvania will use Teams for videoconferencing with patients, especially those who are most vulnerable to coronavirus, as a way to protect both patients and healthcare providers. And the City of Osaka in Japan is using Teams to conduct orientations and trainings for hundreds of new incoming employees in April.
“Stories like these are playing out in countries the world over. We believe that this sudden, globe-spanning move to remote work will be a turning point in how we work and learn. Already, we are seeing how solutions that enable remote work and learning across chat, video, and file collaboration have become central to the way we work. We have seen an unprecedented spike in Teams usage, and now have more than 44 million daily users, a figure that has grown by 12 million in just the last seven days. And those users have generated over 900 million meeting and calling minutes on Teams each day this week.”
The longer the pandemic goes on, companies like Microsoft, Slack and Zoom are likely to see their user bases skyrocket.
It was bound to happen: Senators have expressed concern about Google’s role in developing a site to help screen potential coronavirus patients.
Google was caught off guard last week when President Trump said the company had 1,700 engineers working on a website designed to help screen potential coronavirus patients. In spite of the surprise, Google quickly got on board with the project and vowed to develop the site Trump had promised.
Unfortunately for the company, however, Google doesn’t have the best track record with privacy and security. As a result, several senators have raised concerns about the project, in a letter to Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Joining Sen. Bob Menendez in sending the letter were Sens. Sherrod Brown, Cory Booker, Kamala Harris and Richard Blumenthal.
“There are numerous privacy concerns about such an endeavor, including: whether people will be required to sign waivers forfeiting their privacy and personal data in order to access the questionnaire; whether Google or any of its subsidiaries will be prohibited from using data received through the website for commercial purposes; and whether Google and any of its subsidiaries will be prohibited from selling any data collected through the website to a third-party.”
The letter goes on to highlight the valuable nature of the data that will be collected and how much of a target it will be for hackers.
“To state the obvious, the information Americans enter on this website will be highly valuable to potential hackers, foreign state and nonstate actors with nefarious intent, and other criminal enterprises,” the senators continue. “We are concerned that neither the Administration nor Google has fully contemplated the range of threats to Americans’ personally identifiable information.”
Both points the letter raises are extremely pertinent. It was recently discovered that Google partnered with the Ascension healthcare group to collect the medical records of millions of American patients, without their knowledge. If patients are going to trust a website Google creates, they need to know their data is going to be used for the advertised purpose and not swallowed up into one of Google’s other commercial endeavors. Likewise, the data will represent a goldmine for hackers, requiring the very best in security technologies and processes.
The senators certainly aren’t the only individuals questioning whether Google is up to the task—on both fronts.
Amazon is prioritizing shipments of essential items to its warehouses, as it struggles to keep up with demand in the face of the coronavirus pandemic.
As governments, schools and companies take drastic measures to stop the spread of the virus, unprecedented numbers of individuals are staying home. With restaurants and bars closed in many areas, and grocery store shelves running light, people are having to rely on their home supplies and online shopping like never before. The new status quo has strained supply chains, prompting even Walmart to adjust hours to help give stocking crews a chance to catch up.
Amazon has likewise felt the strain, and is now taking major action to try to meet demand.
“As COVID-19 has spread, we’ve recently seen an increase in people shopping online which has had an impact on how we serve our customers,” reads a company blog post. “So in the short term, we are making the decision to temporarily prioritize household staples, medical supplies and other high-demand products coming into our fulfillment centers so we can more quickly receive, restock and ship these products to customers. Products already on its way to our fulfillment centers will be accepted. This does not impact products being delivered to customers, or products currently in stock in our store. Customers can continue to buy any in-stock product in our store, and we will continue to deliver them.”
Amazon’s announcement is a major change and will likely have far-reaching financial consequences for companies that rely on Amazon to sell their products. Amazon has already faced tremendous skepticism from retail companies who are reluctant to rely on the company’s cloud solutions, as Amazon is one of their biggest competitors. Now that many companies are seeing one of their primary order fulfillment avenues suspend shipment of their products, even temporarily, companies may be more hesitant to rely as heavily on Amazon in the future.
Apple has announced a new iPad Pro that is clearly aimed at the laptop market, with a slew of powerful new features.
The new iPad Pro is powered by the A12Z Bionic chip and an eight-core GPU, allowing the tablet to outperform most PC laptops on the market today, according to Apple. Given that the 2018 iPad Pro was touted as being faster than 92% of notebooks on the market at that time, Apple’s claim about the new model is probably pretty accurate.
iPad Pro Cameras – Image Credit: Apple
The camera on the new model is equally impressive. The iPad Pro includes a 12MP Wide camera, as well as a 10MP Ultra Wide camera. There are also “studio-quality mics and a breakthrough LiDAR Scanner that delivers cutting-edge depth-sensing capabilities, opening up more pro workflows and supporting pro photo and video apps. The LiDAR Scanner, along with pro cameras, motion sensors, pro performance, pro audio, the stunning Liquid Retina display and powerful apps, extends the lead of iPad Pro as the world’s best device for augmented reality (AR).”
iPad Trackpad Support – Image Credit: Apple
The feature that will catch most users’ attention is full trackpad support. iPadOS 13.4 brings trackpad support to the iPad, and the feature particularly shines when paired with the upcoming Magic Keyboard. The new keyboard is designed to offer a laptop-style experience, suspending the iPad magnetically and giving 130 degrees of viewing angle—far better than the older Smart Keyboard. The Magic Keyboard also features pass-through USB-C charging, leaving the USB-C port on the iPad free for peripherals.
“The new iPad Pro introduces advanced technologies never before available in mobile computing,” said Phil Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. “Combining the most advanced mobile display with powerful performance, pro cameras, pro audio, the breakthrough LiDAR Scanner and new Magic Keyboard with Trackpad, this is another huge leap forward for iPad. There’s no other device in the world like the new iPad Pro and we think our customers are going to love it.”
“We’re making iPad even more capable and versatile by bringing trackpad support to iPadOS,” said Craig Federighi, Apple’s senior vice president of Software Engineering. “We carefully considered the best way to integrate trackpad use into a touch-first environment while retaining everything our customers know and love about iPad. We’re thrilled to bring this new way of interacting with iPad to the millions of people using iPadOS today.”
iPad Pro and Magic Keyboard – Image Credit: Apple
For years, the iPad has been a beautiful and powerful piece of hardware held back by the OS. Similarly, users have been clamoring for trackpad support to help with more tedious tasks. With today’s announcement, Apple goes a long way toward addressing those issues, making the iPad a much stronger laptop replacement than it has ever been.
