What Apple could announce at its "special event" in Brooklyn on October 30th

Next Tuesday, Apple will hold its second live product announcement, even in the fall. Although the September event focused on three new iPhone models and on an updated Apple Watch, we anticipate that this event will include updates from the iPad Pro that would add new new features for powerful users and would bring the device closer to the latest iPhones in the business. We would not be surprised to see new Macs too.

The event will be held at the Howard Gilman Opera House and at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The last event took place at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, but it's not unusual for the company to set up shop in new locations that match the theme of the products presented. For example, the company introduced its iPads for education at a Chicago school earlier this year.

At this point, creative work seems to be the implicit center of the products coming this week. Yes, but Apple also accompanied the invitation of the press with the words "there is still a lot to do" and a series of representations of its logos by artists, in different styles, illustrated here.

Although the iPhone remains a mainstream product, Apple has increasingly focused marketing and design choices around Macs toward areas like this one. Creative work can be a big umbrella, though. Besides obvious crafts like music and art, this can also mean software development, writing, web design, some types of work in scientific disciplines, and so on.

Before its launch, Apple was known for its information about its new products, but this grip has weakened in recent years. We have seen compelling reports informing us about upcoming products, so let's look at everything we expect to see.

Absolutely

New iPad Pro models

If there is one thing in which we are confident about the Oct. 30 event of Apple, it is that new models of iPad Pro will arrive. They will probably be in the same two sizes already offered: 10.5 and 12.9 inches.

Bloomberg's reports and the details that testers discovered in iOS lead us to believe that the new iPad Pro models will have screens very close to the edge and the TrueDepth sensor network (used for Face ID and other applications ) in iPhone X, XS, XS Max and XR. An icon spotted in a beta version of iOS seemed to suggest that there would be no notch, but we'll see. Users and developers digging into iOS have determined that the new iPads will likely support the face ID in the landscape and portrait orientations, while the iPhone's face ID feature only works when it is used. portrait.

Apple has already updated the user interface of the iPad under iOS 12 in order to support the gestures replacing the home button of the iPhone X. The software is therefore in great part available for the new iPad Pro.

We are not so sure of it, but sources told 9to5Mac that the new iPad Pro models would abandon Apple's Lightning connector to the benefit of USB-C, which would would push the 4K external displays since the iPad Pro. It's something that designers and artists would probably love to see if it's implemented well. The report also states that the smart keyboard connector can be moved, but we found conflicting information on this detail.

The old iPad Pro had a chip called A10X: its basic architecture was identical to that of the A10 used on the iPhone 7, but this chip featured many significant improvements in performance and features. additional features, including video. We expect something similar here, but more recent. Apple will probably call the chip either the A11X or the A12X.

Probably

A MacBook or MacBook Air replacement

This is another study based on a Bloomberg report, but that should not surprise anyone who closely follows Apple's product offerings. The word is that Apple plans to introduce a new replacement for MacBook or MacBook Air; we do not know which product the new laptop will replace, but it could be both in order to consolidate the two lines. The new laptop would look like the MacBook Air in its basic design, but it would have a Retina display and smaller frames.

It goes without saying that a new MacBook would support Thunderbolt 3 and would include Apple's ever-changing butterfly keyboard mechanism. The latter did not really impress consumers when it was launched, but it improved with iteration. Hoping that every new laptop has more than one port, it looks more like the MacBook Air than the limited-use MacBook.

An Intel processor is likely, but there is an external possibility that Apple introduces its own custom processor on this machine. We have seen reports suggesting that it was unavoidable, and that makes sense given Apple's overall strategy. The company has adopted custom processors on the iPhone and the iPad, and its silicon crushes competition in terms of benchmarks, making the value proposition clear. Nevertheless, the problems of legacy software support on the Mac platform raise more concerns. Apple must act with caution. It seems like it's still too early for that in 2018, but you never know.

In any case, expect the price of the device to be around $ 1,000 or a little lower. Target professionals, students, and consumers in general would be the target users.

A new Mac mini (no, really)

This same report included another suggestion: Apple is working on a brand new Mac mini. The product has been languishing with old hardware since 2014, but Tim Cook promised a client in an email at that time last year that this form factor was part of Apple's future plans.

The Bloomberg report did not provide much detail, but it did reveal how the product would be positioned. The new Mac mini would have a more powerful hardware than its predecessor (beyond the fact that it would just be newer) with a higher price. Apple would present it as an entry-level or secondary machine for software developers, musicians and artists wishing to use applications such as Xcode, Logic or Adobe Illustrator.

It makes sense. The product was originally at least partly positioned as a home theater computer, but these devices took precedence over dinosaurs through broadcast boxes such as the Apple TV, video game consoles video games and smart TVs. Apple pushes educational programs like Everyone can code and everyone can create to recruit developers and creatives on their devices, but the buy-in for a MacBook Pro or an iMac is very high. The company's efforts to introduce macOS as the platform of choice for these users will be more successful if a cheaper machine of this type is offered.

It should also be noted that many people were not satisfied with the 2014 Mac mini. It offered fewer options to experienced users who needed power and ease of maintenance. Hope that Apple will not make the same mistake again.