Apple releases latest iPads with M4 chip

• Apple took the wraps off its latest iPads while beefing up artificial intelligence on Tuesday, showcasing a new iPad Air, iPad Pro and more.
• The new iPad Pro will come with an M4 chip with a larger “neural engine,” part of the chip specifically designed for the kind of computing required by AI features such as generating text or images.
• The unveiling comes as Apple’s iPad business has experienced ongoing weakness in recent memory.

Apple debuted its latest iPads on Tuesday in an attempt to overtake its Big Tech competitors and take the lead in the rapidly developing field of artificial intelligence computing.

iPad Pro

Apple executive John Ternus unveiled the new iPad Pro, which is redesigned and also comes in 11-inch and 13-inch models with feature improved camera systems and AI-powered scanning capabilities.

The iPad Pro also has Apple’s newest chip, the 3 nanometer M4, and nano texture-glass, which lessens glare. This is the first time Apple’s newest silicon offering has been added to the iPad Pro.

Along with a potent CPU that boasts four performance cores and six efficiency cores, the new M4 also has a new 10-core GPU that enables ray tracing, a feature that is commonly used to improve gaming, on the iPad for the first time. Along with its 16-core neural engine, the M4 boasts a 38T operations per second capability, according to Apple, highlighting its AI capabilities.

“With this level of performance, the neural engine and M4 is more powerful than any neural processing unit in any AI PC today,” Tim Millet, vice president of platform architecture at Apple, said during the presentation.

The new iPad Pros also feature improved camera systems and AI-powered scanning capabilities. Ternus explained that the new display, known as Tandem OLED, brings organic light-emitting diode, or OLED, technology to the tablet and improves colour and pixel performance.

iPad Pro can be pre-ordered today and will be available in stores next week.

Also read: Who is Marissa Mayer? The Sunshine CEO was Google’s first female engineer before focusing on AI

Also read: Apple is pursuing AI ambitions at a lower cost than its rivals

iPad Air

Apple executive John Ternus also unveiled the iPad Air, an updated tablet available in an 11-inch and a 13-inch model. Both tablets feature updated landscape camera systems and cutting-edge displays. The tablets, which use Apple’s current M2 chips, are available in four colours: space gray, purple, blue, and starlight.

Apple also touted the iPad Air’s artificial intelligence capabilities, with better machine learning capabilities.

iPad’s rocky history

The announcement is made at a time when Apple’s iPad division has been weakening lately. In the latest reported quarter, revenue attributable to the iPad decreased 17% year over year to $5.56 billion.

Apple chips have included a neural engine since 2017, while competitors like Qualcomm and Intel tout competitive technologies they refer to as neural processing units, or NPUs, for personal computers,