Apple Pencil Number 2 skin is a perfect homage with a big caveat

Despite what its founder once said, Apple has wholeheartedly embraced the stylus, at least for its iPads. In fact, you could even say it innovated an accessory that hasn’t seen much change in years, introducing magnetic charging and invisible touch-sensitive buttons to the design. Its minimalist aesthetic and familiar shape have also made it more open to custom designs and skins that allow owners to express themselves beyond a simple white or black stick. Of course, this also presented an opportunity for accessory makers to establish a new market segment made especially just for this Apple stylus. Skin manufacturer Colorware is just the latest to jump on that bandwagon, but its Apple Number 2 Pencil is quite unique in more ways than one.

Designer: Colorware

The first Apple Pencil was pretty much a smooth and slippery cylinder that forced some people to put on grips or skins just to be able to securely hold the stylus. The second-gen Pencil improved the design with a somewhat hexagonal body that gave it a better grip but also inspired even more skins to embellish the Apple Pencil’s appearance. After all, with that familiar shape and generic name, it’s almost a dead knocker for the iconic Number 2 pencil known by people of all ages throughout the world.

The Colorware Apple Number 2 Pencil is one such makeover for Apple’s current stylus, but it takes the modification to the extreme. It definitely looks like the Number 2 or HB pencil with its glossy yellow body, orange eraser, and silver band that connects these two parts. Colorware, however, takes the homage one step further: even the tip is black, like a typical graphite pencil.

The nib of the Apple Pencil is, of course, white, and almost all skins stop at covering the barrel only. That’s because you can’t really cover the nib and expect its performance to be unaffected. The manufacturer naturally doesn’t divulge what it used to coat the nib, so you’ll have to trust that the Apple Number 2 Pencil will still remain as functional as a regular Apple Pencil.

The catch to this almost faithful recreation of the classic HB pencil is that it costs a whopping $215. Considering the 2nd-gen Apple Pencil retails for $129, that’s not a small cost added on top. A regular skin would only set you back $13 or so, though you’d also have to look for unofficial black nibs if you want to get the complete look. It also doesn’t indicate if that price includes extra nibs, so you might find yourself at a loss when this special black tip needs to be replaced.

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Astropad Slate turns your iPad into a no-screen Mac drawing tablet

Apple has been pushing the iPads, particularly the iPad Pros, as the next wave of computing, practically replacing laptops for some of the common computing tasks, including content creation. Despite the rich variety of apps for these slates, however, there are still some software and work that can only be done on more powerful computers like Macs and MacBooks. And despite how Apple’s computers have long been loved by designers and artists, the company itself has made no tools to support these use cases, such as drawing tablets or even specialized controllers. That does leave the market wide open for manufacturers like Wacom and its drawing tables, but it also forces people to buy these products when they have a perfectly capable iPad with an Apple Pencil. That’s where Astropad’s latest product comes in, bridging the divide between Macs and iPads once again, but with a curious twist.

Designer: Astropad

In a nutshell, Astropad Slate is an app that lets you remotely control a Mac using an iPad, Pro or otherwise. You can connect using Wi-Fi, a USB cable, or even Peer-to-Peer networking. Although an Apple Pencil would be nice, it isn’t exactly a requirement. With just your fingers, you can already control the Mac as if you were using a gigantic touchpad. That includes supporting gestures like pinching or two-finger scroll.

The Slate app really shines, however, when you involve an Apple Pencil, which is supported by most iPads nowadays. With this precise tool, you can not only hover over the user interface on the Mac, you can also turn handwritten scribbles into text, practically replacing the keyboard. Of course, creators, designers, and artists are more likely to utilize the app’s ability to turn the iPad into a drawing tablet, but one without a screen.

This would be similar to the older and cheaper drawing slates that some artists prefer for their distraction-free experience. It does, however, take a bit of getting used to because you won’t be looking at where your hand is going, unlike the analog pen and paper experience. That does help you focus more on what’s happening on screen and, at least for some, offers a more ergonomic position since you won’t be craning your neck downward.

For those that prefer a more “conventional” display tablet experience, Astropad does have its Studio that turns the iPad into something like a Wacom Cintiq and even has compatibility with Windows PCs. For all that power, however, Astropad Studio requires a $79.99 annual subscription, while this simpler Astropad Slate is a one-time $19.99 purchase only.

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Apple Pencil stealthily integrates USB-C at a discount

Apple finally announced a new Apple Pencil, and to get it out of the way early – no, it’s not the long-awaited Apple Pencil 3. Instead, the newest Apple Pencil is more like a mid-gen refresh with a few missing features and a seemingly tighter, more compact design at 6.1 inches in length and 0.29 inches in diameter (according to Apple Insider). The most important difference between this new Apple Pencil – which Apple is calling the Apple Pencil USB-C – and previous iterations is the notable price cut.

This new USB-C powered Apple Pencil is priced at $79 MSRP, which makes it more approachable for iPad users who don’t want to shell out $99 for the arguably less impressive first-gen Apple Pencil or the $129 Apple Pencil 2. Still, there are a few catches; the USB-C model doesn’t include pressure sensitivity, meaning it lacks one of the most important Apple Pencil features for artists who would normally be able to draw or paint with bigger or smaller lines, relative to the amount of pressure applied. It also lacks the Apple Pencil 2’s double-tap and wireless pairing and charging features.

Designer: Apple

You’re also going to want to make sure your iPad is equipped with a USB-C port, otherwise your Apple Pencil USB-C won’t be able to pair properly. Specifically, according to Apple, you’ll want to own one of the following: “iPad (10th generation), iPad Air (4th and 5th generations), iPad Pro 11-inch (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th generations), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th generations), and iPad mini (6th generation)”.

If that’s not a concern, the new Apple Pencil USB-C is an extremely sleek-looking accessory that should make iPad usage more convenient and enjoyable across the board. Its stealthy sliding cap design hides away the device’s integrated USB-C port, making it easy to plug in and charge, then store comfortably on the side or on top of your iPad once you’re finished charging. Much like the Apple Pencil 2, it attaches to the iPad magnetically.

iPad Pro owners equipped with an Apple Pencil USB-C also get another Apple Pencil 2 feature via Apple Pencil hover, which lets you see, for instance, the effect a selected tool (like a paint bucket) will have on a canvas before you actually apply it.

Apple Pencil USB-C will become available via Apple Store for $79 in early November, but it sounds like it will be discounted to just $69 for educational purposes. Apple describes its educational pricing as being available to “current and newly accepted college students and their parents, as well as faculty, staff, and home-school teachers of all grade levels.”

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Apple Pencil Killer? ZAGG’s Pro Stylus 2 comes with Tilt Sensitivity and iPad Magnetic Wireless Charging

Apple’s always had an incredibly locked ecosystem, limiting how other products integrate with its devices. Other wireless mice don’t have the smoothness of the Magic Mouse, other TWS earbuds don’t have Spatial Audio, and other styluses don’t boast of the same features as the Apple Pencil… but ZAGG’s Pro Stylus 2 comes incredibly close. Designed to work with both the iPad as well as the iPhone, the Pro Stylus 2 feels familiar in your hand given its slim design. It also has precise fine tip for accurate drawing, palm rejection to ensure your hand doesn’t accidentally tap the screen as you sketch or write, tilt recognition to alter your stroke style when you hold the stylus at an angle, and magnetic wireless charging that lets you snap the Pro Stylus 2 onto the side of your iPad Pro or even a Qi charger to juice its battery. The $75 stylus also has extra features in the form of a dome-shaped on-off switch on top, which also doubles as an IBM ThinkPad-style touch-sensitive ‘nub’ for navigating canvasses and scrolling pages…

Designer: ZAGG

A lot more colorful than the original Apple Pencil, ZAGG’s Pro Stylus 2 almost seems like the iPhone SE of styluses. It’s eye-catching, affordable, and gets the job done. It looks and feels just like Apple’s own Pencil, making it easy to use without that learning curve. The pointed tip is perfect for sketching, taking notes, and navigating pages – but don’t expect pressure sensitivity, a touch-sensitive grip, or that new hover feature on the iPad Pros. Instead, you could expect the accuracy you’d get from a pencil-shaped stylus, with the added functionality of being able to tilt it to affect your brush pattern. The Pro Stylus also snaps right to the side of the iPad Pro like Apple’s own writing instrument, and has the added benefit of being able to work with iPhones too.

A button on top is what sets the Pro Stylus 2 apart. Working like the nub found on old-school IBM laptops, it lets you navigate pages and scroll using your thumb (as shown above). It also serves as an on-off switch, allowing you to power down the stylus to conserve battery power. Moreover, the stylus powers down on its own with 15 minutes of inactivity, helping increase the stylus’ battery efficiency. Either way, the battery lasts a whopping 6 and a half hours on full charge… and if you ever run out, the Pro Stylus 2 snaps right to the side of an iPad Pro to charge, or even rests on any Qi charging dock to juice its battery.

Charge the Pro Stylus 2 by attaching it to the side of the iPad Pro

The Pro Stylus 2 looks quite similar to the Apple Pencil except for the fact that it comes in 5 different colors instead of the Pencil’s singular white finish. The tips are replaceable, allowing you to change colors as well as replace the pointer if and when it wears out. It starts at $75, undercutting the 2nd Gen Apple Pencil’s $129 price tag by a cool $54. Obviously, it misses out on some crucial features like pressure sensitivity and the hover ability too, but for someone looking for a multipurpose stylus with the right amount of basic functionality (and that sweet magnetic charging feature), ZAGG’s Pro Stylus 2 might just be the perfect alternative to Apple’s own offering. Oh, and it also comes with a 1-year warranty too!

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Apple patents next-gen Pencil with an Optical Sensor that can pick colors and textures from real life

Apple just took the eyedropper tool and made it real.

Ever seen a beautiful mural on a wall and felt like being able to capture those colors for your own art? Sure, you could carry a Pantone shade book everywhere you go… or if Apple has its way, you could just touch your Apple Pencil on the mural and capture its color like an eyedropper tool in real life. Apple just recently filed a patent at the US Patent & Trademark Office for a next-gen Apple Pencil with built-in optical sensors that don’t just capture colors, they capture textures too. A complicated array of tech built into the Apple Pencil’s nib would help turn it into more than just a stylus. Instead of being merely a note-keeping and art-creating device, the Pencil would also now help gather inspiration, letting you build your own bank of hues and textures to use in your projects as reference material.

Designer/Visualizer: Sarang Sheth

The way the new Apple Pencil works is theoretically simple – as per the patent drawings, a light sensor and a light emitter sit within the stylus tip. The emitter and sensor work together to help sample colors and textures as you tap the Pencil on any surface. The way it works is no different from your mouse, which uses a light emitter and optical sensor to track movement. The only key difference is that the Pencil does that WHILE also being able to function as a stylus for your iPad.

The patent was discovered by the fine folks at Patently Apple, who also reported that this technology could be used to even detect measurements, aside from hue and texture. How this would work seems a little sketchy at best – would you need to have the iPad handy while using the Apple Pencil’s sampling feature? Where would all the data get saved? How would one toggle the feature, because you need to tap the Pencil on the iPad’s touchscreen to use it as a stylus.

For now, this next-gen feature exists only as a patent and it’s pretty unclear if Apple plans on radically redesigning the pencil, although it’s been over 4 years since Apple announced the Pencil Gen 2. Apple has patented various Pencil-adjacent technologies in the past, including an early 2021 patent for detachable custom nibs that give your Pencil a more artistic approach, and a recent patent for a Pencil with a rotary element on top and multiple touch-sensitive areas on its body. Which new feature do you want in the next-gen Apple Pencil??

Patent Images via Patently Apple
Stylus Concept visualizations via Sarang Sheth

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The new iPad 10 is a beautiful upgrade with a few oddities

Although it was largely anticipated, Apple still managed to give us a surprise with the somewhat sudden drop of its new iPad lineup. As expected, the new M2 iPad Pros turned out to be powerhouses to rival the MacBooks in strength, especially when it comes to productivity features enabled by better Apple Pencil support. It might look a little boring, though, since the design remains mostly unchanged from the previous generation. In that regard, it is the new 10th-generation entry-level iPad that’s more exciting and a little bit more confusing. While Apple did finally consolidate its tablet design across tiers, it also introduced a few design quirks that resulted in a bit of bewilderment when it comes to accessories for the 10.9-inch iPad.

Designer: Apple

On the outside, the iPad 10 breathes new life into the lineup with vibrant color options that mirror the choices for the latest iMac all-in-one computers. With the switch to flatter edges, Apple has finally unified the look of all of its iPads. It’s a long overdue change that easily identifies an iPad as belonging to the company’s “modern” generation. It’s hard to deny that these new iPads look delightful on their own, and you might be hesitant to put a protective case on them because of that.

There are also quite a few notable changes inside brought about by the overall design upgrade. The most evident will be the switch from a Lightning port to a more standard USB-C port, which is now also uniform across all current iPad models. An even more significant change, however, is the relocation of the front-facing camera from the portrait edge to the landscape edge. This is admittedly a more natural position for a camera design to be used in video calls while the tablet is standing horizontally on a desk, perhaps with a keyboard cover. Despite that logical placement, none of the other iPads, even the new iPad Pros, have adopted this design, and Apple may have a rather unfortunate reason for doing so.

The two major changes above have an adverse effect on the iPad’s most important accessory. Surprisingly, the iPad 10 is compatible only with the first-gen Apple Pencil, making it the remaining iPad to do so. The reason is that the 2nd-gen Apple Pencil can only charge magnetically on the landscape edge of an iPad, a place that is now occupied by the front camera on the iPad 10. Unfortunately, the old Apple Pencil charges only via a Lightning connector, which the iPad 10 no longer has. Apple’s solution, as you might have guessed, is to sell a USB-C to Apple pencil adapter that does solve the awkwardness of the older-gen charging method but introduces a new kind of convenience in the process.

Apple is also launching a new Magic Keyboard Folio for the iPad 10 that comes in two pieces, one for the keyboard and another for the back cover that can fold outward to act as an adjustable stand. Curiously, you’ll have to sacrifice the iPad’s eye-catching color because the folio is available only in white for now. It is also strangely compatible only with the iPad 10, which complicates Apple’s iPad accessory lineup a bit. The 10th-gen iPad starts at $449 as the new entry point to this line of portable computers, while the Magic Keyboard Folio sells for $249.

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Leaked Apple Patent hints that the next-gen Pencil will sport a rotating element

Steve Jobs openly despised and ridiculed the styluses that were the mainstays of pocket PCs and Palm devices that predated smartphones, but more than a decade later, Apple would embrace the stylus and make it its own. Granted, the styluses of Jobs’ era were nothing more than glorified sticks to poke at tiny screens, providing no additional benefit to the user experience. The Apple Pencil was, of course, anything but simple, and it has succeeded and thrived in a market dominated by long-time player Wacom. Of course, there are really no other options when working with an iPad, but Apple’s premium tablets probably wouldn’t have enjoyed as much success if the Apple Pencil didn’t exist. Of course, the creativity tool is hardly perfect, and this concept based on a newly awarded patent brings a touch of style to a more powerful Apple Pencil of the future.

Designer: Sarang Sheth

The first Apple Pencil was a minimalist’s dream, a simple, nondescript white cylinder that opened the iPad Pro to whole new worlds of creativity. There was, of course, plenty of room for improvement and innovation, and the second-generation Apple Pencil brought a faceted barrel for a better grip, as well as a touch-sensitive area you can double tap to trigger some function inside an app. While it was a significant step up from the first-gen Pencil, it was still leagues behind something like a Wacom pen, often regarded as the gold standard when it comes to styluses.

Apple is naturally aware of the limitations of its own stylus, but it is also aware of how the Pencil’s minimalist design played a big role in its favorable reception. Simply adding buttons would have solved one problem at the expense of a well-loved trait, so that was definitely a no-go. A newly awarded patent (reported by Patently Apple), however, reveals one idea that the Cupertino-based company has played with, one that could hit two birds with one stone.

In a nutshell, it extends the second-gen Apple Pencil to include another touch-sensitive area, one near the middle of the stylus, to expand the number of gestures that people can use. For example, rather than just double-tapping the area, one can also slide their finger on the touch-sensitive surface. This gesture can be mapped to some action, such as changing the size of a brush or scrubbing the timeline of a video.

The patent also mentions the possibility of a twisting motion for the Pencil, one that could be tied to a motion sensor inside the barrel. Rather than complicating the internals of the Apple Pencil, however, this concept design opts for a more direct approach that also turns out to be more elegant. It adds a knob on the top end of the Pencil with a design similar to the Apple Watch’s crown. The control mechanism is simple, intuitive, tactile, and stylish. It is unambiguous in its function, requiring no additional training or mental shift to use.

Admittedly, this design requires the use of the other hand to turn that knob, but it also means that there will be no accidental activation or triggers just because you have a fidgety hand. It breaks away from the Apple Pencil’s unibody design and minimalist appearance, but it also adds an embellishment that is still in line with Apple’s aesthetics. Whether Apple implements even the original design laid out in the patent is still a matter of conjecture, but it hopefully has an upgrade ready for the Apple Pencil ready for artists, designers, and creatives soon.

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Top 5 Sketching Apps on iPads for Product Designers

All product designs, big or small, great or dismal, start with a sketch. OK, technically, they start with the germ of an idea, but these ideas need to be given visual form sooner or later. Many designers are partial to using paper and pen or pencil at the start but eventually bring their ideas to the digital realm sooner or later. With the advent of powerful mobile devices like the iPad and the Apple Pencil, it has never been easier to put those concepts directly on the screen when inspiration strikes. Navigating the app landscape, however, can be a bit of a doozy, so here are the five best apps for your iPad or iPad Pro to bring those creative ideas to life, at least digitally.

Procreate

You might presume that the venerable Photoshop would be at the very top of the list, but clearly, it isn’t. It wasn’t until later that Adobe finally realized the large market for Photoshop on iPads, but by then, others had already tried to fill its large shoes. Of the many apps that tried to capitalize on its absence, there is perhaps none more popular than Procreate.

Technically, Procreate could be considered as a painting app, but just like Photoshop, it has become a sort of jack-of-all-trades when it comes to digital content creation. It has all the tools you’d need in visualizing your design concepts from start to finish, fleshing out details as you go on the go. It’s easy enough to simply just sketching with the dozens of brushes available, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg.

Procreate can help you animate your designs, a handy tool for products that have interactive moving elements. It even has a unique 3D Model Painting feature that can make your concepts pop out of the screen, figuratively, of course. Along with the iPad’s portability, Procreate gives designers the digital equivalent of an art studio whenever and where ever they need to work on their latest ideas, all for a flat fee of $9.99.

Designer: Ivan Belikov

Designer: Georgie

Concepts

As the very name suggests, Concepts is an app that was specifically designed to support designers in creating concept designs and illustrations. Unlike Photoshop and Procreate, Concepts works with vector lines, similar to Adobe Illustrator, though you probably won’t even feel it because of how fluid and natural sketching feels like. What it does mean, however, is that you have very fine control over each and every line or curve, and those lines remain smooth and crisp whether you zoom in or out and at any resolution.

Concepts’ defining feature, however, is its infinite canvas, designed to adapt to the way designers work and think. Rather than constraining them to pages with fixed sizes, designers can explore ideas and sketch them out as far as they can. The canvas size will adjust to their needs, not the other way around.

The app’s tools are designed to closely mimic their real-world counterparts, offering a toolset that’s familiar to designers. Even its color wheel resembles the popular COPIC format, a clear indication that this app was made with designers in mind right from the start. Concepts is available for free, but certain features require in-app purchases. Alternatively, there is also a subscription option that also unlocks more features that you won’t be able to buy.

Designer: Jonny Gallardo

Designer: CYNIC

Sketchbook

Autodesk is a name that has been near and dear to many designers’ hearts, particularly those in the industrial design fields, for its AutoCAD products. The company, however, also once had its own sketching app, and Sketchbook was, in fact, one of the very first of its kind to embrace mobile devices. Sketchbook has now struck off on its own, but it still brings with it all the features that made it a household name in the digital art market for a while.

Admittedly, Sketchbook might not be as feature-rich as Procreate or Photoshop, but what it lacks in features it makes up for in agility and speed. By no means does it mean that it doesn’t have a decent set of features, and the app is quite capable of translating your ideas into images on a digital canvas. It boasts of hundreds of brushes right off the bat, and each one can be customized to your needs and tastes.

One of the key strengths of Sketchbook is its ease of use and minimalist interface. The user interface gets out of the way, and you can even work all the way without seeing a single button or slider. Best of all, it’s completely free with no hidden purchases, so what you see is really what you get, and it is available on all major platforms, so you won’t miss a beat when switching between your iPad and your Mac.

Designer: Sketchbook

Designer: Michael DiTullo

Affinity Designer

With a name like Affinity Designer, you’re pretty much sure that the app is designed for designers. Its expressed intent is to be a professional tool for creating concept art, designs, and even branding imagery, pretty much all the things designers will need in their work process, especially when it comes time to create a more refined version of a sketch for the final presentation.

Like Concepts, Affinity Designer uses vector lines to create shapes and curves, giving the designer more control over how something looks without degrading the quality of a line. It does, however, also offer typical raster-based paintbrushes when you need more pixel-precise control, particularly when trying to paint textures or recreate more organic materials. The app boasts an unlimited number of layers and 1,000,000x zoom, though you’ll technically still be limited by how much memory your iPad has left.

One of Designer’s most unique features is the ability to have multiple instances of the same object across your work, so that editing one will instantly update the rest. It also presents your artboards in a Pinterest-like gallery that should be familiar to many designers. Affinity Designers has a flat price of $9.99 and has no further in-app purchases or subscription fees.

Designer: Denny Lambo

Designer: Yaron David

Adobe Photoshop

Photoshop is, of course, the granddaddy of digital art and graphic design software, and its absence on Apple’s tablets was acutely felt for years. Sure, the iPad Pro and Apple Pencil didn’t arrive until 2018, but the likes of Procreate have already been making do with what’s available for almost a decade. In the meantime, Adobe chose to bring several watered-down experiences to iPhones and iPads, focusing on very specific use cases only, biding its time for Photoshop’s full entry into the mobile space.

That has finally happened, somewhat, which is also why Photoshop isn’t placed that high on this list. This new version, first revealed in 2019, is supposed to be the same Photoshop on the desktop, but one that is being ported to the iPad in bits and pieces. Functionality still isn’t on par with what most Photoshop users will be familiar with, and it will take a lot more time for things to settle down. It does have some of the basics, but the focus seems to be more on being able to access your Photoshop files from Creative Cloud from an iPad rather than on a completely independent mobile workflow.

There’s also the fact that it’s the most expensive option in this bunch if you don’t have an Adobe subscription yet, something that’s absolutely necessary to use the app beyond its free trial period. There’s, of course, some hope that Adobe will pick up the slack, but with its new focus on making Photoshop work flawlessly on Apple M1 Macs, iPads might have again been pushed to the background for a while.

Designer: Erica Horne

Designer: Paola

Bonus: Good Notes

All of these apps empower designers to put pencil to paper digitally, so to speak. They let them sketch their ideas on a nearly infinite canvas, anywhere the Muse beckons, with all the conveniences (and sometimes drawbacks) of a digital workflow. Sketching and making beautiful designs, however, isn’t all that a designer does, of course. A large part of the process involves writing down notes or annotating drawings, which is where this bonus app comes in.

GoodNotes is regarded to be one of the best note-taking apps for the iPad, recreating much of the look and feel of traditional paper notebooks but without physical limitations. While it places a heavy emphasis on the pen-driven experience, it allows you to insert almost any kind of digital content into a note, from a typed text to an image. It does also have basic drawing features, so you can even just use it for sketching out your ideas as a rough draft before moving them to the more specialized apps listed above.

Designer: thalamustudy

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Apple’s all new iPad Mini is the cutest, most versatile, most powerful mini-tablet ever

The smallest iPad just got its biggest upgrade. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think the iPad Mini was really that much of a big deal… that was until Tim Cook mentioned how its compact size made it perfect for doctors and scientists to carry around in their lab coats, for pilots to strap to their thighs while flying, and just for anyone who wanted an iPad experience in a more pocketable form factor. The new iPad Mini feels like a watershed moment for the mini-tablet market, as Apple literally pushed everything it had into it. It now comes with a modern flat-edge design, an ultrawide camera on the front, TouchID in the power button, support for Apple Pencil, USB-C, and 5G, making it an absolute behemoth even for its size.

With an 8.3-inch Liquid Retina screen, the iPad Mini is like a scaled-down version of the iPad Air. It’s just right for your palm, and will fit easily into generously designed pockets. And if you’ve got yourself the 2nd Gen Apple Pencil, you can easily snap it to the side of the iPad Mini the way you would on an iPad Pro. Although judging by the image below, the pencil and tablet are now almost the same height – I kinda like it.

The new iPad Mini sports the same uniform bezel design seen in this year’s iPad Air lineups, and just like in the iPad Air, the Mini comes with TouchID built right into the power button. That means being able to securely lock/unlock your iPad, as well as use your biometrics to approve app installs and pay for stuff online.

Perhaps the biggest upgrade to the iPad Mini (apart from its support for the Pencil) is the USB-C port on the bottom. Ditching the Lightning port from the previous version, the latest iPad Mini embraces the power and versatility of USB-C. Sure, that means faster charging, but when you stop to think about all the places an iPad Mini would be useful, a USB-C port just makes a lot more sense. You could potentially connect the iPad Mini to a host of devices, from a DSLR to an Ultrasound Camera… encapsulating perfectly how the iPad Mini can transition from a creative’s power tool to a doctor or specialist’s handheld computer.

The new iPad Mini also comes with 5G cellular, practically making it a perfect hybrid between the iPad and iPhone, and comes with WiFi 6 for even better wireless connectivity. It’s powered by the A15 Bionic chip, sports 12MP cameras on both the front and the back, comes in 4 colors, and starts at $499. Pretty impressive for a device that’s just 8.3-inches diagonally.

Designer: Apple

Apple just filed a patent for a new MacBook design with its own integrated Apple Pencil

Earlier this week, a patent filed by Apple at the US Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) was discovered that outlined a schematic for a MacBook with a new input device – the Apple Pencil. According to the patent images, the pencil would conveniently sit docked within the keyboard when not in use, and could be easily popped out and used as an input device, either on the screen or the trackpad. Apart from being a mouse-alternative, the patent even mentions that the pencil would provide extra features to the MacBook like F-key functionality.

Based on these patent drawings, I decided to put a 3D model together and take it for a spin. Conceptually, the presence of an Apple Pencil within a MacBook feels confusing but also potentially exciting. The minute you introduce a pencil to the MacBook, you’re singlehandedly killing the iPad Pro’s upper edge, but the more you think about it, the more it feels like it just might work. A Mac”Book” and a “Pencil” just instinctively go together, like a notebook and a pencil, right? Besides, it creates a synergy between the two products, and I can just imagine Craig Federighi dragging files from the iPad Pro with a Pencil onto the MacBook and having them carry over from one device to another, extending the user experience of Apple’s Universal Control feature!

Potentially (at least according to the schematics in the patent), the Pencil or ‘Pencil-like device’ would sit right above the keyboard, replacing the area originally reserved for the largely ignored Touch Bar. At least for the concept, I’ve shrunk down the Touch Bar instead of removing it entirely. For now, it sits in the top right corner, between the Pencil’s docking area and the Touch ID button.

The Pencil or ‘input tool’ would sit within the MacBook’s magnetic docking area, charging while not in use. Pop it out and I’d imagine you could use it on both the screen as well as the trackpad, although Patently Apple’s article doesn’t really highlight usage. It does, however, show that the Pencil is no ordinary stylus. This new input device would have multiple buttons or touch-zones on it, allowing it to double up as a row of Function keys when docked, and even letting you calibrate/control settings like your screen’s brightness, media volume, or more specifically brush sizes as you sketch on the MacBook screen.

However, like all patents, this one should be taken with a pinch of salt too. Most patents serve a singular purpose – of protecting intellectual property. They aren’t indicative of what Apple plans on rolling out to the public, although my gut tells me the Pencil is due for a redesign too, so maybe it isn’t too farfetched to assume that new touch-features could be coming to the Apple Pencil. As for being able to dock a stylus inside your MacBook, the patent document (which can be found below) and these images are all I have to offer!

Visualizer: Sarang Sheth

Patent discovered by Patently Apple