Apple announced a 9.7-inch iPad at its education event. In this photo, Apple CEO Tim Cook at the Chicago event. (AP)
Apple has announced a new 9.7-inch iPad with support for the Apple Pencil and powered by the A10 Fusion chip at a special event held in Chicago, where the focus was on education and apps around it. Apple’s new iPad is priced at $329 for retail, while for the educational institutions it will be priced at $299. Apple’s new iPad will be priced at Rs 28,000 in India for the 32GB version. The 32GB Wi-Fi + Cellular model will have a price Rs 38,600. The new iPad will be available here from April.
Apple’s new iPad with focus on education comes with TouchID on the front, there’s an 8MP rear camera and FaceTime camera on the front as well. Apple will also offer this in an LTE option, and the company is promising 10 hours of battery life for the same. Thanks to the A10 Fusion chip, Apple’s new iPad has support for AR apps as well. Apple also said that all iWorks apps will now work with pencil and announced updates for them.
As part of the new features, the iPad will have a smart annotation feature (beta at launch), which will be introduced to the Pages app first. The smart annotation feature will let teachers edit the document with a markup. As part of its focus on education, Apple also announced that it will upgrade free iCloud storage students to 200GB.
Apple will also offer this in an LTE option, and the company is promising 10 hours of battery life for the same. (Image source: Reuters)
Apple also announced that its Classroom app will come to the Mac in June, though it will be in beta when it launches for Mac. Additionally, Apple also showcased a Logitech Crayon, which is priced at $49. Just like the Apple Pencil, the Logitech Crayon will also work with the iPad. The company also showcased a new app called Schoolwork, which is a cloud-based app for teachers to hand out assignments, look into a student’s progress, etc. Apple also says that all data on Schoolwork will be secure and even the company will not be able to look at this data. The app will be available in June.
The new iPad will come with a keyboard and pencil.
Another app showcased is called Apple Teacher, which is an online learning program aimed at school teachers. Apple also talked about Swift Playgrounds and Everyone Can Code. Swift is Apple’s coding language and the Everyone can code app is aimed for everyone who wants to code, not just students.