Apple Event Scheduled for May 7: iPads Expected to be Featured

Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs Apple hasn’t had a new iPad in years, but the wait should be over in a few weeks.An invite for a virtual Apple event appeared in my inbox this morning, scheduled for May 7 at 7 a.m. PT (10 a.m. ET). The invite, which says “Let Loose,” shows a hand holding an Apple Pencil. Considering the iPad is the only device that uses the Apple Pencil, that doesn’t leave much to the imagination.Apple’s been expected to release new OLED-screened iPad Pros with newly designed Pencils and Magic Keyboard cases. New iPad Airs are also expected, including a larger-screened 12.9-inch model. Apple’s iPad Air lineup tends to be slightly redesigned versions of previous-model iPad Pros, so just look to the M2 iPad Pro lineup for a sense of what the next Airs could be. These would be the first new iPads since the iPad Pro M2 model arrived in late 2022. Apple’s virtual invite shows a Pencil in hand. AppleBudget iPads aren’t expected to be on tap here: Both the entry-level iPad and iPad Mini may not get updated until sometime in the fall. In the meantime, Apple will likely push new creative uses for these higher-end iPads, and justify what could end up being a significantly higher price for the revamped OLED-screened models. The Pro modes are also expected to have M3 processors, and all the iPads should finally have front cameras centered on the landscape edge for better-framed video chats when docked with a keyboard, like the 10th-gen iPad has (and all MacBooks).There are two open-ended questions I have: Will iPads and Pencils become more hooked-in to the Apple Vision Pro? And will iPads become more of a Mac replacement than they currently are? The answer to both is probably no for now, but with Apple’s software-focused WWDC conference only a month afterwards, it’s an interesting time to release new pro hardware.
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