In mid-March, Apple had a week-long event where they made some changes to their existing products. So if you missed it, and you probably did, we’re going to highlight what Apple announced.
The iPad
The original iPad has been given a new A16 chipset and a lower price. So the entry-level iPad will now start at £329. While cheaper iPads are always a good thing, it’s worth noting that this new iPad is a bit heavier and thicker than the iPad Pro and iPad Air. So while its performance will be about 30 percent better than its predecessor, its storage will be limited to a maximum of 513GB.
The iPad Air
While the iPad Air just got an update in 2024, Apple is giving it another boost with a more powerful M3 chip at the same price as last year’s model. While you probably will not notice any difference in performance, as both the M2 and M3 chips are blisteringly fast. The new iPad Air will be great for video editing, gaming, and general multitasking. However, if you add the cost of the New Magic Keyboard, this iPad Air will be about the same price as a mid-range laptop!
The iPhone 16e
The rumours before Apple’s announcement was that we would get a new iPhone SE, but instead we got the iPhone 16e. Which is just the iPhone 16 with a whole load of features removed to make it £200 cheaper. So while the iPhone 16e, is now the cheapest iPhone that Apple sells, it’s still £599.
This places Apple’s new smartphone firmly in the mid-range, which does not make it a budget option. Then because you can no longer buy the old iPhone SE, does this mean that Apple have abandoned the low to midrange smartphone market?
A new MacBook Air
In late 2024, Apple gave the iMac and Mac mini a makeover. So while both got the new M4 processor, the MacBook Air and Mac Studio were left out. This year Apple have fixed that anomaly, and now offer the MacBook Air with an M4 processor at the same price as the previous model. While the new M4 chip will make the MacBook Air roughly twice as fast as an M1 MacBook Air. Because the M1 chip was so good, you probably have no reason to upgrade to this model.
Apple Mac Studio
The final refresh from Apple, was the Mac Studio which comes in two variants. The first has an M4 Max chip, that consists of 14 CPU cores, 32 GPU cores and 16 Neural Engine cores. However, what’s strange is that the second more expensive model of Mac Studio uses an M3 Ultra chip. Which while of the previous generation, has 28 CPU cores, 60 GPU cores and 32 Neural Engine cores.
While the power in both these computers are very impressive, the cost for both models is incredibly high. With the M4 Max starting at £2,099 and the M3 Ultra version starting at £4,199. Making both models really only for people with deep pockets, or people who are professional content creators.
A new Nothing Phone
Nothing is a UK smartphone manufacturer that I have been monitoring for a while. Partly because of its striking industrial design, but also because I like the minimalist skin they use over Android . So when Nothing announced new phones in March, I was rather intrigued.
While the primary differences between the Nothing Phone 3a and 3a Pro appear to be the inclusion of an AI Engine chip and a superior camera. The Phone 3a begins at £329, while the Phone 3a Pro starts at £449. Considering Apple’s decision to discontinue the iPhone SE, I find myself contemplating whether a Nothing Phone could be the ideal replacement for my elderly parents.
This months video releases
Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” Well, that quote applies to what we posted last month too. Which while we weren’t physically attacked, after posting our first video we did have to change our plans. So it will be this month that we will be releasing the next videos for our series on how you setup a Synology BeeStation and how to setup a Synology NAS.
For our BeeStation we will be looking at assigning it with a static IP address. Something that is very important if you want to use your BeeStation as a local SMB file server. Then because we will soon be making our Synology NAS accessible from the internet, we need to enable its firewall. So we will be releasing a video that takes a look at the different types of rules you need to create along with how you test if your firewall is working.
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