Tech
Apple's first event of 2021 could happen this month
And it would include new AirPods, an updated iPad Pro, and — finally — AirTags.
Apple is planning its first livestreamed showcase of the year for March 23, according to multiple leakers with good track records. The rumored date is just that — rumored — as Apple has not yet made mention of when its next event will be. But Apple does often host a spring event with a lineup of products to be released in the coming months, which lends credence to the idea.
Last year’s spring event ended up being canceled because of the still-fresh COVID-19 pandemic; the year prior, Apple hosted an event on March 25 where the company announced updates to Apple TV and Apple News. As you might expect, the contents of this year’s spring event are very much up in the air. There won’t be any new iPhones — that much is almost certain — but we’re likely to see updates to plenty of other Apple favorites, and maybe even the long-rumored AirTags.
Jon Prosser, one of the internet’s best leakers, tweeted early this morning just the number “23” in reference to the event’s date. Soon after he also tweeted some further information from a “reliable source” about what, exactly, we can expect to see at the March 23 event.
An even more professional iPad — It hasn’t been all that long since Apple updated its top-of-the-line iPad Pro — in fact it’ll be a year in just a week or so — but the device wasn’t all that different than its predecessor, other than the addition of a LIDAR scanner for augmented reality. The iPad Pro is basically a laptop now; we’d expect to see an even more impressive display and maybe even a faster processor on a new model.
AirPods that look Pro but aren’t — The announcement of a new generation of AirPods would also be timely for Apple. The company’s headphone game as of late has mostly been limited to the uber-expensive AirPods Max; we haven’t seen a new set of basic AirPods since early 2019. Bloomberg reported last month that Apple’s next set of entry-level AirPods would feature replaceable eartips and a shorter stem — closer to the design of the AirPods Pro than that of the original AirPods.
TV update? — We know the least about what a new version of Apple TV would look like. It’s been almost four years since Apple introduced the 4K version of its TV hardware — we might be looking at more processing power on a newer version and maybe a new remote.
And the AirTags, finally — Perhaps most intriguing in today’s rumor: that Apple might finally introduce AirTags, its Bluetooth tracker product. Development of AirTags, which will compete directly with market bigwig Tile, has been all but confirmed by Apple for nearly a year now. Apple also enabled an “Items” tab in the Find My app in the latest version of the iOS 14.5 beta, lending credence to the idea that AirTags are almost ready for the public.
If Apple is indeed hosting an event this month, we’ll likely hear news of it within the next couple of weeks. Get your wallets ready.