The MacRumors Show: M4 iPad Pro and M2 iPad Air Are Finally Here!

On this week's special episode of The MacRumors Show, we discuss Apple's newly announced iPad Pro, iPad Air, Apple Pencil Pro, and revamped Magic Keyboard accessory.


We explore the updates to the iPad Pro's hardware, such as the introduction of the M4 chip, OLED displays, a landscape front-facing camera, an Adaptive True Tone flash, and a thinner design. The iPad Air is now available in a larger, 13-inch display size option and offers the M2 chip, a landscape front-facing camera, and ‌Apple Pencil‌ hover.

The Magic Keyboard for the ‌iPad Pro‌ now features an aluminum top case, a new trackpad with haptic feedback, and a function row, while the Apple Pencil Pro introduces the squeeze gesture, barrel roll, haptic feedback, and Find My integration.

We evaluate these new products and discuss the potential implications of the upgrades for users, including professionals who rely on the iPad out in the field. The MacRumors Show is now on its own YouTube channel, so make sure you're subscribed to keep up with new episodes and clips going forward:

You can also listen to ‌The MacRumors Show‌ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, or your preferred podcasts app. You can also copy our RSS feed directly into your podcast player.


If you haven't already listened to the previous episode of The MacRumors Show, catch up for our predictions about Apple's "Let loose" event to see what we got right and wrong.

Subscribe to ‌The MacRumors Show‌ for new episodes every week, where we discuss some of the topical news breaking here on MacRumors, often joined by interesting guests such as Matthew Cassinelli, Brian Tong, Quinn Nelson, Kevin Nether, Jared Nelson, Eli Hodapp, Luke Miani, Mike Bell, Sara Dietschy, iJustine, Jon Rettinger, Andru Edwards, Arnold Kim, Ben Sullins, Marcus Kane, Christopher Lawley, Frank McShan, David Lewis, Tyler Stalman, Jon Prosser, Sam Kohl, John Gruber, Federico Viticci, Thomas Frank, Jonathan Morrison, Ross Young, Ian Zelbo, and Rene Ritchie.

‌The MacRumors Show‌ is on X @MacRumorsShow, so be sure to give us a follow to keep up with the podcast. You can also head over to The MacRumors Show forum thread to engage with us directly. Remember to rate and review the podcast, and let us know what subjects and guests you would like to see in the future.

Popular Stories

iOS 18

Apple Says iOS 18.4 Will Be Released in April With These New Features

Wednesday February 26, 2025 7:15 am PST by
In a recent press release, Apple confirmed that iOS 18.4 will be released in April. From the Apple News+ Food announcement:Coming with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, Apple News+ subscribers will have access to Apple News+ Food, a new section that will feature tens of thousands of recipes — as well as stories about restaurants, healthy eating, kitchen essentials, and more — from the...
Generic iPhone 17 Feature With Full Width Dynamic Island

Latest iPhone 17 Series CAD Images in Line With Redesign Rumors

Friday February 28, 2025 2:51 am PST by
Apple is expected to embrace a new camera system design for some models in its upcoming iPhone 17 series, and the latest purported CAD images don't deviate from what we have been hearing lately about Apple's new lineup. If you do not like the sound of an iPhone with a Google Pixel-style camera bar, look away now. Seasoned leaker Sonny Dickson shared the following images in a post on X...
iphone 16e usb c feature

Apple Provides Reason for iPhone 16e's Lack of MagSafe

Friday February 28, 2025 4:39 am PST by
Apple has offered a reason why the iPhone 16e doesn't include MagSafe, one of the more notable omissions from its latest entry-level smartphone. According to Apple representatives who spoke to Daring Fireball's John Gruber, MagSafe is not included in the iPhone 16e because "most people in the iPhone 16e's target audience exclusively charge their phones by plugging them into a charging...
apple intelligence black

These New Apple Intelligence Features Are Coming in iOS 18.4

Friday February 28, 2025 3:17 pm PST by
iOS 18.4 was supposed to bring new Apple Intelligence Siri features, but Apple ended up needing to pull those capabilities from the update to continue testing. There are fewer new Apple Intelligence additions now, but there are still some new features that will make the update worth installing when it comes out in April. Priority Notifications Apple introduced Priority Notifications back at ...
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock Light

iOS 19 Rumored to Include These New Features for Your iPhone

Saturday March 1, 2025 11:00 am PST by
iOS 19 is still around three months away from being unveiled, but there are plenty of rumors about the upcoming update. Below, we recap iOS 19 rumors so far. Redesigned Camera App A leak earlier this year allegedly revealed a redesigned Camera app coming with iOS 19. On his YouTube channel Front Page Tech in January, Jon Prosser shared a video showing what the new Camera app will...
cook trump

Trump Responds to Apple Keeping Diversity Policies

Wednesday February 26, 2025 6:32 am PST by
In an all-caps post on Truth Social today, U.S. President Donald Trump said Apple should fully end its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies. Tim Cook meeting with President Trump in 2017 "APPLE SHOULD GET RID OF DEI RULES, NOT JUST MAKE ADJUSTMENTS TO THEM," he wrote. Trump's post comes one day after Apple held its annual shareholders meeting, during which a majority of...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
airpods pro purple

Here's When AirPods Pro 3 Are Rumored to Launch

Monday February 24, 2025 9:14 am PST by
According to a post on X today from a leaker known as Kosutami, Apple plans to launch AirPods Pro 3 in May or June this year. The leaker also claimed that an AirTag 2 will launch around the same time. Kosutami is best known as a collector of prototype Apple hardware, but they have occasionally shared accurate information about Apple's future product plans. For example, they accurately...
apple c1

How Fast is Apple's First-Ever 5G Modem? The Results Are Surprising

Friday February 28, 2025 10:08 am PST by
iPhone 16e reviews are now out, and Apple's custom-designed C1 modem has been put to the test. The results so far are quite surprising, as the C1's speeds are not as slow compared to Qualcomm modems as originally expected. While the C1 does not support ultra-fast mmWave 5G in the U.S., it appears to offer comparable 5G performance to Qualcomm's Snapdragon X71 modem found in the iPhone 16,...

Top Rated Comments

klasma Avatar
11 months ago

The rumor of Vision Pro support for the Pencil was alongside a rumor that it would optionally charge by USB-C. Otherwise how is a Vision Pro owner supposed to charge it?
Place it on the top like eyebrows, and it will charge via previously unnoticed coils in the AVP. ;)
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Johnny907 Avatar
11 months ago
Silly me, based on the headline I thought this would be a video comparing the Pro and the Air side by side and discussing the actual differences.
Skip.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
klasma Avatar
11 months ago
@Dan Barbera @Hartley: According to Federico Veticci from MacStories, the iPad nano-texture uses a new chemical process and is smooth like the regular glossy display (no paper-like friction effect):

According to Apple, they’re using a new chemical process to alter the glass with nano textures, which ensures the display keeps the same properties as the glossy one – same brightness, same contrast. […] What I wasn’t expecting when I grabbed the iPad Pro with the nano-texture display was that the display felt as smooth as the regular glossy one. […] If you were expecting this matte option to feel rough like paper, this is not it”.

(https://www.macstories.net/stories/thoughts-and-first-impressions-on-the-new-ipad-pros-from-apples-event-in-london/)
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
groove-agent Avatar
11 months ago
Finally here? We didn't really know they were coming in the first place (other than rumours). Maybe it should have read "The MacRumors Show: M4 iPad Pro and M2 iPad Air Are Here!"
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
rwlombard70 Avatar
11 months ago
Firstly, love your show and really enjoy your discussions! So, I’m a longtime Apple devotee and my first Mac was the Mac Plus. I’m old enough to have a .mac email address! lol. I’ve also had nearly every iPad model since it’s reLease. Funny story about that, when the first gen iPad was actually delivered it was the day my second son was born. I saw that it had been delivered to my house and I had to run home to “take care of our dog”. I came back to the hospital with the iPad and the family was there to see the baby. Looking back I feel a little guilty that the iPad took attention away from my son but it sure did! One thing that I always find interesting is that people always want it to be a Mac. I’ve seen the Mac go through all of its evolutions and like iPadOS, it was far from perfect for a very long time. And it isn’t now either. But it is more mature because it’s had decades to get there. To your point, I believe iPadOs will get there too. I haven’t fought what the iPad is. It’s not a Mac and should never be one. It truly may not serve everyone’s workflow ever and that’s ok. No computing device does. And software takes time to grow up. Look at Apple Maps. A mess when it came out and everyone expected it to be Google Maps right away. Well flash forward several years and it’s pretty much the go to for the vast majority of Apple users. iPadOS is going to get there, but differently than MacOS, and that’s perfectly ok. Frankly, when I use my Macbook Pro now it feels dated. Sure, it does some things better. So does the iPad, and again to your point, look at how much more the iPad now does. Oh, and one of those things that is vastly important is that it has a cellular radio! I work in finance and use a PC a lot for it, but also my iPad for most of it as well. In fact, I’m trading in my M1 14” MacBook Pro for the new iPad Pro. I don’t want or expect it to be a Mac and honestly, Apple has never claimed it was or that it would be.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
erikkfi Avatar
11 months ago
The rumor of Vision Pro support for the Pencil was alongside a rumor that it would optionally charge by USB-C. Otherwise how is a Vision Pro owner supposed to charge it?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)