The new iPad

It’s faster… but what else?

By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist

This year is the 40th anniversary of Apple. Since the company formed in 1978, they have made products that improve everyday life and inspire people to create new things. So, what did they do to celebrate the occasion?

Apple made an announcement at Lane Tech College Prep High School in Chicago on March 27. It began with CEO Tim Cook explaining how the company changed the way we learned about everything, and how the iPad is important in the classroom—hence the choice of location. In typical Cook fashion, he was only seen for about 15 minutes during the entire presentation. This is much different from his predecessor, Steve Jobs, who made a point of explaining and demonstrating features while he was on stage. Cook, however, prefers to rely on pre-recorded demonstrations.

The only big news in this announcement was the briefing of the next version of the iPad. There are only two new features in the new iPad: It is faster, and you can now use Apple Pencil with it. Using Apple Pencil with the iPad allows you to make finer lines and strokes when you write notes or draw a picture in apps. However, this is a software update that will allow everyone to use it on any iPad—so it is not unique to the new iPad generation that is coming out.

Other than these new features, the new iPad is the same as the previous version of the iPad except that it is just faster, and it costs the same at $329. The rest of the presentation involved updates to iWork and the announcements of new programs for educators. Some of those announcements include updates to programs where you can make textbooks. There were also announcements of programs that you can use to manage your classes and make precise notes with Apple Pencil when you are marking assignments. Finally, they also announced a new program called “Everyone Can Create,” which teaches students creativity skills that they can use to make projects.

Throughout the presentation, various teachers told their stories of how the iPad helped students learn. This Apple announcement may not cause fans of the company to be very excited about new products, as it is more related to Apple’s desire to move further into education.