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As far as other specs go, Sony continued the practice of cramming every possible top-notch feature into its flagship devices. The Xperia Z4 Tablet has an octa-core, Snapdragon 810 processor, a 2K display, 32GB of built-in memory, and is wateproof and dustproof up to IP68 specifications.

Matt Egan looks at how to record the action on an iPad

On a Mac

This method is the simplest, but the video quality 
isn’t great, and you’ll need a MacBook, iMac, Mac 
mini or Mac Pro. You need to turn your Mac into an 
AirPlay receiver. Download and install Reflector from 
tinyurl.com/n955s77. It costs $12, which is about £8
Start Reflector. Switch on your iOS device, and 
connect it to the same wireless network as the 
Mac. Now bring up the Control Centre by swiping 
upwards from the bottom of the screen. The AirPlay 
icon should appear, next to the AirDrop option. Click 
the AirPlay button and select the Mac as your output, 
and the screen of the iPad or iPhone will be mirrored 
on the Mac. Now simply record your Mac’s screen to 
capture what is happening on the iPhone or iPad. To 
do so, start up QuickTime Player then choose File, 
New Screen Recording, and hit record.
In later versions of QuickTime Player it will give 
you the option of dragging across the area of the 
screen you want to record, whereas earlier versions 
can only record the Mac’s screen as a whole.

Use game capture hardware

If you don’t have a Mac you are going to have to 
spend some money. We tested the Elgato Game 

Capture HD, which you can pick up for £149.95 from 
the Apple Store. It’s designed for recording video
from games consoles. It works fine with the iPad, but
you’ll need the £40 Apple AV Adaptor.
Plug the iPad into the Game Capture HD device
using the adaptor and the bundled HDMI cable, and
plug the Game Capture HD into your Mac using its
mini-USB to USB cable. Download the (free) Game
Capture HD software from Elgato’s website and start
it up. Then it’s just a case of adjusting the settings,
hitting record and playing the game.

Jailbreak

If you don’t have a Mac, and you’re not happy
spending £200 on capturing your iPad or iPhone’s
screen, we can’t blame you. But beyond that you
have only one, radical option: jailbreak. If you don’t
fully understand what is meant by ‘jailbreaking’, you
probably shouldn’t do it. For more information look
at issue 79 of iPad & iPhone User. We accept no
responsibility for your decision to jailbreak.
Once you’ve jailbroken your iPad or iPhone you
can access the Cydia app store, where you can find
and buy apps that haven’t been authorised by Apple.
One app you could try is called Display Recorder,
although this has the downside
of not recording

audio.

Don’t forget a thing with Reminders, writes Lou Hattersley



you can easily search through them. Reminders
can be sorted in a list or by date and you can see
a calendar view of all your reminders a month at
a time. If you’re using the iCloud service all your
reminders can be synced across devices. If you set
a reminder on your iPad it will show on your iPhone
and vice versa. If you’re cursed with the forgetful
gene, have no fear, the Reminders app is here. You’ll
never forget your wedding anniversary again. Here
we show you how to use it.

Step 1: Reminders app Open the Reminders app to add 

a to-do item to your list. Here
you’ll see all your reminders
and, if you’re using iCloud,
the account name used to
synchronise reminders.

Step 2: New reminder Tap on an empty line to create

a reminder and the standard
keyboard pops up. Type the
reminder and tap Return. To edit
it further, tap on the reminder
again.

Step 3: Dictate reminder 

If you don’t want to type your reminder, you don’t
have to. Tap on the microphone icon next to the
spacebar and simply speak your reminder. Tap

Done to enter it.

Step 4: Remind me on a day

To change the details about a
reminder simply tap on it and
tap on the Info (‘i’) icon. Tap
‘Remind Me On A Day’ to set
a day when you want the iPad
to alert you.

Step 5: Location-based reminders

You can have a reminder pop
up when you leave or arrive
somewhere. The iPad uses
GPS to track you, and when
you’re at the right spot it sends an alert.

Step 6: See your month 

You can see all your reminders in the month by
tapping the Scheduled item in the sidebar. This
screen lists all your reminders using the ‘Remind Me
On A Day’ setting.

Step 7: Search reminders 

If you can’t see the reminder you’re after, use search.
Tap on the search field in the top-left and enter the
item for which you are looking.

Step 8: Completed tasks 

Once you’ve completed a tasks, you just tick it o by
tapping the circle next to it. The task will be removed
from the list, but you can view it again by tapping
Show Completed.

The angry birds are now racing karts in this free-to-play 
game that’s both fun and frustrating, writes Jim Martin

Angry Birds Go is a fun new free game from 
Rovio. It’s much like Mario Kart and sees 
old and new characters racing against each 
other to earn coins and win gems. 
There are two main tracks, Seedway and Rocky 
Road, and each o ffers five racing modes: standard 
race, against the clock, Fruit Splat (hit enough 
fruit before the finish line), head-to-head (vs) and 
Champion Chase, where you have to beat the bird 
three times to unlock that character.

And you will need to unlock them, since each 

bird gets ‘tired’ after five races and has to recover.
At which point you can switch to another bird or
pay 10 gems to ‘revive’ the one that’s worn out.
This is just one of many ways that Angry Birds Go
will make money, since you can buy bags of gems
from £1.99 to £70. Gems can then be used to buy
coins within the game.

Coins are used to buy kart upgrades, and you’ll
need these not simply to remain competitive but also
because races have ever-higher ‘cc’ requirements:
you won’t be able to enter certain races unless your
kart meets the minimum rating.
You can buy some karts, too, with prices again
ranging from £1.99 to a whopping £35 or more
(see above). However, you can also buy real toy
versions of the karts, called Telepods, which are
recognised (and unlocked) when placed over
your device’s camera. Each character has a unique

power-up which can be used once per race, with
extra uses costing gems. Certain race types have
coins to collect, while others don’t. Within each main
course is a variety of di erent courses, some of
which are in the air and others involving stunts.
To start a race, you catapult your kart when the
countdown clock says ‘Go’, thereby adding a bit
more fun and retaining a link back to the traditional
Angry Birds games. You’ve a choice of tilt or tap
to control your racer and although tilt is more fun,
tapping o ffers more control.

iPad & iPhone User buying advice

Kids and adults alike will enjoy Angry Birds Go,
but you’ll definitely want to disable in-app purchases
and set a strong password to ensure that your
children don’t spend hundreds of pounds buying
gems and karts.

Now that Apple has released an updated mini, 
Chris Martin reveals which one is the better deal

The new iPad mini is a tablet for that many 
people have been waiting eagerly. With it’s 
‘better than HD’ Retina screen and new, much 
faster processor, it’s a considerably better tablet. But 
it’s also more expensive, while the old model is still 
on sale at a lower price. Maybe you already own an 
iPad mini and are wondering whether to upgrade. 
The decision isn’t easy, but we’re here to help. 

Price

Apple usual keeps its pricing the same when 

it brings out a new model of an iPad. However,
the iPad mini 2 is £50 more than the previous
generation and so starts at £319 instead of £269.
The original iPad mini is still on sale but unless you
buy second hand is only available in 16GB with a
slight price drop to £249.
The extra £70 for the iPad mini 2 is going to be
worth it for the Retina display and A7 processor. You
see the full price breakdown in the table below.

Dimensions

On the face of it, the iPad mini 2 looks identical to
its predecessor. However, as with the iPad 2 being
upgraded to a Retina display for the iPad 3, the
tablet is slightly thicker and heavier. Luckily the
small increase in thickness and weight is minimal
so you shouldn’t worry about it. The iPad mini
colours now reflect the iPad mini 2, iPhone 5s
and iPad Air: black/slate grey and white/silver. 

Screen

The iPad mini 2 remains the same size as the
original so therefore has a 7.9 in screen which is
also LED-backlit and an IPS panel. The key change
is that the resolution has been upgraded to Retina
quality and is one of the main reasons to opt for
the newer model over the original.
Apple has doubled the resolution to same as the
full-size iPad Air meaning that the pixel density has
also doubled and the amount of pixels is four times
the iPad mini. That’s a big di fference and gives the
iPad mini 2 the best ppi for any iPad model.

Processor

The original iPad mini was a bit underpowered, but
the new version gets the same A7 chip that’s also
inside the new iPad Air. That means it’s a 64-bit
device, which makes it more future-proof than if it
had stuck with a 32-bit processor. It also gets the
M7 motion co-processor, which should help prolong

battery life when you’re using fitness or activity
tracking apps. It doesn’t quite live up to Apple’s
claims, but the second-generation iPad mini is a LOT
faster than the original. In our graphics tests, the
Retina-equipped mini ran at 48fps in the Egypt HD
test. That’s twice as fast as the original iPad mini.
Apple says the new tablet is up to 8x faster, which it
may well be in certain apps and games.
Similarly, general 2D performance is impressive.
In Geekbench 2, the iPad mini 2 managed 2222
(on average). This is roughly 3x faster than the
first iPad mini. In SunSpider 1.0.2, the new model
completed the test in just 397ms – a stunning
result. The original iPad mini took an average of
1300ms in the same test, and the new one really
does load web pages faster.

Storage

Unless you’re going to buy a second-hand iPad
mini, there is a big di fference in terms of storage.
The original is still on sale at Apple but only in
16GB. Meanwhile the iPad mini 2 has a new larger
capacity at 128GB. There’s more flexibility then with
the iPad mini 2 and it almost goes without saying
that there is not microSD card slot for expansion.

Cameras

Both tablets have a 5Mp rear facing iSight camera
and 1.2Mp front-facing FaceTime HD webcam.
For photos, there’s little to separate the two, but
videos shot on the new iPad mini are noticeably
sharper – here’s an example of footage we took
on the iPad mini 2:

Connectivity

As is typical with new generations of iPads,
connectivity remains largely the same, but not
entirely. The iPad mini 2 still has the Lightning
connector, albeit with a beefier 10W USB power
adapter, and Bluetooth 4.0.
However, wireless in terms of Wi-Fi and cellular
has been upgraded. It now has dual-antennas and
MIMO (multiple input multiple output) which Apple
says doubles the speed compared to the original
iPad mini (300Mb/s versus 150Mb/s theoretical).
As per usual, you’ll only get GPS if you buy the
cellular version of either iPad mini, but the iPad mini
2 has support for more 4G LTE bands making it
better suited to roaming.

Software

When comparing Apple devices with each other,
you can essentially ignore the software. Both iPad
minis come pre-loaded with iOS 7 if you buy them
new now (the original iPad mini can be upgraded
from iOS 6 if you buy one second-hand).
However, it’s worth noting that iPad mini original
owners won’t get the benefit of apps optimised
for the Retina display and 64-bit processor of the
iPad mini 2.

Battery

According to Apple, there’s no difference between
the two iPad minis for battery life. Despite a more
power hungry Retina display, the iPad mini 2
retains the 10-hour benchmark for surfing the web
on Wi-Fi, watching video or listening to music.
That’s borne out in our testing, so there’s no
advantage or disadvantage buying the iPad mini
with Retina display over the original model.

iPad & iPhone User buying advice

If you’re choosing between the two, the old model
is best for those on a tight budget – there are plenty
of deals around if you keep your eyes peeled. We
recently saw the 16GB Wi-FI + Cellular model for
under £300. However, if money isn’t an object, the
new iPad mini o ffers better future proofing and a
much better screen.

David Price reveals how to text from Apple’s tablet

Sending text messages from an iPad isn’t as 
straightforward as you might think. You’ll 
have noticed the pre-installed Messages app, 
but that’s for iMessages rather than conventional 
SMS messages, so that limits who you can send 
messages to. Here we explain how iMessage 
works, and the other options that let you send text 
messages from an iPad.

iMessage

The Messages app on an iPad is limited, because 
it can only send iMessages. These are better than 

SMS messages (because they’re free) but worse 
(because you can only send them to other iPad,
iPhone and iPod touch users). Start up the Messages
app and tap on the compose button – it’s the square
with a pencil piercing it. Start typing the name of the
contact, and iOS will o er to complete it for you. But
can you send a message to that person? If the name
is red, the answer is no. Try sending your message
and you’ll get a ‘Not Delivered’ error message. But if
the name is blue, you can send an iMessage, and it
won’t cost you a penny.

Apps

There are other options, however. Search the App
Store for texting apps, and you’ll find plenty of free
o fferings. One we’ve been trying is called TextMe,
and o ffers a small number of SMS messages for free,
generating a phone number that your message will
appear to come from (so remember to sign o with
your name, or the recipient will think they are being
stalked). Once the 10 initial credits are used up,
you can get more by watching video adverts or by
inviting friends – or by paying, of course.

Alternatives

Of course, if you’ve got web access via Wi-Fi or
cellular, it’s worth questioning why you need to
send a text from your iPad. The most obvious free
alternative is email, although most people are less
likely to notice emails than texts. Try sending a tweet
instead, which while limited on characters does
allow you to attach images. The average Twitter user
will have notifications set up so they’re immediately

alerted to direct messages or mentions.

Ashleigh Allsopp looks at what we can expect to see

The release of iOS 7 caused a buzz among the 
Apple community in 2013, as it came with a 
radical redesign, bringing a new look and feel 
to the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch software. Now 
that the excitement has died down a little, users are 
looking to the future, imagining what could be in 
store for the next version of iOS, presumably called 
iOS 8 if Apple’s naming convention continues.
We’re certainly excited about 2014 as a whole 
for Apple, not least because CEO Tim Cook has 
revealed on multiple occasions that the company 
has “big plans” that it believes we are going to love.
Speculation about iOS 8 - which is believed to be 
codenamed “Okemo” after a ski resort in Vermont - 
skyrocketed as February 2014 arrived, with reports 
that Apple is working on a ‘Healthbook’ app for the 

new operating system, which could change mobile
health and fitness tracking for good.

Touch ID

During Apple’s earnings call for the first quarter of
2014, CEO Tim Cook spoke about Apple’s Touch
ID fingerprint sensor, which was introduced in
September 2013 with the iPhone 5s.
“The mobile payments area in general is one
that we’ve been intrigued with - that was one of
the thoughts behind Touch ID,” he said. “But we’re
not limiting ourselves to that. I don’t have
anything specific to announce today, but you can tell by
looking at the demographics of our customers
and the amount of commerce that goes through
iOS devices versus the competition that it’s a
big opportunity on the platform.”
Cook’s comments suggest we should look out for
new services that work with the Touch ID
in future versions of iOS.

Notifications

One of the areas of iOS 7 that we
expect to get addressed in iOS 8 is
Notifications. We think that it feels a bit
clumsy at the moment. For example,
replying to an iMessage requires
the launching of the app, rather than
a simple dialog box as in OS X’s
Notification Centre.
We’d like to see a universal control to
clear all of the past notifications at once.
In iOS 7, the user has to manually

delete each app’s entries.
We love Sam Beckett’s interactive Notifications
concept, as shown below. It’s a perfect example of
what we’d like to see in iOS 8 when it comes to the
Notification Centre.
We’d also like to be able to quickly unsubscribe
from app Notifications that we’ve accidently signed
up to within the Notification Centre.
Apple made an interesting acquisition in 2013, for
a small software house called Cue. Cue specialises
in smart assistant programming. With Google Now
becoming an increasingly impressive service on
Android, it’s possible that Cue could be how Apple
will catch up. It could help Apple add smarter push
notifications, providing us with the information we
need when we need it.

Siri

We’re sure that Apple will bring some new features
to Siri, the voice-activated virtual assistant, with
iOS 8. It looks like we’ll be getting more voices
within Siri in the UK. We
currently only have access to
a male voice, but the iOS 7.1
beta suggests we’ll be getting
a female voice for Siri, possibly
even before iOS 8 comes out.

Control Centre

We loved the addition of Control
Centre with iOS 7, and we think
Apple could take it even further
in iOS 8. Perhaps it will give
users more control over the
Control Centre, by letting them
decide which apps they want
easy access to.

Multiple accounts

A sought after iOS feature from Apple is the ability
to add additional accounts to iPads and iPhones.
For iPads that are shared among a family, this would
allow each member to have their own private iOS
account, particularly useful for parents with young
children for better parental control.

Multitasking

Apple made some changes to Multitasking in iOS 7,
but we’d like to see these changes go even further.
Split screen is something we’d love to see in iOS 8,
as it would increase productivity significantly and is
a feature we’re constantly craving while using our
iPad. We’d also like to be able to close all of the
open apps at once.

FaceTime

FaceTime hasn’t seen much love from Apple in
recent updates, apart from the addition of FaceTime
Audio. We’d like to see Apple introduce the ability to
call multiple people at once in FaceTime, for group
calls. Skype already o ffers the ability to conduct
group calls, so the addition of the feature for
FaceTime would be a big plus for Apple users.

Default apps

We’ve been saying this for years, but we’d like to
delete the annoying Apple default apps that we’re
not interested in or never use. It’s unlikely that Apple
will grant this wish, though.

Subscription service

An interesting idea shared with us by a colleague is
the introduction of an iOS iTunes Store and/or App
Store subscription service. The service could allow
users to pay a set fee per month to get access to
unlimited films, TV, books, apps and more (think
Netflix or LoveFilm). We think this would be a brilliant
idea that we could imagine many Apple users
signing up to if it’s priced right. It would be a huge
blow for competitors, though.

Default third-party browser

Many of our colleagues use Apple Macs, but
almost none of them use Safari as their default web
browser; most favour Chrome or Firefox instead.
So why does Safari maintain such a stranglehold
on iOS? Because you still can’t make a third-party
browser the default. We’d love to see Apple add
the ability to change the default browser to a third
party one in iOS 8.

Customised autocorrect

Since before iOS 7, we’ve
been asking for the ability
to turn o autocorrect
on an app-by-app
basis, to prevent those
embarrassing errors we
so often see.

Battery life

Battery life issues plague
iOS users. We asked our
readers what they’d like
to see in iOS 8, expecting
whizzy features but it was
battery life that took the top spot. One of the ways Apple could
help preserve battery life is to
add a battery emergency feature to devices. How
about a set of customisable actions set to kick in
when your iOS device reaches 20 per cent power?
Instead of just popping up with the warning, the
device could be programmed to automatically
lower the brightness, switch o 3G, Bluetooth and
location services, and generally do everything in
its power to stay alive.

iTunes Radio in the UK

Since its release back in September 2013, UK Apple
users have been waiting for iTunes Radio, a new
service from Apple that allows you to stream any
song available on iTunes. It’s possible that we’ll see
iTunes Radio launch in the UK before iOS 8, though,
with some rumours pointing to an early 2014 launch.

Release date

Apple has traditionally used its Worldwide
Developers Conference to unveil new versions
of iOS, so we expect that tradition to continue
this year. WWDC is usually held in June, but we’ll
update you as soon as we find out specific dates
for the conference. While we expect iOS 8 to be
shown o for the first time in June, it’s unlikely to
be released to the public until the next generation
iPhone comes out, probably in September. Between
June and September, iOS 8 is likely to be in beta
form for developers to test and begin working on
their apps ahead of the public release.

Dan Moren walks you through your di fferent options

Apple o ffers four iPad models, each available
in several permutations. You’ll have to
think about the capacity you’re willing to
pay for, whether to get the version with cellular
networking, and even the colour you want. Here we
help you figure out which model is right for you.

iPad Air

Referring to the Air as the Rolls-Royce of iPads may
be a slight exaggeration, but it’s the biggest, most
luxurious option. Its features are first class across
the board, from the 64-bit A7 processor to the high
definition cameras on its front and back.
But its biggest selling point is the roomy 9.7in

Retina display. Although it has the same 2048x1536-
pixel resolution as the Retina mini, sometimes a
bigger screen is better. If you don’t want to worry
about squinting to make out text on a smaller
screen, the Air may be a more comfortable option.
Digital magazines, comics and videos look fantastic,
too. And with the larger screen, you’re likely to fi nd
that tasks such as typing are more comfortable.
Of course, those features come with a higher
price tag. The Air starts at £399 for a 16GB Wi-Fi
model, and increases in £80 increments to £639 for
the 128GB model.

iPad mini with Retina display

Apple’s latest mini has almost everything you’ll find
on the Air: a high-resolution Retina display; a 64-bit
A7 chip with M7 coprocessor; capacities of 16-, 32-,
64- and 128GB; cellular options that work with all the
major network providers; a FaceTime HD camera

on the front and a 5Mp iSight camera – capable of 
recording up to 1080p HD video – on the rear. And
then there are trappings such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth,
a Lightning connector, a headphone jack, speakers
and a microphone.
Deciding between the Retina mini and the Air
comes down to two factors: size and price. If you
prefer smaller and lighter, then the mini wins, though,
not by as much as the older version (which weighs
308g); the Retina mini weighs 331g to the Air’s 469g.
Its small size may be even more of a selling
point, if you want a tablet that you can carry
around with you: about the size of a paperback,
the Retina mini can fi t comfortably into a small
bag. And even though the Air is light enough for
you to hold in one hand, the Retina mini beats it
hands-down in that category.
With prices ranging from £319 to £559 for the
various-capacity Wi-Fi models, the Retina mini
costs £80 less than a comparably equipped Air,
which is worth considering if you’re on a budget.

Original iPad mini

The main reason for anyone to look at the first
generation mini is that it’s the cheapest iPad around.
Priced at £249, the 16GB Wi-Fi-only model manages
to pack a pretty decent punch, too. It includes
high-definition cameras on the front and back,
Siri, and most of the same capabilities of newer iPads.
It’s great for those who just want to use it to get on the
web, check their email and download a few apps.
email and download a few apps.
That’s not to say there aren’t some trade-o s. The
A5 chip is three years old, so its performance can
be a bit slow, especially in intensive applications
such as some games. And the only capacity option
– 16GB – though adequate for a casual user, will fill
up rapidly with even a modest collection of digital
music, videos and photos.
Finally, it lacks a Retina display. The screen on
the first-generation mini is respectable, but its lower
resolution can make reading some text harder, and
images don’t pop quite as impressively as they do
on the Retina display. Then again, you’re here for the
appealing price, not for top-of-the-line specs.

iPad 2

The iPad 2 has been blessed with surprising
longevity since it was introduced in 2011. At £329
for the Wi-Fi-only model, it costs £80 more than
the first-generation mini; and though it shares that
model’s A5 processor, it lacks many of the niceties
of its smaller counterpart, such as Siri, high-definition
FaceTime camera, 1080p video recording (and
low-quality still shots), LTE and an older version of
Bluetooth. Like the original mini, it also comes in just
one capacity, 16GB.
On the other hand, this is the option for you
if you have accessories that require the 30-pin
dock-connector port, if you’re looking for a barebones
iPad or if you need the biggest screen for
the smallest price. In almost every other respect,
though, the mini is a better choice.

Capacity

If you’ve worked out which model to pick up, then
you’ve done the hard part. But you still have to
decide how much storage you need.
There’s no operational down side to getting
as much storage as you can a fford.
Every time you double the capacity
of the iPad Air or the Retina mini,
you’ll have to pay another £80. Consequently,
a 128GB Air will set you back £639,
while a top-of the range mini costs £559.
That said, unless your needs are truly minimal,
the 16GB models are di fficult to recommend these
days. If you maintain a digital media library
of a significant size – bear in mind that this includes
photos – you’ll soon have to start deciding which
items you want to have taking up space on your
tablet.
On the flip side, that 128GB capacity won’t be
necessary unless your iPad is your sole computer.
If you plan to use it to store your photos, music,
movies and documents, along with any apps you
need for your personal and work life, you’ll be
looking for as much capacity as you can get.
But most users will be happy with either a 32- or
64GB model. Before you purchase an iPad, it’s worth
taking a quick inventory of your iTunes library, video
collection and photos to see how much space you
need. And remember, you have the option to offload
some of those items – photos to your Mac, using
Photo Stream; iTunes Match for your music; and
iTunes in the Cloud for video purchases. Consider
using those and other services if you’re looking to
save a little bit of cash on in-tablet storage capacity.

Cellular or not?

You’re almost ready to click through to checkout.
But before you take the plunge, you need to
decide whether to add cellular networking
capabilities to your iPad. The cost for this is £80
extra across the board, regardless of which capacity
version you choose. For every iPad model, you
can choose a service from any of the four major
providers: EE, 3, O2 and Vodafone.
What’s the advantage of cellular networking? Well,
if you’re in a location that doesn’t have Wi-Fi and
you need to check your email, then this is your best
bet. Cellular networks o er broader access than
Wi-Fi; and with the move to LTE networks, speeds
are comparable, too. Also, although there’s an extra
cost, the no-contract model means that you can pay
for a chunk of data when you need it, without locking
yourself into a monthly service fee.

Ted Landau looks at what we can expect from an iPad Pro



works for 2014.
That’s the easy prediction. The hard one is
describing exactly what an iPad Pro might be. In
particular, how would Apple distinguish an iPad Pro
from the iPad Air and iPad mini? Understanding that
we are about to go so far out on a limb that it might
well break beneath me, here’s my speculation.

A larger display

This would almost certainly be the primary
distinguishing feature of an iPad Pro. How much
larger? There are rumours that Apple has already
settled on a 12.9in display. This strikes us as just
about right. It places the iPad Pro at around the
same display size as 13in MacBooks. Furthermore, it
would allow for a clear separation between the three

iPad models: 7.9in mini; 9.7in Air; and 12.9in Pro.

Touch ID

Apple’s Touch ID fi ngerprint detection debuted on
the iPhone 5s. The handset remains the only Apple
product to include this feature thus far, and while
many people had hoped to see Touch ID on the iPad
Air, that didn’t happen. Apple might well reserve
the option for the debut of an iPad Pro, but if so, it
will almost certainly be only a temporary distinction.
Within a year or two, we anticipate that Touch ID will
be included in almost all iOS devices.

Laptop/tablet hybrid

There’s been much debate about the
ideal mobile computer: if you can have
only one, should it be a laptop or a
tablet? Or is neither su cient on its own?
A potential solution to this dilemma is for
one device to serve as both, as Microsoft
has attempted with the Surface.
Some have envisioned an iPad 
Pro that goes in this same direction,
functioning as an iPad/MacBook hybrid.
At one point, we imagined a hybrid that
would have a detachable display (as
opposed to, say, a 180-degree swivelling
display). When the display was attached
to the keyboard, it would function as a
MacBook running OS X. When detached,
it would instead serve as a touchscreen
iPad running iOS. While some might see
this as combining the advantages of
both worlds, others view it as merging
the drawbacks of each platform. Apple is
clearly in the latter camp. At Apple’s October media
event, Tim Cook said: “Our competition is di erent.
They’re confused. They chased after netbooks. Now
they’re trying to make PCs into tablets and tablets
into PCs.” He went on to assert that Apple has no
intention of going in that direction. In other words,
despite predictions of an OS X/iOS hybrid device
this year, our expectation is that an iPad Pro would
remain purely an iOS device.

Physical keyboard

Although an iPad Pro might not be a hybrid, it
needn’t eschew a physical keyboard altogether.
Keyboard cases and covers for iPads, from
companies such as Logitech (see above) and Zagg,
are already popular options, and it’s easy to see why.
If you do a lot of typing, a physical keyboard goes a
long way toward making that task easier.
Make no mistake, however; there’s a downside
here. Even the thinnest, lightest keyboard cover
adds significant heft to an iPad. And a keyboard case
too often gets in the way when you want to use an
iPad for tasks where no keyboard is required. Still,
for the intended market of an iPad Pro (more on this
in a moment), a physical keyboard would probably
be a welcome addition.
Then again, Apple could continue to market its
Bluetooth stand-alone keyboard as an iPad Pro
accessory, leaving keyboard cases and covers to
third-parties. However, we believe that Apple will
o er something new, such as a keyboard case and/
or keyboard cover that’s specifi c to the iPad Pro.

Pro-specific hardware features

For us, this is the biggest question of all. Will an
iPad Pro simply be an iPad Air with a larger display?
If so, we’ll be surprised and disappointed. For an
iPad Pro to carve out a niche for itself, we believe
it needs to di ffer in some more significant way.
Of the features we’d most like to see, the top
one would be external connectivity. In particular,
an iPad Pro should expand beyond the ubiquitous
Lightning connector, offering a fully functional
USB and/or Thunderbolt port. This would allow for
options such as directly connecting an external
drive to the iPad, which is essential to enable full
local backups without requiring a Mac. A USB port
would also make it much more practical to access
peripherals such as portable scanners. We know
that the future is all about wireless connectivity, but
we’re not there yet.
Unfortunately, given the company’s history of
avoiding any moves in this direction – by restricting
access to file storage on iOS devices as well as
keeping ports to a minimum on all Apple computers
– we have little confidence the company will
implement such a change.
If not external ports, then what? We don’t know. In
the end, this has us thinking that an iPad Pro could
turn out to be little more than a larger Air after all.

Target audience

At this point, we can imagine many readers throwing
up their collective hands, decrying: “This makes no
sense. The iPad market is moving toward smaller
displays, not larger ones. The iPad mini’s market
share continues to grow. It’s expected to eclipse the
sales of the Air. No one wants an iPad that is even
less portable than the iPad Air.”
These are excellent points that are hard to argue
with. Still, we see a potential audience for a larger
iPad. Apple could target it at iPad users who value
a larger display more than maximum portability. If
you plan to use an iPad primarily in just one or two
locations, with an emphasis on productivity tasks,
you might fi t the profile. Bear in mind that, even with
a 13inch display, a hypothetical iPad Pro qualifies as
portable; it would still likely be smaller and lighter
than a MacBook Air.

Mac replacement

The web is overflowing with articles about the shift
away from traditional computers and toward tablets.
For a significant minority of users, a tablet is already
their primary or only computing device. An iPad Pro
would likely further that trend.
Still, for the vast majority of professional users,
with their emphasis on work and productivity over
leisure and consumption, a Mac would likely remain
essential for the foreseeable future. Yes, you can get
 work done with an iPad; that debate has largely
been settled. And, as this Apple video makes clear,
there are already many “work” situations where an
iPad functions better than a MacBook.
Still, there’s no way any iPad can compete with
the raw power of a Mac Pro or even a top-end
iMac. At least not yet. Until an iPad can run Final
Cut Pro, Logic Pro, Photoshop CS, BBEdit, Terminal,
and other ‘pro’ apps; until an iPad’s touchscreen
interface is as e ffective as a Mac’s trackpad for
working with these apps; until iOS adds features that
close the fi le system gap with OS X; and until you
can develop iOS apps on an iOS device, pro users
will continue to need Macs.
That aside, an iPad Pro would up the ante.
Accelerating a trend that has already begun, many
desktop Mac owners would potentially choose an
iPad over a laptop as their secondary computer. For
an increasing number of non-pro users, an iPad will
su ffice as their only computer. Whatever an iPad
Pro turns out to be – even if it turns out to be more
rumour than reality – the iPad itself will remain at the
core of Apple’s future.