Apple announces AirTag, and a new colorful iMac

 Apple announced at its first special event this year a batch of new updates to its various products, that included the new AirTag tracking accessory, a completely redesigned iMac, the new generation Apple TV 4K, and a new iPad Pro with the M1 chip.  

Apple introduces AirTag: 

 

Apple expands the Find My ecosystem with AirTag, a small accessory that can be customized with free engraving, and it enables iPhone users to safely locate and track their valuables using the Find My app. 

Made of stainless steel, each AirTag has IP67 water and dust resistance, has a built-in speaker that plays sounds to help find the accessory, and a removable cover to enable users to replace its battery. AirTag has the same easy setup experience as AirPods. Just bring the AirTag closer to the iPhone, and it will be connected. Users can assign AirTag to an item and name it with the default name such as "Keys" or "Jacket", or provide a custom name of their choice.  

                                        
 
This advanced technology can more accurately determine the distance and direction to a lost AirTag when it is in range. As a user moves, Precision Finding fuses input from the camera, ARKit, accelerometer, and gyroscope, and then will guide them to AirTag using a combination. 


Each AirTag is equipped with the Apple U1 chip using ultra-wideband technology that can more accurately determine, as the user moves, the distance and direction to a lost AirTag when in range based on inputs from the camera, ARKit, accelerometer, and gyroscope, then direct them to the AirTag using a combination of sound, haptics, and visual feedback, enabling accurate search for iPhone 11 and iPhone 12 users for their lost items. 

       

If the AirTag gets separated from its owner and goes out of Bluetooth range, the Find My network can help track it down by detecting Bluetooth signals from the missing AirTag tag and relaying the location back to its owner. 

Users can also put AirTag into Lost Mode and notify them when it is in range or has been located by the Find My network. If an AirTag is found missing by someone, they can click on it with their iPhone or any NFC-enabled device, and it takes it to a website that displays the owner's contact phone number if they have provided one. 

AirTag can be bought in one and four packs for just $29 and $99, respectively, and will be available beginning Friday, April 30 

An all-new iMac with design in a spectrum of vibrant colors: 

Apple also at the event introduced an all-new iMac that features a smaller, thinner design (just 11.5 mm thick), enabled by the M1 chip, and features a 24-inch 4.5K Retina display with 11.3 million pixels, 4480-by-2520 resolution, 500 nits, and P3 wide color gamut. This new display also features an anti-reflective coating for added comfort and readability, and True Tone technology, which automatically adjusts the color temperature as the environment changes for a more natural viewing experience.  

Thanks to the compact architecture of the M1's on-chip system, the logic board and heat are combined and reduced in size compared to the previous generation, making the new iMac 50 percent smaller and giving it a thin side profile.

                                           

The M1 chip that contain an 8-core CPU, an 8-core integrated GPU, and a16-core Apple Neural Engine, gives the new iMac up to 85 percent faster CPU performance, up to 2x faster GPU performance, and up to 3x faster machine learning compared to the previous generation. 

iMac features a 1080p FaceTime HD camera that delivers high-quality video even in low-light conditions, improved camera image quality with better noise reduction, greater dynamic range, enhanced auto exposure and white balance, and a set of three microphones capable of better ignoring background noise. Focus on user audio for clearer calls and audio recordings, and the six-speaker audio system enables iMac to support spatial audio when playing video with Dolby Atmos. 

   

Users can choose from three color-matched Magic Keyboard models with the iMac, including a Magic Keyboard integrated with Touch ID, enabling them to unlock the iMac, make a purchase with Apple Pay, or quickly switch between users. They can also choose between Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and numeric keypad, as well as the color-matched Magic Mouse and Magic Trackpad. 

The new iMac has a 3.5 mm headphone jack and up to four USB Type-C ports, two of which are Thunderbolt / USB 4, and supports Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi 6. It comes with 8 to 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB to 2 TB of internal SSD storage, in seven colors green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and silver; and a starting price of US $1099, and will be also available beginning Friday, April 30. 

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