News

The new iPad Air carries Apple’s most advanced chip

The most powerful iPad Air ever

Published

September 16, 2020

Rodneil Quiteles

Apple’s latest chip — the A14 Bionic — was probably supposed to debut on the iPhone 12 but the pandemic happened and that announcement had to be delayed. Regardless, it still made a splash as the headlining component of the new iPad Air.

Most Powerful iPad Air with A14 Bionic

The A14 Bionic chip offers a new six-core design for a 40 percent boost in CPU performance. There’s also a new four-core graphics architecture for a 30 percent improvement in graphics.

Apple showed side-by-side shots of a game and it showcased how the new chip helps in rendering an overall better visual experience of the game. There’s also no lag despite the more demanding graphics settings.

Its combination of the new Neural Engine, CPU machine learning accelerators, and high-performance GPU enables powerful on-device experiences for image recognition, natural language learning, analyzing motion, and more.

More colors, new finishes

The upgrades aren’t all on the inside. The new iPad Air features a completely new thin and light design in five gorgeous finishes: silver, space gray, rose gold, green, and sky blue.

The new all-screen design features a larger 10.9-inch Liquid Retina display for a stunning visual experience.

To allow the display to extend on all sides, a next-generation Touch ID sensor is integrated into the top button. It provides the same fast, easy, and secure way to unlock iPad Air, log in to apps, or use Apple Pay that customers know and love.

The iPad Air is compatible with Magic Keyboard and its floating design, and built-in trackpad, Smart Keyboard Folio, and new Smart Folio covers. It will also work with the Apple Pencil which attaches magnetically to the side for easy pairing, charging, and storing.

Upgraded camera, USB-C port

The new iPad Air now features the same 12MP rear camera used in iPad Pro for higher resolution photos and 4K video capture. The new design features stereo speakers in landscape mode for a much better audio experience.

Also, Apple finally relented and opted for a USB-C port for up to 5GBps of data transfer. This is standard for connecting cameras, hard drives, and external monitors up to 4K. Highly unlikely though that we’ll see the same port on the iPhone 12. But we’ll see.

Distinct experience with iPadOS 14

Hardware is only half the battle. The biggest draw of the iPad over other tablets is iPadOS and the latest of which — iPadOS 14 — will run on the new iPad Air.

It better integrates Apple Pencil into the iPad experience for better note-taking capabilities, and new ways to work with handwritten notes. Smart Selection can now distinguish handwriting from drawings. Handwriting can be selected, cut, and pasted into another document as typed text using gestures that iPad users will be familiar with.

Shape recognition allows users to draw shapes that are made geometrically perfect and snap right into place when adding diagrams and illustrations in Notes.

Data detectors work seamlessly with handwritten text, recognizing phone numbers, dates, addresses, and links, making it easy for users to perform actions like tapping a handwritten number to make a call.

All of these will be available on the IPad Air plus more IPadOS 14 features.

Most environmentally friendly iPad Air

Perhaps this is the best thing about the new iPad Air that will likely go unnoticed. Apple already promised to bring its carbon footprint to net zero by 2030 and they’ve already started.

The iPad Air uses a 100 percent recycled aluminum enclosure and 100 percent recycled tin for the solder on its main logic board. The new speakers in iPad Air also use magnets with 100 percent recycled rare earth elements.

It remains free of harmful substances, is highly energy efficient, and uses wood fiber packaging that is recycled or comes from responsibly managed forests.

Pricing and availability

The new iPad Air will be available starting next month on apple.com and in the Apple Store app in 30 countries and regions, including the US. Wi-Fi models will be available with a starting price of US$ 599 and Wi-Fi + Cellular models start at US$ 729. It comes in 64GB and 256GB configurations, and will be available in five beautiful finishes including silver, space gray, rose gold, green, and sky blue.

iPadOS 14, the powerful operating system designed specifically for iPad, ships for free with the new eighth-generation iPad and new iPad Air, and will be available as a free software update tomorrow for all iPad Pro models, iPad Air 2 and later, iPad 5th generation and later, and iPad mini 4 and later.

Apple Pencil (2nd generation), available for purchase separately for US$129, is compatible with iPad Air.

Magic Keyboard and the Smart Keyboard Folio for iPad Air are available for purchase separately for US$ 299 and US$ 179, respectively, both with layouts for over 30 languages, including simplified Chinese, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.

Smart Folios are available for iPad Air for US$ 79 in black, white, and three new seasonal colors including deep navy, cyprus green, and pink citrus.

Education pricing for individuals, including current and newly accepted college students and their parents, as well as faculty, staff, and homeschool teachers of all grade levels, is available for US$ 549 for the new iPad Air. The second-generation Apple Pencil is available for US$ 119, the Smart Keyboard Folio is available for US$ 159, and Magic Keyboard for US$ 279. For more information, visit apple.com/us-hed/shop.

Related Topics:iPad iPad Air iPadOS 14 new iPad Air

Apps

WhatsApp will introduce usernames to hide your phone number

Hide your number from others.

Published

June 30, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

WhatsApp is about to get an extra later of protection. After thriving on number-based chatting, the platform will soon add usernames, eliminating the need to share your number with strangers.

Usernames are the standard way of maintaining your anonymity online. Though most platforms today require users to log their email addresses or phone numbers, establishing a username can prevent other users from seeing this information way too easily.

Today, Meta has started rolling out reservations for WhatsApp usernames. The feature itself isn’t available yet, but early adopters can grab theirs as soon as the setting becomes available on their app.

To access the reservation, users can go to Settings > Account > Username. Of note, this isn’t available for everyone yet. But if you want to take dibs on a specific name, be on the lookout for the setting.

As for the username itself, users can reserve anything as long as it’s unique. Business owners and creators can also use their Facebook or Instagram handles as their WhatsApp usernames.

The feature, once it launches, will stop users from accessing your phone number when messaging. Similarly, other users will now need your exact username to start a conversation. Users can also set a separate code to protect conversations further.

News

Samsung might be working on a rollable phone

It might be called the Galaxy Z Slide.

Published

June 30, 2026

Luigi Leonardo

For Apple, the next holy grail is a foldable iPhone. However, for Samsung who’s already had an iron grip on the foldable market for years now, the next evolution might be a rollable phone.

According to several Korean sources, Samsung’s next project is a rollable phone. Samsung Display is currently discussing the technology with the company’s smartphone arm for a potential consumer-ready product.

As is normal with new technologies, it might take a while for a rollable phone to enter the market. Samsung is reportedly planning a 2028 release for the device.

As for the name, the brand might settle for the Galaxy Z Slide. With how Samsung names its devices, “Slide” makes sense.

Now, a rollable phone has been a dream for a few other brands. For example, LG, before they gave up on the smartphone market, dished out a concept for a rollable display in the TV and the smartphone space. Sony, Motorola, OPPO, and TECNO have also experimented with the technology.

With its resources, Samsung stands to be at the forefront of the rollable market, just as it did with the foldable phone. But, as always, take the rumors with a grain of salt. There’s still quite a bit of time before 2028 arrives. The brand can easily change its mind.

Cameras

DJI Osmo Pocket 4P launches with dual lenses and a 1-inch sensor

The biggest upgrade yet to DJI’s compact gimbal camera

Published

June 29, 2026

MJ Jucutan

The original Osmo Pocket launched in 2018 as a pocket-sized gimbal camera for people who wanted smooth footage without carrying a full rig. DJI has been building on that idea ever since, and today, with the Osmo Pocket 4P, they made the biggest jump yet.

A significant change

The most significant change in the Osmo Pocket 4P is the introduction of a dual-lens system. While previous Osmo Pocket models limited creators to a single, fixed field of view, the 4P provides two distinct options.

The camera features a wide-angle lens backed by a new 1-inch CMOS sensor alongside a 60mm medium-telephoto portrait lens boasting an f/1.8 aperture and 3x optical zoom. This second lens fundamentally changes how creators shoot on the ground.

At the 60mm focal length, backgrounds compress naturally to separate the subject from the environment without relying on artificial software rendering, offering an invaluable tool for capturing people at events, during travel, or throughout daily life.

The wide lens captures 17 stops of dynamic range through what DJI calls LOFIC technology, which handles high-contrast scenes like backlit windows or golden hour without blowing out the sky or burying the shadows.

Advanced sensor tech, color latitude

For high-contrast environments, the wide-angle lens captures an impressive 17 stops of dynamic range utilizing DJI’s new LOFIC technology.

This hardware addition allows the camera to effortlessly manage difficult lighting scenarios, like backlit windows or golden hour horizons, keeping the sky intact while preventing shadows from turning muddy.

On the color processing side, DJI has introduced a 10-bit D-Log 2 profile capable of recording over a billion colors. This shift provides editors with significantly more latitude to grade footage in post-production, avoiding the limitations of a baked-in, in-camera look.

High-speed motion, smart framing

In terms of capturing motion, the 4P supports 4K slow motion at 240fps, making it ideal for fast-moving subjects that benefit from a stylized, slowed-down perspective.

A slow shutter video mode is also included, allowing users to organically capture light trails in low-light environments. Physical stabilization continues to rely on a mechanical 3-axis gimbal, drawing directly from the heritage of DJI’s professional Ronin systems.

Weighing just 230 grams, the compact unit incorporates ActiveTrack 8.0 to handle automated subject tracking, maintaining precise focus through the entire 12x digital zoom range — a feature that proves essential for solo creators who need the hardware to handle framing duties.

Practical updates for daily use

DJI has also focused heavily on the realities of on-the-go shooting. The 4P introduces gesture controls, letting users trigger subject tracking or start recording without physically touching the device.

A new 4K Live Photo mode automatically captures a 1.5-second clip alongside every still image, while the main sensor allows for high-resolution 37-megapixel photos that offer plenty of room for cropping in post-production.