We knew it was gonna be new iPads and we weren’t disappointed. Top billing Apple’s May event is the iPad Pro powered by the M4 chip. It also comes with an advanced display and can be accompanied by the new Apple Pencil Pro.

Thin for the win

The new iPad Pro is the company’s thinnest product ever. The 11-inch model is just 5.3 mm thin, and the 13-inch model is even thinner at a striking 5.1 mm. The 11-inch model weighs less than a pound, and the 13-inch model is nearly a quarter pound lighter than its predecessor. Now that’s portable.

Most advanced display

A headline feature if the new iPad Pro is its Ultra Retina XDR display. It uses two OLED panels and combines the light from both to provide phenomenal full-screen brightness. The new iPad Pro supports an incredible 1000 nits of full-screen brightness for SDR and HDR content, and 1600 nits peak for HDR. That’s virtually unheard of.

For pro users, the new iPad Pro comes with new nano-texture glass options. It’s great for people in high-end, color-managed workflows or challenging lighting conditions.

Powered by the new M4 chip

Huge performance leap? Yessir. The M4 is built on second-generation 3-nanometer technology that’s even more power efficient. It’s perfect for the new iPad Pro.

M4 introduces pioneering technology for the stunning precision, color, and brightness of the Ultra Retina XDR display. The new CPU offers up to four performance cores and now six efficiency cores, with next-generation machine learning (ML) accelerators, to deliver up to 1.5x faster CPU performance over M2 in the previous-generation iPad Pro. M4 builds on the GPU architecture of M3 — the 10-core GPU includes powerful features like Dynamic Caching, and hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing, which come to iPad for the first time.

In simpler terms, that’s four times faster performance than the M2.

AI. Yes, AI

Like most devices these days, the new iPad Pro is also equipped with a Neural Engine for AI tasks. It’s capable of 38 trillion operations per second, which is 60x faster than Apple’s first Neural Engine in the A11 Bionic chip. The Neural Engine makes the new iPad Pro an outrageously powerful device for AI.

With iPad Pro with M4, users can perform AI-enabled tasks even faster, like easily isolate a subject from its background in 4K video with just a tap with Scene Removal Mask in Final Cut Pro.

Apple Pencil Pro

A Pro tablet deserves a pro stylus. Say hello to the Apple Pencil Pro.

A new sensor in the barrel can sense a user’s squeeze, bringing up a tool palette to quickly switch tools, line weights, and colors. It does all that without interrupting the creative process. There’s also a custom haptic engine delivers a light tap. It provides confirmation when users squeeze, use double-tap, or snap to a Smart Shape for a remarkably intuitive experience.

There’s a gyroscope allows users to roll Apple Pencil Pro for precise control of the tool they’re using. Rotating the barrel changes the orientation of shaped pen and brush tools, just like pen and paper. And with Apple Pencil hover, users can visualize the exact orientation of a tool before making a mark.

Price and availability

Customers can order the new iPad Pro with M4 starting today, May 7, at apple.com/store, and in the Apple Store app in 29 countries and regions. It includes the U.S. and Singapore, with availability in stores beginning Wednesday, May 15.

The new 11-inch and 13-inch iPad Pro will be available in silver and space black finishes in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, and 2TB configurations.

The 11-inch iPad Pro starts at $999 (U.S.)/ S$1,499 (Singapore)/ PhP 72,990 (Philippines) for the Wi-Fi model, and $1,199 (U.S.) for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model.

The 13-inch iPad Pro starts at $1,299 (U.S.)/ S$1,999 (Singapore)/ PhP 94,990 (Philippines) for the Wi-Fi model, and $1,499 (U.S.) for the Wi-Fi + Cellular model. Additional technical specifications, including nano-texture glass options, are available at apple.com/store.

In a few short hours, Apple is scheduled to host an event for its iPad lineup. While the event’s invite makes no mention of the tablets directly, the graphic includes an Apple Pencil. Whatever is happening, tablets are involved. Now, we have a clearer idea of what’s coming in today’s event.

Via MacRumors, Apple’s Japanese website currently has a reference in its code to something called the “Apple Pencil Pro.”

It’s not a direct reference. Rather, it’s an alternative text to an included graphic on the homepage. “Folded green, yellow, orange and blue paper forms the Apple logo. Inside the logo, you can see the creator’s hand holding the Apple Pencil Pro and drawing,” it reads (albeit translated, of course).

Given the proximity to today’s event, the name might be more than a coincidence. Apple might actually release an Apple Pencil Pro later today.

However, tempering expectations a bit, the spotted reference is available only on the Japanese website. Other countries do not have the same caption. It’s possible that it’s just a translation error. It also doesn’t help that the graphic doesn’t actually depict a new Pencil.

If anything, Apple’s stylus needs an update. The Pencil hasn’t received a major overhaul since 2018’s second-generation model.

SEE ALSO: Apple MacBook Air M3 has finally reached the Philippines

Released in 2020, Hades is still one of the most memorable roguelike games today. Everyone is naturally excited for the upcoming sequel simply titled Hades II. Today, the sequel is finally getting a much-needed update. Hades II is now available on Steam’s Early Access program.

Much like the original game, Supergiant Games is slowly dripping Hades II to its fans. Last month, the studio launched a technical test period where players can run through the game’s starting area and fight the first boss.

Now, the Early Access version is much more expansive. While the game is still in development, players can now access much of the main game.

Supergiant Games hopes to keep the game in this state until the end of 2024 at the very least. Through the year, the studio will introduce larger updates to introduce more of the game’s story.

In case you’re worried about everyone playing the Early Access version and spoiling everything online, the full release will still have the game’s true ending and a full list of achievements.

That said, if you’re really feeling that FOMO (and want to take part in the game’s active development), you can grab the game now on Steam and the Epic Games Store. Supergiant Games is also working on a console version of the game.

SEE ALSO: Hades is coming to Netflix