New iPad Pro with LiDAR Scanner and trackpad support

Re:New iPad Pro with LiDAR Scanner and trackpad support by Shivetya on Wednesday March 18, 2020 @09:05AM (#22616160)

As pointed out by another, it is also a stand. Now I expect the mechanical work has to be pretty superb to guarantee it can keep the iPad at the angle you choose. I cannot wait for a tear down of the stand.

I am a bit confused by the usb-c port for pass through charging. I would have thought a great opportunity would be to have the stand be able to wireless charge the iPad while in use but I expect the power requirements of an iPad in use would exceed current standards.

Regardless, the interesting point to me is with keyboard, pencil, and such, the price point overlap with their laptop line makes we wonder about rumors of an ARM chipped line of Macs. Without the processor difference price comparisons are going to be much more difficult to blow off

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Re:New iPad Pro with LiDAR Scanner and trackpad support by cptskippy on Wednesday March 18, 2020 @10:17AM (#22616881)

> I am a bit confused by the usb-c port for pass through charging. I would have thought a great opportunity would be to have the stand be able to wireless charge the iPad while in use but I expect the power requirements of an iPad in use would exceed current standards.

Looking at the published photos, there doesn't appear to be a mechanical interface along the edge of the ipad to the stand.

https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MXQT2LL/A/magic-keyboard-...

I've never laid hands on an iPad Pro but photos show it has 3 pogo pads on the backside, is that enough to do data and power? I was under the impression that USB-3 required multiple pairs of data wires. Some sort of proprietary signaling?

Maybe it is using wireless power?

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Re:New iPad Pro with LiDAR Scanner and trackpad support by kalleboo on Wednesday March 18, 2020 @10:53AM (#22617282)

On the previous iPad Pro keyboard page, they had this text: "The Smart Connector transfers both data and power between iPad Pro and the Smart Keyboard Folio — no batteries or charging required"

It's the same connector since the new one is backwards compatible with the old iPad Pro.

If you google "iPad Smart Connector pinout" you find previous discussion/speculation on the protocol

edit: the announcement specifically says the stand supports "pass-through charging, keeping the USB-C port on iPad Pro free for accessories including external drives and displays". So the pogo pins only have to have enough data bandwidth to send keystrokes, the stand won't give you USB 3 data

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Re:New iPad Pro with LiDAR Scanner and trackpad support by qubex on Wednesday March 18, 2020 @12:46PM (#22618608)

I’m wondering whether the USB-C port will support data as well. I’m hoping, but Apple is... quixotic.

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Re:New iPad Pro with LiDAR Scanner and trackpad support by wlesieutre on Wednesday March 18, 2020 @09:56AM (#22616674)

When Apple switched to Intel they rented developers a custom dev kit machine before the consumer products launched. If they change over to ARM, this could very well be the dev kit hardware.

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Re:New iPad Pro with LiDAR Scanner and trackpad support by AgloeDreams on Wednesday March 18, 2020 @12:45PM (#22618588)

Exactly my thought. This is pretty much a Macbook.

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Re:New iPad Pro with LiDAR Scanner and trackpad support by wlesieutre on Wednesday March 18, 2020 @08:20PM (#22622972)

With a much much faster processor. And macrumors is reporting that they all have 6 GB of memory (this was previously an unadvertised upgrade that game with 1 TB storage). Would be a bit less cramped to run macOS on compared to 4 GB in most of the 2018 models.

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Re:New iPad Pro with LiDAR Scanner and trackpad support by jml7c5 on Wednesday March 18, 2020 @12:56PM (#22618712)

>Now I expect the mechanical work has to be pretty superb to guarantee it can keep the iPad at the angle you choose.

/s?

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