Tracking resolution for drawing either by camera or accelerometer would be much too low other than for very coarse finger paintings.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Pencil Pro: All the New Features
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
It starts playing U2 if you’re holding it wrong.
I’d use the squeeze function all the time, because I unconsciously end up squeezing a stylus/pencils/pen until it leaves indentations in my fingers, so that pop-up menu is gonna be popping up constantly.
I wonder how much my 2018 1TB cellular 12.9 inch iPad Pro is worth now. Probably not much. Should sell it and get the base 13 inch Air wifi.
Darth Tulhu
macrumors 68020
This is off topic, but I'm so used to seeing a white hand in shots like the thumbnail and the event animation that even I actually found it jarring, and I'm brown.
So, given everything that's going on in the US, and particularly in my home state of Florida, THANK YOU Apple for caring about DEI (even if it is for marketing purposes).
That said: this Pencil is EXCELLENT.
This iPad Event has been the most exciting Apple event for me since they put M1 into the iPad.
So, given everything that's going on in the US, and particularly in my home state of Florida, THANK YOU Apple for caring about DEI (even if it is for marketing purposes).
That said: this Pencil is EXCELLENT.
This iPad Event has been the most exciting Apple event for me since they put M1 into the iPad.
Last edited:
Darth Tulhu
macrumors 68020
I actually thought hard about this, but I couldn't come up with a better way to store the Pencil. I looked at case after case but was never happy.
I like it best when the Pencil is on top of the iPad when in landscape for quick grab and drop (as Apple intended), and I cannot see where they could have put a slot into the Magic Keyboard for travel storage.
So I just put it in the pen slots in my bag when traveling, like I do with every other pencil/pen.
The fact that this new one has Find My is KILLER.
Adding a high fidelity accelerometer, a Taptic Engine and a U1 (ultra wide band) chip in the Pencil overlays exactly the outstanding requirements for Spatial support in visionOS. Each of these pieces provide individual features to the Pencil Pro, Barrel Roll, squeeze-click, and FindMy that are largely overkill for those features alone, but together make their inclusion in the Pencil far more capable, if you consider future visionOS support.
The Barrel Roll feature did not require the level of XYZ axis precision when in use off the iPad that it's actually delivering. The original Pencil tip itself already provided high precision where it matters: drawing or writing on the iPad. Watching demos of the Pencil Pro, you can see how accurately it responds to spatial movement before it even touches the surface. This is likely because of the ultra wide band chip, which is built into AirTags and provides high fidelity spatial awareness between devices, in this case the iPad and the Pencil's awareness of where they are in relation to one another in 3D space.
Apple typically delivers a one, two punch in features. They show off a new feature, then in a follow up announcement, fill it out with more detail. We commonly see this with iOS at WWDC, followed by an iPhone in September that fills out the previously announced feature. This would be a visionOS 2.0 feature, that works with the previously announced Pencil Pro, best announced at WWDC.
Last edited:
Maybe I'm atypical but when I got my first iPad Pro to use with the Apple Pencil 2 I turned off the double tap completely. If I'm thinking in between working on something and accidentally do a double tap and there's little feedback in the app on what changed until things start getting removed (and then it's undo, unto.. maybe redo when you go to far).. I just rather have to go to a selection 3 inches away and select it.
We have pressure in the stylus already and that's cool.. can somebody tell me a killer parameter to control that just isn't going to annoy you in longer workflows?
We have pressure in the stylus already and that's cool.. can somebody tell me a killer parameter to control that just isn't going to annoy you in longer workflows?
Exactly, I can't even handle one gesture without accidentally triggering something. Can't imagine what it will be like with even more of them.
Agreed. I've disabled double tap altogether because of how inconsistent it is. I hope there would be an option to map the squeeze to just the eraser, which would work better than flipping it over to erase imo.
This ! Really disapponted. Apple makes my 2022 12,9 iPad Pro now look like 'obsolete' or 'vintage'. Bummer
That's one of my favorite things that the MS pen does on my Surface Laptop Studio. I thought it would be gimmicky but it really adds to the experience.
So an M2 Air can deal with the new pencil, but an M2 Pro can't.
Makes. No. Sense.
Makes. No. Sense.
The pairing/charging hardware is different because the M2 Air has a landscape camera while the M2 Pro does not.
Last edited:
I am also hoping for visionOS support. One hurdle for this would be how do you charge the Pencil if you own a Vision Pro, but don't own an iPad that will charge the pencil? Can you lay it across a Qi charger or MagSafe charger? Or will they sell a charging cradle?
That’s a good observation. The Pencil Pro uses a “new charging mechanism”. I wonder if it’s Qi compatible. We’ll find out next week.
My intuiton tells me that this will be marketed as an iPad + visionPro pairing feature like you can already extend a Mac’s display into your visionPro’s space. An iPad on a table would be activated by visionPro where you’d now get virtual objects sucked out of the iPad and into 3D space, capable of being manipulated by hand but also with a Pencil, waved in the air almost like a magic wand. 🪄
They also trashed resale value, nobody would want an iPad Pro 11 when they can get an air for less or a better iPad 11 for little more with 2 gen cpu ahead.
Really annoyed this time.