When Apple announced their first recent device with a stylus, this immediately raised some eyebrows among their fans. Many people still remembered Steve Jobs’ claims that the stylus is a thing of a past, and were making humorous references to the company’s apparent backtracking on their ideas.
And yet, the Apple Pencil actually worked quite well, and many users were pleasantly surprised with the design of the device. It looks like Apple are planning to continue its use as well, as the iPad Pro 2 is rumored to have the same feature when it comes out.
And when exactly that will happen is hard to tell, but current rumors predict that the device should be ready by 2017 if everything works out properly. We still don’t have any official information from Apple themselves, as can be expected, and if they really are aiming for a 2017 release then they probably won’t even address the rumors until then.
While fans are wondering if Apple are more focused on the iPad Pro 2 or iPad Mini 5 – or both – the company is also rumored to be bringing some changes to iOS 10 to accommodate for certain features coming up in those devices.
It’s not clear exactly what those features could be, but we wouldn’t be surprised if the new version of the operating system does indeed have a special variant for the new hardware. On the other hand, some experts are claiming that this would be a disaster for Apple in the long run, as part of their strength in iOS comes from the fact that they only have to support one set of hardware (in a broad sense) during their development.
Of course, the rumored changes coming up in the operating system don’t have to be drastic, they could simply be in the form of some extra functionality that works with a certain sensor. It could also have something to do with the Apple Pencil, which is rumored to be getting an upgrade itself with the iPad Pro 2.
If that’s the case, then the changes could eventually benefit other devices by Apple if the company decides to take a broader approach with the distribution of their stylus. Perhaps in the future they’re going to make it available for more devices that don’t ship with it by default, which would explain the need for those changes in iOS early on.
Users have been talking about the ability to annotate items directly on the screen with the use of the pen, something which iOS already supports to a limited extent in some applications. There are rumors that one of Apple’s main points of focus in the new version of the operating system is to expand on this functionality and make it available all over iOS.
The hardware of the new iPad Pro 2 is rumored to come with some significant upgrades as well, especially in terms of rendering speed and touch sensitivity. According to some recent reports, we could see a display like no other mobile device has had before.
More specifically, there were talks of faster zooming and scrolling, as well as better sensitivity to smaller/shorter inputs. Combined with a good stylus, this could easily make the iPad Pro 2 one of the best productivity tools on the market. Especially when we consider the various additions that iOS 10 brings to the table, and how the OS could further evolve over the next months.