What you need to know
- Apple has announced a redesigned iPad mini and 9th generation iPad.
- Each new iPad supports the company's Center Stage smart camera feature.
- Today's updates brings Center Stage to all but one of the iPad lineup.
Today, Apple hosted its anticipated "California Streaming" event. At the prerecorded event, the company announced the iPhone 13, Apple Watch Series 7, redesigned iPad mini, and 9th generation iPad.
While it is easy to get distracted with the features of the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro, another handy feature made its way to each of the new iPad models.
Center Stage, Apple's smart camera features that utilizes the ultra-wide camera on the front of the iPad Pro and iPad Air and machine learning, is now available on both the redesigned iPad mini and 9th generation iPad. This change means that Center Stage is now available on every iPad model except the iPad Air.
Center Stage uses machine learning and an ultra-wide camera to focus continously on one or multiple people that should be captured in frame. When on a video call like FaceTime, your camera will intuitvely stay focused on you, even if you happen to move around. It will even zoom out to capture multiple people in frame if your iPad detects that more than one person is on the call.
The feature is really handy for those who are trying to present something on a call or anyone who is trying to show off more than just their face. Apple has also made the feature available to other video call apps like Zoom, Google Meet, and any other developer that might want to use the feature in its own video calling app. You can imagine it would be especially handy for Zoom calls at work where you need to present something in the physical world.
The 9th generation iPad and iPad mini are available to preorder now and will be available on September 24.
The new iPad mini features a complete redesign, new cameras, and support for the 2nd generation Apple Pencil.
