- Let Loose event LIVE — Everything announced at the Let Loose event, as it happens
- OLED iPad Pro — M3 and a major display upgrade expected!
- iPad Air 6 — Apple's thinnest and lightest tablet gets a new processor!
- Apple Pencil 3 — Or should we say Apple Pencil Pro?
So the new Apple Pencil Pro is here, bringing with it some wicked new sensors and features that make it the best Apple Pencil yet. One of its best features, however, was never mentioned in the event — when you use it, the Pencil creates a fake shadow on your screen to make it easier to position for the hover feature: and the whole thing sounds pretty cool.
Because a screen can’t replicate shadows as well as a non-shiny surface, the fake shadow should be a massive bonus for artists everywhere who might find jumping from paper to digital more of a struggle, or those who want to use the hover feature more.
It’s like the Vision Pro's fake eyes, only useful and not terrifying
We spotted the shadow during our hands-on at the Apple event at the company’s headquarters in Battersea, London, and had to double-take when we saw the shadow on the screen — at first wondering what it does, and then realizing how useful it could be. It’s interesting that Apple chose not to mention it during the show, although it was chock full of stuff beyond it so it might not have fit in the runtime.
The fake shadow joins the rest of the new Apple Pencil Pro features to make one of the coolest Pencils Apple has released to date. There’s that new squeezing sensor on the inside for new gestures, along with a gyroscope for more control over brush size and other context-sensitive options.
There’s a new haptic motor as well, which will tell you when a gesture has been registered. It will only work with the iPad Pro M4 and the latest iPad Air 6 models, mind you, so there won’t be any fake shadows for older iPads unfortunately. It’s going to release on May 15, and we know where to preorder the Apple Pencil Pro so that you can get it as close to that release date as possible.
We're covering the Apple iPad event as it happens. Follow the Let Loose event LIVE here. Or check out our roundups for all the latest on the new OLED iPad Pro, iPad Air, and the new Apple Pencil.
