Today following Apple’s opening keynote presentation at WWDC 2017 we got some hands-on time with the new 10.5-inch iPad Pro and a demo of Apple’s new ARKit platform running on iOS 11.
The new iPad doesn’t stray dramatically from the current iPad Pro lineup with generally the same physical design, but what you will notice immediately is the much thinner bezels around the device. In other words, Apple managed to pack in a larger display in what is only marginally bigger than the 9.7-inch Pro model. The device notably weighs the same 1 pound as the previous 9.7-inch model.
Apple was using the new 10.5-inch model to demo ARKit, the company’s new Augmented Reality platform that will let app developers easily build AR features into their own apps with iOS 11. Apple said ARKit will be the largest AR platform in the world when it’s released with hundreds of millions of iPhones and iPads capable of supporting it.
During the demo, we got a look at some of what ARKit can do with placing objects in a physical space and rendering light and shadows, including gaming demo with an AR game called “Holochess Star Wars”.
Check out the demo below:
Read more about Apple’s new ARKit platform announced at WWDC 2017 today here.
