The 3 biggest highlights from Apple’s Spring Loaded event

If you missed our live-tweeting of Apple’s Spring Loaded event, go follow us on Twitter so you don’t miss the next one.

Then let's get down to brass tacks (or M1 chips), and talk about what were the biggest announcements from the event and why.

One of the most newsworthy items coming out of today’s event was anticipated, but still plenty exciting to see. The new iPad Pro is the first iPad to adopt the M1 chip. The chip enables performance up to 50% faster than the previous generation's A12Z Bionic. With 5G available too, Apple customers will enjoy blazing fast speeds all around.

The iPad Pro comes with an 11-inch or 12.9-inch display and sports both Thunderbolt and USB 4 support, which can be used to create a second display with 6K resolution. The 12.9-inch option will be particularly appealing to creatives as it also boasts a Liquid Retina XDR Display for a "stunning visual experience with more true-to-life details," according to Apple.

2. We got a redesigned, much thinner iMac with colors that take us back to 1999.

The new iMac comes in seven colors including gray, reminiscent of the original iMac from over twenty years ago.

But that’s where the comparisons stop. Smaller but much mightier is the sentiment, thanks to the M1 chipset. Apple showed how the M1 technology made it possible to completely redesign the iMac.

The new iMac is 50% thinner than the previous generation at just 11.5mm, while sporting a 24” display. Apple explained, the “4.5K Retina display with 11.3 million pixels, 500 nits of brightness, and over a billion colors, [delivers] a brilliant and vivid viewing experience.” The new display also features True Tone tech that adapts to your current environment, adjusting the color temperature for natural viewing depending on your lighting. The magnetic power cable aligns the product design more closely with the iPad.

While the colors, speed, and size stole the show, one of our favorite low-key features is that the power cord brick comes with an ethernet cable port. Adding Touch ID to the keyboard gave us a “finally!” moment as well.

3. The AirTag — Apple's tracking accessory — is finally here.

Technophiles have been waiting for Apple to get in on the tracker game for years now, and they finally have with the launch of AirTags. These Bluetooth-enabled devices attach to your valuables so you can locate them easily. They work by connecting to the Find My app that iPhone users have already come to rely on, which will likely strike some fear into competitors like Tile and Pebblebee. AirTags come with colorful accessories and in packs of four.

That just leaves us with one question: