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Apple debuts physical ‘Smart Keyboard’ case, ‘Apple Pencil’ stylus for iPad Pro

Alongside the highly anticipated iPad Pro, Apple also revealed a variety of new accessories designed to be used with the new tablet.

First up is the Smart Keyboard, a physical keyboard that works worth iPad Pro.

  • Keyboard case made for the larger iPad
  • Connects with new 3-port Smart Connector for landscape typing
  • Features fabric-covered keys

Next up is Apple Pencil, a special digital stylus exclusively for iPad Pro.

  • Recharges using Lightning port that connects into iPad Pro
  • Pressure sensitive stylus
  • App support from Procreate, YouMake, iOS 9 apps
  • Unique stylus tip can be used with your finger as well

The Smart Keyboard will cost $169 while the Apple Pencil goes for $99.

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Comments

  1. applegetridofsimandjack - 9 years ago

    beautiful. I even sent my gf away asking me for s eee x because I need to see this.

  2. taoprophet420 - 9 years ago

    Wish the other iPads were getting the smart keyboard.

    • applegetridofsimandjack - 9 years ago

      Don’t think they will. And I think the Smart Keyboard will cost money, a lot of money.

      • taoprophet420 - 9 years ago

        $169. I agree it won’t make it to the other iPads at least any time soon.

      • applegetridofsimandjack - 9 years ago

        I don’t think the Smart Keyboard will ever make it to the 9.7 and 7.9 inch iPads. Why? because there just isn’t enough room for a keyboard if you have such a small area like the iPad Air 2. The keys would have to be really small and we all know that a physical keyboard has to be big enough. So I don’t think we will ever see it on iPads except the Pro.

  3. Johan Gunverth - 9 years ago

    “A stylus? Who needs a stylus!?”

    • srgmac - 9 years ago

      “If you see a stylus or a task manager, they blew it” – Steve Jobs

      • griffinjar - 9 years ago

        Jobs was talking to everyday people using iPads on their couch.

        As a teacher a stylus would be great for modelled writing.

    • thejuanald - 9 years ago

      The stylus is a godsend for me. I will have to see if it can replace my Surface Pro or not, though.

  4. srgmac - 9 years ago

    So Apple re-invented the Microsoft Surface…lol — except the stylus costs 99$…sigh

  5. Look for Livescribe 3 digital pen http://www.livescribe.com/en-us/smartpen/ls3/. With Anoto’s unique Dot pattern.. Look it up :)

  6. kylebaity - 9 years ago

    Looks like us portrait-oriented paper writers won’t be using Pro with Keyboard. Seems obnoxiously silly of them to miss that one.

  7. makinglove35 - 9 years ago

    This is interesting.

  8. taoprophet420 - 9 years ago

    Well they used two of there patents for a smart case, inductive charging and fabric keyboard. Curious how they will use the new inductive charging on laptops and other Apple products. It has a lot of promise. I think it’s one of the most exciting things they announced today.

  9. Thomas Yoon - 9 years ago

    This was even more exciting than the iPad Pro announcement itself for me. iPad styluses have always been this thick mound of soft rubber that are good for tapping icons, but not necessarily for precision drawing. All I wanted was a pressure sensitive Wacom-style tipped stylus that I could use on my iPad. Now it exists, and it’s awesome.

    • srgmac - 9 years ago

      “Who wants a stylus? YUCK!! Nobody wants a stylus” – Steve Jobs

  10. confluxnz - 9 years ago

    Any word on if / when this will work for any of the other iPads? I have an iPad Air 2 and held off buying a stylus as soon as rumours of an Apple-designed version began to circulate. Now it looks like I may still need to buy a third party stylus if the Apple Pencil only works on the iPad Pro :(

  11. I’m glad to finally have a native pressure-sensitive stylus. But am I really going to have to wait for version two to get an eraser on the other end? That’s disappointing.

  12. This really does seem like a reinvention of the Microsoft Surface and Samsung S-pen.

    I’m still not sure I’m sold on compact keyboard cases – I’ve found the regular Apple Bluetooth Keyboard to be superior to all of them – and it works in both portrait and landscape mode.

    On the other hand – the S-pen was basically the only reason ever to consider a Samsung device. A finger or finger-emulating stylus just isn’t as good as a resistive or high-resolution stylus if you’re drawing or writing.

    And I’ve been waiting for a larger iPad since day 1 – bring it on!! ;-)

    • Invertex (@invert_x) - 9 years ago

      “Reinvention” sort of implies an improvement over the existing. This is really just them playing catch-up and then pretending they invented it. S-Pen doesn’t require charging, has 2014 pressure levels, tilt and twist sensing. It uses the same tech as Wacom. So this pen is worse than the S-Pen…

      • Paul Womar - 9 years ago

        Never used either of them however the claims by Apple are that the response times are excellent, in hands on videos its something that’s being picked up on as better than most systems they have used before. Googling for ‘s pen lag’ however suggests that this might be an issue there. If you are the kind of person that thinks you can get all your info from a spec sheet then you’ll struggle to justify buying most Apple products.

  13. William Robinson - 9 years ago

    Having the Pencil charge from the iPad’s lightning port seems limited, unless the Pencil has its own charging dock which wasn’t shown (or you can charge it with your iPhone’s port). Image working on an art project for a number of hours; eventually the iPad is plugged in to run on wall power while you continue working. Then the Pencil needs to be charged; but the port isn’t available. I’m guessing there’s more to the device then Apple has provided so far. However, I still want one, and an iPad Pro, and the new AppleTV….

    • Paul Womar - 9 years ago

      The Apple site claims that a 15 SECOND charge will give you 30 MINUTES of use, so this would seem unlikely to be a massive issue.

  14. SmitPatel (@SMITKUMAR) - 9 years ago

    I wish they had called it aKeyboard and aPencil to envoke the feeling of accessories and harmony with their products. Right now its seems off-key.

  15. Abbas Mustafa - 9 years ago

    When Microsoft shows up on stage showing how cool ipad pro is for ms office and how productive the “pencil” can be thats is literally the trailer for surface pro 4

  16. Charlee Murdock - 9 years ago

    Maybe they’ll call the next generation Pencil the #2

Author

Avatar for Zac Hall Zac Hall

Zac covers Apple news, hosts the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast, and created SpaceExplored.com.