New iPad mini and Submerged: Vision Pro’s Immersive Short Film

Hey there!

Happy Friday! I hope your week has been going well. Here’s what I have for you in this edition:

• Apple Updated the iPad mini

• Vision Pro’s First Immersive Short Film Debuts

• Basic AF: Latest Apple News, Vision Pro’s Submerged Debuts, and Zelda’s Epic New Puzzle Adventure

Here we go!

🆕 Apple Updated the iPad mini

This week, Apple announced the 7th-generation iPad mini. There's nothing ground-breaking here, but the new model comes with an A17 Pro chip, which supports Apple Intelligence, and has a base storage configuration of 128GB.

Other highlights:

• Storage options of 128GB, 256GB, 512GB

• Supports Apple Pencil Pro and Apple Pencil (USB-C) - sorry Apple Pencil 2 owners

• 8.3" Liquid Retina display (and support for one external display at 4K/60Hz)

• Color options: Blue, Purple, Starlight, Space Gray

• Starts at $499

• Pre-order now, available 10/23

Now that the mini has been updated, the base iPad is the only model that doesn't support Apple Intelligence. I'm sure we'll see an update for it before long.

🥽 Submerged: The First Immersive Short Film For Vision Pro

Spoiler warning: If you plan to watch the film, you may want to skip this section.

I recently checked out Submerged, the new short film made for the Apple Vision Pro. Roughly 15 minutes long, the film has a simple plot—you've got a group of sailors on a World War II-era submarine, an attack occurs, and a lot of tension builds as water starts flooding in.

Here are five thoughts on the experience:

• Immersive Environment: This allowed me to explore the film's surroundings in ways traditional viewing experiences cannot. The roughly 170-degree field of view offered details above, below, and side-to-side of the submarine's interior and intense water scenes, greatly enhancing the experience.

• Intense Close-Ups: The film uses extreme close-up shots that put me right in the characters' faces, creating an intense, almost uncomfortable sense of proximity.

• Realistic Water Effects: The scenes involving water pouring into the submarine felt realistic and added to the tension. Seeing the water rise around me made the danger feel more immediate and tangible.

• Motion Sensitivity: Some scenes, like the rapid shots through the submarine, felt a bit unsettling and even made me feel slightly queasy, which was surprising since I usually handle immersive experiences well.

• Horror Movies, Please: The first thing my kids said after watching Submerged was, "This would be great for horror movies!" Apple, let's make this happen.

I've been critical of Apple's slow trickle of immersive content, but things are finally moving a bit. Here's what we can expect over the next several months:

• 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend (released today, 10/18, and I wasn’t very impressed by this one)

• Concert for One, a music series

• A new episode of Adventure arrives in December

• "Maine," the next episode of Elevated, will arrive early next year

Still slow, but better than nothing.

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🎙️ BASIC AF SHOW: LATEST APPLE NEWS, VISION PRO SUBMERGED DEBUTS & ZELDA’S EPIC NEW PUZZLE ADVENTURE

In this episode of Basic AF, Jeff and I cover a mix of Apple news, including minor OS updates, Apple’s immersive content plans for Vision Pro, and Submerged, Apple’s first short film for the Vision Pro. We also touch on Jeff’s new obsession—The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom on the Nintendo Switch.

Chapter Listing:

0:00 Intro

1:47 No Apple Ring for You!

3:26 iPadOS 18.0.1

3:55 watchOS 11.0.1

5:11 Apple Intelligence Betas

7:55 AppleTV+ on Amazon Prime Video

11:53 Details on More Vision Pro Content

13:54 Submerged Short Film

25:40 The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

32:29 More Focus Modes: Reduce Interruptions

35:14 Close

Episode Transcript

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