The new M5 chips, announced this week by Apple, will enhance on-device AI performance, and OWC’s updated lineup is designed to help users take full advantage of that power, without overspending.

OWC, a long-time company in the Mac ecosystem, is rolling out updated Thunderbolt hubs, portable docks, and SSDs that work seamlessly with Apple’s new hardware. Each accessory has been optimised for creators, developers, and everyday users who need faster workflows, more ports, and expandable storage options.

Larry O’Connor, founder and CEO of OWC, said: “Apple just took a big step forward in performance and on-device AI. Our mission is to make that intelligence and power easy to use everywhere. With OWC hubs and docks, users can plug in everything they need or want, and then some. And with OWC storage, users get the smartest way to scale capacity, without overpaying – while enjoying unrivalled performance and reliability.”

Built for the M5 Generation

The company’s latest range includes three docking solutions:

• OWC Thunderbolt Hub ($128.99) – adds three Thunderbolt 4 ports and one USB port, expanding users’ connectivity options.
• OWC Thunderbolt Go Dock ($249.99) – combines three Thunderbolt 4 ports, three USB-A ports, a USB-C port, and 2.5G Ethernet, enabling full-scale desktop setups.
• OWC USB-C Travel Dock ($49.99) – a five-port portable hub that connects displays, transfers data, and delivers up to 100W power through a single USB-C cable.

For users who need portable, high-speed storage, OWC also revealed several SSD options:

• OWC Express 1M2 (up to 8TB, from $119.99) – an ultra-fast USB4 NVMe SSD enclosure that can be built or bought ready-to-use.
• OWC Envoy Pro FX (480GB–4TB, from $199.99) – a rugged, waterproof SSD offering speeds up to 2800MB/s via Thunderbolt or USB.
• OWC Envoy Pro Elektron (480GB–4TB, from $129.99) – a pocket-sized SSD with desktop-class performance for editing and backups.
• OWC Envoy Pro mini (500GB–2TB, from $94.99) – a thumb-sized drive offering professional-grade speed and compatibility.

These devices make it easier to connect external displays, import large media files, power multiple accessories, and edit projects directly from external storage, all while keeping pace with the features of Apple’s new M5 chip.

A Perfect Match for Apple’s Leap in AI Performance

Apple’s M5 chip, built on third-generation 3-nanometre technology, introduces a 10-core GPU with a Neural Accelerator in each core. The company claims it delivers “over 4x the peak GPU compute performance for AI compared to M4” and up to “45 percent faster graphics performance.”

Johny Srouji, Apple’s senior vice president of Hardware Technologies, said: “M5 ushers in the next big leap in AI performance for Apple silicon. With the introduction of Neural Accelerators in the GPU, M5 delivers a huge boost to AI workloads.”

The M5 chip also features a faster Neural Engine, improved CPU architecture, and increased unified memory bandwidth, allowing devices like the new MacBook Pro and iPad Pro to handle larger AI models and graphics-heavy tasks entirely on-device.

Value and Versatility

OWC says its solutions give users professional-grade performance at a fraction of the cost of Apple’s built-in upgrades. For example, the 4TB Express 1M2 costs $599, “about 50% less than comparable upgrades from the prevailing vendors,” according to the company.

Since its founding in 1988, OWC has been known for delivering reliable, high-performance tools for professionals in video, photography, and audio. This latest range continues that legacy, giving M5 users more leverage over how they expand and optimise their systems.

All-New Magic Keyboard: Slimmer, Lighter, and Packed with Features

Complementing the new iPad Pro’s sleek design is a completely redesigned Magic Keyboard. Developed to be extremely thin and light, it retains the beloved magic floating design. 

Available in two colors matching the new iPad Pro, the Magic Keyboard has several great features.

A function row offers quick access to essential controls like screen brightness, while a luxurious aluminum palm rest enhances comfort. The larger trackpad now features haptic feedback, delivering a MacBook-like user experience. 

This new Magic Keyboard makes the iPad Pro even more portable and versatile, perfect for users on the go.

Apple Pencil Pro Comes with Creativity and Innovative Features

Apple Pencil has bolstered creative expression on iPad. Building on this success, Apple introduces the all-new Apple Pencil Pro. This next-generation stylus takes the Apple Pencil experience to a whole new level.

A new sensor in the barrel of the Apple Pencil Pro enables great interactions. Users can simply squeeze the Pencil to activate a customizable tool palette. This action triggers a haptic engine, providing precise feedback you can feel. 

Again, a built-in gyroscope allows for rolling the Pencil for granular control over tools, like adjusting the orientation of a virtual brush.

Never lose track of your Apple Pencil Pro again. It now supports Find My, ensuring easy location. As expected, it magnetically pairs, charges, and stores conveniently on the side of the iPad Pro.

Apple Pencil Pro enables creators to bring their ideas to life like never before. Developers can also leverage its capabilities to create unique custom interactions.

Enhanced Workflows for Artists and Animators

The Apple Pencil Pro squeeze function allows for targeted actions without touching the screen. Users can activate shortcuts for favorite brushes and tools or simply hover and squeeze to select specific layers, accelerating navigation in complex projects. 

When moving or transforming objects on the canvas, haptic feedback provides the confidence of perfect alignment.

Animators will appreciate the ability to move and rotate objects simultaneously, staying completely focused on their creative flow. The M4 chip further empowers animators with computationally intensive effects like Lens Blur, enabling the creation of realistic bokeh and camera focus animations.

Pricing and Availability

The new Magic Keyboard for iPad Pro starts at $299, while the Apple Pencil Pro is priced at $129. These innovative accessories will further enhance the capabilities of the new iPad Pro, making it an even greater choice for creative professionals and users on the go.

Let’s dive into the details of the M4 chip, highlighting its great features and how it comes with extraordinary performance and efficiency.

The M4 chip is a huge climb, built on a second-generation 3-nanometer process. This innovative technology allows for incredible power efficiency, a key factor in enabling the incredibly thin and light design of the new iPad Pro. 

The M4 comes with a brand new display engine specifically designed to work seamlessly with the iPad Pro’s Ultra Retina XDR display.

Performance

M4 brings a massive performance boost compared to the M2 chip. The CPU offers up to 50% faster performance, featuring a powerful new design with four performance cores and six efficiency cores, all built with next-generation ML accelerators. 

The graphics capabilities are equally outstanding. The next-generation 10-core GPU architecture introduces features like Dynamic Caching and brings hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing to iPad for the first time. 

This translates to smooth performance for demanding games like Diablo Immortal and professional rendering applications like Octane, with up to four times faster performance than M2.

Power Efficiency Champion

Despite its amazing performance, the M4 maintains Apple’s industry-leading performance per watt. It can deliver the same performance as the M2 chip while consuming only half the power. 

Compared to the latest PC chips in thin and light laptops, the M4 achieves the same level of performance using just a quarter of the power. This efficiency makes the M4 perfect for the thin and light design of the new iPad Pro and extends battery life.

The Most Powerful Neural Engine Ever

Apple silicon has consistently led the industry in Neural Engine technology. The M4 takes this a step further, featuring the most powerful Neural Engine ever created. It comes with 38 trillion operations per second, a breathtaking 60 times faster than the first Neural Engine introduced in the A11 Bionic chip. 

This results in supercharged AI capabilities, enabling tasks like isolating a subject from a 4K video background with just a tap in Final Cut Pro. The M4’s Neural Engine surpasses any neural processing unit found in AI PCs today.

With the M4 chip, the new iPad Pro is said to be the most powerful device of its kind. Combining exceptional performance, great efficiency, and a powerful Neural Engine, the M4 enables users to achieve incredible results in creative workflows, professional applications, and demanding tasks.

The new iPad Pro comes in two sizes — an 11-inch model and a brand new 13-inch option. Both models are incredibly thin, measuring just 5.3mm and 5.1mm respectively, making them the thinnest Apple product ever created. 

They are also incredibly lightweight, with the 11-inch model weighing less than a pound and the 13-inch model being nearly a quarter-pound lighter than its predecessor. The iPad Pro comes in two finishes — silver and space black, both created with 100% recycled aluminum.

Introducing the Ultra Retina XDR Display

The new iPad Pro comes with great display technology, a Tandem OLED display. This innovative design combines two OLED panels to achieve exceptional brightness levels, reaching an incredible 1000 nits for both SDR and HDR content, with peak HDR brightness reaching 1600 nits. 

With sub-millisecond control over color and luminance, the Ultra Retina XDR display delivers unparalleled precision, deeper blacks, and more detail in shadows and highlights than ever before on an iPad. 

Added to these, an optional nano-texture glass option minimizes glare for users working in demanding lighting conditions.

Supercharged Performance with the M4 Chip

The M4 chip is a big leap forward for Apple silicon. Built on a second-generation 3-nanometer process, the M4 is incredibly power-efficient, enabling the iPad Pro’s thin and light design. 

It features an entirely new display engine specifically designed for the Ultra Retina XDR display and delivers up to 50% faster CPU performance compared to the M2 chip in the previous iPad Pro. 

The next-generation 10-core GPU architecture with features like Dynamic Caching brings hardware-accelerated mesh shading and ray tracing to iPad for the first time, making games and professional rendering applications run exceptionally smooth. 

The M4 also comes with the most powerful Neural Engine ever created, capable of 38 trillion operations per second, making it ideal for AI-powered tasks.

Improved Thermal Performance and Powerful Apps

In incorporating graphite sheets and copper cooling elements, Apple has improved the thermal performance of the new iPad Pro by nearly 20%. 

This, combined with the M4 chip, comes with up to four times faster performance than the previous iPad Pro with M2 and 10 times faster performance compared to the original iPad Pro. 

iPadOS takes full advantage of the iPad Pro’s capabilities, offering features like reference mode for color-critical workflows and Stage Manager for advanced multitasking. 

Additionally, powerful pro apps like Shapr3D, ZBrush, Final Cut Pro, and Logic Pro have been updated to leverage the M4 chip’s power, enabling faster rendering, smoother editing, and innovative new features.

Final Cut Pro 2 and Logic Pro 2

These redesigned pro apps bring a more intuitive touch experience for both seasoned Mac users and new iPad creators.

Final Cut Pro 2 introduces Live Multicam, allowing filmmakers to connect and preview up to four cameras simultaneously on iPad. 

A companion app, Final Cut Camera, transforms iPhones and iPads into additional cameras for capturing multi-angle shots. Final Cut Pro 2 also has faster rendering, external project support, and enhanced editing capabilities. 

Logic Pro 2 introduces Session Players, AI-powered virtual bassists and keyboardists, a new ChromaGlow plugin that emulates the warmth of analog recordings, and a supercharged Stem Splitter for isolating specific instruments from audio tracks.

Advanced Camera System and New Apple Pencil Pro

The new iPad Pro features a 12MP Ultra Wide front camera with Face ID and a new charging and pairing system for Apple Pencil. The True Tone flash has been improved for better document scanning, and a new automatic document detection feature utilizes AI to enhance scan quality. 

The Apple Pencil Pro takes the Apple Pencil experience a step further with a new pressure-sensitive squeeze function for quick access to tool palettes and haptic feedback for a more natural writing experience. It also supports Find My and magnetic charging on the side of the iPad Pro.

Pricing and Availability

The new iPad Pro starts at $999 for the 11-inch model and $1299 for the 13-inch model, with both models starting at 256GB of storage. The new Magic Keyboard starts at $299, and the Apple Pencil Pro is priced at $129. 

Pre-orders began yesterday, with availability starting next week. Apple also announced a price drop for the 10th generation iPad, bringing it down to $349.

The event, expected to be pre-recorded and livestreamed on Apple’s website at 3:00 pm WAT (7:00 am PT, 10:00 am Eastern Time), projects great new product reveals, with a heavy focus on iPads.

This event brings the end of a prolonged wait for new iPad models, the longest since Apple’s initial move into the tablet market. 

Rumors around the tech world point towards upgrades for the iPad Pro, potentially including its most successful revisions since the 2021 M1 chip integration. 

Anticipation is high for several potential upgrades to the iPad Pro. Firstly, an OLED display could replace the current LCD screen, potentially accompanied by a slight bump in size to 13 inches for the larger model. 

Secondly, the M1 chip that currently powers the iPad Pro might be dethroned by the all-new M3 chipset, promising a boost in performance. 

Finally, the long-awaited repositioning of the front-facing camera to a more natural horizontal orientation could finally become a reality, eliminating awkward video calls and selfies.

While the iPad Pro is the most expected, reports also suggest the unveiling of a new Apple Pencil alongside a redesigned Magic Keyboard. 

The Magic Keyboard may come with an aluminum build and a more spacious trackpad for enhanced user experience. 

Apple occasionally throws in surprises during these spring events, and new color options for iPhones, Apple Watches, and accessories remain a possibility.

Millions worldwide tune in to witness Apple’s launch events live, and this Apple “Let Loose” Event would be no different.

While the focus of this specific event leans towards iPads, Apple is also expected to make announcements regarding Artificial Intelligence advancements later this year, possibly at its WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) conference scheduled for June.