【Hard Soap Hard Soap (1977)】

The Hard Soap Hard Soap (1977)future of the iPad looks bright.

At its annual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), Apple released a torrent of news -- including new iMacs, a new professional desktop called the iMac Pro, macOS High Sierra, and a music-focused speaker called HomePod -- but for iPad customers, it was the combo of iOS 11 and a redesigned iPad Pro that stole the show.

We break down all the news from the show, including the future of the iPad, on the latest episode of Mashable's MashTalk podcast, with special guest Jason Snell of Six Colors.

The new 10.5-inch iPad Pro keeps roughly the same footprint as its 9.7-inch predecessor, but shrinks the bezels for more screen real estate. There are some other major hardware upgrades: a 120Hz refresh rate for the screen, a new A10X chip, and device storage that begins at 64GB.

What really makes the new iPad shine, though, is iOS 11. There are a host of productivity upgrades, including a new file system, an app switcher, improved multitasking with drag-and-drop between windows, and more. The future of the iPad Pro looks very productivity-focused -- the point where it's starting to look a little like a Mac, at least from a distance.

The iPad discussion is a little later in the podcast (around the 47:35 mark), but before that Snell, Mashable Chief Correspondent Lance Ulanoff, and myself have a spirited discussion about the new iMac Pro, macOS High Sierra, and the new HomePod speaker, and explain why Amazon and Google should be worried about Apple's new Siri-powered "smart speaker."

As always, don't forget to leave your questions and comments by tweeting @Mash_Talkwith the #MashTalk hashtag. And please leave us a review on iTunes. We welcome all feedback.

Correction:This article originally said the 10.5-inch iPad Pro keeps the same footprint as the 9.7-inch version. It's actually slightly bigger.

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