New M3 iPad Air live blog: Apple’s refreshed Air has more power

By John McCann Published March 10, 2025

Welcome to our new iPad Air launch live blog. Apple has announced the new iPad Air with M3 chip, along with an update to the entry-level iPad.

The new iPad Air comes as somewhat of a surprise, arriving a day before Apple hosts a launch event where we expect to see the new MacBook Air announced.

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It’s also not an entirely ‘new’ iPad, as Apple has taken the M2-powered iPad Air (2024) it launched last year and replaced the chip with the M3. It’s even kept the colors the same. If you own a 2024 iPad Air with M2 chip, there really is no need to upgrade.

Pre-orders are already open, with the iPad Air available in stores from March 12. We’re posting everything you need to know about the new iPad Air, and reactions to the latest Apple slate, right here.

LiveLast updated March 10, 2025 3:18 AM

John McCann

Former Managing Editor

John has been a consumer technology & automotive journalist for over a decade.

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Tablets

The iPad is finally getting the Affinity app creatives have been asking for

Affinity brings photo editing, vector design, page layout, and sketching together in one free iPad app.

Affinity’s new all-in-one creative app is finally coming to the iPad, nearly a year after Canva launched the redesigned desktop version for Mac and Windows. Creatives have been asking for the iPad release ever since, especially because files created in the new Affinity app cannot be opened in the older V2 iPad apps.

Affinity already has Photo, Designer, and Publisher apps on iPad, but the new release combines those tools into the same unified app that Canva launched on desktop last year.

Computing

Apple’s “Pro and Tell” October 28 event: Everything we expect from touchscreen MacBooks to a new iMac

Prepare for a touchscreen MacBook that costs around $3,000.

Touchscreen laptops have been around for years. You can get them in all sizes and shapes. Just not from Apple. For years, the Cupertino giant has treated the idea of a touchscreen MacBook the way I treat a meeting that could have been an email: with open contempt. However, Wednesday looks like the day the company could finally change its mind.

The latest Apple invite puts the “Pro and Tell” showcase in Los Angeles at 10 a.m. PT (1 p.m. ET) on October 28, 2026. Instead of a regular live-streamed keynote, it is an invitation-only, hands-on event for a handful of press and creators (similar to what the company did for the MacBook Neo earlier this year).

Tablets

Apple will only give you the fastest iPad mini chip if you pay $999, or more

The full A20 Pro experience on Apple’s new iPad mini is reserved for buyers spending at least $999.

Apple has just launched its latest iPad mini with a notable set of upgrades, including an OLED screen, improved speakers, and a more resilient build. It also gets a new chip, and the whole package costs $200 more than its predecessor. But if you look closely at Apple’s online store, you’ll realize that $699 isn’t enough to get you the most powerful version of the A20 Pro chip inside this tablet. In fact, even if you pay $800 for the 256GB model, you still won’t get the beefiest variant. Only when you jump to the 512GB trim, which costs an absurd $999, do you get the most powerful flavor of the A20 Pro.

The $999 model gets more than extra storage