Why Is Everyone So Angry About the M3 iPad Air?

The iPad conundrum continues

Last week was a busy one for Apple. We received new iPads and new Macs. Lots of them, in fact.

Ooh, new chips, too! Well, one, in particular — the M3 Ultra (which, bizarrely, is a step up from the M4 Max in the Mac Studio configuration procedure — go figure).

It really was a veritable press release feast.

Despite this, it all felt a bit underwhelming for a lot of people. No innovation. Jobs wouldn’t have allowed this. Money-grabbing so-and-sos. Etc. We’ve heard it all before, haven’t we? But this is what Apple does — it’s what Apple has always done, and we’ll be arguing about it within YouTube comments sections until the end of time.

However, one release was singled out by a lot of people last week for being particularly subpar — the M3 iPad Air. I want to address that today, because it’s got me flummoxed, too (although, possibly, not for the same reason as everyone else).

A misstep by Tim Cook?

Tim Cook is a busy man on X these days — he has started to use Elon Musk’s platform to tease new Apple releases. That’s cool and all, but the problem last week was that his “There’s something in the air” post raised expectations for something semi-monumental…