New “Apple Pencil Pro” can do a barrel roll

With new iPads come new keyboards and pencils, and the big news today is the “Apple Pencil Pro,” a souped-up version of Apple’s iPad stylus. The Pencil Pro is $129 and works with the new iPad Pro and iPad Air.

How much can you improve a stylus? How about rotation detection via a new gyroscope embedded in the pencil? Apple calls this a “barrel roll,” which provides rotation input in your iPad apps. If you’re drawing and are using a brush that isn’t symmetrical, a barrel roll will change the rotation of the brush. If you have a 3D item out in Procreate, a pencil rotation will rotate the 3D item. Devs can cook up whatever app interactions they can think of with this new feature.

The Pencil is also squeezable now, which can bring up a context menu. It also has haptics embedded in it, so you’ll get feedback whenever you squeeze or rotate an item. The Pencil magnetically clips on the side of the iPad for charging, but if you happen to lose it, it will also show up in the Find My app next to all your other Apple things.

Also in the “new iPad accessory” category is an “all-new” Magic keyboard. Just like the iPad Pro it’s compatible with, it’s “much thinner and even lighter” than the previous version. The keyboard now has a function row with screen brightness, media, and volume controls. Basically, it’s closer than ever to a Macbook keyboard. The deck is aluminum, of course, and features a new, larger trackpad with haptic feedback.

The new keyboard is $299 for the 11-inch and $349 for the 13-inch iPad Pro.