We marked October 22 on the calendar and canceled our appointments. We were almost certain that Apple would hold its second fall keynote on that day and unveil new Macs and iPads. But then, just when we were expecting an invitation, Cupertino sent us instead a press release with details of the 7th-gen iPad mini… and nothing else.

Apple announces a faster iPad mini for $499. It comes with Apple Intelligence and supports the Apple Pencil Pro.

In fact, this year’s iPad Air and iPad mini releases feature an almost entirely parallel set of upgrades from their predecessors. In addition to the new chips and Apple Pencil Pro support, here are a few of the smaller things that have changed in the new iPad mini (and the M2 iPad Air).