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How an iPad just set a Geekbench record

In an experiment, the latest iPad Pro with M4 was cooled using liquid nitrogen to achieve minor overclocking.

Apple’s M4 chip is already setting records thanks to the help of an unconventional cooling method: liquid nitrogen. Apple’s latest ARM-based chip made its debut on the 2024 iPad Pro tablets earlier this month, which outperforms its predecessors and rival high-end desktop processors in terms of raw performance.

As reported on by Tom’s Hardware, the team at Geekerwan carried out the experiment using a Kingpin Cooling T-Rex Rev 4 CPU LN2 pot and slapping it to the back of the iPad Pro. When subjected to extreme cooling using liquid nitrogen, the M4 chip managed to go past the 4000-point barrier in Geekbench 6’s single-core benchmark. This achievement places it well ahead of some of the most powerful chips on the market, including Apple’s own M3 Max and the M2 Ultra.

Notably, the M4 chip comes in two versions: a 10-core configuration with four performance cores and six efficiency cores, available in the 1TB and 2TB models with 16GB of unified memory, and a nine-core configuration with three performance cores and six efficiency cores, found in the 256GB and 512GB models with 8GB of unified memory.

Although the M4’s performance cores already run at a robust 4.40GHz, the liquid nitrogen overclocking only increased the performance cores to 4.41GHz (an additional 10MHz). This slight boost was sufficient to surpass the 4000-point milestone in Geekbench 6.

Commonly used in high-end overclocking endeavors, liquid nitrogen can drastically reduce the temperature of a CPU. The extreme cooling minimizes thermal throttling and allows the chip to maintain higher clock speeds without overheating, thus unlocking its full performance potential. While the liquid nitrogen cooling setup is not feasible for everyday users, this benchmark result underscores the M4 chip’s potential. Consumers can expect exceptional performance in the upcoming iPad Pro, making it an ideal choice for demanding applications, from professional-grade software to high-end gaming.

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.

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). 

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