Apple’s new M5-powered iPad Pro is the first iPad to officially support the Thread smart home protocol. It comes with Apple’s new N1 wireless networking chip, which adds Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread — the three wireless protocols the Matter smart home standard runs on.

While other iPads and Macs reportedly have Thread radios, this is the first model launching with the protocol publicly listed in the specs, and it could lay the groundwork for the iPad to be a Home hub — again.

So, what does this mean? Well, not much right away. Just as the answer to why Apple added Thread to iPhones starting with the iPhone 15 Pro wasn’t immediately clear, the company also hasn’t said why it’s on the new iPad.

The most likely scenario is that, as eventually emerged with Thread-enabled iPhones, you’ll

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