Tim Cook has confirmed it: Apple has new hardware being unveiled next week, starting Monday morning. Among the many products rumored to launch, two are new iPads: a base iPad with A18 and an M4 iPad Air. Here’s what to expect. Next week, the base iPad is getting a big upgrade thanks to its new chip. Across Apple’s current lineup of iPhones, iPads, and Macs, the base iPad is the only product Apple sells that doesn’t yet support Apple Intelligence. But with the A18 chip, that will change. Apple Intelligence support will unlock all of the existing AI features in iPadOS 26, but also upcoming ones like Siri’s long-awaited improvements. The A18 chip will come with another benefit for the iPad: 8GB of RAM. Apple’s current iPad with A16 only has 6GB of RAM. Another potential change to look out for is the new N1 wireless chip. First launched with iPhone 17, the N1 enables Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6, and Thread.…