APPLE ANNOUNCMENT WRAP UP
APPLE ANNOUNCMENT WRAP UP
Tuesday, October 22nd, was Apple’s iPad-centric event in San Francisco. Apple offered a live stream of the event, something that they don’t always do, via their website and Apple TV. Apple updated their website with a new page that carried the live stream of the event but it was only viewable through Safari and Apple TV included an “Apple Events” icon on the home screen as a shortcut.
This blog will cover the key details on each of the products introduced: iPad Air, iPad Mini with Retina, Macbook Pro, Mac Pro and the new OS Mavericks. As well as the disruptive marketing efforts made by Samsung and Nokia during Tuesday’s event and the recently released Apple videos.
IPAD AIR, THE 5TH GENERATION
This is the first time since the iPad 2 that we’re seeing a brand new design for the iPad. The Air is lighter, thinner, and faster than its predecessors.
Size: Same 9.7-inch display but with an updated shape following that of the iPad mini
Weight: One pound, making it the lightest full size tablet in the world
Thickness: 7.5mm thick, which is 25% thinner than previous models
The bezel is 43% thinner on the sides and the edges of the device are tapered the same way the iPad mini does
Processor: updated to the 64-bit A7, the same found in the iPhone 5S.
Co-Processor: accompanying the A7 is the M7 motion co-processor which focuses on computing information generated from the sensors to make the device smarter
Camera: 5-megapixel iSight camera, 1080p Facetime Camera in the front and dual-mic for video chat
Battery Life: 10 hours, same as its predecessor
The iPad Air will be available starting November 1 and in Apple’s standard colors of white/silver and gray/black, no gold like the iPhone 5S. The Air will replace its predecessor iPad (4th generation) with a starting price of $499 and $629 for the wifi+celluar model.
The first iPad Mini launched with great success last year but one thing amiss was the low resolution display. Tuesday’s announcement brought an updated Mini with Retina display to the joy of reviewers. Impressively, Apple kept the Mini’s basic formula while fitting the same specs of the Air into the new Mini except for the size and weight. It will run the same A7 processor and have 10 hours of battery life.
The Mini with Retina will be available the same time as the Air with prices starting at $399.
WHAT APPLE TABLETS WILL BE AVAILABLE MOVING FORWARD
With the introduction of two new devices, Apple will only carry four tablet devices moving forward: iPad Air, iPad 2nd generation, iPad Mini, and iPad Mini with Retina.
While the lineup and cost seems in line the inclusion of the iPad 2 at $399 seems off. You can either go back in time to the $399 iPad 2 with the same internals as the older Mini with the outdated 30-pin connector, and a larger screen or you can step into Apple's future with the $399 iPad mini with the same A7 chip as the iPad Air and a beautiful Retina display. Asked at Apple's event, Tim Cook said only that there was still a demand for the iPad 2, and Apple wanted to meet it. But the answer might be that people are still fixated on “bigger is better” and Apple is giving them a less costly option with the iPad 2.
OTHER PRODUCT ANNOUCEMENTS
iPad was the main attraction this Tuesday but also present were the new and improved MacBook Pro, the Mac Pro, and operating system- OS X Mavericks.
Apple upgraded its high-end MacBook Pro line of notebook PCs with the latest Intel Haswell processors. The update boosts battery life between 8 and 9 hours and improves the machines’ graphics capabilities. Both the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina and the 15-inch MacBook Pro got the refresh, and was available starting Tuesday for $1299 and $1999, respectively. Thanks to the improved graphics technology, the MacBook Pros also now get twice the 3-D performance at a 45 percent faster rate. Apple also added 802.11ac WiFi and Thunderbolt 2 ports, matching the feature in the MacBook Air. With all these updates they were still able to make them thinner and lighter than its predecessors, a theme for this announcement.
The new Mac Pro was also announced but hasn’t received a lot of buzz behind it. This is the first major upgrade since August of 2010. It will come with a 3.7GHz quad-core Intel Xeon processor, 12GB of DRAM, dual AMD FirePro D300 graphics chips with 2GB VRAM each, and 256GB of SSD. And unlike their other products that are outsourced, this will be assembled in the US. The new desktop will start at $2,999 this December.
Another update is the new operating system, OS X 10.9 Mavericks. This is the first time Apple will distribute a major update without charging to everyone running Snow Leopard and above. Like all the updates prior, this is more a building block atop the operating system’s familiar user interface. Mavericks also brings a host of new features and apps to Macs, all while improving the battery life, even on current Macs, allowing up to an hour's worth of extra Web browsing time.