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We had been anxious to see what Apple would be revealing at today’s launch event, and speculated that an iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini would be shown off. The Apple show began with a few updates on the Apple Watch, which will start shipping early next year, as well as a new line-up which includes a new MacBook, iMac, iPad and iPad Pro. The event also focused a lot on how iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite will be working together. HealthKit and Apple Pay were also detailed, and Apple Pay is just a few days away from its official launch.
The first part of the Apple event mainly focused on Continuity between iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite, demoing how Handoff works and how you can transfer a task from one device to another. THe whole event was pretty leisurely, with jokes flying around from Steven Colbert as well as Tim Cook. Ultimately, the official OS X Yosemite and iOS 8.1 are now available and you will be able to get them for free tomorrow.
The iPad Air has also been launched at the event, which we mostly expected since the iPad Air 2 was leaked yesterday. The new iPad Air 2 will be even thinner and lighter as its predecessor, with a 6.1 mm thinness, making it the thinnest tablet in the world. The new iPad Air 2 doesn’t have an air gap in the screen, reducing internal reflection. The iPad Air 2 will also have an anti-reflective coating, or an anti-glare coating. The device will run on Apple’s A8X 64 bit chipset, a whole new generation created specifically for the iPad Air 2. The slate will also have the M8 coprocessor we’ve already seen in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
The new iPad Air 2 will have an 8 MP iSight camera and will be able to capture 1080p HD videos. panoramas, Burst Mode photos, TimeLapse, slow motion video (which cuts resolution to 720p). The front camera on the iPad Air 2 also features HDR and burst mode. We also found out that the new slate will indeed feature TouchID, just as expected. While TouchID can be used to pay online, you won’t be using it cash registers with Apple Pay, so there won’t be an NFC feature on the iPad Air 2. The iPad Air 2 will set you back between $500 and $700 for the Wi-Fi only variant, depending on whether you would like 16 GB, 64 GB or 128 GB storage. The iPad Air 2 will also come with the Pixelmator and Replay photo- and video editing apps pre-loaded. You will be able to get your hands on Replay in the app store starting today, for free.
The iPad Mini 3 was also launched at the event, and the slate will sport a 7.9 inch Retina display, 5 MP rear camera with 1808p video recording, FaceTime HD camera and the same TouchID as on the iPad Air 2. The iPad Mini 3 will set you back $400 for the 16 GB version. $500 for the 64 GB version and $600 for the 128 GB version, all of these Wi-Fi only. Both the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 will be up for pre-order starting tomorrow, October 17. The older versions of the iPad and iPad Mini will get price-cuts, so that they will be more able to compete against cheaper Android and Nexus tablets.
The Apple event also introduced a new iMac with a magnificent Retina 5k display with a 5120*2880 resolution and a thin build. According to Apple, the 27 inch iMac will consume moderate amounts of power, even with that whopping screen. An Intel 3.5GHz, quad core i5 CPU will be running the show on the new iMac, upgradeable to 4 GhZ and backed by 8 GM RAM. The GPU will be an AMD Radeon R9 295, upgradeable to 295X. The new 27 inch iMac with Retina 5k display will set you back $2,499 and you will be able to order it starting today.
The Mac Mini also made an appearance at the event, updated with faster processors, fourth generaiton Intel Core processors, Intel Iris and HD graphics 5000, 802.11 ac Wifi, two Thunderbolt ports, world’s most efficient and will retail for $500. The event also mentioned that the Apple Watch will be coming soon and hasn’t said anything about the release being affected by the bankruptcy of the sapphire screen manufacturer. Although we did expect all these four devices to show up at the event, we would have like to see something new from Apple. Although an Intel Core M configuration for the Mac Mini would have been nice, it seems Apple didn’t find it necessary.
To wrap up, we can gladly announce that the iPad Air 2 and its Gold version, the iPad Mini 3, the 27 inch iMac Retina 5K and Mac Mini were all confirmed and launched by Apple, alongside iOS 8.1 and OS X Yosemite, which you can get for free. The most notable launch of the event was the iPad Air 2, with a slightly different design, but otherwise, we can say that we weren’t surprised by anything Tim Cook and co. announced today. Which of these devices will you be getting your hands on in the following weeks?
