Apple Announces the iPad Air, Cheap MacBook Pros, and Free OS X Mavericks!
The party finally happened, y'all. Apple unveiled the rest of its major products and software for 2013 on Tuesday. The software was free, the MacBook Pros were cheap(er), and the new iPads looked thin and shiny.
Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed his last secrets for 2013. Nothing else is likely coming after this and the event invitation — "We've got a lot left to cover" — suggested plenty of news. Here they are:
WHAT WE GOT
New iPads
The marquee attraction that this shindig was all about. We got new iPads! And the big, 9.7 inch iPad got a new name.
The fifth-generation, newly named iPad Air has:
an upgraded, faster guts with the addition of an A7 chip. Apple claims it's up to eight times faster than the old models and has a 10-hour battery life.
a thinner, sleeker and lighter design than the last model. It's now 7.5mm, 20% thinner than the old iPad.
a 5 megapixel rear camera and a 1080p-capable forward-facing FaceTime camera.
The iPad Air starts at $500 for the 16 GB model with no cellular coverage and ships November 1.
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The second-generation iPad Mini has:
an A7 chip and a 10-hour battery life, just like its big brother.
a Retina display.
The iPad Mini costs $400 for a 16GB model and ships in late November.
Both do not have TouchID, unfortunately.
OS X Mavericks
It's free! Apple decided to give away OS X Mavericks free to everyone who wants it. It allegedly has some new design tweaks that saves on battery life, gets more power from your processors and can produce better graphics. But the biggest news is the zero dollar upgrade cost.
Mac Pros
At the low, low price of $2999, the most powerful black trash bin in the world can be yours. If you're a professional who wants a computer than can pretty well do everything under the sun, the Mac Pro seems powerful enough to fulfill those dreams. You'll be pleased by the end of the year, Cook said, when the Mac Pro finally ships. No specific date was given.
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MacBook Pros
Big upgrades here! Solid state hard drives are standard now, and the 13-inch models are just under 3.5 pounds now and .71 inches thin. The big news is the price drop, though: 13-inch models start at $1300 and the 15-inch models start at $2000.
Other New Software
iWork and iLife got major overhauls for iOS and Mac. The big additions are collaboration tools so they can finally rival the Google Apps you already use for work. Whether that's enough to sway people away from their current tools, it's too early to say.
THE LIVE BLOG
2:24 p.m. And that's it, that's it, that's all there is. Thanks for coming out.
2:20 p.m. The iPad Mini will $400 for 16GB when it's available in November. (Note: the iPad Air will be available around the same time.)
2:17 p.m. They're announcing the iPad Mini now, which gets the same A7 chip, 10-hour battery life, and a big resolution upgrade to Apple's Retina display (2048 x 1536 pixels). Besides the diminutive 7.9 inch screen, I'm not sure what the remaining differences are between machines.
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2:11 p.m. The iPad Air has 10-hour battery life, comes with a 5 megapixel camera, and a 1080p capable FaceTime camera. The 16 GB model with cellular support costs $629. The iPad Air without cellular costs $500 for 16GB. The iPad 2 will still cost $400. Sorry, kids, but no TouchID.
2:07 p.m. After a long intro video, Cook debuted the new iPads, which have a new name. The iPad is now known as iPad Air. It's much thinner than the previous model -- 20% thinner, in fact -- and looks a lot like a big iPad Mini, as expected. The iPad Air has an A7 chip, which isn't surprising, but the weight is almost astonishing. The iPad Air weighs one pound.
1:59 p.m. Finally Cook is talking about the new iPads, and stunting on netbooks in the process. "Others didn't think it could compete with a netbook. Who remembers netbooks?" Cook asks. Ouch.
1:51 p.m. Pages, Numbers and Keynote, aka the iWork suite, all got major upgrades for iOS 7 and Macs. iLife is also free for every new Mac user, per tradition. The biggest new addition is collaboration tools via iCloud: multiple people working on the same document in real time.
1:46 p.m. Thanks to iCloud, you can now start one project on an iPad and continue editing it on a desktop or laptop Mac, which is admittedly pretty cool.
1:42 p.m. They previewed this ever-so-slightly during the MacBook Pro demonstration, but Eddy Cue just came on stage to talk about the iLife upgrade. iMovie, iPhoto and Garageband all got major overhauls for iOS 7 and Mac.
1:39 p.m. The Mac Pro can do everything anyone could ever need, basically, and the price isn't outrageous. The base model will cost $2999, come with 3.7 GHz quad-core chip and will be availably by the "end of the year." That's very direct and detailed.
1:35 p.m. Macbook Pro 15-inch model also got a $200 price cut. For the low, low price of $2000, you can get a 15-inch Macbook Pro with a 256GB SSD.
1:29 p.m. Macbook Pros are up next. The 13-inch and 15-inch options are getting upgrades today. As expected, the new models are getting Intel's fancy new Haswell chips that make everything run real fast. The 13-inch is slimmer and lighter, too: just under 3.5 pounds now and .71 inches thin. But the best news is that, overall, the base model is $200 cheaper. A 13-inch model with a 128GB SSD will cost $1300. (That a solid state hard drive comes in the base will please a lot of nerds.)
1:24 p.m. Cook said Apple wants Mavericks in "as many hands as possible," and he wasn't kidding. Apple's giving away their new OS for precisely $0.
1:18 p.m. The first new product Cook covers is OS X Mavericks. Thanks to some "deep and broad changes," the new system is designed to pack as much power as possible. Mavericks tightens the way your computer uses battery life, allegedly gets more power out of your RAM, and uses graphics memory better, too. Maps and Books are now included in your desktop.
1:09 p.m. So far we haven't learned anything new. Cook hit the stage and delivered his usual intro full of numbers. 9 million people bought iPhones on launch weekend, and over 200 million downloaded iOS 7.
1:02 p.m. Tim Cook is a great hype man.
Can't wait to get underway. Having fun backstage.
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) October 22, 2013
Things are getting under way now with an intro video. Cook should be on stage shortly.
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Here we go!
12:00 p.m. When Cook announces news, we're going to put it here so you'll know too. But only the important stuff. If he goes on about Elvis Costello for fifteen minutes we might make fun of him, but that's it.
This article was originally published at http://www.theatlanticwire.com/technology/2013/10/apple-ipad-announcement-live/70800/
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