Apple’s New iPads: The iPad Air 2 and the iPad mini 3

Alyssa Bereznak
·National Correspondent, Technology
Updated
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The new iPad Air 2 comes in white, space grey, and gold. (Deanne Fitzmaurice.)

Apple CEO Tim Cook announced two new additions to the iPad family Thursday afternoon at an event held on its campus in Cupertino, California.

The iPad Air 2 and the iPad mini 3 are both updated versions of existing iPad lines. Each will ship with the iOS 8.1 operating system, include Touch ID fingerprint sensors in their home buttons, and work with Apple Pay, the company’s new fingerprint-based payment system.

“It’s unbelievably gorgeous, and look how thin it is,” Cook said onstage at the event, as he held the new device. “Can you even see it?”

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(AP)

The iPad Air 2, at 6.1 mm thick, is 18 percent thinner than its previous iteration. It’s packed with a new 8-megapixel camera that can shoot high-definition 1080p video. Its new front-facing camera is similarly improved, offering the ability to FaceTime in HD. It seems that Apple is also encouraging its customers to take selfies with their iPads, as it’s improved its face-detection software and added a feature that allows you to take a “burst of selfies.” The iPad Air 2 will also allow you to film both time-lapse and slow motion videos.

Guts-wise it’s 40 percent faster, and packed with an A8X chip — a step up from the A8 processors that Apple premiered with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus last month. Its WiFi will work 2.8 times faster that its predecessor, and it’ll also boast a much better LTE cellular radio.

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(Deanne Fitzmaurice)

Also included in the updated iPad is an “anti-reflective coating,” which reduces reflections by 56 percent, which Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller called the “lowest reflectivity of any tablet.” It will come in gray, silver, and a new gold edition and start at $499.

The iPad mini 3 didn’t receive quite as big a makeover. As noted above, Apple’s smaller tablet will now come with a new Touch ID sensor and the ability to work with Apple Pay. It’ll also now come in gold and start at $399.

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(Deanne Fitzmaurice)

Both iPads are available to preorder starting Friday, Oct. 17. They’ll begin to ship by the end of next week.

The announcement confirms a rare blunder from Apple yesterday. The obsessively secretive company accidentally leaked screenshots of the two iPads in the description of an iBooks user guide, which were quickly discovered by MacRumors’ Mark Gurman.

The company has recently been under pressure to revamp the iPad line, as sales of the product have slumped in the last two quarterly earnings reports.

Though Apple rumor blogs have reported rumors of an even larger “iPad Pro,” there was no mention of such a device.

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