All of Apples new Announcements from Big Event

     There were four announcements that caught attention at Apple's event yesterday. These consist of two new iPads both mini and air, a new 5k iMac and the two new software offerings in OS X Yosemite and iOS 8.1. This event was not as large as the massive media event that Apple held for the announcement of the new iPhones, but still had information that many Apple fans can appreciate.

Josh Valacrel / Wired

The software news regarding OS X Yosemite is already available for a free download and the mobile operating system in iOS 8.1 will be available for download on Monday. The 8.1 system will add Apple Pay and a beta of iCloud photo libraries. It will also include Camera Roll, for those who have been missing the feature. The company has also re-worked it iWork suite in an update which is available for download today. Finally, for developers the company announced WatchKit which is an SDK which will allow apps to start being created for the AppleWatch before it is released.
     Now lets cover the new thinner, lighter more golden iPads. Apple has cut off 18% of the thickness from the iPad air (which already was brought down 20% in thickness from the its previous counterpart). Measuring in at 6.1mm thick, makes it the thinnest tablet on the market currently. In order to accomplish this Apple had to eliminate all of the micro thin layers of air between the layers of display, this was accomplished by optically bonding them together. In addition they also reduced the internal reflection and added and anti-reflective coating that supposedly will reduce reflections by up to 56%. As for the inside, the iPad air comes with a 64-bit A8x processor which offers 40% faster CPU performance and 2.5% faster GPU performance which makes it up to 180 times faster than the original iPad. It also gets 10 hours of battery life per charge.

Josh Valcarcel / Wired

     As cameras have become one of the most important features in mobile devices today, the iPad has updated its camera which is now 8 megapixels, with f/2.4 aperture. Enabling it to shoot 1080p video, take panoramas, burst mode, slo-mo and time lapse. The front camera also has been improved for FaceTime HD with a f/2.2 aperture. They also improved connectivity for the iPad with faster LTE bands and a new faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi. Finally the iPads also come with TouchID which will make it easy for users to take advantage of ApplePay and TouchID app extensions.
     The iPad Air 2 is available for pre-order now starting at $499 for a 16GB, $599 for the 32GB and $699 for the 128GB. They have also added Gold to the colors of Silver and Space Gray.

Josh Valarcel / Wired

     The iPad Mini 3 is also available and has been upgraded to a Touch ID. It starts at $399 for 16GB, $499 for 64GB and $599 for 128GB. In addition Apple also dropped the price of the iPad Air and iPad mini 2 by $100, so you can now grab them at an all-time low price.

     Now that we have covered the iPads and new software lets talk about the new iMac which has gotten a huge resolution boost. Apple introduced the iMac with Retina Display, having a 27-inch display with a 5120 x 2880 pixel resolution (14.7 million pixels). Apple is calling it a "Retina 5k" display. This iMac will sport a 3.5Ghz i5 processor which is available to be upgraded to 4Ghz, Radeon graphics, 8GB of memory (not impressive) and a 1 TB fusion drive. This iMac will start at $2,499 but is customizeable up to $5,000.

Their final announcement in the Mac Mini has a 4th-generation Intel processor, Iris and HD graphics 5000 and a 802.11ac WiFi. Complete with 2 Thunderbolt USB ports. The small Mac Mini is energy efficient and starts at $499.
Although Apple has continued to give us new product with upgraded software/hardware there were no real jaw droppers at this unveiling, but improvements are improvements and it will keep the competition on their toes for the rest of the year for sure.

Sources: Wired

Apple Leaks iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3

     Apple has made an uncharacteristic mistake prior to the press event later today and has accidentally revealed both of the new iPads it plans to release. Apparently an offical user guide for iOS 8 in the iTunes Store had screenshots that were updated ahead of schedule; both new iPads are pictured and plenty is revealed. From the looks of it both iPads will come with Touch ID fingerprint sensor, vbut other than that it does seem that these products will look identical to their past counterparts.

     Although we will not have the specs on these devices til later in the day, we expect that Apple will greatly improve the performance of each iPad with a more powerful A8X processor and an updated chipset. However, it is not yet clear if both iPads will match each other spec for spec. Their is some information in the user guide which suggests that burst photography mode will be on the iPad Air 2 but no mention of the mini 3 having this feature.

Either way if you were hoping for a major overhaul with design changes it seems you will be disappointed this year.  We are excited to hear what Apple has to say about these products later in the day and of course are hoping for some real improvements to the software and speeds of the iPad. In addition in a funny coincidence that this Apple leak came on the same day that Google announced its brand new tablet in the Nexus 9. Competition continues in the world of tablets!

























Sources: TheVerge