Apple Special Event October 22 Summary - New iPads and More!
The Apple event started with a short video showing Apple philosophies, the video was first shown in the June 2013 developer's conference.
The event was kicked off by no other than current Apple CEO Tim Cook and showed another video on how the iPhone 5C and 5S is doing. According to Cook, the 5C and 5S had good reviews and only after 5 days of the mobile operating system's release, more than 200 million devices were already running iOS 7. Making it the fastest software upgrade in history.
Tim Cook also mentioned that as of today, there are about 20 Million users of iTunes Radio and over a billion songs have been played on iTunes Radio.
The App Store continues to grow, with over 60 billion cumulative downloads to date.
So based on the rumors leading to the event, here are what came out to be true, and some disappointments in Apple's latest releases.
As expected, and as announced in the June developer's conference, Apple's latest Mac operating system, the Mac OS X Mavericks has been released to production. OS X Mavericks comes out with a lot of enhancements that makes the whole Mac experience more streamlined and more productive. Adding the iBooks and Maps applications previously found only on iOS devices. For MacBooks, OS X Mavericks can add up to 1 hour battery life. Expectations on the pricing was that it was going to be very affordable at about $20 for the update. The surprise to everyone, was that OS X Mavericks has been released as a free, yup you read that right, a free update and available as a download in the Mac App Store today. Craig Federighi, Apple Senior Vice President for software engineering announced the free update as Apple's way of revolutionizing pricing for operating systems. As I write this, I'm downloading the update on my Mac Mini, it's a 5GB download.
Phil Schiller was next, and he talked about the latest updates on the MacBook Pro.
First was the 13" MacBook Pro, the gorgeous laptop now becomes lighter at 3.46 pounds and also becomes thinner at 0.71 inches thin. The 13" MacBook Pro gets the latest generation Intel Haswell chip. All this power but still the MacBook Pro can turn in up to 9 hours of battery life. Wifi is also faster thanks to the 802.11ac capability. The latest 13" MacBook Pro comes with OS X Mavericks already installed. The starting price has now been lowered to $1,299
The 15" MacBook Pro, now also comes with the latest generation Intel Haswell chip delivering up to 8 hours battery life. Wifi is also fast with the 802.11ac standard. Pricing has also been lowered to $1,999.
Both MacBook Pro models start shipping today.
Next in the event was the Mac Pro. Again, this was announced in the June developer's conference and is coming in December this year. The Mac Pro get's a totally new design, with it's cylindrical shape and high end parts, particularly, the SSD only storage and the high end graphics capabilities, which make the Mac Pro geared to high computing tasks like video editing. The new Thunderbolt 2 standard now also comes with the Mac Pro. The Mac Pro starts at $2,999 for the Quad core version and $3,999 for the 6 core version.
Shifting to software, the new iLife and iWork suites have been announced and are available for download now both for Mac and iOS devices. Both iLife and iWork will be free for new purchases of Macs and iOS devices.
Probably the most awaited announcement was for the new iPads. The latest generation of the full size iPad and the iPad mini has been announced. What we didn't expect was the new name for the full size iPad, after four generations, the iPad now changes its name to the iPad Air. Taking it's cue from the MacBook Air, which is slimmer and lighter, the iPad Air weighs only a pound, compared to its predecessor, the iPad 4 which weighed in at 1.3 pounds and is just 7.5 millimeters thin. That makes the iPad Air 24% lighter in overall volume. As shown in previous rumors, the iPad Air now has thinner side bezels, which adds more viewing room. The iPad Air now comes with the 64 bit A7 processor, same as what powers the iPhone 5S. According to Apple, the A7 is a desktop class processor and is 2x faster than its predecessor. All the additional power but with no reduction in battery life, the iPad still claims a 10 hour battery life. The biggest disappointment was the touch sensor in the iPhone 5S, a lot of people were expecting this security feature to be in the iPad, but wasn't.
Next is the iPad Mini, and as expected, the iPad Mini now comes with the beautiful Retina display. Not too much surprises on the iPad Mini with Retina display, which comes with almost the same specifications as the iPad Air, like the A7 processor and faster wi-fi.
Apple also released new Smart covers and Smart cases for both the iPad Air, iPad Mini and iPad Mini with Retina display.
The event was kicked off by no other than current Apple CEO Tim Cook and showed another video on how the iPhone 5C and 5S is doing. According to Cook, the 5C and 5S had good reviews and only after 5 days of the mobile operating system's release, more than 200 million devices were already running iOS 7. Making it the fastest software upgrade in history.
Tim Cook also mentioned that as of today, there are about 20 Million users of iTunes Radio and over a billion songs have been played on iTunes Radio.
The App Store continues to grow, with over 60 billion cumulative downloads to date.
So based on the rumors leading to the event, here are what came out to be true, and some disappointments in Apple's latest releases.
As expected, and as announced in the June developer's conference, Apple's latest Mac operating system, the Mac OS X Mavericks has been released to production. OS X Mavericks comes out with a lot of enhancements that makes the whole Mac experience more streamlined and more productive. Adding the iBooks and Maps applications previously found only on iOS devices. For MacBooks, OS X Mavericks can add up to 1 hour battery life. Expectations on the pricing was that it was going to be very affordable at about $20 for the update. The surprise to everyone, was that OS X Mavericks has been released as a free, yup you read that right, a free update and available as a download in the Mac App Store today. Craig Federighi, Apple Senior Vice President for software engineering announced the free update as Apple's way of revolutionizing pricing for operating systems. As I write this, I'm downloading the update on my Mac Mini, it's a 5GB download.
Phil Schiller was next, and he talked about the latest updates on the MacBook Pro.
First was the 13" MacBook Pro, the gorgeous laptop now becomes lighter at 3.46 pounds and also becomes thinner at 0.71 inches thin. The 13" MacBook Pro gets the latest generation Intel Haswell chip. All this power but still the MacBook Pro can turn in up to 9 hours of battery life. Wifi is also faster thanks to the 802.11ac capability. The latest 13" MacBook Pro comes with OS X Mavericks already installed. The starting price has now been lowered to $1,299
The 15" MacBook Pro, now also comes with the latest generation Intel Haswell chip delivering up to 8 hours battery life. Wifi is also fast with the 802.11ac standard. Pricing has also been lowered to $1,999.
Both MacBook Pro models start shipping today.
Next in the event was the Mac Pro. Again, this was announced in the June developer's conference and is coming in December this year. The Mac Pro get's a totally new design, with it's cylindrical shape and high end parts, particularly, the SSD only storage and the high end graphics capabilities, which make the Mac Pro geared to high computing tasks like video editing. The new Thunderbolt 2 standard now also comes with the Mac Pro. The Mac Pro starts at $2,999 for the Quad core version and $3,999 for the 6 core version.
Probably the most awaited announcement was for the new iPads. The latest generation of the full size iPad and the iPad mini has been announced. What we didn't expect was the new name for the full size iPad, after four generations, the iPad now changes its name to the iPad Air. Taking it's cue from the MacBook Air, which is slimmer and lighter, the iPad Air weighs only a pound, compared to its predecessor, the iPad 4 which weighed in at 1.3 pounds and is just 7.5 millimeters thin. That makes the iPad Air 24% lighter in overall volume. As shown in previous rumors, the iPad Air now has thinner side bezels, which adds more viewing room. The iPad Air now comes with the 64 bit A7 processor, same as what powers the iPhone 5S. According to Apple, the A7 is a desktop class processor and is 2x faster than its predecessor. All the additional power but with no reduction in battery life, the iPad still claims a 10 hour battery life. The biggest disappointment was the touch sensor in the iPhone 5S, a lot of people were expecting this security feature to be in the iPad, but wasn't.
Next is the iPad Mini, and as expected, the iPad Mini now comes with the beautiful Retina display. Not too much surprises on the iPad Mini with Retina display, which comes with almost the same specifications as the iPad Air, like the A7 processor and faster wi-fi.
Apple also released new Smart covers and Smart cases for both the iPad Air, iPad Mini and iPad Mini with Retina display.
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