Apple has new iPad Air, iPad Mini, iMac, Mac Mini and OS X updates coming this Fall, all announced at their event in Cupertino yesterday. The event was much smaller than the iPhone 6 and Apple Watch announcement in Flint Center, Cupertino, and speaks to the size of the updates.
Starting with the iPads, Apple announced two new iterations, one to the iPad Air, now the iPad Air 2, and the other to the iPad Mini, now the iPad Mini 3. Both show Apple has no idea what to do next when it comes to tablets – except trim the fat.
The iPad Air 2 was undoubtedly the bigger announcement of the two, coming with a new A8X chipset, non-reflective coating and 18 percent thinner size, at 6.1mm, Touch ID has also been added onto the iPad Air 2, but no NFC for mobile transactions.
Apple skipped past the iPad Mini 3, and for good reason. The iPad Mini 3 announcement mirrors the iPad Air 2, only the A8X chipset is not added, the non-reflective coating is not available and it costs an extra $100 for Touch ID and a gold-option.
This is pretty unacceptable from Apple, especially after their huge advancement with the iPad Mini with Retina Display, which mirrored the iPad Air in almost every sense, apart from the display size. The iPad Air 2 will start at $499 and iPad Mini 3 will start at $399, with the iPad Mini 2 at $299 and the original iPad Mini at $249.
Moving on, Apple announced the killer of the event – the 27-inch iMac with Retina Display. This ain’t no ordinary retina display, this is a 5K retina display, the highest pixel resolution of any display on the market. For $2499, this is also cheaper than most 4K displays on the market.
It comes with an 3.5GHz Intel Core i5 CPU, 8GB of memory, Radeon GPU and 1TB fusion drive. The Mac Mini has also been updated, turning from a server into a small computer – it looks like Apple is making this product a bit more redundant before finally killing it off – after many years of neglect.
That’s it, CEO Tim Cook announced Apple Pay would be coming on Monday and the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were the best selling iPhones ever, within 30 days, and expects even better results in the new few months (thanks, China).
