Hot off the heels of the September unveiling of new iPhones and a smart watch, Apple introduced two new iPads, new Mac models, and the release of two major operating systems (OS).
Apple hosted a special event on Oct. 16 to reveal their new products. The event was held in Cupertino, Calif. and live-streaming was also available.
The first of the two iPads, the iPad Air 2, is marketed as the thinnest tablet on the market. At 6.1 millimeters, it is thinner than the iPhone 6.
A new feature is the inclusion of TouchID, which allows for Apple Pay transactions. Apple Pay is a new app that lets you make payments digitally. On the iPad Air 2, Apple Pay can only be used on online transactions.
The cameras of the iPad have also received significant upgrades, rivaling the critically praised cameras of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus. In fact, for most of the event, Apple was more focused on showing off the quality of these new components and the utility of an iPad as an oversized point-and-shoot camera or image editing device. To support advanced image editing and processing, the iPad utilizes a modified A8 chip (dubbed A8X), which is faster than the same chip found in the recently released iPhones.
To round it all off, Apple included a gold color option in addition to silver and space grey and changed the pricing scheme to 16GB, 64GB, and 128GB for $499, $599, and $699, respectively. The previous iPad Air dropped to $399 for 16GB.
The iPad Mini 3 didn’t receive nearly as many upgrades this year. TouchID and a gold option were included in the new model, but everything else about the device is the same as last year’s device, including the design, processor and screen size.
The iPad Mini 3 retails for $100 less than the iPad Air 2 and comes in the same configurations. The year-old, but still relevant iPad Mini 2, starts at only $299, and the 2012 iPad Mini now sells at $249.
With the presence of these older models, the iPad line has become a collection of different models and variations. Currently, there are five available models of iPad and close to 60 configurations possible, similar to the wide array of Android devices currently available.
As for the iMac line of desktop computers, Apple gave special treatment to the high-end 27-inch model, incorporating a 5K retina display. To put this in perspective, a 5K display has seven times more pixels than a 1080p display and 67 percent more pixels than a 4K display.
Aside from having the world’s highest resolution display in a desktop monitor, the new iMac model is also thinner than before — only five millimeters at the edge — and is also engineered to be more power efficient than before. Packed into the back of the monitor is a speedy quad-core Intel processor and a dedicated graphics card for advanced multimedia editing. With premium components comes a premium price — the new 27-inch iMac starts at $2,499. The 21.5-inch models did not receive an upgrade, but if the past is any indicator, retina displays will be coming to all iMacs at some point (as they did with Macbooks in 2012).
In addition, a new and cheaper Mac Mini was announced, which uses the latest processors and integrated graphics. The Mac Mini starts at $499.
Finally, OS X Yosemite and iOS 8.1 were announced for release. OS X Yosemite, the next major revision for the desktop operating system, includes a slew of visual upgrades to match the style and usability of iOS 7 and iOS 8 as well as some performance and power-management features. OS X Yosemite was released on Oct. 16 for all Mac devices capable of running OS X Mountain Lion or OS X Mavericks.
On a smaller scale, iOS 8.1 also includes improvements, most notably Apple Pay — the technology that allows iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch users to wirelessly pay for items at store checkouts. iPhone 5S and older devices do not support Apple Pay unless coupled with an Apple Watch, while iPhone 4S and older devices do not support Apple Pay.
The new iPads do support Apple Pay, but only for online shopping. Currently, over 500 banks are compatible with the technology, and over 220,000 American retailers have signed up. iOS 8.1 was released on Oct. 20.
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