Apple held a press conference today where it debuted some i-Things everyone knew about weeks ago. So, let’s see what they announced!
1. 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro
Apple gave the Retina display treatment to it’s smallest MacBook Pro.
Like the 15-inch variant announced in June 2012, this new laptop is insanely thin, light and fast.
It’s like the MacBook Air and a MacBook Pro had a child that turned out better than both of its parents.
It contains a whopping 8GB of RAM and a 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, likely making it one of the fastest 13-inch notebooks around.
On the storage side of things, it loses the dust-gathering optical drive and replaces it with a 128GB solid-state drive.
Unfortunately, it costs $1,699. That’s a big price tag for a smaller laptop, though the speed, screen and additional features justify it somewhat.
It’s available now.
2. iMac
It’s been a long year-and-a-half since Apple last refreshed its desktop hardware, but the day has finally arrived.
The new iMacs, like the Retina MacBook Pro, ditch the optical drive in favor of a larger hard drive (1TB on iMac.)
Processing-wise, the desktops contain a quad-core i5 processor customizable up to 3.4GHz.
It’s also incredibly thin — at some points, only 5mm thick.
The 21.5-inch version starts at $1,299 and the 27-inch variant begins at $1799. The 21.5-inch will be shipping in November, the 27-inch in December.
3. The new iPad
Wait, what?
Yes, Apple has pulled an Apple and refreshed a product it announced six months ago.
The “new” new iPad has the same Retina display as its predecessor, but gets a processing boost with a dual-core A6X (as opposed to the A5X,) the new Lightning dock connector, a HD FaceTime camera and faster WiFi.
Should third-generation iPad owners be angry? Yes. There are few things worse than dropping half a grand on something to have it replaced by a new product less than a year later.
But, Apple will be Apple. Pre-orders start October 26.
4. iPad Mini
Finally, the world can exhale. The long-awaited, long-rumored smaller iPad is here.
And hey, it’s pretty! Especially that black version.
Okay, so it doesn’t have a retina display. That’s fine, neither does the Nexus 7. Plus, the screen is almost an inch larger than the Nexus (7.9 inches vs. 7 inches.)
What it does have is a dual-core A5 processor, 5-megapixel rear-facing camera, 1.2-megapixel front-facing camera and the new Lightning connector.
Oh. That’s it?
Well the processor is a year old, but it wasn’t bad on the iPhone 4S. And hey, at least it’s reasonably priced.
I’m lying, it’s $329.
As in only $50 cheaper than the year-and-a-half old iPad 2. As in $129 more expensive than the Nexus 7, Kindle Fire HD and Nook Tablet. As in $129 more expensive than the tablets it was supposed to compete with.
Yeah.
iTunes 11 was also supposed to be released today, but it was a no-show at the conference. Apple still has until the end of October to release it though.
That’s all the news for today! Check back in two days for the latest and greatest in tech.
