Apple October 22nd Event Recap: iPad Air, Retina iPad Mini, MacBook Pros & More!

Updated: October 22, 2013

Today, Apple took the stage in Cupertino for their Fall event. According to the event’s invitation, Apple “still had a lot to cover”, which I feel they delivered on. Much like last year, this event refreshed nearly every product in Apple’s various product lines, other than iPods. Let’s get into the details of what was announced today.

Software Releases

Like we all saw coming, Craig Federighi talked about their latest version of OS X, dubbed Mavericks. Since Apple gave us a pretty in-depth look at their last event, none of what they showed today was new information, other than pricing and the release date. After talking about features such as improved memory management and better dual display support, Craig announced that for the first time, Mavericks is going to be a free upgrade! This is a big deal that makes it very easy for any consumer to be updated to the latest operating system, going all the way back to Snow Leopard. Basically, if you see that App Store icon on your Mac, you can update to Mavericks for free. In addition to it being free, it’s also available right now! A direct link can be found by clicking right here. This is a big deal for Apple, and will not only make adoption of Mavericks higher than ever before, but also make their users happy. Bravo, Apple.

Another big thing that Apple really focused on today was not only updating their consumer software, but to also make it available to the masses like never before. The entire iWork and iLife suites of apps have also been updated, including Garageband, iMovie, Pages, Keynote, among others. The user interface of these apps have been updated for both OS X and iOS to look more modern, and new features have been added. One of the bigger improvements from a technological standpoint is Garageband. Apple has doubled the amount of tracks to 16 for any iOS device. What’s really fascinating is that for any 64-bit iOS device, they allow up to a whopping 32 tracks, all of which can be playing simultaneously. This is a tremendous amount of data, which really helps showcase the power of a 64-bit architecture, even on mobile devices.

Apple also updated their iCloud service, focusing most on documents in the cloud. Users now have the ability to collaborate on their documents within iCloud, which is a very big deal to a lot of people. People such as Alex Lindsay from Pixelcorp rely on this type of collaboration within their organization, but Alex personally hates Google Docs, as it’s not great for visual documents. This gives Google some serious competition for the first time in this area. A nice touch is that because this can be a web-based, Windows and Linux users have the ability to edit these documents as well. Personally, I can’t wait to give it a try, in hopes that I can put Google Docs behind me.

Hardware Releases

As usual, Apple’s biggest announcements were all about hardware. After all, Apple prides themselves on being a hardware company, right? The first hardware announcement of the keynote was the MacBook Pro line. Both the 13” and 15” models received updates today.

MacBook Pro

The 13” MacBook Pro has gotten faster, lighter, and thinner, per usual. The notebook is down to only 3.46 pounds and a mere .71” thin, and packs Intel’s latest, fourth- generation Haswell processors. These processors will bring not only a nice performance bump to these machines, but also improved battery life, as they consumer less power than the last generation Ivy Bridge processors. On this processor is also Intel’s latest ‘Iris’ graphics. Apple boasts an increase over the HD4000 graphics of Ivy Bridge of up to 90%, which is great. One of the popular complaints about the previous Retina MacBook is lag, which is directly related to graphics. These new onboard graphics should, in theory, reduce the overall lag, and allow the user to do more without having a dedicated GPU taking power. With these changes in mind, the battery life has increased over the previous generation from 7 hours up to 9 hours; very nice! Apple gave the 15” MacBook with Retina a similar treatment; Haswell processors with Iris graphics, complete with an increase to 8 hours over 7. The 13” starts with 4GB of memory, a 2.4GHz Haswell Core i5 processor, and 128GB of PCI-e based flash storage for the price of $1299, which is $200 less than the previous model’s introductory price. The 15” MacBook Retina starts with a 2.0 GHz Haswell Core i7 processor, 8GB of memory, and 256 GB of flash storage for the price of $1999; once again, $200 lower than the previous model. With that price aside, there’s no dedicated GPU in the baseline 15” model; only the Intel Iris graphics. This is bothersome to quite a few people, as most of the people buying this computer have serious work to get done, which requires a lot of graphical horsepower. It’s too early to tell how the Iris graphics will hold up to applications like Final Cut Pro and the Adobe Suite, but we’ll find out soon enough.

Mac Pro

Probably the most-anticipated hardware announcement today was the legendary Mac Pro. This desktop hasn’t received a true update in years, and today, Apple finally delivered. Just like Mavericks, we did receive a sneak preview of this desktop a little while back, but today, we were given much more detailed specs. This desktop focuses on Apple’s two most important features at the moment; raw computing power, and power consumption. This desktop is going to pack the latest Ivy Bridge-E Xeon processors in 3.7 GHz quad-core, 3.5 GHz hecta-core, 3.0 GHz octa-core, or even 2.7 GHz deca (12)-core models.

In addition to having the latest processors, this machine will also come with dual FirePro graphics cards at every configuration. Despite having this much GPU power, the

amount of video memory is what’s going to change. At the quad core level, there will be 4GB of video memory (2GB per GPU), 6GB on the hexa-core model, 8GB on the octa- core model, and a whopping 12GB on the top of the line model. A better way to think about it is that there’s 1GB of video memory for every core the system has. The Mac Pro will also have PCi-e based storage, configurable with up to 1TB of space (256GB, 512GB, or 1TB).

In terms of memory, the Mac Pro still start out with 12GB of memory, and is configurable up to 64GB. Personally, I feel that this is a little low, considering that even a socket 2011 PC can handle up to that same amount right now , and in some cases, even more). If Apple want this desktop to last as long as the previous Mac Pro did, I feel that they need to increase this limit. In a day & age of memory-intensive applications, being able to keep that information in memory instead of having to go out to the disk is more important than ever, regardless of the speed of that disk. Not only that, but Apple restring the memory limit depending on the model you purchase. For example, if you buy the quad-core model, you can only upgrade to 16GB. This is definitely a bad move on Apple’s part, as this is a machine that already isn’t very upgradeable. As this is likely just a simple check in the firmware of each model, I can already see the firmware hacks.

The starting price isn’t necessarily cheap, but then again, you can’t expect it to be. Not only do these desktops pack a ton of power, but this is Apple we’re talking about here. That in mind, I’ll just come out and say it; the Mac Pro will start with a price tag of $2999. For that price, you’ll get the 3.7GHz quad-core, dual FirePro GPU’s with a total of 4GB of VRAM, 256GB of flash storage, and 12GB of memory. Of course, all of this is contained within that truly revolutionary cylindrical enclosure. Be sure to let us know if you’ll be investing in this machine (or why not) in the comments below!

iPad

Today, the forth generation iPad was replaced with the “iPad Air”. This is an iPad that has a lot of the internal specs from the iPhone 5S, with an all-new enclosure. This is Apple’s fastest and thinest iPad to date,which is a big deal to a lot of people. The iPad Air packs that same 9.7” retina display, but the enclosure it sits in has been completely re-done . The bezels have shank by nearly 50%, making the screen pop out a lot more over the previous generation. This also makes it easier to hold and carry around, as the overall surface area is now smaller. The iPad Air has also shaved 1.9 mm from the thinness of the previous model, going from 9.4mm to a mere 7.5mm. These changes alone will make a lot of people purchase this iPad over the iPad mini, in my opinion.

Inside, the iPad Air has the same A7 chip that the iPhone 5S has, which means that the iPad Air is now a 64-bit platform. This is great for developers to make true, desktop- class apps. This also drastically increases the speed of day-to-day tasks, such as taking pictures, editing those pictures, or even just opening applications. Included with that A7 chip is also the M7 co-processor, whose sole purpose is to monitor motion. The iPad Air also has dual antennas for the Wi-Fi, making sure that you always get the fastest, most reliable connection possible.

Unfortunately, there wasn’t an upgrade to the cameras of the iPad Air, meaning that it’s still the same 5 megapixel back and 1.2 megapixel cameras with the same sensors as before. With that said, the performance of these cameras will increase drastically with the new processor and better onboard graphics. The iPad Air starts off at the same price as the previous model; $499, which gets you 16GB of flash storage, in addition to all of the new features.

It’s worth stating that Apple keeping the iPad 2 around. Personally, I think this is a questionable move on their part, as I was hoping they’d keep the iPad 4th generation around instead, resulting in a full-retina 10” iPad line. With that said, I see the need in academic institutions or even business organizations for a low-cost, reliable iPad.

iPad Mini

The iPad Mini is also one of the biggest upgrades that people have been waiting for, ever since the first generation Mini was announced. The main reason for this is because of the lack of retina display up until now. Apple has brought the iPad Mini into the world of retina, which pleased a lot of people, myself included. Apple held off so long because they didn’t want to affect two things; performance and battery life. Apple waited a year for their technologies to improve, and have now delivered on adding the retina display. this 7.9” display now has the same amount of pixels as the 9.7” iPad Air, and has the same 326 ppi pixel density as the iPhone 5S; very impressive!

The iPad Mini also got the addition of the A7 processor and M7 coprocessor, which makes for a drastic increase over the previous generation. Much like the iPad Air, the cameras haven’t changed over the last model, which could be something they’re saving for next year. The iPad Mini’s body is almost the exact same dimensions as the previous model, except that it’s .3mm thicker, and weighs 23 grams more. This is to be expected when adding the retina display. This also happened going from the iPad to to the iPad 3rd generation when it’s retina display was added.

Unlike the iPad Air, the pricing of the iPad Mini did change. The addition of the retina display and much faster CPU performance resulted in a $70 price increase, bringing this 16GB base configuration to $399. This seems steep, but keep the perfomance:size ratio in mind here. Apple is also keeping the first generation iPad Mini around, and dropping it’s price to $299 from $329. I feel that this is a good move on their part, and may end up making more of a dent in the budget tablet market than it did at it’s initial price.

Well, those were the main points of today’s keynote! If you feel there’s something that I didn’t cover in enough depth, be sure let us know what that is, and your thoughts about it, right down below in the comments! Will your wallet be getting any lighter after today’s announcements, or are you going to skip this year’s products? We’re eager to hear what you have to say!

About the Author:

Bob Roche has been producing technology content for about 5 years, including Hackintosh tutorials, PC hardware reviews, and much more. His work can be found at RocheTechnology.com, as well as on his personal YouTube channel.

rawlston clarke

max respect to those apple guys and all the hard work they do but man even if i had the money i still wouldn’t buy a mac {dust-bin} its still too expensive and you can’t game fully with it, but their tabs and phone investment will be made. And no I’m not a hater of their products
Greg Reavis

I used several apple products while i was in school like the imac and the ipad. Though I was new with the interface at the time it was very easy to use for the most part. The one thing that I did not ever get used to was their office tools. The’re okay but microsofts office is so much easier to use and a much more fluid experience in my opinion. Even though they have boot camp now I would still just build a hackintosh.
Shannon

One thing Apple claims to have is that they build the hardware and the software for that hardware so that everything is perfect. And I admit, Apple’s products do run amazingly well. But I still like android better. I am not an apple hater but android is where it’s at for me.
Dennis Cromwell

$1400 in parts for $2999 Computer….Sounds about Apple Right…
- http://techrodd.webs.com/ Jento Pieters
  
  You know how it goes :/
Jeansen Emanuel Wen

Hmm hecta core?^^ i thought it was hexa core
David Mclean

#Holiday Enjoyment to everyone. Peace, love, and lots of gifts.