Apple packed a lot into one hour and 20 minutes today, with announcements about OS X Mavericks, Macbook Pro, Macbook Air, Mac Pro, and the stars of the show: iPad Air and Retina iPad mini. We think that this is about an hour and 18 minutes too long to watch, though, so we’ve condensed it to around 90 seconds.
Here is the Apple iPad Air and iPad mini keynote, right from Yerba Buena, in just 90 seconds:
One of the most common criticisms you hear of Apple’s iPad line is that they are expensive compared to the competition. When the iPad mini first came out, for example, it was widely criticized for its entry-level price of $329, with many saying it couldn’t succeed unless it was under $249.
Obviously, such predictions were laughably wrong. But Apple is now selling a $249 iPad mini: a refurbished one!
In all the hubbub yesterday, it’s possible you missed the most exciting iPad news of all: Apple has given the iPad Air and iPad mini an incredible new wallpaper!
We kid, of course, but featuring a lovely blue gradient, the new wallpapers are rather nice. With the iPad Air and iPad mini not shipping until November, though, you can only see it in Apple’s new iPad ads… or download it from us!
Apple fans will have to wait until November 1st to get their hands on the svelte iPad Air, while the wait for an iPad mini with Retina display will be even longer. For those of us too impatient to wait until the new tablets hit store shelves to inspect the devices ourselves, Apple gave journos at today’s event a few precious minutes to get their hands all over the iPad Air and iPad mini.
Here’s a roundup of the best hands on videos of the new iPads:
To compliment the new iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina display, Apple has released not only updated Smart Covers, but a new Smart Case accessory. “We have a lot more to cover” was the tagline for today’s event, and it turned out to be true in more ways than one.
The iPad mini, announced today, is suddenly a fantastic gaming device. While the original iPad mini introduced a fantastic iPad form factor at 7.9 inches, the iPad 2-equivalent display and CPU just doesn’t quite cut it for higher-end gaming apps.
Of course, all of Apple’s iOS devices have been great for gaming ever since the App Store launched back in 2008. Games make up a huge portion of the 1,000,000 apps out there to date, and it’s not surprising anymore to see console-level gaming experiences show up on both iPad and iPhone.
Apple CEO Tim Cook took the stage today at San Francisco’s Moscone Center to kick off the special keynote event that we’ve dubbed here as the iPad Event.
Cook began his presentation with some numbers, including the nine million new iPhone 5s and 5c models that were sold over the first weekend of availability. Cook called it the biggest iPhone launch, ever, and showed a video to underline his point.
Need a spot to stow your stylus when you’re not using it ti draw on the screen of your iPad mini? No, me neither. But I could find space for a case which holds a regular old ink pen, which Adonit’s Jot Tote will doubtless manage just fine. Hell, the slidey-out metal drawer could even be used to store a little chocolate snack as you read.
The next best thing to actually being at an Apple press event is being able to watch the whole thing live from the comfort of your own living room. Unfortunately, the Cupertino company doesn’t live stream every event to the public, but you’ll be pleased to know it will be showing today’s iPad event.
Let’s face it, the stock Lightning cable that comes with your iPhone 5 is just too short. And there’s not much worse than having a cable that is too short to be very useful in most situations. This offer from Cult of Mac Deals delivers a cable your way that is both useful and priced just right.
This 10 foot USB 2.0 cable is lightning fast and will keep your iDevices charged, updated, and ready for use whenever you need them. And Cult of Mac Deals has it for just $13.99 including free global shipping – that’s a savings of 51%! But it’s available only for a limited time.
Will Apple unveil the Retina iPad mini on Tuesday or won’t they? There’s been a lot of back and forth on this vital point in the past few weeks, but now, the big boys are weighing in, with The Wall Street Journal affirming that Cupertino will indeed unveil a 2048 x 1536 version of it’s 7.9-inch tablet tomorrow.
The iPad mini is pretty tough. Mine fell off the top of my refrigerator (around five feet high) and landed corner-first on a terracotta-tiled floor. It survived with nothing but a dent in the corner and a slightly-bent screen as it approaches this corner.
If I’d been using the SlipStopper, though, it mightn’t have fallen at all.
Confirmed! Apple’s October 22nd iPad event is locked and loaded, but it’s not just iPads we’re expecting to take the stage. We’ll walk you through what other treasures to expect sultry new CultCast. Then, Steve Jobs and his nights of profound amore; Apple hires a fashion icon to man retail stores; and we review a new app that makes it insanely simple to send money to anyone you know.
Have a few laughs and get caught up on each week’s best Apple stories. Stream or download new and past episodes of The CultCast now on your Mac or iDevice by subscribing on iTunes, or hit play below and let baseline roll!
Will the new iPad mini have a Retina Display or won’t it? That’s the question everyone wants to know ahead of Apple’s Tuesday iPad event. According to everyone’s favorite goofball analyst, Peter Misek, the answer is yes… but it may hard to get one.
It’s been well over a year since the Apple TV received a significant refresh, so we’ve long been wondering whether Apple was planning to unveil a new model at its iPad event this fall. Amazon listings in France and Germany seem to suggest that’s the case, with the $99 set-top box now out of stock until October 23 — a day after Apple’s event.
I have a bit of a soft spot for Loop Attachment’s Mummy cases; I’ve reviewed them for iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, and the iPad mini — and I’ve loved them all. But the collection wasn’t complete without the Mummy case for the full-size iPad, which went on sale back in August.
Like its siblings, the new case is made from a soft coated silicone that is designed to protect your iPad from any dings, drops, scuffs, or scratches that it might encounter while you’re using it. But it’s not just a plain old silicone case — the Mummy is different.
The thing that sets it apart from the cheap silicone cases you’ll find on eBay for a few dollars is that it has a special coating that not only makes it super soft and smooth, but also prevents it from collecting dirt and grime. It also has a unique design that shows off the Apple logo on the back of your device.
Furthermore, the Mummy is compatible with your Apple Smart Cover, which isn’t a common trait with third-party cases. So not only does it protect the back of your device, but with the help of your Smart Cover, it protects its Retina display, too.
The Mummy for iPad is priced at $40, and it’s available in black, blue, graphite, red, white, and my favorite, teal.
We’re still waiting for Apple to send out invitations to a press event on October 22, where we expect the Cupertino company to announce new iPads and possibly new MacBook Pros. According to a new rumor that has surfaced today, the new devices will go on sale before the end of the month, while the new Mac Pro will make its debut in mid-November.
Touch ID has received all kinds of praise since it made its debut on the iPhone 5s last month, so naturally, the question everyone’s asking is whether the new fingerprint-scanning technology will make its way to other iOS devices.
We’ve already seen evidence that suggests it will come to the second-generation iPad mini, and the blurry picture above seems to prove that Touch ID is also coming to the fifth-generation iPad, alongside its all-new design.
Tim Cook and the gang are set to take the stage in eight days to announce the newest lineup of iPads, but if a new set of leaked iPad shells are the real deal, we’ll have already seen all the new iPad colors before Schiller and Jony can wax poetic about how the iPad is unapologetically gold.
A new set of images allegedly showing both a gold iPad 5 and iPad mini 2 rear shell have been leaked by the Chinese site CTech, however it’s questionable whether they’re real, so have your salt shaker ready. If the images are accurate, the iPad will follow the same course as the iPhone 5s with Apple offering both models in silver, space gray, and gold.
Here’s another pic of the puportedly gold iPad shell:
Yesterday, we saw new pictures of the silver and space gray iPad 5, and today, we see the same thing, shrunk down a spell: the iPad mini 2, in space gray and silver, natch.
If you don’t know what the upcoming fifth-gen iPad is going to look like by now, you just haven’t been paying attention. We’ve seen leaks on leaks of both the next 10-inch iPad and the second-gen iPad mini, each of which sport a slimmer, more streamlined design.
More photos of the iPad 5 in Space Grey and Silver have surfaced, and they look great. The colors match up with the iPhone 5s color options very well, except for one glaring omission: gold.
Apple’s iPad event is slated to happen in two weeks on Tuesday, October 22nd, according to the venerable AllThingsD. Not only will the iPad and iPad mini be updated, but the “new Mac Pro and OS X Mavericks will likely get some stage time as well.”
Apple may or may not announce an iPad mini with Retina display in a couple weeks, but one thing that’s pretty much a given at this point is Touch ID coming to the iPad and iPad mini.
We haven’t seen any leaked fingerprint sensor components for the upcoming iPad 5 hit the Internet yet, but Unboxing Therapy has done some investigating of its own to see if a Touch ID would fit with some of the leaked components we’ve already seen. The results? You’ll have to see for yourself in the video below, but it looks promising:
Apple will be “unable” to launch a new iPad mini with Retina display this month due to supply constraints, according to sources in its supply chain, who have been speaking to Reuters. It’s thought the new device will only be available in “limited quantities” this year — if at all — and there’s a possibility it won’t be ready in time for the lucrative holiday shopping season.
With the fifth-generation iPad set to feature a new design based on the smaller, sleeker iPad mini, Apple’s existing lineup of iPad Smart Covers aren’t going to fit it. But fear not, Smart Cover fans — Apple is already working on new models that will fit the iPad 5’s smaller chassis. Check them out in the hands-on video below.