It’s preorder day for the new iMac, iPad Pro and Apple TV 4K — and we learned a few unexpected things.

For starters, the rumored May 21 shipping date for the devices looks confirmed.

Secondly, the Magic Keyboard for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro is on sale again in both black and white color options, via the Apple Online Store.

If you’re looking to get your hands on a brand new iPad Air 2 or iPad mini 3 ASAP for no money down, you may want to check out T-Mobile’s offers.

Announcing the opening up of its preorders ahead of the new tablets hitting shelves, the cellular service provider is giving would-be tablet owners the chance to pick up a 16GB iPad Air 2 or iPad mini for an upfront cost of zero dollars — so long as they’re willing to sign up for 24 monthly instalment payments.

The price plans break down as below:

We’d heard that the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were receiving record preorders, but what exactly does this mean in terms of numbers?

According to a new press release from Apple, the total number of pre-orders for the iPhone 6 family of devices is in excess of a whopping 4 million units — twice the number of pre-orders of the iPhone 5.

“iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are better in every way, and we are thrilled customers love them as much as we do,” Tim Cook is quoted as saying. “Pre-orders for iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus set a new record for Apple, and we can’t wait to get our best iPhones yet into the hands of customers starting this Friday.”

Hey kids! Overslept your alarm like we did? Well, don’t despair: the iPhone 5C is still available for pre-order, and still will deliver by next Friday, September 20th.

According to an anonymous tip, we’ve been told that RadioShack plans to offer iPhone 5c preorders in all of its US retail outlets tomorrow morning when the stores open.

So, if you miss out on the midnight-madness at Apple.com or one of the big carriers tonight, you can waltz right in to a RadioShack tomorrow and preorder an iPhone 5c in any color for any one of the major carriers in the US. Not too shabby.

Added to yesterday’s announcement of good Trade-in deals at RadioShack, it looks like the electronics retailer is stepping up to become a force in iPhone sales.

Image: Android Fan Network

Over the past few years, Apple has always told people when they can start preording the next iPhone after it has been announced. This year, though, Apple is allowing preorders of only the iPhone 5c, and not allowing preorders of the iPhone 5s at all. And even on the iPhone 5c side of things, Apple is being a little obtuse, not actually clarifying when on Friday, September 13th preorders will begin. But now, thanks to the big mouths of Apple’s carrier partners, we know exactly when.

We’re surprised it has taken this long. When the iPad mini initially became available for preorder on Friday morning, it took just twenty minutes for the white iPad mini + Wi-Fi to sell out, but the other models (especially the black) continued to be available for November 2nd delivery.

Apple doesn’t keep new products in stop indefinitely, though. As of this morning, the iPad mini doesn’t ship for another two weeks if you preorder it today. Still, it’s amazing it took this long for Apple to sell out of the much anticipated new product: either Apple made plenty of them ahead of time, or demand for the mini isn’t yet quite what it is for the iPhone or iPad.

Source: Apple Store

After over a year of rumor and speculation, we’re less than a day away fr0m the iPad mini finally going up for preorder. Starting at 12:01AM Pacific Time, the iPad mini (Wi-Fi version only) will be available for preorder on Apple’s official site, with units delivering on November 2nd.

It’s always hard to tell with a new product, but if history is anything to go by — the iPhone 5 preorders sold out within hours, and stock is still short — the iPad mini is going to be crazy in-demand. If Apple starts preorders in the middle of the night, it’s because they’re anticipating a madhouse… such a madhouse that if they held it in the middle of the day, their servers would crash under the pressure.

Hence this guide. We’re going to walk you through the best ways to make absolutely sure you get your iPad mini preordered right at the stroke of midnight and in your hands next Friday when it officially launches in the minimum amount of time, so you can go right back to sleep.

Wondering which iPad mini to buy? Check out our guide to finding the one that is right for you.

It’s the middle of the night and we want to get back to bed, so we’ll make this quick: you can now pre-order the iPhone 5.

Well, it’s a little more confusing than that. As of writing, if you’re doing it through the web, the Apple Store is still down. However, you can complete your preorder quickly using the Apple Store app, and we were able to preorder our iPhone 5 directly from Verizon’s website a few minutes before the slated time with no trouble. Doubtlessly the Apple.com preorder page will go live soon.

Update: iPhone 5 preorder page on Apple.com is now up for us. Hurrah!

We got the 64GB Verizon iPhone 5 in white. What did you get?

The way Apple handles preorders depends on a couple of things: how much stock they have and how in-demand they think their latest gadget will be. For example, when the third-gen iPad debuted in March of this year, Apple started taking preorders almost immediately, but last year, when they debuted the iPhone 4S, they waited for three days until midnight PST on Friday before taking preorders.

It’s easy to see why. Even though there were enough third-gen iPads to go around, preordering the iPad was madness, and brought Apple’s server to its knees. By starting preorders in the middle of the night, Apple can mitigate server load, since most people won’t wake up in the middle of the night to get a new phone.

No surprise, then, that it’s looking increasingly likely that Apple will follow the same strategy this year, with the iPhone 5 not becoming available for preorder until Friday, September 14th at 12:00AM PST.