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Apple Announces iPad Air
Today Apple held a press conference to unveil its updated software and hardware products. The biggest news was the announcement of the 'iPad Air,' which has a 9.7" Retina display. It's 7.5 mm thick, which is 20% thinner than the older iPad. The weight has dropped from 1.4 lbs to 1.0 lbs, and it runs on a 64-bit A7 chip with an M7 motion coprocessor. Apple claims performance has doubled over the previous-gen iPad. The iPad Air will be available on November 1st. The iPad Mini is getting a new revision as well. The display has been upgraded to 7.9" at 2048x1536, which is the same resolution as the iPad Air. The new Mini has an A7 chip as well.
Apple also announced that the new version of Mac OS X (10.9 Mavericks) is available now and is free to all Mac OS X users. It includes better multi-monitor support, tabs in Finder, and a number of performance optimizations. The Macbook Pro is getting updates to the 13" and 15" models, which are now running on Intel Haswell processors. They both have PCIe SSDs, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and Thunderbolt 2 support. Apple also talked about the redesigned Mac Pro line. As you may recall from WWDC, the new model takes up about about 1/8th of the volume as the old one. It's cooled by a single fan, uses 70% less power than the earlier model, and puts out 12 dB of noise when idling. It'll be available in December. On the software side, Apple has been updating a lot of their software to add 64-bit support and mesh with the new iOS 7 style of design. This includes iPhoto, iMovie, and Garageband, as well as the iLife and iWork software suites. iWork is also getting collaborative work features, and it's now free with new Macs and iOS devices.
Apple also announced that the new version of Mac OS X (10.9 Mavericks) is available now and is free to all Mac OS X users. It includes better multi-monitor support, tabs in Finder, and a number of performance optimizations. The Macbook Pro is getting updates to the 13" and 15" models, which are now running on Intel Haswell processors. They both have PCIe SSDs, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and Thunderbolt 2 support. Apple also talked about the redesigned Mac Pro line. As you may recall from WWDC, the new model takes up about about 1/8th of the volume as the old one. It's cooled by a single fan, uses 70% less power than the earlier model, and puts out 12 dB of noise when idling. It'll be available in December. On the software side, Apple has been updating a lot of their software to add 64-bit support and mesh with the new iOS 7 style of design. This includes iPhoto, iMovie, and Garageband, as well as the iLife and iWork software suites. iWork is also getting collaborative work features, and it's now free with new Macs and iOS devices.
since every new version is twice as faster as the previous one, given the fact that we see new versions in less than 18 months.
unless apple's engineers are optimizing this infamous loop:
for(i=0;i1000000000;i++);
Not true... http://www.apple.com/ipad-mini/specs/ specifically lists the chip as: "A7 chip with 64-bit architecture and M7 motion coprocessor"
Speak for yourself. Now that it's twice as fast, I can finish the movie in half the time.
iWork is now free, and include collaboration features that MS Office will have a hell of a time trying to match.
-jcr
A major shot at other operating system, computer *and* mobile device makers. Free (as in beer) major OS update (computers) and free productivity apps (computers and mobile devices). Bundling the productivity apps with new computers and mobile devices will help Apple maintain their price points. Once again, Apple demonstrates that they are a hardware company at heart, that software is a tool to sell that hardware.
What use do you have for a UNIX(R) Workstation when you can use Linux or Freebsd for some UNIX-like goodness? Are their compatibility issues with something you work with?
Forget the workstation, I'm thinking of getting a couple of the mac pros and putting them in a rack.
Well, you could just take any just about any workstation and put Solaris on it.
then you'd have 2 problems
What use do you have for a UNIX(R) Workstation when you can use Linux or Freebsd for some UNIX-like goodness?
Chicks dig Unix certification.
Sweet, 64-bit processor. Now I can have more than 4 billion friends on facebook!
Office only has a native client on Windows,
I beg to differ.
Android is going to be with us forever.
Like Herpes.
iWork is surprisingly very functional on a Surface. Don't laugh. I've used iWork for iCloud on my Surface (no keyboard cover) and works much better than the built in MS Office that comes with the Surface since Office pretty much requires the keyboard cover.
Why is it abusive? It's their hardware, their rules.
You just answered your own question: because once I pay for it, it's not their hardware anymore. It's mine, and I'll do whatever I damn well please with it.
And yes, I apply that logic to every single one of the greedy bastards who prevent consumers from having full control over their own property, not just Apple.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
It's somewhat baffling that anyone these days would want an iPad 2.
It's not baffling and it's not about "want." Apple has signed a lot of contracts with school systems for large volume, fixed price delivery of iPads and most likely those contracts included qualifiers that Apple must deliver products which are "commercially available" at the time of delivery. Discontinuing the iPad 2 would probably require Apple to deliver the newer products which have a lower profit margin and a higher consumer demand.
Those are fairly common terms to put in when you're writing long term volume purchase agreements.
The issue is only mute if you broke the speaker and don't have headphones.