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tip @techmeme
We wouldn’t call this a long time coming, but we would call it “just another Apple launch”. Hello and welcome to the iPad Mini launch event, live from California.
Here’s what to expect: a 7.85-inch iPad with among other things, a Lightning port. There’s also the hope that it’s going to come in at the same US$200 price as the Nexus 7 and other 7-inchers. There’s reportedly going to be a slew of new software updates such as iBooks and iTunes 11 and the 13-inch Retina Display MacPro too.
Apple’s iPad Mini event starts at 10am PD and 7pm African time
“These are the most talented and innovative people I know, and it is a privilege and an inspiration for me to be able to work with them.” and it’s hands-on time for the chosen few.
“Yes, it has been an incredible year, this has been a truly prolific year for innovation for Apple. We hope that you love these products as much as we loved creating them. I’d personally like to thank all of the teams at Apple… they’ve dedicated a huge part of their lives to making the best products on earth.” Roll curtain?
“And we announced today the unbelievably thin and unbelievably gorgeous new iMac. Earlier this year we announced the third generation iPad and today we replaced it with a fourth generation iPad, and added the iPad mini to the family.” Yes, we all know how proud you are.
“We launched the unbelievable new iPhone, with an incredibly thin and light design with a beautiful four-inch display.
We refreshed our entire line of notebooks.
“We shipped Mountain Lion and iOS 6… with hundreds of new features that help Macs and iOS devices to work seamlessly together.
We launched two amazing new iPods.”
“We told you earlier this year that you would see some incredible innovation across the year, innovation that only Apple can deliver.
We think we’ve kept our promise, and I hope that you agree.”
“And that’s iPad mini, let me turn it back to Tim.” and back comes Cook.
So US$329 for the iPad Mini. Everyone cool with that?
“This is an amazing new addition to our iPad family, and we’re going to be so excited to tell customers about it who don’t already know about it.” and commercial time.
From 26 October, iPad 4 and iPad Mini will be available for pre-order in a long-ass list of countries.
iPad 2: US$399. iPad 3: US$499 now.
Prices start at US$329, which is US$129 more than the Nexus 7.
SmartCover will come in five covers.
“every inch an iPad.” Welcome back Phil.
really hated those hinges glad it’s going.
New smart cover sans those flipping metal hinges.
“We have continued to developer our unibody process.” in other words its going to look as good as the iPhone 5. Very cool.
10 hours is fantastic for any portable device.
Various apple folk talking about the creation of the iPad Mini. Hope to get these videos so we can stream it for everyone else at a later stage. It’s interesting to watch Apple’s breezy commercialism at work.
And here comes the obligatory video ad.
but it remains “every inch an iPad.”
“Of all this technology, all this incredible capability in a thin and light device, but the team has worked really hard to give you incredible battery life.” so that’s 10 hours battery life. We shall see.
and FaceTime HD in front.
Powerful. Dual core A5 CPU with 5MP iSight camera.
“It is a great iPad. In fact, the technologies inside are equal to or better than the iPad 2 in every way.” sign me up.
“You get a tablet experience on the iPad mini, you get a scaled-up phone experience on the other.” still hard to fault the Nexus 7 really.
“You can see a huge difference,” for browsing says Phil.
35% more display in fact than the Nexus 7.
Viewing area looks far wider.
“That’s a huge difference, and it doesn’t stop there.” of course it doesn’t.
Is apparently thinner and lighter than the Nexus 7.
That looks like a Nexus 7 now next to an iPad Mini.
“Others have tried to make tablets smaller than the iPad and they’ve failed miserably. These are not great experiences.” but Steve Jobs didn’t think so…
“It’s fantastic for all the iLife applications… it is so much fun to sit there and play multitouch software instruments on this thin and light iPad.”
“It’s great for reading your email or surfing on the web… it’s great for viewing your photos and sharing them with your family…” iPad Mini is 20cm long.
Same resolution as iPad 2 which is 1024 by 768. But why no Retina…
roughly 308grams light.
Cool, Phil holds it steady in one hand. And it’s .7cm thick.
“What can you do with an iPad mini that you can’t already do with the amazing fourth generation iPad?”
“Well this: you can hold this in one hand.”
“There is nothing as amazing as this. It is incredibly thin and beautiful… beautiful from every angle.”
Mmmm. Nice and flat. “I think I can tell by your excitement you know what this is. This is iPad mini.”
Ah there’s the iPad Mini, which looks very iPod-touchy.
Choice between black and white, both 16GB. This is all a new iPad by the way.
“So what else can we do to help customers find even more users for iPad, to use them in places they’ve never imagined?”
thankfully there’s lightening connecter, and the amazing Retina Display. Adapters for SD cards, HDMI, USB and so much more. All for US$499. Pricey.
There’s a 720p FaceTime camera.
So much faster than the iPhone 5 then.
“We are so far ahead of the competition I can’t even see them in the rear-view mirror.” it’ll have an A6X CPU.
“Just half a year ago we introduced the iPad with Retina display and it’s incredible, and it’s even more incredible that we’re here today to talk about the fourth generation iPad.
This fourth generation iPad, it is a powerhouse.”
Here comes Phil again: “We’ve got some really cool stuff to show you, and to do that I’d like to welcome Phil back up on the stage.” says Cook.
“With 100 million sold in just two and a half years, we couldn’t be more thrilled with how quickly iPad has been embraced by so many users for so many different things. But we know we are just getting started.” here’s something comping up…
“In addition to education, iPad is taking the business market by storm. In the office, in the field, and in places you could never dream of seeing a PC, iPad is showing up more and more and doing more and more things.
Almost every company in the Fortune 500 is now testing or deploying iPad, and we’re seeing a similar success in smaller business.”
We’ll be covering the software in more depth with a separate Round-up review article, to be published shortly after the live blog.
You can use custom fonts, or choose other system fonts.
iBooks talk continues: “Today, we’re announcing the latest version of iBooks Author and it includes some incredible templates.”
“iBooks Textbooks are now available for 80% of the US core curriculum. These are enough to make you want to be a kid again.” charming words.
“Early this year we announced iBooks Author to make it easy and simple to create rich, engaging multitouch textbooks.” says Cook.
“Teachers and administrators around the world have found iPad to be an incredible learning tool.” and so it is.
We feel an advert coming on: “What is amazing to us is how quickly iPad has been embraced in education.”
“They love that they can connect anywhere they go, using either WiFi or cellular… they love iPad’s legendary, all-day battery life,” this is what the people enjoy using.
“It turns out there’s a simple reason for this: people love their iPads.” oh that’s the reason.
iPad owns 91% of all web traffic. Brutish.
“It seems like every day there’s another tablet shipping, but when you look at the ones that are actually being used, the numbers tell a different story.” charts and stuff on screen tells the story.
“That’s 100 million in just two and a half years. That’s unprecedented for a new product in a new category. We sold more iPads in the June quarter than any PC maker sold of their entire lineup.”
Over 100 million iPads sold. No surprises, it’s the only tablet people basically know of.
“Next, I’d like to talk about iPad. It seems like each time we get together there’s a new number to illustrate the growth of this product.” – Mini time.
Cook says “These products are really cool.”
“Perhaps the boldest new iMac designs we’ve ever created.” and Phil is gone. Good to see you, mate.
Starts at US$1299 for core model: i5 CPU at 2.7GHz, 8GB RAM and 1TB hard drive.
How droll of you Apple. “For those who are still stuck in the past we do offer an external optical drive.”
Fusion Drive will feel like an SSD, all the time.
“All transparently to you. You just use it and it works.” sounds like a winner.
Mountain Lion will move the most used apps into the flash for super fast access.
And then there’s the fusion drive. 3 or 1TB hard drive combined with 128GB flash.
Three Thunderbolt ports, four USB 3.0 ports.
32GB RAM, 768GB SSD or 3TB hard drive. Choices of Core i5 or i7.
Facetime HD, stereo mics and speakers.
178% viewing angle…
A laminated spray provides 75% less glare.
21.5 inch and 27 inch.
2560×1440 and 1920×1080.
No DVD drive, but there are “redesigned” innards
friction stir welding basically bonds the edges together at the molecular level. Intense.
Edges are 0.5cm thin. Holy hell. That’s incredible if I do say so myself.
Phil Cook is pointing out the thinness, “there’s a whole computer in there.” wow.
And it was a brand new iMac under the blanket.
Could be under 2.5cm thin.
It looks amazingly thin on screen.
“That’s why it’s so great today for you to be the first to see the next generation if iMac.” and the crowd goes wow.
The server model is 2.3Ghz with 4GB RAM a 1TB hard drive for the low, low price of US$999.
2.5GHz, 4GB of RAM, 500GB HDD at US$599.
There’s four USB 3.0 ports, SD card slot, HDMI, Core i5 or i7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, 1TB hard drive or the choice of a 256GB SSD. Sounds great.
“You knew there’d be something called mini in this presentation. The Mac mini is our smallest, most affordable Mac.”
It’s going to be US$1199 for the “older” MacPros
And it’s commercial time for the new MacPro 13-inch.
Go order now, it’s fully recyclable at least.
That’s 2.5Ghz 128GB and 8GM RAM.
Ah we guessed wellish. US$1699 for the lower specced model.
GPU is HD4000, it goes up to 768GB, 8GB RAM and choice of Core i5 or i7. all decent so far.
Case is being shown to us now…
It’s got everything the grown up one has. Trackpad, 720p facetime camera, fancy backlit keyboard and stereo microphones.
“There’s never been a small notebook that gives pro photographers this kind of technology.” see, they must try to appeal to the high-end market. It will most likely cost US$1600 or more.
They zoom in and it looks as great as the MacPro 15 inch.
It’s twice as dense as 1080p display.
75% reduction in glare.
29% higher contrast ration.
Screen is 2560×1600 resolution which is roughly four times better than the old 13-incher.
So there’s retina display, two thunderbolts, HDMI, an SD card slot and two USB 3.0 for ports.
“It is incredibly thin, just .75-inches thick.” wow and it’s only 1.5Kg
Hey cool it’s the 13-inch MacPro.
Namely MacPro Retina Display.
“We have a great lineup of notebook computers called MacBook, and just a few months ago we introduced the best MacBook we’ve ever created.” which I’m writing on right now.
“How’s everyone doing today? I’m really excited, because today is a really big day for the Mac.”
Phil Schiller now. Good man.
“Now we’re really pleased with all of the momentum with the Mac, but we are not standing still. We’re going to continue innovating with the Mac, and we’ve got some really great stuff to show you this morning.” good let’s do this.
Mac’s are both the number one desktop and laptop.
So now it’s Mac time. And the Mac, says Cook has outgrown the PC market 7 to 1.
It’ll be socially integrated via Facebook and Twitter. As one does these days, facebooking pages.
And with iCloud magic, the same page and position syncs to all iDevices.
New version of iBooks will have continuous scrolling.
iBooks. 400 million downloads of the 1.5 million books on the store.
App Developers have been paid out US$6.5-billion. And there’s a huge cheque on the screen to prove that. Wonderful guys.
35 million apps have been downloaded. “Customers absolutely love the selection in the App Store and we’ve reached another milestone.”
There’s 700 000 iOS apps. 5% of those are good though. But still, lots of choice.
More stuff, App store now.
that’s 28 000 per second.
160 Million game centre accounts have been opened.
There’s been over 300 billion iMessages sent on iDevices.
We know you’re amazing guys, maybe tell us that every second launch?
iCloud has sucked in 125 million documents.
“iOS 6 and Mountain Lion are designed to let Macs and iOS devices operate together seamlessly.” which is highly true and very enjoyable. Unless you have an S3.
“This is the fastest upgrade rate of any software in history. That we’re aware of.”
iOS 6 has been updated on 200 million iDevices says Cook.
Possibly just the new, we’ll check this later.
“These are off to a fantastic start. The reception has been fantastic. ” There’s been three million iPod sold. Not sure if they mean old and new combined possibly?
Cook: “Our teams work incredibly hard to deliver amazing products like iPhone 5, and seeing this type of customer response reminds us why we love to do it.”
It’s iPod Nano time.
Videos done, Cook’s back. cool
It’s an iPhone 5 ad.
You should be glad you can’t see the video. It’s the usual pandering and Apple posing. But they always do this before the moment we really want.
“We sold out the first weekend, selling more than 5 million units. This was fantastic. This is the most iPhones ever sold in the opening weekend, and the most phones ever sold in the opening weekend.” And now useless video time.
“Thank you very much for joining us. It’s great to be back in California Theater. We’ve had some very fond memories here and we’re going to be creating a few more today.
We’re going to start with talking iPhone. It’s off to a tremendous start” says Cook.
Tim Cook is on stage.
There’s some mystery thing under a black cloth on stage. That’s the iPad Mini most likely.
Huge Apple logo fills the room practically.
The auditorium is packed.
Someones just announced that it’s going to be starting shortly.
If anyone has any predictions, they can tweet us or say something in the comments below.
@gearburn
Still nothing to mention sadly.
Well, no-ones being let inside yet. Event starts in roughly 20 minutes.
Such as the 13-inch MacPro with Retina Display and iTunes 11
Hi everybody. It’s time for another fairly rad Apple event. This time it’s the iPad Mini. And other shiny stuff.
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That’s all dear readers. We’ll try to get a hands on published soon. These things are going to be in high-demand. What did you think of the show? Tell us in tweets or comments below. Thanks for joining us.