Today Apple held another event to unveil new hardware, software and other happenings in the company. Here are the key points that you should know from what went on at todays event:
iPad Air
Going in to todays event, everyone expected a new iPad to be the main attraction. Rumors and leaked images held true as Apple unveiled the new iPad Air. So what is different you ask? Well it’s fast. Really fast. It sports a new 64 bit processor, which makes it nearly twice as fast as the previous generation of iPads. Internally and externally everything has been redesigned to be much smaller. The iPad Air weighs in at a pound and is 20% slimmer, making it much smaller overall. Though the casing has shrunk, the screen size is still at a full 9.7 inches. All in all, there is nothing revolutionary about the new iPad Air (although Jony Ive might tell you differently in another one of Apple’s drawn out videos on the design process). Basically if you have an iPad 3, 4 or even a mini, I wouldn’t bother dropping $500 on upgrading.
OSX Mavericks
This was, in my opinion the most notable announcement today. Apple unveiled OSX Mavericks a few months ago, but announced today that it is available, today (yes right now). The big kicker on this is that it is available for free. Outside of Linux, this is really the only major operating system that I can think of that has been released for free. Mavericks boasts a lot of small, conveinent upgrades that should make for a much more pleasant desktop experience. Enhanced notifications, file tagging and finder tabs are some of the features I’m looking forward to. You can download OSX Mavericks for free from the Mac App Store on your laptop or desktop. Keep a watch out for my review on it in the next week.
Mac Pro
Similar to Mavericks, Apple unveiled the new Mac Pro a few months ago with little details. It has been a long time since the Mac Pro has received a design change, but Apple as truly overhauled desktop computer design with the new Pro design. Yes, it looks like a garbage bin but this little guy packs more punch than any consumer or pro level computer ever has. I could spend forever drooling over the specs, but I’ll just say that it is bound to be the new standard for desktop computing (even though that is a dying niche among casual computer users). This power comes with a price though, a $3000 price tag to be exact.
Mac Apps
Lastly, Apple redesigned the majority of their apps across the board. iLife and iWork apps have all been overhauled and optimized for every device they are used on. iWork now has collaboration features, allowing multiple users to work in realtime on documents together. As with the iPad Air, nothing here is revolutionary (though I think the new drummer plugin for Garageband is incredible) but everything has changed for the better and improved upon previous versions. If you use these Apps regularly, I would definitely upgrade to the latest versions considering they are free.