New iPad, MacBook Air, Mac mini. What Apple showed at the October hardware event



    A few minutes ago, the next Apple presentation ended. It presented the latest gadgets and technologies with which the company is going to please its fans. Apple's event in September, where they showed the iPhone XS , this year, perhaps, was not the main event, but only a prelude. The scale of the presentation today was much more impressive.


    The leaks the day before, as usual, had a whole barrel. Apple helped them by sending four types of invitations to journalists, which led to discussions that there will be exactly four new MacBooks. The venue of the event, the Opera House of the Brooklyn Academy of Music, showed that the company sees creative and talented people as the audience for its new gadgets. The title of the presentation is “There's More in the Making”. In general, almost everyone in the industry was aware that the new iPad Pro and MacBook lineup would be shown to us. But Apple didn't stop there.



    The venue of the event was pretty elegantly furnished.

    Macbook air


    As expected, Tim Cook first appeared on the scene. He told how in the world they love "poppies" and how they discover creativity in people. Share the figures: 51% of Mac buyers have never used Apple laptops before, 76% of shoppers live in China. Now there are more than 100 million active users on Macs. “And their favorite device is the MacBook Air” (at this point, those who took the MacBook Pro felt a bit awkward).


    In general, Apple, as expected, is releasing a new MacBook Air, with improvements on almost all fronts. It is 17% smaller in volume, and 10% thinner than the current model. It weighs 1.25 kg (100 grams less). With a mini jack for headphones (hooray!) And two USB-C ports (Thunderbolt 3).




    Display - Retina. On a 13.3-inch diagonal there will be 4 million pixels. The frames are 50% narrower than in previous laptops of the company, on top of the screen is a FaceTime HD camera. Turn on the laptop, go into your account and confirm payments will be with Touch ID, as in smartphones. The fingerprint scanner is located in the upper right corner of the keyboard, in place of the old power button. Protection will provide security chip Apple T2, the benefits of which have devoted a good five minutes. The laptop will not have a touchbar (thank God, did anyone find a use for it at all?).


    Keyboard - the new, third generation, the keys are four times more stable than before. Under it - the Force Touch trackpad, 20% more than the previous Air. The laptop is 25% stronger than the speakers, twice the amount of bass, better stereo. New built-in microphone.


    The top MacBook Air will have an eighth-generation Intel core processor with integrated graphics, 16 GB of RAM, and up to 1.5 TB of SSD. The characteristics of the battery were not reported, but they say that it keeps 13 hours of watching a movie on iTunes + 12 hours of web browsing.




    Much attention was paid to environmental problems. In the production of the laptop is now used to the maximum recycled materials, including used plastic. Apple's metallurgical team even developed a new aluminum alloy that allows them to make a new MacBook Air 100% from recycled aluminum. Carbon emissions into the atmosphere when creating a laptop reduced by 50%. Now it’s the greenest laptop in the world.


    For the version with 8 GB of RAM, 2-core Intel Core i5 1.6 GHz and 128 GB SSD you will need to pay $ 1.199. Pre-orders are already open on Apple.com, shipping starts on November 7th.



    Mac mini


    “First of all, our customers want more powerful processors. Therefore, every Mac mini now starts with at least four cores. ” 6-core variants will also be available.




    Processors - Intel eighth generation. Productivity increased 5 times, graphics accelerated by 60%. RAM - up to 64 GB (2666 MHz SO-DIMM). Storage - up to 2 TB SSD, two times more than before, and with data processing four times faster. Ports - two USB-A, four Thunderbolt 3, one HDMI. Gigabit Ethernet port (on request you can take up to ten gigabits). And ... mini jack! Yes, he is even here, Apple is completely generous.


    The price of the basic configuration, with 8 GB of RAM, 128 GB SSD and 4-core Core i3 3.6 GHz - $ 799. Sales began today, shipping starts next week.



    iPad Pro


    In total, Apple has bought 400 million iPads for 8 years, which makes it the most popular tablet in the world. Tim Cook said that "Last year we sold more iPads than the largest manufacturers - all of their laptops." They showed the slide: in 2017, Apple shipped 44.2 million iPads, HP sold 37 million laptops, followed by Lenovo in third place with 32.1 million. I wonder if it is correct to compare sales of tablets and laptops? It was still pretty sad to look at Microsoft, at the very end of the slide, with barely noticeable 0.3 million sales.




    "The iPad is the most popular computer in the world." (MacBook Air, announced ten minutes ago, went to get drunk with grief).


    “And now he has become even better. We are announcing a completely new iPad Pro, which will expand the horizons of what you can do with a computer. ”


    The new iPad Pro - rounded edges of the screen. Home button is missing. Below is USB-C. Behind - a very large camera that protrudes slightly from the body, judging by the renderers. The stylus, if necessary, sticks to the edge with a magnet.


    Screen - LCD, like the iPhone XR. Also called Liquid Retina. Resolution - 2388x1668, 3.98 million pixels. The diagonal is 11 or 12.9 inches, but the size of the device is much smaller than previous versions with the same screen. The version with a 12.9-inch display will be essentially the same size as A4 paper.




    Of course, the device has once again become thinner. Now - 5.9 mm instead of 6.9 mm ("thinning" by 15%). Volume - 25% less than the previous iPad Pro 12.9. Appeared Face ID, like the latest iPhones. Apple says that this technology is safer than any password or any other security system for tablets or computers.


    Processor - A12X Bionic. Larger and faster than the A12 in the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max, more transistors (10 billion, using 7-nm technology, “Intel, wipe out”). 8-core CPU, in general, 90% faster than before. GPU - 7 cores, several times faster than the graphics of the previous generation (Apple says that there are indicators of the level of the Xbox One S). The new iPad Pro will be more powerful than 92% of laptops released last year.




    Storage - up to 1 TB. Four built-in speakers, a 12 megapixel camera (shoots 4K video at 60 frames per second). Gigabit LTE. Support for electronic SIM cards.


    On the iPad Pro, among other things, there will be a desktop version of AutoCAD - because the device is "as fast as the fastest PCs." Assassin's Creed: Odyssey is played at 120 frames per second, better than on any console. Also, people from Adobe came on the scene and showed how well the iPad Pro works with Photoshop (lots of layers, everything flies). And, of course, a bunch of games with AR, for which Apple continues to push very hard.


    The cheapest version of the 11-inch iPad Pro in the US will cost $ 799; 12.9-inch - from $ 999. The order is open on Apple.com, shipping starts on November 7th.



    Apple pencil


    A little white stylus with one flat side to stick with a magnet to an iPad Pro. Constantly recharged from the wireless IPad, so it is always ready to work. You can tap it twice to change modes.




    Smart Keyboard Folio


    A connecting keyboard, two options for work, is much easier to fold-unfold.




    Apple also announced the launch of iOS 12.1 today, with support for two SIM cards for iPhone XS and iPhone XR, FaceTime group, 70 new emoji.



    If at the presentation in September the audience was sitting more or less quietly, here with each new announcement, it just did explode with shouts and applause. People just went crazy, as if the Beatles had arrived (and that was before the release of Lana Del Rey in the end). What is strange, considering that the previous time the performance took place in the Steve Jobs Theater, and today in New York, in the opera house. The opinion was that the entire audience was filled with Apple employees. But when you consider that many of today's devices (for example, the new Mac mini) people have been waiting for more than four years, in principle, the applause is deserved. There are no questions about which model is worth buying - today, or the previous year. New devices head ahead of their predecessors, and competitors here, too, will have hard times.



    As usual, we remind you never to take Apple equipment in Russia. Compare Apple.com and Apple.ru prices. In the USA, the same devices cost 10-30 thousand rubles less. And Pochtoy.com is able to bring them to Russia (from $ 8.99 per pound). All readers of our blog - 7% discount on delivery after registration code HABR.



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