Apple conference summary: "Full screen" iPad has unrivaled performance, Mac computer makes a comeback

At the end of October 2018, the exterior walls of Brooklyn College in New York were painted in colorful colors. Apple, which usually holds press conferences in California, came to New York this time.

Apple designed nearly 400 styles of invitation letters, and almost every media outlet that entered the event received a different one.

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Obviously, abundant "creativity" is the theme of this conference, and Apple's creativity tools are naturally the new iPad and Mac.

The last Apple conference of 2018 is here!

Video introduction: https://v.qq.com/x/page/t0774cv4h1z.html?start=22

The high-resolution screen MacBook Air is here

The first new product to debut was the brand new MacBook Air, a product line that had not been updated for many years. The screen resolution remained at the level of 8 years ago, and the processor architecture had not been upgraded for 4 years.

Ten years ago, Steve Jobs took this ultra-thin computer out of a brown paper bag for the first time, which ushered in the era of Ultrabooks. The new MacBook Air is the biggest evolution in a decade.

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The new MacBook Air also uses an integrated ultra-thin body, which is 10% thinner and 17% smaller than the previous generation. It weighs only 2.75 pounds (about 1.25kg). The speakers are placed on both sides of the keyboard, and the body also integrates a three-microphone array.

In addition to space gray and silver, a new gold color has been added.

If you are an old MacBook Air user, you must have been complaining about this low-resolution screen for a long time.

The new MacBook Air is equipped with a 13.3-inch Retina display with a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels (227 ppi) and a maximum brightness of 300 nits (still a bit lower than the 500 nits of the new MacBook Pro), which can provide a clearer and sharper display effect. In the future, when you work overtime until it is dark and you can't see the screen clearly, you no longer have to worry about whether you are blind or the screen is blurred.

In terms of interfaces, the new MacBook Ai is equipped with two Thunderbolt 3 interfaces, supports Touch ID, has a built-in T2 security chip, has a high-definition FaceTime camera, uses a third-generation butterfly keyboard, has 4 times the stability, and the touchpad area is 20% larger than before.

In terms of performance configuration, the new MacBook Air will be able to be equipped with up to an 8th generation Intel i5 processor, built-in 16GB of RAM, and equipped with a 1.5TB SSD, with a battery life of up to 12 hours.

The new MacBook Air is available for pre-order starting today and will start shipping on November 7 (the release date of the Chinese version will be confirmed after passing review).

The basic configuration of the new MacBook Air is Intel's 8th generation 1.6Ghz dual-core Core i5 processor, Retina display, 8GB 2133Mhz LPDDR 3 memory, 128GB solid-state drive, Touch ID and Force Touch trackpad. The starting price is US$1,199 (the Chinese version is priced at RMB 9,499).

New Mac mini released, performance increased 5 times

The Mac mini, which has been silent for 4 years, finally got an update today. The exterior design hasn't changed much, but it uses the same dark black color as the iMac Pro, and it's obvious that it's trying to make money from professional users.

The new Mac mini uses Intel Core's eighth-generation 4-core/6-core processor, which is more than 5 times more powerful than the previous generation. It supports up to 64GB 2666MHz DDR4 running memory and 2TB SSD, and also supports T2 security chip.

Apple said that the CPU performance of the new Mac mini has increased by up to 5 times compared to the previous one, and the fan size has been increased, the vents have been expanded, and the power supply has been redesigned, so the new Mac mini has better heat dissipation.

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As a desktop computer, the Mac mini has all the necessary interfaces, including 4 Thunderbolt 3, 1 HDMI 2.0, 2 USB-A interfaces, 3.5mm audio interface and an optional 10Gb Ethernet interface.

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The basic configuration of the new Mac mini is 8GB of RAM, a 3.6GHz quad-core Core i3 processor, 8GB of 2666Mhz DDR4 RAM, and a 128GB PCIe solid-state drive. The starting price is US$799 (the Chinese version is priced at RMB 6,499). Reservations are open from now on and it will be officially released on November 7 (the Chinese version will confirm the release time after passing the review).

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Now you can also learn 60 new courses for free

After the intensive update of the Mac product line, Apple reserved the halftime moment for the Today at Apple courses in Apple retail stores.

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This is one of the most important updates since the communityization of Apple retail stores. Apple will offer a variety of courses in every Apple retail store, including photography, programming, education and other courses, which are open to all Apple retail store customers free of charge. As long as you make an appointment in advance, you can receive training.

At this Apple conference, Angela Ahrendts, vice president of Apple's retail department, released 60 new courses at once, including topics such as Video Lab, Photo Lab, Design Lab, and the courses in Apple retail stores in every city will be updated.

Apple has high hopes for the Today at Apple course, which is also the best way for Apple to export its corporate values ​​and help consumers better use Apple products.

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Not only a new iPad, but also a new Apple Pencil

After the intermission, the iPad Pro without a Home button is finally here!

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The newly designed iPad Pro abandons the previous rounded design and comes in two versions: 11 inches and 12.9 inches. The new design is more like the iPhone SE, with a total volume reduced by 25% and a thickness of only 5.9mm, making it the thinnest iPad ever.

The new iPad Pro uses a Liquid Retina LCD display with a 120Hz screen refresh rate. There is ample space on the border, so the new iPad Pro does not have a "bangs" while supporting Face ID. In addition, Face ID also supports horizontal unlocking.

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Since the Home button disappears and a new design is adopted, the interaction method of the iPad has also changed. The overall interaction logic is similar to the iPhone X series, and all the original iPad gestures are inherited.

It is worth mentioning that the new iPad Pro has abandoned the Lighting interface since the iPhone 5 and adopted a USB-C interface, which makes the iPad more compatible. You can easily connect external monitors, cameras and other peripherals, and even charge the iPhone X.

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Since the magnetic interface of the new iPad Pro has been moved to the bottom of the back, the Smart Keyboard and Apple Pencil also use a new design.

The new Smart Keyboard is called Smart Keyboard Folio. It has two folding angles and is not as complicated to use as the first generation.

The second-generation Apple Pencil has a square shape. Although the design is not as elegant as before, it is more practical. At least it won’t roll around on the table.

The new Apple Pencil can be attached to the edge of the new iPad Pro and charged wirelessly at the same time, finally solving the problem of inelegant charging.

The new Apple Pencil also supports touch operation, which is equivalent to having a hidden button. You can trigger the corresponding operation by lightly touching it. For example, in PhotoShop, you can enlarge the picture by double-clicking it, which is very convenient.

In terms of performance, iPad Pro has also been fully upgraded, equipped with a new A12X chip, which uses an 8-core CPU and a 7-core GPU.

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In terms of actual performance, the CPU single-core performance has increased by 35%, and the multi-core performance has increased by 90%. The graphics processing speed is twice that of the previous generation and 1,000 times that of the first-generation iPad. Not only has the performance been improved, the battery life of the new iPad Pro has also been improved, with a battery life of up to 10 hours.

In addition, the new iPad Pro will provide 1TB of storage space, so as a productivity tool, there is no need to worry about it being insufficient.

The new iPad Pro is available for pre-order starting today and will be officially released on November 7 (the release date of the Chinese version will be confirmed after passing the review).

In terms of price, the starting price of the new 11-inch iPad Pro is US$799 (the price in China is RMB 6,499), and the starting price of the 12.9-inch version is US$999 (the price in China is RMB 8,099). The old iPad Pro is sold as usual, priced at US$649 (the price in China is RMB 5,143).

As for the two new accessories, the starting price of the Smart Keyboard Folio in China is RMB 1,449, and the second-generation Apple Pencil is RMB 999 - to complete a fully upgraded iPad Pro, it seems that ten thousand yuan is indispensable.

It is worth mentioning that you can also upgrade to the official version of iOS 12.1 today, and a large wave of new emoji expressions will be available.

Yes, Apple is back

On January 9, 2007, the day Steve Jobs released the iPhone, Apple Computer was officially renamed Apple Inc. – while the iPhone opened the door to mobile Internet, it also seemed to foreshadow the decline of personal computers.

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▲Steve Jobs, picture from: CNBC

In the past less than 12 months, Apple has successively updated the MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini, iPad and iPad Pro, almost refurbishing its entire line of computer products, which is very rare in the entire history of Apple's development.

On the stage of this press conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook announced two interesting sets of data:

• Cumulative iPad sales have reached 440 million units, and last quarter's sales exceeded those of all notebook brands in the world.
• In the past, 76% of new Mac buyers came from China, and there are currently more than 100 million active Mac users worldwide.

But behind these two sets of encouraging data, the trends of iPad and Mac are not optimistic.

If you search for "iPad" on Google Trends, you'll find that the popularity of the iPad has been fading over the past five years. In fact, iPad sales are also declining, and today's global iPad sales are less than half of what they were in 2014.

Although Mac sales are relatively stable, the decline of the PC industry means that it is difficult for Mac to become another pillar of Apple.

Former Apple CEO John Sculley criticized Cook in a recent interview:

Cook has done a great job in creating value for shareholders, but I don’t think he puts technological innovation first. Apple is now positioned more like a luxury company.

Although the iPhone has captured 90% of the profits in the mobile phone market with a 15% market share, the growth potential of smartphones has reached its ceiling, and investments in updated technologies such as AR and autonomous driving are unlikely to yield results in the short term.

For Apple, finding new growth points beyond the iPhone is undoubtedly the most important thing.

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Apple's Q3 2018 financial report shows that Apple's service business sales have reached $9.5 billion, close to the revenue of the iPad and Mac departments combined. However, if the service department wants to achieve higher performance, it is obviously not enough without strong hardware support.

No matter from which perspective, revitalizing the computer product line is Apple's best option at the moment.

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As a result, with the MacBook Air and Mac mini with better configurations, and the iPad Pro with a more reasonable design, after this update, Apple's computer product line has basically been finalized.

The entry-level iPad, MacBook Air, Mac mini, and iMac will target the broadest consumer base, who are often converted from iPhone users.

As for iPad Pro, MacBook Pro, and iMac Pro, they are aimed at professionals who have extreme demands for productivity tools.

Can a more reasonable product marketing strategy really help Apple's computer business recover? The answer may not be known until 2019.

But there is no doubt that the threshold to become an "Apple fan" is indeed getting higher and higher.