【Apple Conference】Summary: iMac opens up a new horizon, can iPad Air 2 be any thinner?

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At 1:00 am on October 17th, Beijing time, Apple held its 2014 Fall New Product Launch Conference in the Town Hall of the Infinite Loop Campus of its headquarters in Cupertino, California. At this time, the controversy over the iPhone 6 & 6 Plus and Apple Watch released last month has not yet dissipated, and a new round of products are already on the way. According to tradition, Apple's October launch conference will update the iPad product line, and this time, there are also two new Mac products.

iPad twins have different fates

After a long period of praising the past, Apple finally emphasized that the iPad Air 2 has become thinner, only 6.1mm. It is thinner than the 7mm in the "spoiler" and 18% thinner than the 7.5mm of the iPad Air. Apple calls it "the thinnest tablet in the world". The "thinner and thinner" iPad Air 2 weighs 437g, the screen size is still 9.7 inches, the resolution is 2048*1536, and it uses a fully laminated screen, which reduces the reflectivity by 56%.

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Configuration: iPad Air 2 uses a 64-bit A8X processor, which is 40% faster than A7. The CPU performance is 12 times higher than the first-generation iPad, and the GPU performance is 180 times higher. iPad Air 2 is pre-installed with the latest iOS 8.1 system.

iPad Air 2 is equipped with a new iSight camera, with an 8-megapixel pixel and f/2.4 aperture, and supports Burst shot and time-lapse photography. Although the body is thinner, the camera of iPad Air 2 is not prominent. In addition, the front camera has also been improved, with a large f/2.2 aperture and FaceTime HD camera, and the light intake rate has increased by 81%, making iPad selfies and FaceTime chats more powerful. However, the battery life of iPad Air 2 is still about 10 hours.

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As spoilers suggest, the iPad Air 2 has a new gold model, the Home button has Touch ID, supports Apple Pay, and the volume button is designed to be similar to the iPhone 6. However, unlike the iPhone 6, the iPad Air 2 only supports in-app purchases, not in stores, as it does not have an NFC chip.

As for the iPad mini 3, it was only mentioned in one sentence at the launch event. Apart from the addition of Touch ID and the addition of a gold model, other aspects remain basically unchanged. The configuration is shown in the figure below:

In terms of price, the iPad Air 2 Wi-Fi version is priced at RMB 3,588 for 16G, RMB 4,288 for 64G, and RMB 4,988 for 128G; the iPad Air 2 with cellular data is currently only priced in US dollars: the 16G, 64G and 128G versions are priced at US$629, US$729 and US$829 respectively.

The iPad mini 3 Wi-Fi version starts at 2,888 yuan (16GB), while the 64GB and 128GB versions are priced at 3,588 yuan and 4,288 yuan respectively. The 16GB with cellular data is priced at $529, the 64GB is priced at $629, and the 128GB is priced at $729.

Both iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 will be available for pre-order on October 17th, US time, and will be shipped next week. In addition, the good news is that both iPad mini 2 and iPad Air have been reduced in price, with the previous generation iPad Air and iPad mini 2 being reduced by $100 each: iPad mini 2 starts at $299, and the first generation iPad mini starts at $249.

Mac finally gets an update

Before releasing the hardware, Apple officially announced iOS 8.1. The new version of the system is mainly based on user feedback to solve the bugs of the previous version. In addition, it also adds the Camera Roll function, and there are improvements in Apple Pay, iCloud Photo Library, etc. It will be available for users to download next Monday.

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Apple then officially released OS X Yosemite, which has the following features:

The new Safari is six times faster than other browsers using JavaScript and adds two hours of battery life

You can use Markup to sign your emails

You can directly use MailDrop to change attachments. Up to 5GB of attachments can be uploaded. Attachments are encrypted.

iCloud Drive supports seamless cross-platform file synchronization, including Windows devices

Continuity enables more seamless connectivity between Apple devices

No Wi-Fi required, you can connect to Apple TV via AirPlay

Apple is offering users free downloads of the official version of OS X Yosemite and the new version of iWork today.

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Next, let's take a look at the features of the new Retina 5K iMac:

• The screen resolution is up to 5210 x 2880 pixels, 67% more pixels than 4K, and the body edge thickness is only 5 mm.
• The screen material is Oxide TFT, which reduces energy consumption by 30%.
• It uses a 3.5GHz Intel i5 processor, which can be upgraded to a 4GHz Intel i7 processor.
• AMD Radeon R9 graphics chip.
• 1TB Fusion Drive.

As for the price, the 27-inch iMac with a 3.5GHz Intel i5 processor is priced at $2,499.

*** is the Mac mini, which has not been updated for a long time. The starting price of the new version of Mac mini is $499. Here are its relevant parameters:

4th Generation Intel Core Processors.

Intel Iris graphics chip.

It has two Thunderbolt ports.

Uses PCle-based flash memory.

Supports 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

It stands to reason that releasing four new products at once would make the audience excited, but according to the feedback from social networks and my personal perception, the only products that the outside world can clearly perceive as improved are the iPad Air 2 and the Retina 5K iMac computer. The sincerity of the upgrade of iPad mini 3 and Mac mini is really limited. Moreover, the contradiction between iPhone 6 Plus and iPad mini has also begun to appear. Obviously, the future of iPad mini is in doubt. In addition, this time the Mac family has finally been updated. Can it be regarded as a proof of the recovery of the computer industry?

Another guess is that the next round of Apple product updates will probably be the MacBook Air and MacBook Pro.

Link to this article: http://www.ifanr.com/460521