Wed, 23 Oct 2013 Apple's iPad Air, iPad mini 2, Mavericks and MacBook Pro launch as it happened

Apple's press event on 22 October saw the unveiling of the iPad Air and iPad mini with Retina, alongside the new Mac Pro, OS X Mavericks and new MacBook Pros. Macworld UK updated a live blog throughout the event with all the latest information about the iPad Air, iPad mini 2 and other new product announcements. Here's a run down of everything that was announced as it happened.

You can get all the latest info in these pieces: Apple MacBook Pro Retina first hands-on review, Mac Pro first look and preview - black, shiny, when can we buy one?, iPad mini 2 hands on review: Gorgeous Retina display, OS X Mavericks review: Masses of new features - and it's free!, New iPad Air review: Thinner, lighter, faster, same price and iPad Air vs iPad 4 comparison review: Is it worth upgrading to iPad Air?

Have a look around the hands on press room after the event with us... 

Apple's iPad launch event: as it happened 

Apple's press event on 22 October saw the unveiling of the iPad Air and iPad mini 2, alongside the new Mac Pro, Mac OS X Mavericks and new MacBook Pros. Macworld UK updated a live blog throughout the event with all the latest information about the iPad Air, iPad mini 2 and other new product announcements. Here's a run down of everything that was announced as it happened.

You can get all the latest info in these pieces: Apple MacBook Pro Retina first hands-on review, Mac Pro first look and preview - black, shiny, when can we buy one?, iPad mini 2 hands on review: Gorgeous Retina display, OS X Mavericks review: Masses of new features - and it's free!, New iPad Air review: Thinner, lighter, faster, same price and iPad Air vs iPad 4 comparison review: Is it worth upgrading to iPad Air?

iPhone update

Apple CEO Tim Cook kicked off with some update on the success of the latest iPhone launches – the iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. By the end of the launch weekend Apple had sold 9 million iPhones making it the biggest iPhone launch ever.

Cook then moved onto iOS 7, revealing that in the first five days after the launch, iOS 7 had been installed on 200 million devices, claiming it was the "fastest upgrade in history".

"As of today two thirds of devices are running iOS 7," he added, which can be interpreted as a dig at the Android world; estimates suggest that only about 1.5% of Android users have installed Android 4.3, for example.

Cook went on to mention iTunes Radio, US only at the moment. The new streaming music service has seen 20 million users listen to 1 bullion songs in the first month.

Next Cook revealed that there are now more than 1 million apps on the App Store, with 60 billion downloads, and that developers have made over $13 billion (£8 billion) from sales. 

The Mac

Next in the proceedings was talk of the Mac. Cook noted that Apple's "amazing lineup of desktops and notebooks" is down to Apple's "one focus". That focus being to "build the best personal computers in the world, that people love to use."

He continued, observing that the competition is different, "they are confused," he said: "They chased after netbooks. Now they're trying to turn tablets into PCs and PCs into tablets."

"Apple has a clear direction and ambitious goal, says Tim. Apple still believes deeply in this category, and they're not slowing down in their innovations," he added, stating that Apple would be introducing "some new Mac products". 

Mavericks

The first of these 'Mac products', rather than being a Mac, was OS X Mavericks (read our review of Mavericks here), first previewed back at WWDC in June. Craig Federighi took to the stage to talk though "three things in Mavericks". He covered core technologies, features, and new apps.

"One of the biggest missions with Mavericks was to get more charge out of battery, more out of your memory, and higher performance out of GPU," Federighi explained.

"Battery life varies by model, but even if you take 13-inch MacBook Air and all you do is install Mavericks, you will get up to an hour longer web browsing on a single charge," he claimed. "Up to 1.5 hours longer watching iTunes video."

There are also big improvements with memory. "Compressed memory lets Mavericks compress inactive memory making space for new allocations," he explained.

"This means you can fit 6GB data into 4GB systems RAM," he added. The knock on effect is that you can "run more applications and never slow down".

Federighi went on to discuss graphics. Apple was focused particularly on integrated graphics with this upgrade, especially as some of the latest Macs use high-end integrated graphics. "Mavericks is smarter and can allocate different amounts of RAM to the GPU," explained Federighi.

Other graphics related features of the new OS include OpenCL for integrated graphics, this takes tasks that would run on CPU and runs them on the GPU. Benchmark results are good, claims Apple: "Up to 1.8x acceleration for these tasks and sometimes 2x and higher for image processing."

Other Mavericks features touched on in the presentation included Shared Links in Safari, enhanced notifications to let you respond in the notification, tags in the Finder, and big improvements to handling for multiple displays. Also the new Maps app. High performance, multitouch gestures, driving directions, and flyover. Also iBooks, with your whole book library and your iBooks textbooks as well.

During the demo of Mavericks we saw Federighi reply to messages from Notification Centre (without having to open the Messages app), we saw him drag a quote from iBooks into a Pages document, integration between Mail and Calendar, Maps, and we even saw a story about Apple's new campus, which even Federighi described as "outer space", a reference to the flying sauces -like design of what many describe as Apple's "spaceship campus".

After the demo came the really exciting revelation. Not only is Mavericks available to download straight away. Apple's latest operating system, OS X Mavericks is a free download. And it's not just a free update for people running Mountain Lion either, even those running Snow Leopard can download Mavericks for free.

 

MacBooks

Apple's line of Mac laptops was next up. Apple's Phil Schiller recalled how a new generation of MacBook Air had been announced in June at WWDC. At the 22 October event attention turned to the new 2013 MacBook Pro [Read our MacBook Pro hands on review].

Schiller explained that last year's MacBook Pro was the first personal computer to come with a Retina display and revealed that both the 13- and 15-inch models were being updated. 

(It was notable that Apple wasn't referring to the non-Retina model, which lead us to suppose that the original MacBook Pro with optical drive was discontinued, but for now it is still available.)

The 13-inch model is now even thinner and lighter, revealed Schiller. It also offers "better battery life", even for watching movies. Apple says 9 hours of iTunes movie playback.

The MacBook Pro also gets 802.11ac and Thunderbolt 2, and it's shipping now.

The 15-inch MacBook Pro is using a quad-core Intel Crystalwell chip with Iris Pro Graphics. These integrated graphics deliver the same performance as discrete graphics, according to Apple. There are also models with a second graphics card: the GeForce GT 750M.

This larger machine offers 8 hours battery life, according to Apple, and like the 13in they offer faster PCIe-based Flash, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, and Thunderbolt 2. These models are also shipping now.

 

Mac Pro

The Mac Pro was also shown off at the 22 October event. First seen at WWDC in June, Schiller recapped, explaining that it "packs an incredible amount of power into something that's 1/8 the volume of the previous version." And "Inside is the fastest processor ever put in the Mac. Next-generation Xeon E5. Quad, 6, 8, or 12-cores. Up to 30MB L3 cache. Fastest ECC memory ever put in a Mac. 1866MHz DDR3."

He continued: "First Mac to come standard with dual workstation graphics. AMD FirePro graphics. Fast buses, up to 128GB of VRAM, over half a terabyte of bandwidth, and up to 7 teraflops of computing power."

Read our preview of the Mac Pro for more information about the specs of this new workstation.

Schiller explained that Apple had seeded the new unit to professional photographers and video pros, mentioning that these units were running new versions of Aperture and Final Cut Pro X – which Apple confirmed to us, will be available later this year.

The Mac Pro will ship in December. The company then showed a video demonstrating how the Mac Pro is built.

 

iLife

Next Eddy Cue too to the stage to talk about software, starting with iLife, Cue explained that there were brand new versions of iPhoto, iMovie, and GarageBand for both iOS 7 and OS X Mavericks. All of which are 64bit.

iPhoto offers faster and smoother photo browsing. On iOS it's got a "brand new look that's clean and beautiful". Printing from iPhoto is easier too.

The new version of iMovie adds new features and is completely redesigned for iOS 7 and the Mac. A new feature called iMovie Theatre means you can access your home movies on all your iCloud-linked devices.

GarageBand also gets a redesigned for the Mac and iOS (Apple tells us it's been completely rewritten). You can get 32 tracks on a 64-bit device. Again your work is shared via iCloud, also you can choose your own Drummer from a variety of different drummers in different genres.

The big news is that all these apps are free to anyone who updates to Mavericks.

iWork

Pages, Numbers and Keynote have also been redesigned for Mac and iOS. The biggest deal is full file compatibility. You can now open a document on any device, on any platform.

In Pages you can see a new Format panel that is context sensitive, which means that you can see the tools you need depending on what you have selected. E.g. select some text, you can select font, style. Click on an image and it'll give you tools for adjusting the picture.

A new feature in Numbers is interactive charts, so you can look at your expenses month by month.

The new version of Keynote had a great preview because Apple was using it for the presentation. There are "incredible new effects and animations" explained Cue.

A series of software demos were performed by Cue and Roger Rosner, highlighting collaboration features in iWork.

All the iWork productivity apps are available for free with the purchase of any new Mac or iOS device, revealed Apple, although we've been told that the iWork apps are free once you upgrade to Mavericks.

Cook returned to the stage at this point and noted: "When you combine the announcement that iLife/iWork are free with the news that Mavericks are free, we're turning the industry on its ear."

Apple wants as many of their customers as possible to have access to these apps, explained Cook. 

iPad

The next product to get the stage was the iPad. Cook explained that when the iPad launched three and a half years ago some people wondered if it could compete with the netbook. "Who remembers netbooks," he joked.

"The iPad has gone on to become one of the most successful products in Apple's history, and in the industry," said Cook. Earlier this month Apple sold its 170 millionth iPad.

"Now everybody seems to be making a tablet, even some of the doubters," said Cook, adding: "Regardless of how many are bought or sold or activated, iPad is used more than the rest. iPad is used over four times more than other tablets put together."

He added: "This is what's important. This is how you know you make a great product with a great experience. People use it and people love it."

Summing up why the iPad is so successful, Cook said: "The reason is because iPad combines into an incredible experience, hardware and amazing software and intuitive services into an experience that nobody else can match."

There are more than 475,000 iPad apps on the App Store, he revealed. "These are custom-designed, not stretched out smartphone apps". 

iPad Air

The next generation of iPad is the iPad Air. Phil Schiller returned to stage to talk about it. "Today the biggest step yet in delivering the vision that is iPad," he said.

"This is the new generation iPad: thinner, lighter, more powerful than ever before." And, said Schiller, "it deserves a new name". The new name is iPad Air.

The 9.7-inch Retina display is the same but the bezel around it is smaller than ever, "dramatically so". It's also 43% thinner than previous version. 20% thinner across the entire device. ?

It's also lighter. In fact, according to Apple it's the "lightest full-sized tablet in the world". The experience of holding it is "dramatically different".

Inside is the same A7 chip and M7 coprocessor as in the as in the iPhone 5s, offering "Up to 2x CPU performance, and up to 2x faster graphics".

Schiller claimed that this is: "Up to 72x faster graphics performance than the original iPad."

It's also the first iOS device with MIMO technology for Wi-Fi and features explained Schiller,  and offers LTE support (although in the UK we note that only 3G is listed in the description).

The iPad Air offers 10-hour battery life like it's predecessor. It comes in silver and white and space gray and black. The iPad Air replaces the top of the line full-sized iPad, but the iPad 2 will remain. It will ship on 1 November.

(There is no Touch ID on this iPad which has some people disappointed.)

 

iPad mini with Retina

The iPad mini has been a "big hit with customers because it delivers the complete iPad experience in an even smaller design," said Schiller.

The most requested feature was the Retina display, so Apple's new iPad mini will feature a 7.9" Retina display: 2048x1536 pixels. The same number as an iPad Air.

Also like the iPad Air, this iPad mini is also powered by 64-bit A7 chip. It should be up to 4x faster at CPU tasks. Up to 8x faster at graphics tasks than last years model (powered by the A5). It also gets faster Wi-Fi with MIMO and expanded LTE support.

Like the iPad Air, you will be able to get the new iPad mini in Silver/white, or black/space gray. It will be available "later in November". As with the full-sized iPad, Apple is keeping the older iPad mini as a low-cost option. The price has been lowered for that device. "The lowest price yet for an iPad".

That part of the presentation concluded with news that new cases would be available for the new iPads.

Rounding up the event, Cook said of all the product launches: " Other companies would be proud to have just one. But couldn't be more pleased to present all of them to you in time for the holidays."

Watch the video stream and read the live blog on the next page...