Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Phil Schiller, who was on stage for the majority of Apple’s Mac announcements earlier this week, sat down with TIME following the event to talk Macs. The first topic of conversation was the sometimes-controversial design of recent Mac refreshes, including: the removal of optical drives, lack of repairability, and new I/O standards:
“This is what Apple has always been about, and the Mac has been about, from the first Mac and first iMac,” Schiller said. “It’s always been about making the best Mac we know how. Among the many benefits are making it easy to use and affordable, with great features. This high level of integration is part of delivering on that.”
While calling Blu-ray a “complex and not-great technology,” Phil talked the removal of old standards, such as optical drives, and the move to SSDs: Read more
Apple just finished unveiling its all-new iMac design that we previously unveiled leading up to the event. We told you at the time that Apple is shipping two refreshed models of its 21-inch and 27-inch iMacs, but we would unfortunately likely see delays on at least some models. Apple decided to take the wraps off its refreshed iMacs today, but as we predicted, the models will not ship right away.
Apple did not confirm during the unveiling, but it has now listed the new iMacs on its website with availability dates listed as November for the 21-inch model and December for the 27-inch model. You will no longer be able to get your hands on the last-generation iMac, except through Apple’s refurbished section. Hopefully Apple can get enough of these out before the holidays, especially the 27-inch model that will not ship until weeks before.
Also of note for the new iMacs is the fact that the 21-inch model comes with no user accessible RAM slots, while the 27-inch model has 4 slots accessible from the back of the machine. The 21-inch model is configurable up to 16GB through Apple, but the 4 slots on the 27-inch can handle up to 32GB:
The 21.5-inch iMac comes with 8GB of memory and can be configured online with 16GB. On the 27-inchiMac, 8GB of memory comes standard, and you can upgrade to 16GB or 32GB. Configure and buy your iMac at the Apple Online Store and it will arrive with the memory already installed. Or add more memory to the 27-inch model yourself by popping open the easy-to-access memory panel on the back.
Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Philip Schiller is now live on stage at the company’s special media event in California, and he just unveiled the new iPad mini.
“The iPad mini is every inch an iPad,” announced Schiller.
The iPad mini is the much-rumored smaller tablet from Apple, and it just debuted at 7.9 inches and .68 pounds.
“It’s as light as a pad of paper,” Schiller added.
The new Apple-branded tablet boasts a 1,024-by-768-pixel resolution, like the previous-generation 9.7-inch iPad models, but it has a 7.2mm-thick aluminum shell that is 53 percent lighter and 23 percent thinner. The iPad mini also has a dual-core Apple A5 processor, a 5-megapixel iSight camera, 802.11n Wi-Fi, LTE capability, Lightning connector, and a 10-hour battery life. The base model
Full iPad mini specs:
Comes in Wi-FI and Wi-Fi+ Cellular models
7.2mm thick— 23 percent thinner, “as thin as a pencil,” etc.
53 percent lighter, 0.68 lbs, “as light as a pad of paper,” etc.
Colors: black with slate, white with silver
7.9-inch diagonal
Exact same pixels as previous-generation iPad: 1,024-by-768—all software works unchanged
163 pixels per inch (ppi)
Bezels: made of aluminum, where as Android is plastic (Schiller comparing iPad mini to Nexus 7)
FaceTime HD camera: 1.2MP photos, 720p HD video, FaceTime video calling over Wi-Fi or cellular, Face detection, Backside illumination
5MP iSight camera: 5MP photos, Autofocus, Face detection, Backside illumination, Five-element lens, Hybrid IR filter, ƒ/2.4 aperture
Video recording: 1080p HD video recording, Video stabilization, Face detection, and Backside illumination
802.11a/b/g/n, Ultrafast LTE wireless
Battery: Built-in 16.3-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery, charging via power adapter or USB to computer system, 10 hours of battery life (ad: “largest and thinnest single-cell battery we have ever designed”)
Supports AirPlay Mirroring to Apple TV (second and third-generation) at 720p and AirPlay video streaming to Apple TV (third-generation) at up to 1080p and Apple TV (second-generation) at up to 720p
Apple has refreshed its third-generation iPad line today, as expected, with a semi-minor upgrade that includes a new Lightning connector, but the company also included some upgraded internals in what it is calling the “fourth-generation iPad.”
“It is a power house,” said Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Philip Schiller while on stage at the event.
The fourth-generation iPad features faster performance with dual-core A6X and quad-core graphics. It also has a 5-megapixel iSight camera, expanded LTE chipset, front-facing camera with FaceTime and 720p video capture, ultrafast two-times Wi-Fi, and Lightening connector.
Additional specs:
Next-generation ISP
Double CPU performance from A5x
Double graphic performance
10-hour battery life
LTE support
Colors: black and white
This is the first time Apple has unveiled two versions of the 9.7-inch iPad in one year. The fourth-generation iPad is priced at $499 for the 16 GB model and $629 for the 16 GB model with 4G LTE.
Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Philip Schiller is now live on stage at the company’s special media event in California, and he just showcased a refreshed, slimmer, and sleeker iMac.
“It is the most beautiful iMac we have ever made,” announced Schiller. “There’s an entire computer in there [...] it’s hard to believe there is even a display in here.”
The new eighth model is beautifully thin, but it still touts the iconic iMac shape. Schiller further discussed the iMac’s striking 5mm edge, as well, noting Apple used a “friction stir welding” technique to create the new desktop that apparently boasts less reflection than older displays.
Schiller also mentioned a new “Fusion Drive” option that is a combination of storage and software. It provides a 128GB SDD and 1TB or 3TB HDD melded into a single volume for faster read-and-writes and better performance. Go to 9to5Mac’s full coverage of the Fusion Drive for more details.
More iMac specs:
Two sizes: 21.5-inch and 27 inch
Edge-to-edge glass—5mm thinner display, 80 percent thinner than previous generation, extends entire length, super strong and nearly seamless, LED-backlit display with IPS technology
Removed 2mm air gap, lamintated display directly to glass, 45 percent thinner
Anti-reflective coating, plasma deposition—apply coating down to nanometer thickness, 75 percent less reflection than previous generation
FaceTime HD camera, dual mics, stereo sound system
Sheds up to 8 lbs
Audio: stereo speakers, dual microphones, and headphone port
Connections: SDXC card slot, Four USB 3 ports, Two Thunderbolt ports, Mini DisplayPort output with support for DVI, VGA, and dual-link DVI, 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45 connector)
We had many of the details for the 13.3-inch Retina MacBook Pro ahead of today’s unveiling, but Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide Marketing Philip Schiller just confirmed the device’s specs and pricing. As we told you earlier, the new 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro comes in two base configurations (with a third 2.9GHz dual-core i7 upgrade option available) and gets many of the enhancements that the 15-inch version received. Schiller noted that the device is 20 percent thinner than the previous generation 13-inch MacBook, and it includes a 2,560-by1,600 Retina display with 29 percent higher color contrast and 75 percent reduced reflection.
Apple also announced that the device would start at $1,699 for the base configuration, and it will start shipping today. Apple also showed a second configuration would be offered for $1,999. Both options below are configurable to a 2.9GHz dual-core Intel Core i7.
2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz) with 3MB shared L3 cache
2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.1GHz) with 3MB shared L3 cache
