Apple will host an event in Cupertino tonight where it’s expected to launch a new iPad Air, iPad Mini and Mac desktops. The event will begin at 10:30 PM Indian Standard Time and will be livestreamed on Apple’s website.
New iPads
Thanks to information leaked yesterday, we can be almost certain that we will see new iPads tonight. The new iPad Air (or the iPad Air 2) will look identical to its predecessor but is expected to sport more powerful hardware, including a specced up A8X processor and an improved iSight camera that includes the Burst Mode from the iPhone 5S. Apple also plans to make the iPad Air 2 more conducive to reading ebooks by giving it an anti-glare screen. The iPad Mini 3 will also look the same as its predecessor and both new iPads will get the TouchID button that was introduced on the iPhone 5S.
New iMacs
The “It’s been way too long” statement in Apple’s invite for tonight’s event probably points to an update to the company’s line-up of iMac desktops. Rumours suggest that the new iMacs will get Retina Displays with resolutions varying from 4096 x 2304 to 6400 x 3600. Another rumour suggests that the new 27-inch iMac will sport a 5K display with a resolution of 5120 x 2880 pixels. Since Intel has not yet launched its Broadwell processors, the new iMac is expected to be powered by a Haswell i7-4790K clocked at 4GHz and upwards and will sport AMD GPUs rather than Nvidia.
New Macbook Air
Everybody has been waiting for a Retina display update to Apple’s Macbook Air line-up and chances are that wait will continue. Tonight Apple is expected to do away with the 11-in Macbook Air and instead launch one with a 12-in or 13-in display. However, new rumours suggest that these won’t be Retina Displays. The new Macbook Air is also expected to be significantly slimmer, so much so that Apple has gone with a reversible USB Type C connector and a redesigned slimmer MagSafe charging port. It will also sport thinner bezels around the display and may also have a keyboard that runs from edge-to-edge. To make the Air even more worthy of its name, Apple may also have opted for a fanless design permitted by the Intel Core M processor that reduces heating and power intake.
Mac OS X Yosemite
Apple showed off OS X Yosemite at WWDC in June and since then the OS has been tested thanks to the free consumer preview. There’s no word yet on the launch date for the OS but there’s a good chance that it will actually be launched tonight, or we’ll at least get to know the actual launch date, which had been suggested as October 21 by previous rumours.
OS X Yosemite will introduce a whole bunch of new features to OS X and bring it closer to the look, feel and usability of iOS. OS X will also introduce the ambitious Handoff feature that will let you move freely between an iOS device and an OS X machine and start tasks on one and end them on the other seamlessly.
As I mentioned earlier, Apple will livestream its event on its website from 10:30 PM tonight. Considering how it screwed up its iPhone livestream last month, we won’t really have our hopes high for this one.
via Macworld, The Inquirer