Apple has today added another member to the iPad family – the iPad Mini which has a 7.9-inch screen. The wi-fi version goes sale on November 2 with the wi-fi + cellular model to follow two weeks later.
Tim Cook took to the stage at the California Theatre in San Jose to kick off the special Apple event which also saw the introduction of the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display and an all-new iMac and Mac Mini.
Apple has also announced the fourth generation full sized 9.7-inch iPad with an A6X processor, improved front camera and a Lightning connector. And pricing is the same price as the new iPad which was introduced in March.
The new iPad Mini has a 7.9-inch screen with a resolution of 1024 x 768 which means existing apps that run on the larger 9.7-inch iPad will scale perfectly to fit the smaller screen.
It is just 7.2mm thick and weighs 308g. It is as light as a notepad.
And like the iPhone 5 it is available in white/silver and black/slate.
The iPad Mini has a FaceTime HD front camera and 5 megapixel rear facing camera and running the Apple A5 processor under the hood with a 10-hour battery life.
The iPad Mini will be available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities in both wi-fi only versions and wi-fi + 4G and will be priced $369, $479 and $589 for wi-fi respectively and $509, $619 and $729 for the wi-fi + LTE respectively.
The fourth generation iPad and the new iPad Mini will both be compatible with Australian 4G networks on Telstra, Optus and Virgin Mobile.
Also included with the iPad Mini is the new smaller Lightning connector which was first seen with the recently launched iPhone 5.
With a smaller screen and more portable form factor, the iPad Mini will appeal to users looking for a device that can also double as an eReader.
Apple also revealed the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display following the success of the 15-inch version introduced for the time at the Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
It is 20 per cent thinner than the previous 13-inch MacBook Pro and has a resolution of 2560 x 1600 which is almost double the amount of pixels of a full high definition TV.
It also has a FaceTime HD camera and a backlit keyboard with re-engineered interior design to maximise the space inside the chassis and fit in a long-life battery which can run for up to seven hours.
It has a 2.5Ghz dual core i5 processor, 8GB RAM and a 128GB SSD drive
The device goes on sale today.
Another popular product that has been given a significant refresh is the iMac.
The all-in-one desktop computer now has a 5mm edge and is 80 per cent thinner than the previous version. It will be available in 27-inch and 21.5-inch models.
It has 75 per cent less reflection and has also done away with the DVD optical drive.
It can take up 32GB of RAM, up to 3TB hard drive and has a 2.7Ghz or 2.9Ghz quad core processor.
The new iMac will also introduce a Fusion Drive which combines 128GB of flash store and a regular hard drive for faster reads and writes.
The all-new iMac will go on sale in November with the 27-inch model arriving in December.
The Mac Mini was also given an update and has a dual or quad core processor and up to 16GB of RAM and will also go on sale from today.
In other announcements Tim Cook said the iPhone 5 has become the fastest selling phone in history after clocking more than 5 million sales in the opening weekend.
And more than 200 million devices are now running iOS6.
The App Store has also crossed the 35 billion download mark with more than 275,000 apps designed especially for the iPad.
* Stephen Fenech travelled to San Jose as a guest of Apple
Related Stories
