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Apple

Apple's 22 October announcement: iPad Air is revealed among updates and a new version of the MacBook Pro

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By Jennifer Faull, Deputy Editor

October 22, 2013 | 5 min read

Just six weeks after its Apple revealed its "next generation" iPhones, the company has gathered an audience of journalists and tech fans for its latest announcement.

Widely believed to be a new model for its iPad range, or an update to the MacBook Pro, continue reading to find out what's next to come out of the tech giant's HQ.

Announcement

Tim Cook took to the stage, recapping last month’s announcement of the 5C and 5S saying that by the end of the launch weekend, it had sold over nine million iPhones.

"It was the biggest iPhone launch ever.”

After a series of updates and stats on the iPhone and Mac, Craig Federighi took to the stage to discuss OS X: “We’ve focused on three things with mavericks: technologies to improve the performance of your hardware, new features, and new apps,” he said.

He recapped the Mavericks features, including memory, battery life, graphics and showed off the features of Pages and iBooks with a demo.

After the demos, Federighi said: "Over the last few years, we’ve reengineered our development process, and the way we distribute. Today, we’ll revolutionise pricing. Today, we announce a new era of the mac. Mavericks will be free. Whether you’re on the latest release, or way back on Mountain Lion, you can upgrade to Mavericks.”

After that announcement, Phil Schiller took to the stage to talk about the MacBook, revelaing a new, lighter, thinner and cheaper 13-inch MacBook Pro with with a retina display, and nine hours of battery life.

The new 15-inch MacBook Pro was then demod. Similar to the 13-inch it has been made cheaper, starting at $1999.

Schiller then spoke about the Mac Pro, rattling off specs and saying: "Inside it, the fastest memory we’ve ever put in a mac."

"We've been dying to get a few developers hands on the new Mac Pro," he said, before reading out reviews from some specially selected videographers and photographers who tested it.

"The new Mac Pro cuts my editing time exponentially, giving me more time in the field shooting, which is where I need to be," gushed Lucas Gilmna, Sports Illustrated and National Geographic photographer.

After a video showing how the Mac Pro was made and assembled, Eddie Cue took to the stage to talk about Apps.

Among a plethora of updates, iPhoto is being brought to iPad and a new cleaner, simpler version of iMovie has been developed.

GarageBand has also been given a new look and updates for iOS 7 across the iPhone and Mac. Now with iCloud support users can start work on a song using a Mac and continue working on it from an iPad or iPhone.

Next up, iWork. It too has been updated: “Pages, Numbers, and keynotes have all been updated for iOS7. On the mac, they’ve all been rewritten from the ground up.” A demo follows, showing how easy it is to share documents using the iCloud.

All iLife and iWork updates are free: “Others would have you spend hundreds of dollars for their app. We’re taking all of these productivity apps and making them available for free”

"Today is the biggest day ever for apps."

Cook returned to the stage saying that we've only scratched the surface of these incredibly rich apps and with these upgrades has turned the industry on its ear.

Next up: iPad. After mocking the early critics and "doubters", Cook revealed that last month Apple sold its 170 millionth tablet.

"We've been busy working on the next generation of iPad," he said.

A video unveils the newest version of iPad - iPad Air- which is thinner, lighter and more powerful.

The bezel 43 per cent smaller than previous versions, it has 9.7-inch Retina display, is 7.5mm thin, 25 per cent thinner than the previous device, and weighs just 1lb (down from 1.4lbs).

With the new M7 motion processor it is 8x faster than the original and still has 10 hours battery life.

“The new iPad Air will replace our top of the line, full size iPad. It’ll start at $499 for the WiFi model, and $629 for the Cellular model” it is revealed.

Next to be revealed: iPad Mini with Retina Display. A new version launching later in November priced at $399.

Cook end the session by going over the day's big announcements, and unveils a "cool new ad" for the iPad Air just in time for the holiday season.

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