New MacBook Air, Mac mini and iPad Pro

Apple announced updates to three of its main products today. A new MacBook Air features a retina display, Touch ID and Thunderbolt 3 ports. The Mac mini is upgraded to use faster processors, more memory and Thunderbolt 3 as well. A new iPad Pro comes in 11-inch and 12.9-inch screen sizes, has Face ID with no Home button and uses USB-C instead of a Lighting port. The new iPad Pro can also use a new Apple Pencil that magnetically attaches to the side of the iPad for charging. All of these devices are available for ordering today and ship next week.

You can also watch this video at YouTube (but with ads).

Video Transcript: Hi, this is Gary with MacMost.com. Today Apple announced three major product updates. There was a new MacBook Air, a new Mac Mini, and a new iPad Pro. So first let's start by looking at the new MacBook Air.
So the new MacBook Air, as everyone would have predicted, has a retina display. The old MacBook Air was the last MacBook model that didn't have a retina display. So that's no surprise. In addition we got some other new things. There's a touch ID button. So this isn't a full touch bar like the MacBook Pro. It's just a single button that's at the upper right hand corner. Basically where the power button used to be. It's still a power button but now it actually will read your fingerprint and can use touch ID. So you can do things like Apple Pay and you can login by using your fingerprint.
The new Air also has USB-C thunderbolt threeport, as you would think. There's two of them. It's thinner, smaller, and lighter than the previous MacBook Air, weighing in at 2.75 lbs. The base price is pretty reasonable. It's $1,199 for the base model which is 8 GB of memory, 128 GB storage, and these can be upgraded all the way to 16 GB of memory and 1.5 TB drive. 
A lot of people were hoping for a new Mac Mini. It's been a long time since this model has been updated and Apple didn't disappoint. There's a new model. It has a slightly new design with space grey as its color. It's going to start at $799 for an 8 GB, 128 G storage device. It can be upgraded all the way up to 64 G and 2 TB and has processors that range from the I-3 processor to a 6 core I-7 processor. So a lot of people are going to be really happy that there's a new powerful Mac Mini on the market
Also, as predicted, there's a new iPad. This is going to be an upgrade to the iPad Pro. So the iPad Pro line, now that it's upgraded to two models, an 11 inch which is a new size for the iPad Pro and a new 12.9 inch. These are thinner and as predicted they have no Home button. So they are going to use Face ID. Now the face ID camera is actually going to be above the screen. So unlike the iPhone there's no notch. It's just a full rectangle as before. The new iPad Pro features the A12X processor and, this is a big change, it's going to use a USB-C port. So instead of the lightening port. So this is the first iOS device to move away from lightening to USB-C. So this will allow it to power an external display up to 5K and they also showed that it will charge out. So you can charge your iPhone from your iPad. 
In addition to there being a new iPad Pro it's also going to be able to use a new second generation Apple pencil. So this new Apple pencil will be magnetic and it actually sticks to the side of the iPad. Not only does it stick to the side of the iPad but it charges that way. So you stick it to the side, it stays there, and it's charging at the same time.
Now the new iPad Pro is going to start at $799 for the 11 inch model with 64 G of RAM. This can go all the way up to a terabyte of storage. So all of these devices are available for order now. You can go to the Apple site and take a look and see what all of the prices and upgrades are. In addition, they'll be in stores and shipping to people that made orders next week.
In addition to these Apple announced iOS 12.1 today and the big feature of 12.1 is Group FaceTime which a lot of people have been anxiously awaiting.

Comments: 6 Responses to “New MacBook Air, Mac mini and iPad Pro”

Robbie H.

6 years ago

Would it be easy to convert from MacBook (Pro etc) to using an iPad Pro instead? I have a MacBook Pro unibody and do love the ease of upgrading hardware but it’s very tempting to convert to iPad Pro(!!)

Gary Rosenzweig

Robbie: It really is subjective. Does iOS have all the software you need? For developers, this is a problem. But for many others it is a real possibility.

Art Johnson

I'd love to make the move to the iPad Pro, BUT even Apple's own Final Cut Pro X editing software isn't available in an IOS version. Imagine that! PhotoShop works on the new iPad Pro, but FCPX doesn't!

Art: Well, to be fair, Photoshop is coming just next year to the iPad Pro, and even then it won't be 100% for a few versions. And Final Cut Pro, being a video editing tool, is much more processor, graphics and storage intensive than an image editing tool.

Ron

Nothing on iMacs? Gary, I’ve held off for a year waiting for the new processors to make it to iMacs, but no announcement this week. I don’t want to buy a new 27” 3TB iMac and have it grossly outdated in a couple months. What do you see happening (soon) with iMacs?

Ron: There were really no rumors or expectation for a new iMac. I don't think Intel has anything new that warrants a new iMac at the moment. Usually when a new machine comes it doesn't grossly outdate the old one, not when the old one is just from last year.

Comments Closed.

New MacBook Air, Mac mini and iPad Pro

Comments: 6 Responses to “New MacBook Air, Mac mini and iPad Pro”

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