New iPads, 27" Retina iMac, Mac Mini, OS X Yosemite, Apple Pay, and More - MacRumors

Apple Launches New iPads, 27" Retina iMac, Updated Mac Minis, Apple Pay, OS X Yosemite, and More While Apple's media event last Thursday may not have been as highly anticipated as September's iPhone 6 and Apple Watch event, the company still found plenty to pack into the sequel. Take a look back at our archived live coverage of the October event or check out the full video posted by Apple.   Read Full Article Popular Stories Oct 23, 2014 Apple Launches iPad Air 2 with Thinner Profile, Touch ID, and A8X Processor The highlight of last week's event for many people was the iPad Air 2, a thinner and more powerful version of Apple's flagship 9.7-inch tablet. Apple began taking pre-orders for the device on Friday and those shipments have started arriving while the company has also started selling them in stores. Early reviews have praised the iPad Air 2's thinner design, more vibrant display, and fast performance, but question whether it marks a big enough leap forward to attract consumers amid continued declines in sales. Benchmarks have revealed the iPad Air 2 is up to 68% faster than the original iPad Air and even 55% faster than the iPhone 6, thanks to the new iPad's triple-core A8X chip. A bump to 2 GB of RAM should also help cut down on reloading Safari tabs.   Read Full Article Apple Announces iMac with Retina 5K Display for $2,500 Apple's big Mac announcement last week was a new 27-inch Retina "5K" iMac boasting a 5120 x 2880 display and starting at $2499. The machine was quickly praised for its display, and benchmarks have shown that it outperforms non-Retina iMacs and even the low-end Mac Pro due to high-end Haswell chips used in the the new machine. Apple touted pricing on the new iMac, noting that high-quality 4K displays alone can cost in the range of $3000, but those hoping to use one of the new iMacs as an external 5K display for another computer will find that to not be an option. Current display connectivity standards don't support 5K resolutions over single cables, and for that same reason a standalone 27-inch Retina Thunderbolt display from Apple is unlikely until at least late next year when next-generation DisplayPort/Thunderbolt is fully supported.   Read Full Article Apple Releases iOS 8.1 With Apple Pay Support, SMS Relay, Camera Roll, and More This Monday saw the release of iOS 8.1, bringing a number of new features including the new Apple Pay payments system, text message forwarding to Macs, Instant Hotspot, the return of Camera Roll in the Photos app, a public beta of iCloud Photo Library, and more. Apple Pay in particular has been a popular topic since its launch on Monday, with readers interested in seeing how to set up the service and examples of it in action. Apple Pay works both in stores and in apps, and while there have been a few glitches in the early days, Apple Pay seems to be working well for most users.   Read Full Article OS X Yosemite Hits the Mac App Store as a Free Download Shortly after the conclusion of Thursday's media event, Apple released OS X Yosemite to the public via the Mac App Store. The free update brings a new look and a number of new features to the Mac operating system. Among the features are Mac support for iCloud Drive, new Mail features such as Mail Drop and Markup, and a host of "Continuity" features to make it easier for users to move among Mac and iOS devices mid-task. Yosemite also brings new support for Notification Center widgets and extensions such as share sheets to enhance utility.   Read Full Article Apple Releases New Mac Mini Starting at $499 After nearly two years without an update, Apple finally released a new Mac mini at last week's event. While the update did bring a new, lower starting price of $499, many Mac mini fans were underwhelmed by the specs and the lack of a redesign. Apple also discontinued the server edition of the Mac mini that had previously offered support for dual hard drives, and the machine's RAM is no longer user upgradeable.   Read Full Article Apple Releases iPad Mini 3 with Touch ID Home Button  While the iPad Air received a significant overhaul in the form of the iPad Air 2 last week, the iPad mini saw a much smaller update including only a Touch ID home button and a new gold color option. The new iPad mini 3 is otherwise identical to the iPad mini 2 released last year and which Apple is still selling in lower-capacity options at significantly lower pricing. As a result many reviewers are actually recommending the iPad mini 2 over the iPad mini 3, finding the $100 premium for the new model at the 16 GB level not worthwhile simply for Touch ID.   Read Full Article

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