by Mark Ollig
Apple has the knack for presenting new computing gadgets
just in time for the holiday shopping season.
In advance of their presentation last Tuesday before a live
audience, the online Apple Store posted a “We’ll Be Back” teaser message. This
meant new products and prices would become accessible after Apple’s official
announcement.
Inside the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco,
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc., took the stage, as those in attendance and
watching live online (including yours truly) waited to see what goodies he
would be offering.
Cook began by telling us last month’s introduction of the
iPhone 5c and 5s resulted in 9 million iPhones being sold during its initial
launch weekend.
He stated there are 1 million software applications (apps)
for Apple’s user devices available in the Apple Store catalog, and that
approximately 60 billion apps have been downloaded.
Cook also pointed out app developers have now earned $13
billion in payouts for their software creations.
So, yes, young people, it does pay to learn how to code.
Craig Federighi, senior vice president of Software
Engineering at Apple Inc., gave a demonstration of the newest version (10.9) of
Apple’s OS X desktop operating system, called Mavericks.
More than 200 new features are included with Mavericks.
He first worked in Pages, which is an Apple word processing
application where users can create documents, letters, flyers, and invitations.
Federighi also showed the new version of Maps, which Apple
designed to provide users intuitive, verbal destination directions, along with
interactive 3D views.
Mavericks is being released as a free download from the Mac
App Store.
Maps and iBooks will also be included in this version, as well.
The Mac App Store can be found at
http://tinyurl.com/bytes-macapps.
Phil Schiller, senior vice-president of worldwide marketing
at Apple Inc., spoke about the new MacBook Pro laptop computer.
The popular Retina display will be included on both the 13
and 15-inch models.
The MacBook Pro comes configured with a fourth-generation
Intel quad-core i3, i5, or i7 processor.
These processors are said to provide much faster application
performance and improved battery life; this new MacBook Pro claims to have nine
hours worth of battery time.
There are five new MacBook Pro model configurations to
choose from.
The MacBook Pro 13-inch display, 2.4 GHz dual-core Intel
Core i5 processor starts at $1,299, while the better-equipped, 15-inch display,
2.3 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 processor model lists at $2,599.
The next new computer to be shown by Schiller was Apple’s
new desktop model the Mac Pro.
We usually think of desktop or tower computers as being
rectangular, tall, or box-shaped.
Not the Mac Pro.
The Mac Pro computer housing is cylindrical, less than 10
inches high, and is painted a glossy black; however, don’t be fooled by its
small size there’s plenty of processing power built into it.
Its physical chassis is fashioned from extruded aluminum and
is finely polished.
“Assembled in the USA” is laser-etched on the bottom of its
chassis.
The new Mac Pro’s next-generation Intel Xeon E5 Quad
processor comes configured with six, eight, or 12 cores, and a 30MB L3 (level
3) memory cache to improve computing performance.
I was surprised to learn there was only one cooling fan
inside the new Mac Pro, as previous models came with eight.
Significantly improved energy efficiency is one reason for a
single cooling fan, as this new model uses a remarkable 70 percent less energy
than the earlier Mac Pros.
This computer includes display support for up to three, 4K
display screens (digital screens supporting 4,000 pixels).
The Mac Pro is 9.9 inches high, and has a width of 6.6
inches. It weighs 11 pounds.
At the minimum $2,999 price, it comes equipped with a 3.7GHz
quad-core Xeon E5 processor, 12GB of DDR3/ECC (double-data rate type 3/error
code correcting) memory, Dual AMD FirePro D300 graphics processors, 2GB
GDDR5/VRAM (graphics double-data rate 5/video random-access memory), and a
256GB PCIe/SSD (peripheral component interconnect express/solid-state drive).
Complete technical specifications can be found at
http://www.apple.com/mac-pro/specs.
Schiller said the new Mac Pro will be available in December.
He then talked about Apple’s iPad Air.
This new iPad is 9.4 inches tall, has a width of 6.6 inches,
a depth of .29-inches, and weighs 1 pound.
The iPad Air uses the iPhone 5s A7 processor chip, along
with the motion (M7) co-processor.
It includes a 9.7-inch (diagonal) Retina display, and is
available in two colors, space gray and silver.
The Wi-Fi models come in 16, 32, 64, or 128GB configurations
priced at $499, $599, $699, and $799, respectively.
The Wi-Fi and cellular models come in the same GB
configurations, and are priced at $629, $729, $829, and $929.
These new iPad Air computing tablets will be available in
November.
Cook remarked how it has been three and one-half years since
the iPad was first introduced, and how others doubted it would make much of an
impact in the computing industry.
He then revealed (with a smile) that Apple sold its 170
millionth iPad earlier this month.
“Now everybody seems to be making a tablet, even some of the
doubters,” Cook said.
You can watch Apple’s presentation at http://www.apple.com/apple-events/october-2013.
Tim Cook, CEO of Apple Inc., speaking at the start of the October 22, 2013 Apple Event inside the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco.
