Lighten Up: It’s iPad Air
Last week Apple announced the iPad Air, its fifth-generation iPad, and the iPad mini with Retina display. This thinner, lighter iPad Air boasts a 9.7-inch screen with Retina display, the power efficient Apple-designed A7 processor with 64-bit architecture, and it only weighs a pound.
That’s 20 percent thinner and 28 percent lighter than the fourth-generation iPad.
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The A7 chip makes the Air eight times faster than the iPad 4 – this is the same chip that powers the iPhone 5S.
Along with this latest smartphone, the Air’s A7 also comes with the M7 motion coprocessor, which promises graphics that render at twice the rate of the previous iPad.
Both come loaded with iOS7, featuring a new user interface, a next generation FaceTime HD camera, two antennas to support Multiple-In-Multiple-Out (MIMO) technology, which brings twice the Wi-Fi performance, and more.
The iPad Air with Wi-Fi starts at $499, and Wi-Fi + Cellular models start at $629. The iPad mini with retina display prices start at $299 and $429, respectively.
OS X Mavericks
OS X Mavericks is the 10th release of Apple’s operating system, and it’s free from the Mac App Store.
With more than 200 new features and new apps, Mavericks improves the performance and battery life of your Mac. Some of the highlights include:
* iBooks: gives you instant access to your iBooks library, more than two million titles in the iBooks Store, and works seamlessly across your devices
* Maps: brings powerful mapping technology to the desktop and lets you plan a trip from your Mac and send it to your iPhone for voice navigation on the road
* Calendar: estimates travel time between appointments, and provides a map with weather forecast;
* Safari: This new version of Safari has Shared Links, which helps you find what’s new on the Web by consolidating links shared by people you follow on Twitter and LinkedIn.
* iCloud Keychain: safely stores your website usernames and passwords, credit card numbers and Wi-Fi passwords and pushes them to your trusted devices so you don’t need to remember them.
* Enhanced multi-display support: makes using multiple displays easier and more powerful, with no configuration required
* Interactive Notifications: allows you to reply to a message, respond to a FaceTime call or even delete an email without leaving the app you’re using
* Finder Tabs, which help unclutter your desktop by consolidating multiple Finder windows into a single window with multiple tabs
In addition, Mavericks includes new core technologies that boost performance and improve the battery life of your Mac. Timer Coalescing and App Nap intelligently save energy and reduce power consumption. Compressed Memory automatically shrinks inactive data to keep your Mac fast and responsive.
Through dynamic video memory allocation, Mavericks delivers significant performance enhancements with integrated graphics. Any Mac capable of running OS X Mountain Lion can run Mavericks, and you can upgrade to Mavericks for free directly from OS X Snow Leopard, Lion or Mountain Lion.
Apple also announced a new MacBook Pro with retina display and updated processors, an all-new Mac Pro and the next generation iWork and iLife apps for OS X and iOS.
