Apple showed off its new iPad Air and its iPad Mini on Tuesday at a media event in San Francisco.
The company's next generation full-size iPad is called the iPad Air and as expected resembles the iPad mini. Weighing only one pound, it's lighter and 20 percent thinner than its predecessor. It also features an A7 chip and 10 hours of battery life. It will launch on November 1st.
(Read more: Don't want an iPad? Here are some tablet alternatives )
The device comes in silver and white and space gray and black. It starts pricing at $499 for 16GB WiFi model and will cost $629 for the cellular model. Apple is keeping the iPad 2 at $399.
The Cupertino company also revealed its next generation iPad Mini, which features retina display. It also comes in silver and white and space grey and black. It will be available later in November starting at $399.
Besides new iPads, the company also shared some OS X / Mac Pro news.
Apple is cutting the cost of its MacBook Pro and MacBook Air line-up and is also going to be giving its Maverick software update away for free. It also showed off its Mac Pro, which prices at $2,999.
2:23 p.m.: iPad Air commercial hides it behind a pencil on a table. Clever.
Cook comes back on stage and says goodbye. Event ends.
2:22 p.m.: Tim Cook is back, winding things up. Showing an ad about the iPad Air.
2:20 p.m.: It seems Touch ID is missing, unless I missed that part. No fingerprint sensor on iPads...And there is no gold iPad!
The Mini will launch later in November than the iPad Air.
2:18 p.m.: Mini with Retina battery life stays 10 hours, which is the biggest engineering feat, probably... It will cost $399. Original iPad mini will price at $299.
2:17 p.m.: Retina coming to mini today. The mini Retina has 2048 x 1536 pixels, same number of pixels as iPad Air. It also features a 64-bit, A7 chip.
(This is the biggest deal of all; mini becomes first-class iPad today.)
Live Blog
2:16 p.m.: Now Schiller is talking about iPad Mini.
2:11 p.m.: It will come in space grey and black and silver and white. It will launch on November 1st.
2:08 p.m.: Schiller says it is the lightest full-size tablet in the world. It's up to eight times faster than first iPad, graphics 72x faster.
2:07 p.m.: The new tablet is called the iPad Air.
2:06 p.m.: Schiller: Biggest step yet in delivering the vision that is iPad ... showing video.
2:05 p.m.: Cook: This is just the beginning for iPad ... Phil Schiller coming back to talk about it...
2:03 p.m.: Cook showing a video about how customers use iPads.
2:02 p.m.: Cook: iPad rated #1 in customer satisfaction, because iPad combines hardware, software and services into an experience others can't match; now 475K iPad apps.
2:01 p.m.: iPad used more than any of the rest ... 81% of tablet usage claimed in slide, source not quoted.
Cook says is rated number one and has been since ratings began. Says no one else can match iPad experience.
2:00 p.m.: Cook is having fun showing derogatory quotes about the first iPad (not shaming the authors by naming them).
Cook says Apple sold 170 millionth iPad earlier this month.
1:59 p.m.: Cook: "We launched iPad 3.5 years ago .... Some didn't see the need for it ... others didn't think it could compete with netbooks."
1:58 p.m.: Cook back on stage says these are incredibly rich apps, now all free.
"We are turning the industry on its ear; but that's not why we're doing it; we want all of our customers to have the latest."
Says iPad is up next.
1:57 p.m.: Cue: "Today is the biggest day ever for apps."
1:56 p.m.: Cue: Others would have you spend a small fortune every year ($99) to use apps ... we're making them available for free; available today. Looks like we're seeing Apple's services strategy taking shape.
1:55 p.m.: Cue and another Apple employee demo collaboration on two Macs.
1:54 p.m.: You can share iWork documents with any Mac or iOS device; viewing device doesn't have to have iWork.
Apple adding collaboration to iWork for iCloud; it now shows who is editing.
1:51 p.m.: Cue says there are new effects and animations in Keynote. Showing a new iWork feature.
1:50 p.m.: Cue says iWork updated for iOS 7, rewritten for Mac; full file compatibility (open on any device) ... easier UI.
New formatting panel makes it easier to make tweaks. (I hope there's better cloud compatibility here too, because that's what annoys me.)
1:49 p.m.: Cue says all iLife apps free with purchase of new Mac or iOS device, all available today.
1:48 p.m.: GarageBand lets you change the drum, style; add effects ... drummer is powered by performances by some of the best session players.
You can also add more drummers through in-app purchase. (Why are so many ... all? Of these drummers male?)
1:47 p.m.: Now for a new GarageBand feature.
GarageBand drummer automatically plays along with your track; starts you with "Kyle" a standard drummer.
1:45 p.m.: Cue says the new feature called iMovie theater puts movies, clips in 1 place to see, available on all devices and Apple TV (sounds like Photostream).
Garageband can now handle up to 32 tracks, as well.
1:43 p.m.: Cue: Photo book design can be done on iPad.
New iMovie design cleaner, easier to browse and share videos; no need to create projects, etc ... desktop-class effects to iPhone, iPad.
1:42 p.m.: Cue: iLife first. New versions, redesigned for iOS 7, new icons for iOS.
Now iPhoto browsing faster with 64 bit, new cleaner look for iOS; photo books available for iPad.
1:41 p.m.: Eddy Cue taking the stage next. He is talking apps.
1:40 p.m.: Schiller is showing a video about the Mac Pro. Jeff Williams is talking about the new processes it takes to create it.
Interesting that they're showing video of manufacturing. Companies often very protective of that.
1:39 p.m.: Schiller: Over 2,000 people spread across 20 states helping us to prepare to assemble it (will be assembled in United States).
1:38 p.m.: It will be available before the end of the year.
1:37 p.m.: Schiller: Mac Pro starts at $2,999 ... (clearly this is not for everyone ... available in December)
1:35 p.m.: Schiller: Three examples of what customers can do with it...
Schiller: Dean Devlin, filmmaker says "makes real-time 4K video editing a reality ... change the way I make movies"
Schiller: Stuart Price, producer for Gaga, Madonna, The Killers "Perfect computer for the recording studio" ... says it's "shockingly quiet."
1:31 p.m.: Schiller: Next, Mac Pro...
1:30 p.m.: Schiller: 15" MacBook Pro has Intel Iris Pro graphics, up to 8 hrs battery; also PCIe flash, etc ... was $2,199, now $1,999 ships today.
1:29 p.m.: 13" MacBook Pro starts shipping today.
1:34 p.m.: Schiller: you can expand via Thunderbolt 2, up to 6 devices per port HDMI 1.4 supports 4K TVs.
1:33 p.m.: Schiller: storage all flash, up to 1TB, 10x faster than a HD would be.
1:30 p.m.: Schiller: Mac Pro has Intel Xeon E5, 4,6,8 or 12 core, fastest memory 1866Mhz, up to 64GHz...
Schiller: Mac Pro: AMD FirePro graphics, up half TB total bandwidth.
1:28 p.m.: Schiller: PCIe-based flash up to 50% faster than previous version, up to 3x faster wifi, Thunderbolt 2, 2x faster.
Schiller: Previous generation started at $1,499 ... new 13" starts at $1,299. (Big that Apple is dropping the price on MacBook Pro; they usually don't.)
1:27 p.m.: Schiller: MacBook Pro now .71 inches thin, powered by Intel Haswell chip, with Iris graphics up to 90% faster, up to 9 hours of battery life.
1:26 p.m.: Schiller is going through laudatory MacBook Air reviews.
Begins talking about the MacBook Pro, says it is getting major updates today.
1:25 p.m.: Phil Schiller now on stage talking about the MacBook.
1:24 p.m.: Federighi: "Whether you have Mountain Lion, even Snow Leopard, in a single-step update you can get to Mavericks ... even from 2007 iMac"
Mavericks is available today, he says.
1:23 p.m.: Federighi: "Today we're going to revolutionize pricing."
Federighi says Mavericks is now free. (This is the first time a major OS X upgrade has been free.)
1:22 p.m.: Federighi says calendars now include maps to locations for appointments, weather, travel time and distance.
Mavericks demo over (Federighi keeps getting better at these).
1:21 p.m.: Federighi shows an article about Apple's new campus, pokes some fun at the new HQ and says "I for one look forward to working in outer space."
1:20 p.m.: Federighi: Passwords and payment info synced across devices.
1:19 p.m.: (Apple geeks will appreciate this: he gets a text from his wife, "Hair Force 2")
1:18 p.m.: Federighi: Showing tags, content related to Mars (new way to take notes and study; interesting. Wondering if this will sync to iOS.)
1:17 p.m.: Federighi: opening a textbook about Mars, moving through chapters, playing video in textbook of Atlas 5 liftoff...
1:16 p.m.: Federighi: Maps and iBooks to Mavericks, with flyover and textbooks; now doing a demo.
1:15 p.m.: Federighi: Shared links in Safari, better notifications, tags in Finder (much of this announced at WWDC, he's just recapping.)
1:14 p.m.: Federighi: OS X Mavericks has compressed memory, allowing 6GB of data in 4GB of system RAM, more apps without slowing down.
Also made enhancements to graphics, focusing on integrating graphics.
1:13 p.m.: Federighi says that OS X 13-inch Air with mavericks gets up to an hour longer when browsing and 1.5 hours longer while watching video.
1:12 p.m.: Craig Federighi on stage...
1:11 p.m.: Cook: "On to the Mac: focus has been building best personal computers in the world."
Cook: "Our competition is confused about tablets, PCs ... we have a very clear direction and ambitious goal."
Cook: "We still believe deeply in the category ... exciting new products to share this morning."
1:10 p.m.: Cook: 60 billion downloads from App Store
Cook: "Developers have earned more than $13B from App Store."
1:09 p.m.: Cook: "iTunes Radio runs on iOS devices, Mac or PC, Apple TV ... customers love it. More than 20M listeners, listened to 1 billion songs."
"That's just U.S. in the last month."
1:08 p.m.: Cook says just five days after launch, over 200 million devices were running iOS 7. Nearly two-thirds are running iOS 7 today.
1:07 p.m.: Cook: "When we see customer response like this, it makes all the hard work worthwhile."
1:06 p.m.: Tokyo, too ... in the retail video ... smiling people, as you'd expect. Kids! Media!
1:05 p.m.: Video shows retail stores, London, phones on pallets, people in line cheering...
1:04 p.m.: Cook: "First updates, beginning with iPhone: mentions 9M sold on launch weekend."
Cook: "The excitement and energy around the launch was palpable ... prepared a brief video to share it (airing it)."
1:03 p.m.: Cook: "You're going to see some amazing products this morning ... we're really excited to show them to you."
1:03 p.m.: Cook: "Thanks for joining us ... I really love that video. We played it for the first time at the developers conference."
1:02 p.m.: Tim Cook is taking stage.
1:01 p.m.: The Apple event is beginning with the video $AAPL used to introduce iOS 7 design
12:21 p.m.: Wonder what CEO Tim Cook is doing backstage. He just sent the following tweet: