Apple CEO Tim Cook and a team of Apple executives will be holding their “It’s been way too long” special media event today, October 16th, at 10am PDT/ 1pm EDT.
The special event will take place at Apple’s Town Hall theater in Cupertino, California.
It is widely expected that next-gen iPads will be unveiled today along with the possibility of the release of iOS 8.1 which will also flip the switch on Apple Pay, the release of OS X Yosemite which wil usher in a new age of Continuity for Apple product users, new Mac hardware, and maybe even some Apple TV-related goodness.
Apple’s special event will be webcast live by Apple here. MacDailyNews will offer live notes during Tim Cook and company’s special media event presentation right here on this page. So, just bookmark this page, open both the webcast and this page, so you can watch and comment live, and we’ll see you here!
Apple’s ‘It’s been way too long’ special event live notes:
• End of presentation.
• iPad Air 2 is so thin and powerful. iMac’s 5K display is amazing.
• Cook thanks Apple employees for their work on all of these products
• Cook: “We are just getting started.”
• Cook: Only Apple can deliver this seamless integration
• Cook recaps all of Apple’s products – Only Apple can create this wide variety of products that work together
• Cook retakes stage: Strongest product lineup Apple has ever had.
• Mac mini get updated: Faster Intel Core processors, faster storage, and more: Starts at just $499 (ships today)
• 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display: Ships today
• 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display: Starts at $2499 3.5GHz i5, 8GB RAM, 1TB Fusion drive
• Standard 1TB Fusion drive
• 27-inch iMac with Retina display: CPU: 3.5GHz Intel i5, up to 4GHz quad-core i7
• 27-inch iMac with Retina display video…
• A photographer’s dream
• A remarkable feat of engineering
• 27-inch iMac with Retina display is 5mm thin at edge
• 67% more pixels than 4K displays
• 7x more pixels than on HD TV
• Retina 5K Display: 5120×2880 pixels – 14.7 million pixels – the world’s highest resolution display
• Apple unveils the 27-inch iMac with Retina display
• “The MacBook Air is the best laptop ever made.” – The Wall Street Journal
• Macintosh has grown 18% YOY while the PC industry shrank 1%
• Pre-order new iPads on October 17th
• iPad mini 3: $529 (16GB)/$629 (64GB)/$729 (128GB) – Wi-Fi+ Cellular
• iPad mini 3: $399 (16GB)/$499 (64GB)/$599 (128GB) – Wi-Fi
• iPad Air 2: $629 (16GB)/$729 (64GB)/$829 (128GB) Wi-Fi+Cellular
• iPad Air 2: $499 (16GB)/$599 (64GB)/$699 (128GB) Wi-Fi
• iPad Air 2 offers desktop class performance
• iPad Air 2 app demo: Replay – easy video editing for non-video editors (uses computer vision algorithms and uses Metal which is 20X faster than using the CPU)
• iPad Air 2 app demos: Pixelmator! (highly recommended – MDN Ed.)
• Touch ID works with Apple Pay for online purchases made via apps
• Touch ID comes to iPad Air 2
• Faster LTE with 20 LTE bands
• faster Wi-Fi, up to 2.8x faster Wi-Fi
• Single-shot HDR, HDR videos
• New front-facing FaceTime HS camera
• Dual microphones
• Slo-mo video 120fps at 720p
• Timelapse (George Clooney wedding party in Venice shown speeding by)
• Burst mode
• Up to 43 megapixel panoramas
• iPAd Air’s iSight camera- 8MP, 1080p HD video with the A8X image signal processor
• iPad Air camera – very useful
• M8 Motion Co-processor: Tracks motion, calibrates sensors, barometer
• 10 hour battery life
• iPad Air features Apple’s A8X SoC
– 3 billion transistors (vs. 1 billion in original iPad Air), 12X faster CPU, 180X (not a typo, 180 times) faster graphics than iPad (original)
• Anti-reflective coating – never been done in a tablet before
• Reduced internal reflection
• Two iPad Airs stacked atop each other are still thinner than the first iPad
• iPad Air 2 6.1mm thin, 18% thinner than iPad Air (original)
• Phil Schiller takes stage
• The new iPad Air 2: Extremely thin! “Can you even see it?” Comes in gold.
• What do you do when you make the best tablet in the world?
• 675,000 apps custom-designed for iPad – a huge advantage over other tablets
• iPad mini Retina = 100% customer satisfaction
• iPad in #1 in customer satisfaction
• We’ve sold more iPads in the first 4 years, over 225 million, than any other device Apple has ever sold.
• iPad is simple on the outside with advanced technology jam packed inside
• Cook retakes stage to talk about iPad
• iWork, also free, available this Monday!
• iOS 8.1 is available for download this Monday for free!
• OS X Yosemite is available today for free!
• Federighi controls Apple TV with his Apple Watch
• “Chairman Honeycrisp” is Tim Cook’s codename. Colbert: Where’s my Apple Watch?!
• Stephen Colbert phone call via iPhone thru Mac demo
• Continuity demo…
• Continuity: All of your devices are aware of each other (Handoff, Instant Hotspot, SMS on any device, Make and receive phone calls on any device)
• iCloud Drive: Store any file in the cloud. iOS, Mac, even – “if you have to work under extreme duress” – a Windows PC
• iWork has a great update to Yosemite
• Mail: Much more fully featured (Mail drop – Send up to 5GB files securely encrypted via iCloud)
• Safari overview. Blazing fast. 6.6 times faster than other browsers in javascript. 2+ hours more in battery life than other browsers
• OS X Yosemite. Over 1 million members of the public beta
• iCloud Photo Library available in public beta with iOS 8.1
• Major universities have already incorporated Swift into their curricula
• Swift: Apple’s new programming language: Flood of new apps in App Store already. IBM has embraced fully for enterprise mobility apps
• Metal: Direct access to A7’s GPU makes for unparalleled visual fidelity
• TouchID: Developers now have access
• HealthKit: Developers have really embraced it
• Klingon keyboard highlighted
• iOS 8 features reviewed
• Android: Latest version after 313 days, just 25% adoption
• iOS 8: Installed base: 48% in 26 days, iOS 7 46%, iOS earlier (original iPads, mostly – MDN Ed.) = 6%
• Craig Federighi takes the stage for iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite reviews/updates
• Apple makes the most advanced operating systems on the planet: iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite.
• Apple Watch coming in “early 2015”
• Apple Watch SDK arrives in November, so develpers can get started
• Apple Watch. “Accepted by people who know a lot about fashion and style… even more than I do.” (smiles)
• Cook: Apple Pay launches on Monday, October 20th
• Apple Pay works in stores and online in apps
• Apple has signed another 500 banks since the initial announcement
• Apple Pay starts in the U.S.A.
• Apple Pay: The easy, secure, and private way to pay for things.
• iPhone 6/Plus preorders in China have set a new record. We can’t wait to get started!
• We will launch iPhone6/Plus in China in a few hours
• First 30 days: New record. Most first month orders ever taken – by a whole lot. (No numbers given)
• Cook highlights excellent reviews: “It’s the best smartphone on the market.” – Walt Mossberg
• Cook: iPhone 6/Plus launch was electrifying and it continues
• Cook: We’ve got a few more things to show you before we close out the year
• Tim Cook: Good morning!
• Apple event begins with video of Apple Retail Stores welcoming iPhone 6/Plus crowds worldwide
• Looks like Apple has forgone the live Twitter updates they tried (disastrously, last time) on their live webcast page.
• Apple’s live feed is operational. New Republic playing currently (with no Mandarin SAP).
• Have you heard? Apparently, Google has announced a new Android version called “Lollipop.” Finally a name that makes sense: Android Lollipop: The OS for suckers!
(Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader David Andrews.)
• To pass the time, here’s a fun 5-minute video:
• 10:45am PDT/12:45pm EDT: 15 minutes to go!
• Think the poor bastage in charge of Apple’s live feed is having a stress-free day?
• Two recent announcements that may presage something from Apple today:
– CBS to offer $5.99/month stand-alone web subscription service – October 16, 2014
– HBO to offer standalone Internet subscriptions, no cable/satellite required, starting next year – October 15, 2014