Apple launches iPad Mini with iPad 4 and new Macs on the way

Most notably – it has released the iPad 4, five months early. The move is likely to leave “New” iPad owners miffed as the upgrade is a significant one.

And the 13-inch Retina display MacBook Pro is also an eye-opener, squeezing a powerful punch in a diminutive package.

Most radical, however, was the changes to the iMac. Along with an incredibly thin display, it has a new hard-drive system inside its tiny box incorporating solid-state and traditional disc systems.

But everybody wants to know about the iPad Mini.

The new-look device is significantly smaller, weighs just 308 grams, and is a lot cheaper than the 9.7-inch iPad 3 launched in March, with a starting price of just $369. It will be available for pre-order from Apple Australia from Friday, and will hit the shelves on November 2.

The iPad Mini comes with an optional 4G mobile internet connection, the same dual-core chip as the iPad 2, two cameras including a 5-megapixel rear camera, and a 10-hour battery life.

Apple worldwide marketing senior vice-president Phil Schiller revealed the smallest iPad in San Jose this morning, saying “this isn’t just a shrunken down iPad: it’s an entirely new iPad.”

The iPad Mini has the same screen resolution of the iPad 2 (crammed into half its size), but it doesn’t match the power or $249 price of Google’s current quad-core 7-inch tablet, the Nexus 7.

So how does the iPad Mini stack up against its competitors?

First, it comes in at almost double the price of the Google Nexus 7 and Kindle Fire HD. It has slightly lower screen resolution, is somewhat lighter and has much better 5 megapixel camera. While testing data is scarce, it would also appear the iPad Mini’s dual-core A5 chip is inferior to that of the Nexus 7′s quad-core CPU.

Apple went on to surprise the audience by revealing a new top-of-the-line fourth generation iPad with a powerful new chip promising twice the speed as the seven-month-old “new” iPad and twice the download speed with Wi-Fi.

Apple Senior Vice President of Worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller announces the new iMac, with super-thin display.

Apple also used the event to launch new Macs including a new, much thinner iMac desktop computer and a new laptop, a 13-inch version of the MacBook Pro that Schiller named “the lightest MacBook Pro yet”.

The new iMac desktop computer is now just 5mm thin, or 80 per cent thinner than the previous model, 3.2kg lighter, and it features an HD web camera, up to 3 terabytes of storage, four USB 3.0 ports, though it no longer features a DVD drive.

“There’s an entire computer in there,” Mr Schiller said. “It’s hard to believe there’s even a display in here.”

Apple’s new 13-inch MacBook Pro will feature a high-resolution “Retina” display, redesigned battery compartments, three USB 3.0 ports but no DVD drive, and a weight of just 1.6kg. The new MacBook Pro will begin shipping today, though the new iMac will not be available until December.