Apple Unveils New iPads, Introduces OS X Yosemite

After weeks of anticipation, Apple fans got their
first glimpse of the new iPads yesterday during a
launching event.
Apple Inc. unveiled new editions of its iPad and
iPad Mini at an event which was held yesterday,
October 16, in California.
The company also announced that its new Apple
Pay system will be officially launched on Monday,
October 20, 2014.
The new tablets - the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini » -
both come with TouchID fingerprint sensors, which
previously were only available on the iPhone.
You can use the TouchID to make purchases
online with Apple Pay, though it won't work at cash
registers in stores the way the new iPhones do.
The Air 2 is just 6.1 millimeters thick, 18% smaller
than the previous iPad Air. It's also got a souped-
up processor, improved Retina display and a
camera that takes panoramic photos up to 43
megapixels.
Both of the new iPads will be available for preorder
on Friday and will ship by the end of next week.
They're available in gold in addition to the
traditional silver and dark gray.
The Air 2 starts at $499 for the 16-gigabyte, WiFi-
only version, while the same version of the Mini 3
goes for $399.
The 64-gig Air 2 is $599, while the 128-gig
version is $699; for an additional $130, you can
get a version in each of those sizes equipped with
cellular data connectivity. Apple is also cutting
prices for the older iPads.
Apple also unveiled a new 27-inch iMac desktop
computer that begins shipping today and goes for
$2,499.
On the software side, Apple announced that its new
operating system, OS X Yosemite, will be available
for free to download in the App Store on Thursday.
The latest update to its mobile software, iOS 8.1,
will be available Monday.
Yosemite got a big design update, making the
interface for Macs look much more iPhone- and
iPad-like. It comes with a revamped "spotlight"
function that searches both the Mac and the Web.
There's also the new iCloud Drive, a cloud storage
feature that syncs all Mac folders across every
Mac, iPhone or Windows PC that a user owns.