The fistful of new features relevant to healthcare IT professionals that were introduced with the iPhone 5s a few weeks back are also now in the company's new iPads.
And while rumors have hinted to the latest versions’ technical specifications and colors, Apple did keep a few details until Tuesday's launch. Namely, Apple's first iPad redesign since 2011 gives what most people thought would be the iPad 5 the new moniker "iPad Air." And perhaps most important, the notebook and desktop operating system is now available free of charge.
Not so unexpectedly, the iPad Air is 20 percent thinner than its predecessor and, at 7.5 mm thick, it weighs only a pound. The 9.7-inch Retina screen has 2048x1536 pixel resolution, a 5-megapixel camera, a front-facing FaceTime camera, and support for the new MIMO 802.11n.
The iPad Air also houses the same M7 motion coprocessor that arms the iPhone 5s with the ability to collect health data from sensors. A compass, GPS, gyroscope and accelerometer essentially feed data into the 64-bit A7 processor for tracking a user’s movements, such as running or walking, or while stationary.
[Related: What might become the GPS of mHealth?]
Also as expected, the company unwrapped a pricier $399 iPad Mini, replete with a Retina display and the A7 processor, which Apple said processes four times faster and renders graphics eight times faster than earlier versions.
The Touch ID feature that debuted in the iPhone 5, however, was not in the iPad Air or iPad Mini.
Apple also announced free upgrades to a number of software products, including Garage Band, iPhoto and iMovie.
Craig Federighi, senior vice president of software at Apple, detailed a fresh lineup of MacBooks that are thinner, faster, lighter and less expensive and run on a new operating system – in this case OSX Mavericks.
“Today, we’re going to revolutionize pricing,” Federighi said, adding that the days of spending hundreds of dollars upgrading to a new OS are over. “Mavericks is free.”
Anyone with either the Snow Leopard, Lion or Mountain Lion iterations of Apple’s OS, he said, can download Mavericks right away.
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