Event Introduction
Apple is going fast and with in the short span of time from the release of iPhone 6 is holding another event shortly on 16th October 2014 at Apple's Town Hall auditorium on the Infinite Loop Campus in Cupertino, California at 10AM PT / 1PM ET. It has been officially announced by the senior officials of the company while talking to media and said with confirmation that it is going to hold the event and is introducing its new products. These products are surely going to stir the market atmosphere and generate new wave of competition by stimulating the rivals for this race. Apple is going to introduce its new iPads, more about Apple Pay and likely present us with brand new iMacs. We still do not know what more shall be revealed in the event.
The main purpose of the event for Apple is to launch its new products to its fans. It seems the users main interest shall focus around iPad Air 2 and the second generation iPad mini with Retina display. However Apple is maintaining its tradition. Its routine has been to hold the events in October and launch its new products. This time it is the second event in the year short that after launching of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus and new tablets. It is the same this year also. Previously it has been introducing all its devices with iOS and similar chips. This year we expect a change in this routine and we are waiting for new type of hardware on the new iPads. As we have seen in the leaks that the new iPads are powered with Apple A8X chip. This is not the only change we expect but we are waiting for more. We believe the new devices will have touch id finger print recognition sensor and camera which is more updated and much improved.
Last year when iPad Air was designed it has changes in it and gave a premium look with its rounded edges. The experimentation in the shape and size proved successful. Now it provides the basis for the designed and make of iPad Mini, therefore we do not find much of a difference in the appearance and they give the same look. The two tablets look identical. iPad Air is the lightest tablet presently available in the market and has reduced bezels from what it had previously. Besides the light weight it gave a compact look befitting the size of the screen. However Google has incorporated a change this year and made the laminated screen with LCD as single piece. Combining the two layers will certainly reduce the thickness of the tablet because the lamination is not a separate covering. This process will reduce the thickness by 0.5mm and ultimately the iPad Air resultant thickness is left only 7 mm. maybe the difference is only of 0.5 mm yet it gives solid grounds to Apple to claim having made the thinnest tablet so far available in the market.
iPad Mini the 2nd generation iPad with Retina display is also on the same pattern and is expected to have a thin body. All other features are the same as the original version has. It is expected that we shall see two iPads. Both in Golden color as the iPhones have. But this time we are going to have a change and we shall find three more colors in the new devices. It will be gold, grey and silver. There is another change in the design feature of the new iPads; iPad Air and iPad Mini (2nd Generation iPad) and it is absence of mute/ orientation lock switch. We can justify their absence because of the reduce thickness of the devices.
After the updates of previous year we find a change and that is high resolution Retina display with 2048 x 1536 pixels which is quite high and worth boasting about. This resolution results in pixel density of 324pp for the 7.9-inch iPad mini Retina and 264ppi for the 9.7-inch iPad Air. The resolution of the devices is really high and we do not expect it to go further higher.
While talking about the color display on the screen of the iPad Air 2, it was pre calibrated with accuracy by the company. It had white color calibrated at 6800K, just very slightly north of the reference 6500K value. The higher value of the calibration results in colder appearance with bluish tint in color display on the screen. Similarly Greyscale accuracy is also perfect resulting in pleasant appearance and realistic display in the sRGB color spectrum. We expect that Apple has achieved this perfection in color display and would stick to it while preparing the new devices like iPad Air 2nd generation and iPad Mini. It has already reached the apex and Apple should be contended with its perfection and success.
However there is a problem with iPad Mini and the problem relates to colors display. It does not cover the full color spectrum or what we call full sRGB color gamut. The color show a bit dim as compare to iPad Air 2. Hopefully Apple realizes this and will do something about improving it.
Both the tablets are powered with Apple’s own operating system iOS 8. The users are already familiar with the system using Apple devices. However a big change is expected in Touch ID sensor on the both devices. These finger sensors on the both tablets are different from the previous one and now users will be using their devices like Apple Pay but cash less payment system.
Both the tablets, iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini are expected to come with latest version of Apple A8 chip and known as A8X as well. Apple is the pioneer in using this 64 bit construction. It surpasses and excels Android by years in this change. Apple also adopted ARM architecture license and uses the instructions set in the process of making processor core indigenously. The new Cyclone core in the A8 is a 6-wide machine with single-core performance on top of every other system and we wish to see this standard in the A8X as well.
Another point of interest is the improvement in RAM. It has been doubled and increased to 2 GB for these new devices. Hopefully this will go far in the future like in iPad Air 2 and the second-gen iPad mini with Retina display feature.
Apple has now decided to embed 32/64/128 GB memory in the new devices but changes are the iPad Mini with Retina would still be with 16 GB option.
Although photography is a different topic, needs a separate discussion. However the owners of these devices do expect their devices to be complete and compact and like to use them for photography purpose as well and also wish to capture videos with them for better results they expect a good camera. The two devices iPad Air and iPad Mini with Retina Display have 5 mega pixels main iSight camera and also 1.2 mega pixel front camera. In the new upcoming iPad series Apple is expected to improve their technology in camera and increase it to 8 mega pixel device with better specs.
We have seen in the iPhone 6 series Apple moving to a wider, f/2.2 aperture lens, and we would be expecting a similar lens for its iPads. It is also expected that the new front camera will be supporting FaceTime HD (720p) video calls. Apple has also incorporated iPhoto editing functionality and given the options of editing and this feature is certainly pleasing for the users having large screen iPad devices.
Apple has been known for Battery and it has been its strong point but the competitors are striving hard and improving their products to compete in the market and coming closer to what is best in the industry. Apple is still using the tested and successful 10-hour battery. If at all there are any modifications or changes to battery capacity, it will not have big difference from the present and battery life is not going to be increased. iPad Air and iPad mini Retina scored a good ~8 hours and 40 minutes on battery life test. They run equally well on both, smartphones and tablets.
The upcoming event is expected to bring good things for us from Apple by unveiling the new iPad Air and second generation iPad mini with Retina on October 16th. If everything goes as planned, these devices will be in the market in the next week that is on the next Friday, October 24th.
The price level is likely to be same and Apple will stick to its policy while fixing the prices of its tablets either: the iPad Air 2 will cost around $499 for the basic Wi-Fi-only model. Second-generation iPad mini with Retina is likely to be available for $399.