Thinner and sexier: Apple sheds a few pounds with the new iPad

Hey, we’re gonna have an event. That’s pretty much how Apple announced its big event that just finished a few hours ago. There was no quirky name, no hyped event invite. And we still went along with it. We were calling it “the Apple event on October 16.” That’s how much Apple means to us. We don’t even need them to work on the hype. It creates its own. Did it pay off? Did the Apple event blow us away to a world of innovation and smooth aluminum? It wasn’t an iPhone 7 announcement but it has its moments. Here’s the lowdown of what happened at the Apple event:

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A lot of the announcements were already leaked in the past couple of days. We had sneak peeks of the new iPad days before the event. We knew from the weekend that Apple Pay was coming. We speculated that the Apple Watch was going to make a cameo. We know about Yosemite. Apple confirms most of these rumors.

iPad Air 2. Undoubtedly, the new iPads were the main event of this whole thing. And Apple delivers. First, the iPad Air 2. It’s the thinnest iPad yet, coming in at an astounding 6.1 millimeters, which is 18 percent thinner than its predecessor. It has the new and much improved A8X processor chip, which translates into a 40 percent increase in speed. The new iPad is adopting the TouchID feature from the iPhone family. TouchID is the fingerprint scanning and access technology by Apple. Its graphics have been greatly improved. An improved anti-glare coating reduces glare by 56 percent.The rear camera is now at 8 megapixels, with the ability to shoot in slow-mo and time lapse. The front camera can do burst selfies with an improved face detection. You can get the device in silver, space gray, and gold. The basic package (16GB and Wi-Fi) is at $499. 64GB and 128GB are tagged at $599 and $699, respectively. LTE-enabled versions cost $130 more.

iPad mini 3. Not much change on this end. This iteration will feature the TouchID function. Updates will feature those that come along with iOS 8.1. Available in the above’s three color options, the basic package will start at $399. Its predecessors will still be available in the market, but at a lower price. The iPad mini 2 starts at $299, while the original starts at $249.

OS X Yosemite. Updates are rolling out today for free. It also comes with the new iTunes 12, as was reported before. We’ll be giving you a lowdown of this in our next issue.

iMac Retina. You’ve heard of 4K, but how about some 5K? The new iMac’s resolution comes at a whopping 5120 x 2880. That’s more than any TV you can own today. Inside is a 3.5 GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 and can be configured to 4 GHz quad-core Intel Core i7. Turbo Boost in both these processors will kick the processing speeds up a notch to 3.9 GHz and 4.4 GHz, respectively. The new iMac is outfitted with 8GB of RAM and 1TB of memory. The device is tagged at $2,499.

Apple Pay. We previously reported that Apple Pay might be launching the very soon. Now, we have confirmation that Apple Pay will be launching in the US starting from October 20. Apple Pay is Apple’s digital wallet that allows you to pay transactions with just a tap on your phone.

And there you have it. But there are more bits that only Apple can deliver. Stay tuned as more updates roll out from Apple, especially when they hit our shores. No word has been released, at the time of this writing, as to when these announcements will take effect here. We hope it’s soon.