Hasta La Gadget!

That’s a wrap! Apple made a lot of announcements today. Here is our entire coverage on TechCrunch and a small recap of what happened during the keynote.

The iPad Mini

As expected, Apple unveiled a brand new device, the iPad mini. Even though everything shown was widely anticipated, watching Apple’s take on the smaller-sized tablet market was interesting. That’s why Phil Schiller threw some punches at Android tablets.

As the iPad mini has the same aspect ratio and resolution as the iPad 2, apps will simply be shrunk down versions of iPad apps. iOS developers won’t have to do anything. Pre-orders will start on October 29.

Read the hands-on post with the iPad mini.

Fourth generation iPad

Apple surprised us a little with this one. While an updated iPad with Lightning was expected, a completely new generation is a good surprise. The fourth generation iPad not only comes with Lightning, but is packed with an A6X system-on-a-chip, and has improved LTE support around the world.

All of this comes in the same design and at the same price. With that announcement, Apple may try to shift the release cycle for the iPad. In the coming years, new models may be announced right before the holiday season just like this year.

13″ Retina MacBook Pro

The 13-inch MacBook Pro now has a Retina brother. Just like the 15-inch model, the Retina and non-Retina versions will co-exist for the time being. You can order today, starting at $1699. Read the hands-on impressions.

New iMac

Even though the iMac doesn’t get the Retina treatment, Apple unveiled a completely redesigned iMac. It is thinner on the edge, but the most important addition is the Fusion Drive, which is Apple’s branding for a HDD/SDD hybrid.

Read the first impressions about the device.

New Mac Mini

Today’s event was an opportunity to show some love for the Mac. The new Mac Mini isn’t a completely redesigned version but a nice upgrade for Mac Mini users.

The Mac Pro is the only Mac that didn’t receive a significant upgrade this year. The company promised a new Mac Pro for 2013.

Other news

• iOS App Store Now Offers 275K iPad Apps, Up From 250K In September
• Apple Tops 300 Billion iMessages Sent In The Last Year (That’s 28K Messages Per Second)
• For The Year Ending In June, Apple’s Mac Outgrew PC by 7x, Now #1 Desktop And Notebook
• Apple Reveals Updated iBooks App, Packs Continuous Scrolling, Improved Social Sharing, And Japanese And Korean Support
• Tim Cook: Apple Has Sold 100M iPads In Just Two And A Half Years
• Apple Points To iPad & iBooks In 2,500 U.S. Classrooms, Reaffirms Commitment To Education With Updated iBooks Author
• Tim Cook: Almost Every Company In The Fortune 500 Is Testing And Deploying The iPad
• Apple Made No Mention Of iOS 6 Maps Today. Now That’s Boring.

The brand new iPad Mini is pretty much everything we expected but how is it, like, in real life? Apple just let the tech world go hands on with the iPad Mini and most agree: it’s not as miniature as you’d think! Which is a good thing. More »

Although we’ve now seen many dozens of Windows 8 devices, the ASUS TAICHI remains one of the most memorable — it’s unusual, after all, for a PC maker to make a laptop with displays on both sides of the lid. Even when it was announced, ASUS shared some high-level specs, but now we also know how much it’ll cost, and when it will be available. As leaked the 11-inch version (aka the TAICHI 21) will go on sale next month, starting at $1,299. A lofty price, to be sure, but no one ever said dual 1080p IPS displays would come cheap. At the entry level, you get a Core i5-3317U processor, 4GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. For $1,499, it comes with 256GB of storage. Finally, there will be a $1,599 configuration with a 256GB drive and a Core i7 processor. And what of the 13-inch version ASUS showed off earlier this year? An ASUS rep says the TAICHI 31 won’t ship until December.

Across the board, the TAICHI comes with Intel HD 4000 graphics, two USB 3.0 ports, a 5-megapixel rear camera, a 720p webcam up front, Bluetooth 4.0 and Intel’s Wireless Display technology. Again, the smaller, 11-inch version will ship in November with the 13-inch model following a month later. In the meantime, we’ll direct you to our hands-on from June if you’re hankering for hands-on photos and video.

Filed under: Laptops, ASUS

ASUS TAICHI dual-screen Ultrabook coming in November for $1,300, 13-inch version to follow a month later originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Oct 2012 14:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here’s Apple’s video breakdown of its new iPad Mini. It’s all the stuff you expect from an Apple video—white backgrounds, impressive engineering details, Jony Ive saying al-oo-min-ee-um—and gives you a pretty up close look at the new tablet. More »

Eton has made a name for itself with a line of emergency devices—like flashlights and radios—that don’t require an outlet to stay powered. And its new BoostTurbine backup batteries promise to keep your other devices perpetually powered too, as long as you’ve got the energy to crank its built-in folding handle. More »