Apple event: New MacBook Air, iPad Pro and Mac Mini unveiled – everything you need to know
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Apple has unveiled a huge suite of new products, including a brand new MacBook Air, Mac Mini and completely re-designed iPad Pro.
The launch comes just weeks after the release of the iPhone XS and XR, where the Apple Watch was also updated, and serves to tweak all of the products that got left out of that event.
The MacBook Air brought a completely new look to Apple's most popular – and until now roundly neglected – laptop. It finally added the long-requested Retina Display, but also changed up the computer's look and brought entirely new features like its Touch ID fingerprint sensor.
Apple repeatedly referred to the laptop as its "greenest ever computer", because of a new process that allows it to be made using a new process that allows it to use completely recycled aluminium.
As well as its broad redesign, vastly improved screen and new features, the internal components of the computer were vastly improved to make it far quicker than the computer it replaces.
It starts at $1199 in the US, or the same number of pounds. It is available to order now ahead of a release date on 7 November.
Alongside the MacBook Air came a new Mac Pro, which benefits from the same recycled metals, a new look, and vastly upgraded internals. Both the Mac Mini and the MacBook Air have been neglected for years, with so little attention that some feared it was more likely they would be killed off than refreshed.
The iPad Pro came with a similarly radical redesign, which removes the home button from the bottom and almost entirely gets rid of the bezel that has traditionally wrapped around the sides of the screen. That also meant Apple brought a new way of unlocking it, with the introduction of Apple's Face ID facial recognition technology into the tablet for the first time ever.
Apple removed the Lightning port on the bottom of the iPad, and swapped it for USB-C. That has been used on some of Apple's laptops, but will mean that owners will no longer be able to charge their iPad and iPhone with the same cable.
Apple also introduced an upgraded version of the Apple Pencil, which was first introduced with the first iPad Pro. It now charges by clicking onto the top of the tablet, and features a button on the side that can be press for extra controls.
Alongside that came a new look for the Smart Keyboard that is sold alongside the iPad Pro.
The new iPad Pro comes in two sizes: an 11-inch version, which because of the smaller bezel takes up the same space as the previous 10.5-inch one, and a bigger 12.9-inch size.
The smaller one starts at $769 and the bigger at $969. Both are available to order now and will also go on sale on 7 November.
Below is our live blog from the event, detailing Apple's announcements as they happened.
Please allow a moment for the live blog to load.
And for connectivity. It's got two USB-C ports, which you can use to connect a whole host of devices. From thunderbolt for external storage, a big old display, or eGPUs that improve the graphics.
And the CPU and specs: There's an eighth generation dual core CPU, with the latest graphics. And it can support up to 16GB memory, double the capacity of the previous Air. SSDs that are 60 per cent faster.
Battery life? "All day", Apple says. "It has the same great 12 hours of wireless web browsing, but now has up to 13 hours of iTunes movie playback".
What about the portability? "What if we could add all these amazing new features, while making the MacBook Air even more portable."
The new Air has 17 per cent less volume than the predecessor. And it's "incredibly thin"; just 15.6mm, or 10 per cent thinner than the previous Air.
And it weighs just 2.75 lb. That's a quarter lb lighter than the previous Air.
And every new MacBook Air is made from "100 per cent recycled aluminium", says Apple. That's big – aluminium is, well, very bad.
It'll start at $1199, "making it the most affordable Retina Mac we've ever offered". (That's true, but it's still quite a bit more expensive than the old one.)
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