YOUR APPLE INCREMENTAL UPDATE DAY HIGHLIGHTS:
iPad Air: 64 Bit A7, weighs a pound.
iPad Mini Retina: It's a mini wit retina, get with it.
Macbook Pro Retina: Upgrades for Haswell and GT 750 on the 15'', also costs less then last years model did at launch. PCI-E SSDs everybody!
Mac Pro: It's some sort of monolith still. Iris Pro on everything, which means the 13'' Retina can actually do "Gaming".
"Gaming."

Software!
Mavericks is FREE for everybody!
iWork is FREE for everybody! I think anyway, I'm still on the 10.9 GM so the app store is being weird for me ATM, probably? Apple says it's a major update- really hope **** works for real finally.

iWork is only free with new devices IIRC.

My thoughts:

iPad "Air": Same old fare.
iPad Mini: Probably the best deal announced today.
Macbook Pros: Not as impressed with the battery life as I was hoping. I feel like much of the improvement came from Mavericks, not Haswell. In addition, 9 (13") or 8 (15") hours isn't that impressive compared to the MBA's. Especially since those numbers only really apply with the most basic of web browsing. Push the laptops even a little and that drops like a rock. Of course, I'm okay with this, since it just further cements that my MBA purchase was a solid one. As far as the "Isis", I'll wait until I see some thorough benchmarks. I doubt it's going to hold up even with the improvements Intel has been working on.
Mac Pro: $3000, ensuring that absolutely no average consumer would dare consider it. Also further enforces the idea that Apple just does not care about gaming. It's the only system with a remotely decent video card in it, and it's way beyond what gamers will pay.

Mavericks is probably the only thing I'm interested in, and Ars's basic benchmark on the battery life improvement for my MBA sounds really nice.

Edit: Oh yeah, I forgot my rants!

First, goddamn Apple, how do you sleep at night charging $300 for the old iPad Mini, and $400 for the iPad 2?! The damn things barely run iOS7 as it is, with more stuttery lag than a 2 year old Android tablet! Poor bastards are going to be buying these things expecting a capable iPad and all they're going to find is some seriously laggy UI. Besides, do these things even have a lifespan beyond 9 months? Next June there will be iOS8, and I can't imagine them cramming that onto the iPad 2, even with their newfound disregard for performance post-Jobs.

Second, and this isn't specific to Apple, what the hell is with tablet manufacturers not focusing on sound quality? Do they not realize that a huge amount of time is spent playing video on these things, be it movies, Youtube, Hulu, or otherwise? Of course they know it does, that's why they push it so hard. Then why do they refuse to improve the speakers? I'm not expecting some ultra-loud megaphone speaker or something. But my HTC One should not be providing a significantly larger bass response than all my tablets I've ever used! You have way more space thanks to those bezels, put the speakers in the front! You have all this computing power, get a proper bass-favoring EQ! The volume you lose from the EQ will easily be covered by the speakers facing the right direction.

I know that seems picky but I just cringe every time I try to watch a movie on a tablet anymore. Apple (or anyone else!) could have made a big play here and seriously improved this, but instead they're basically shipping the same old **** as they have before. As far as I can tell, the iPads don't even have stereo sound. I mean, really?

Hilariously I get 8 hours out of my last gen 15'' running Mavericks so yeah, Haswell seems to have failed.
Also the Mac Pro isn't for consumers you dork, iMac has a decent video card.
iPad totes has stereo sound, I watched movies on my moms with a headset and it sounded great, the speakers on the thing itself are POS but really, who cares.

Retail is different then GM, goddamn you Timb I have to reinstall again. It better install overtop or my stupid insistence to always be on the cutting edge of software will INCONVENIENCE ME MILDLY.

Actually the iMac doesn't have a decent video card for most editions. They're all mobile editions, and the price ramps up quick. Ironically, in order to even get more than the mediocre 750M, you're getting a 1440p 27". Because you know, a 755M is really great at pushing that number of pixels. So then you're looking at a bare minimum $2000 for a 775M in it. And that doesn't even get you an SSD.

Sure, there's options. But the options are terrible.



I know the headphones do. Everything since 1980 has stereo headphones. I'm talking the actual speakers. And yes, I care, and I believe a lot of others do as well. I never ever use headphones unless I'm traveling, and it makes for a really ****ty experience.



Protip: don't buy developer access just for a beta. *facepalm*

My 650m can push Retina if I'm just on the OS, and has no problems driving 1680 x 1050 scaled on most other games.
I didn't buy Dev access, what do you take me for. rich?
Use EarPods or something then, the additional weight/size of not-**** speakers on the iPad would make it stupid. What are you doing that you can't put on a headset but really need stereo anyway?

First off, what additional weight? If they're idiotic it'd add maybe an ounce? If that? And it shouldn't add to the size whatosever. Besides, this is Apple, you telling me they can't manage something as simple as that? I'm not asking for the world. I'm just being seriously honest when I say that my tiny-ass HTC One can crank out far, far superior audio than any of my tablets, and that's just pathetic.

Maybe me, like most of the planet, doesn't like having **** crammed in/on my ears all the time and/or likes to watch things with other people.

SOLID POINTS ALL.
Fine, put MacBook esque speakers into the side bezels. Fart fart fart.

Businesses / schools probably have custom apps and hardware that require that same form factor and the 30pin connector. And if they are buying enough, I doubt they are paying $400 for each one.

iOS 7 basically Android.

Jon`C is basically lol.

It solved none of the usability or design problems of iOS 6, while introducing a raft of new ones like: inconsistencies in how interactive elements are indicated and delimited, icons and layouts which require recall rather than recognition, even worse perceived affordance thanks to yet more magic gestures with no visible indicator, and thanks to flat design a loss of all of the shading our brain naturally uses in order to quickly understand the structures and shapes of things.

It also added a bunch of slow animations that make the system feel less responsive (with unbearably ugly and not significantly faster "low motion mode" alternatives). It also slashes battery life, because among other things those pretty new user interface elements take a whole order of magnitude more quads to draw.

But at least it looks like a magazine, which as we all know is the pinnacle of good graphic design.

but supergenius dieter rams fan says that we're all used to smartphones so now we don't need skeumorphism anymore, because I guess experience trumps evolution? and he's clearly an expert because of all of the software user interfaces he's designed before.

A year ago we were all laughing at Microsoft for making the same mistakes. Apple does not deserve a pass for it just because they're Apple. **** like this is why nobody likes apple fans, NoESC.

A. My grandmother did a lot of work doing iPad orders for schools/disabilities/etc. As long as there's a giant nerf case available, they don't give a crap. They want the latest.
B. iPad 3 has the same form factor and it at least had a goddamn retina screen.
C. There's 30 pin adapters.

Things like this:

http://ipcprint.com/ios-peripherals/infinea-tab2.html

Wouldn't work with a different form factor, or work well with a 30 pin to lightning adapter.

The iPad 3 had the A5x, the iPad 2 has the A5. They are still producing the iPhone 4s, Apple TV, iPad mini, and iPod touch, all with the A5. They'd have to continue making the A5x for just one product line, a legacy one at that. It sucks that it's still $400 for an iPad 2, though.

Jon`C, what kind of phone do you have?

iPhone 5

Still rockin' a 4S

4S has a better screen size, feels more natural in the hand.

i hope a new consumer devices company starts up. I don't really see Apple, Microsoft, or Google making anything good again any time soon.

Valve could actually irl do it, which would be basically the best.

I don't really see valve being interested. Consumer electronics is sort of a sucker's game, unless you can position yourself as a boutique option.

The Steam Store
SteamBook Pro

Also "iPad Air" makes me wonder if there's an "iPad Pro" coming down the line.

I could see one angle, as a way of taking on the handheld console industry. Make some sort of innovative new phone that incorporates decent gaming controls somehow?

Why is it so hard to make a device that gets the interface right? It's only the most important aspect of the device. You'd think you could throw a hundred million or so at a team of human machine interaction researchers and get something really incredible.

That's like asking why can't Hollywood just throw a ton of money at a movie and make it good.

I like my Apple products because they work better for what I do than anything from Microsoft or Google. None of them are perfect, but they are the best around for me, currently.