Apple's iPad Air 2 and iMac 5K Retina Display deliver

[MUSIC] What's happening? Brian Tong here and welcome to theapplebyte for all the good and bad inside the world of Apple. Now Apple's latest iPad and iMac announcements from it's Cupertino headquarters are solid upgrades to their product lineup and I'm sure that we'll be. Plenty of you making some upgrades. So let's get to it. Now first up, the iPads and the iPad Air 2 specifically was really one of the highlights of the event. Apple is thin it to win it. And brings its slimmest iPad ever. It so slim that you could stack two of these things on top of each other and it would still be thinner than the original iPad. Thinning. It finally brings touch ID, a custom A8X process and M8 motion coprocessor which seems a little odd since I won't be running around with my iPad anytime soon and an antireflective coating. Now, I'm honestly a little torn about this next feature but the iPad Air 2 gets am improved 8 Megapixel camera. You know they're only encouraging people to continue. To take even more pictures with their iPads, like this guy, adding panorama mode, a burst mode, time lapse and slow motion. So you all get ready to see even more people like this. And more of these mirror iPad selfies. Thanks, Apple. Now, it you really want to be innovative, listen. Remove the camera so I can actually see the concert I paid to go see. Now that's inspiration! Alright, the iPad Air Two starts at $499 and brings improvements across the board. But Apple's biggest challenge is getting people to buy one after recent reports show 50% of iPad users are still on their first or second gen iPad and we know people don't really upgrade them nearly as often as they upgrade a smartphone. Now, the biggest iPad disappointment, well, it's iPad Mini 3, which gets Touch ID but keeps the same camera, the same screen and even the same A7 processor but. It comes in gold. Now the Mini 3 starts at $399, but it was truly the most disappointing announcement. Now pre-orders start on the 17th for iPads and start shipping on the 24th. All right. On to the Mac and the iMac, with its 27 inch retina 5K display was clearly the other highlight, with the highest resolution screen we've seen from Apple. Four times the pixels. A quad-core Intel core processor. Up to four gigaherts, an advance fusion drive and 5 millimeters at it's thinnest point! That's thinspiring! The iMac looks gorgeous, but starting at 2499.00 and the declining interests in desktops versus laptops doesn't make this a must-have anymore, but a great improvement. Now, the [INAUDIBLE] iMac is ready to ship in 1 to 3 days, and lets not forget about the Mac mini Two years waiting for an update, and now gets updated in solid core jewel-core processors, Thunderbolt Two and USB-3. And starts at $499. A solid update, but, again, nothing flashy here. All right, on the software side, OS 10-070 is available to download now. For the price of free. And I think you're all gonna really love it. I doesn't take away any features. But brings a real communer and refined look and feel while adding some nice stuff like continuity, improved notifications and search. Oh and one thing that trashcan doh. And IOS 8.13 updates arrives monday in time for the official rollout of Apple Pay on that Monday. So get on it so you can use your phone like your wallet. Now, I'm debating between going to Jamba Juice first or getting. A juicy Big Mac with those Micky D fires and Chicken McNuggets, and a McFlurry, but I need to be careful because it all goes to my but. All right so there you have it, like I said really a solid update across the board from Apple for iPad's and MAC's. Now there's nothing that really stands out as a must buy for me right now, but there's lots of great stuff if your in the market to upgrade. And just think, in 2015 we have, let's see the rumored, iPad Pro, MacBook Air with Retina Display, a new Apple TV and yeah, that Apple watch, are all awaiting us next year. And yes. I chose not to throw any bad apples this week because a lot of you guys get your feelings hurt when I do, so I decided to be nice today. All right, that's gonna do it for this week's show, you can email me at theapplebyte@cnet.com, or Tweet me @briantong. I'll be gone on vacation next, but don't worry, stick around because we have something, something for you lined up next time. And Apple, Just for future reference. After watching this c/net you need to skip that. Alight ,thanks for watching and we will catch up all next time for another byte of the apple. [MUSIC] [NOISE] [APPLAUSE]