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Thinner iPad has iPhone features

CUPERTINO, Calif. - Apple unveiled a thinner iPad Thursday with a faster processor and a better camera as it tries to drive excitement for tablets amid slowing demand.

CUPERTINO, Calif. - Apple unveiled a thinner iPad Thursday with a faster processor and a better camera as it tries to drive excitement for tablets amid slowing demand.

The iPad Air 2, at 6.1 millimeters "thin," also adds many of the features previously available on iPhones. That includes the ability to take burst shots and slow-motion video and the inclusion of a fingerprint ID sensor for use instead of a pass code.

It also has an antireflective coating, a first for a tablet, which makes it 56 percent less reflective, said Philip Schiller, senior vice president of marketing, on stage at the event at Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif.

The iPad Air 2 will start at $499. Apple also updated its iPad Mini device, with a starting price of $399. The new devices will begin shipping next week, with advance orders starting Friday.

Meanwhile, Apple made its new Mac operating system, Yosemite, available as a free download starting Thursday.

Apple Pay, the company's new system for using iPhones to make credit- and debit-card payments at retail stores, will launch Monday.

Chief executive officer Tim Cook opened Thursday's product-launch event by touting strong reception to the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, released last month.

"It's been an incredible year and tremendously busy already," he said, adding that the new iPhones have been the fastest-selling in Apple's history. He reiterated that the iPhones are about to launch in China and said the launch is aligned with a rollout of 4G cellular networks there.

Thursday's event came as sales of iPads have dropped. Through the first half of this year, Apple had shipped 29.6 million iPads, a 13 percent dip from the same time last year.

Apple plans to issue results for the latest quarter on Monday.

The company has been facing competition from cheaper tablets running Google's Android operating system. Ahead of Apple's event, Google announced Wednesday that an 8.9-inch Nexus 9 tablet is coming next month at a starting price of $399, $100 less than the 9.7-inch iPad Air. It will run a new version of Android, dubbed Lollipop.

Besides competition, there's been an overall slowdown in tablet demand. This week, research firm Gartner projected worldwide shipments of 229 million tablets this year. Although that's up 11 percent compared with 2013, it's far less than the 55 percent growth seen last year and the more than doubling in sales in 2012.