October Apple event 2018: the latest announcements from the keynote

If you’re looking to trade in your Apple product — be it a MacBook, iMac, Mac desktop, iPhone, or iPad — you stand to get a pretty good return. Apple’s tech has a reputation on the secondhand market for retaining value long after release. This speaks to build quality, but mostly to Apple’s long-lasting software support for its older products. The trend is positive both for buyers who will end up with a product that could continue to work for years, and sellers, who will make a good percentage of their original purchase price back.

There are plenty of ways of trading in your old Apple products for cash. You can easily net an extra $50 to $100 from a sale if you’ve taken care of your tech, as buyers will pay more for products that look closer to new condition. So it pays to make sure that your hardware is in good shape.

The redesigned MacBook Air is now available, and you should check out The Verge’s review before buying this one. The new machine features a Retina Display, two USB-C ports, Touch ID, and a lot more inside its chassis that’s thinner and lighter than previous generations of the Air. If you’re looking to pick it up, it starts at $1,199 and moves up if you want more solid state storage.

A few retailers stock the new MacBook Air, including Amazon, which only recently began to allow the sale of Apple products in its store.

The new iPad Pro ditches the Home button in favor Face ID, gains a lot of power, and its bezels are much slimmer than previous generations. It’s available now in 11-inch or 12.9-inch configurations, starting at $799 and $999, respectively.

You can pick up the new iPad Pro from Apple and several other retailers, including B&H Photo, Best Buy, and as of recently, Amazon.

Apple wants to attract big-name game developers to create games with its computers and iPads, specifically the new iPad Pro, in mind. That means the company needs to pitch the device (a tablet that most wouldn’t list as a go-to portable gaming device) to a different crowd. Part of the way that Apple conveys that message is by dunking on consoles like Sony’s PlayStation or Microsoft’s Xbox by using a specific phrase in its presentation, as it did yesterday: “It provides an experience that rivals consoles for the very first time.”

2K Games, the developer behind annual sports games like NBA 2K19, appeared onstage at the event with its latest basketball installment to showcase the new iPad Pro’s capabilities. The iPad version of NBA 2K19 renders at more than 6 million pixels and clocks in at 60 fps. Those are impressive numbers, and the demo certainly looked smooth on-screen. The updated iPad Pro’s new specs, which includes a substantial increase in CPU performance and double the GPU power, makes it comparable to an Xbox One S, according to Apple.

At yesterday’s Apple event, I saw a company returning to its finest form. Apple paid overdue attention to its stalwart MacBook Air and Mac mini, introduced a much leaner and more powerful iPad Pro, and fixed the design disaster that was the Apple Pencil’s charging. You don’t have to be an expert analyst to forecast bumper holiday sales for the Cupertino team.

In crafting its most compelling iPad and MacBook Air to date, Apple also created a major headache for people like me. I’m a member of that classic Intel ultrabook demographic whose computing needs are light but constant. You won’t catch me doing 3D modeling or 4K video production on my laptop, but I do a litany of small tasks online, in a word processor, or in Adobe’s Lightroom. I’ve been using a MacBook Pro for two years that does most of what I want, but it really doesn’t last long enough. Now, Apple is offering me the much better battery life I need with the high-quality display I desire, but it’s fragmented the choice. Both the new MacBook Air and new iPad Pro could be the ideal computer for me.

Apple’s newest iPad Pro, announced today in New York, is one of the most expensive tablets the company has ever made. The cheapest option starts at $799 for the 64GB 11-inch iPad Pro, and it can run all the way up to a whopping $1,899 for the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with LTE. That also makes the new iPads also the most expensive to repair, if you’re out of warranty and don’t have AppleCare+, Apple’s extended warranty program.

Apple’s support page for iPad repairs lists the fees to repair each tablet if it’s out of warranty. AppleCare+, which costs $129 for a two-year iPad Pro warranty, covers two incidents of accidental damage as well as other malfunctions. But if you let your complimentary limited warranty run out after a year, and your new 12.9-inch iPad Pro needs repairs, you’ll have to pay $649 to get it fixed. Apple’s first year of limited warranty doesn’t even cover accidental damage, just defects, so if you break your iPad two days after you get it, you’ll still have to pay $649.

Apple announced new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros in New York today, which now come with Face ID, a USB-C charging port, and a new “Liquid Retina” display. Aesthetically, they’ve got slimmer bezels that only come in black, like the new MacBook Airs. The black bezels, when paired with the Smart Keyboard Folio, make the iPad Pro look closer to a laptop than it ever has before. They also allow for the 11-inch model display to fit a bigger screen into the same overall dimensions as the prior 10.5-inch model.

The iPads also lose their home buttons entirely in favor of the iOS 12 gesture controls found in Apple’s new iPhones. Swiping across the various edges of the screen now brings up the home screen, lets you switch apps, and pull up the Control Center, Notification Center, and Dock.

Apple events are traditionally a chance for tech connoisseurs to spend a couple of hours learning about the company’s next line of hardware products or software updates, but it also gives Apple executives a chance to hang out with super cool musicians.

At the end of Apple’s presentation today, melancholic pop princess Lana Del Rey gave a charming performance with Jack Antonoff of two songs from her upcoming album Norman Fucking Rockwell. Del Rey wasn’t allowed to say the name of her album because Apple didn’t want any cursing at its keynote. (It’s perhaps a sign of what people should expect from the company’s upcoming original slate of TV shows and films, which is also rumored to be family-friendly.)

Apple announced a new MacBook Air today during a hardware event in New York. The new MacBook Air finally gets a Retina display as well as modern processors, 50 percent thinner bezels, and an updated keyboard. It’s the first major refresh of the MacBook Air in years, and it finally turns it into a modern, competitive machine. But how does it stack up against Apple’s existing MacBook and MacBook Pro?

Now that the MacBook Air has been revamped, it’s no longer at the $1,000 price point. Instead, the Air has ditched its price advantage in favor of more competitive specs. But with it lining up so closely with the 13-inch MacBook Pro, it might seem easier to just spend $100 more for what is in some ways a more powerful model.

Apple announced third-generation iPad Pros at its October event in Brooklyn today, along with an updated Apple Pencil that now charges wirelessly via magnetic attachment. The update was necessary, as the new iPad Pro switched from charging via Lightning port to USB-C, and the old Apple Pencil only charged via a Lightning port in its (easily losable) cap. The bad news is that the new Pencil is only compatible with the latest iPad Pros, and alternatively, the first generation Apple Pencils aren’t compatible with the new tablet either, as shown on the Apple website.

Although the new Apple Pencil vastly improves the charging process by forgoing the charging port entirely, the switch to USB-C came at the cost of losing the original Apple Pencil’s functionality on the new iPad Pros. If you’re thinking of upgrading to the new iPad Pro, that means you have to buy the newest Apple Pencil even if you already have the old Apple Pencil at home.

Update October 31th, 1:14PM ET: Apple has pulled the watchOS update, at least temporarily, after reports of bricked Apple Watch devices.

Apple released watchOS 5.1 today and with it comes support for new emoji, updated watchfaces, and group FaceTime audio. One new watchface includes a “color” face that’ll give users a choice between different shades that take up the whole face.

Apple’s first update to iOS 12 is now available to download. The iOS 12.1 update comes with the much anticipated fix for the front camera bug that was overly smoothing skin on the iPhone XS and XR, as well as new emoji. (The bagel emoji!)

Apple told The Verge earlier this month that the beauty bug was caused by a flaw in its smart HDR camera system that chose the wrong base frame for HDR processing whenever someone took a selfie.

After a busy fall announcement season, Apple has unveiled what’s expected to be the last of its hardware refreshes this year with the introduction of a new iPad Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac mini. All new devices are available for preorder today with a ship date of November 7th. Here’s a look at them all.

The MacBook Air finally got a refresh after years of MacBook Pro updates. The 2018 MacBook Air now has 13.3-inch Retina display, third-gen butterfly keyboard, Touch ID, and 50 percent narrower bezels. The trackpad is also 20 percent larger, has stereo speakers that are 25 percent louder, and Siri is built in. The headphone jack remains, along with two USB-C ports.

Apple has finally unveiled a long-awaited revamp of the MacBook Air, replacing the influential but outdated laptop with a new model that adds a high-resolution Retina display, USB-C, and Touch ID. The laptop strongly resembles the 13.3-inch MacBook Pro that was released two years ago, but the design has been tweaked with a subtle taper to make it a bit smaller and to more closely resemble the iconic Air.

The laptop was unveiled onstage at the Howard Gilman Opera House in Brooklyn, and Apple brought us out into a demo area to check out the new machines. It really does look a lot like a MacBook Pro, but the taper makes a huge difference in the overall feel of the device. I can fully understand why Apple just went for it and called this a MacBook Air — because that’s what it feels like.

Apple announced a new, completely redesigned iPad Pro moments ago in New York, and I just got to spend a few minutes trying it out. The iPad Pro no longer has a home button; it’s all Face ID from here on out. The transition to Face ID allowed Apple to make the iPad’s side bezels slimmer, and the result might be the truest embodiment of a “tablet” yet. This thing is just a giant, beautiful screen.

The 11-inch display is housed in a device similar to the size of the previous 10.5-inch iPad Pro, and the 12.9-inch model is physically smaller than its predecessor — about the size of a sheet of paper. The screen looks great; it’s the same 264ppi as the previous Retina iPads, and it’s as bright and sharp as ever. The corners are rounded off using the same pixel-masking technique as the iPhone XR. Apple’s actually calling it a “Liquid Retina” display, just like the iPhone XR, but honestly, it looks far nicer than the XR.

Although today’s event was mostly focused on Apple’s new MacBook Air, Apple also quietly announced an update to its MacBook Pro lineup, which will receive AMD’s Radeon Pro Vega graphics chips for the first time next month. Apple claims that these new graphics chips will result in an up to 60 percent boost to performance over the Radeon Pro 560X (the best GPU you could previously get in a MacBook Pro), across video editing, 3D design, and rendering tasks.

AMD’s Vega graphics cards were first released for desktops last year and have already been included as an option in Apple’s iMac Pros, but this is the first time they’ve found their way into laptops. AMD says the new Radeon Pro Vega 20 and Pro Vega 16 will offer “cool and quiet operation,” which hopefully means they won’t use too much of your charge; the desktop Vega chips had a bit of a power-hungry reputation. If you don’t want to buy one of the new MacBooks equipped with internal Vega graphics, you can also use an external GPU enclosure to connect a desktop AMD graphics card to your existing laptop. Apple has a list of external GPU-compatible cards on its site, and it includes Vega models.

Like it or not, Apple is removing the headphone jack from the new 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pros. If you want to use a 3.5mm audio jack with one of the new models, then you will need one of Apple’s USB-C to 3.5mm dongles. That’s right: the new iPad Pro moves from a Lightning cable to USB Type C.

Apple’s removal of the 3.5mm audio jack from the iPads wasn’t without warning. The company has been removing ports from its lineup for a while now. Apple removed the audio jack from the iPhone 7 / 7 Plus, then removed all other ports except the audio jack and USB-C on the MacBook Pro and Air lineups. Apple is also increasing the number of dongles they sell, by introducing a $39 SD card to USB-C dongle for users who want to edit photos straight from their camera while on-the-go.

Onstage at today’s hardware announcement event, Apple proudly announced that the 2018 models of its MacBook Air and Mac mini would both be manufactured with 100 percent recycled aluminum. Additionally, it announced that its Mac mini would be constructed from 60 percent recycled plastic.

These are different kinds of recycled materials. Specifically, the recycled plastic is “post-consumer,” which means that it’s material that’s previously been used in other products and was recycled. Meanwhile, the aluminum is recycled leftovers from Apple’s production of other aluminum products. In other words, you’re not getting a laptop made out of old drink cans.

Apple is improving its existing iPad Pro keyboard today with an update for the latest model. The new Smart Keyboard Folio magnetically attaches to the new iPad Pro and protects the front and the back. It also now includes two angles instead of the single one on the existing keyboard.

It appears that the keyboard will be a lot easier to slide into place. The original Smart Keyboard debuted three years ago with a design that acted like a cover and folded out into a keyboard. Apple used a Smart Connector on the iPad Pro previously to connect this keyboard, but the new magnets feature should make this easier to use. Apple is increasing the price of this keyboard to $179.99 for the 11-inch model and $199.99 for the 12.9-inch version.

Apple announced an updated version of its Pencil at its iPad Pro and MacBook event today, and although it keeps much of the original specs of the original stylus it released in 2015, it still features some updates made specifically for the new iPad Pro. With the new iPad Pros switching to USB-C ports, it makes sense for Apple to release another Pencil that uses a new charging method.

Apple’s just-announced iPad Pros are making the switch to USB-C, and with that switch comes a nifty new feature: you’ll actually be able to use your iPad to charge your iPhone on the go, making it the world’s most expensive battery pack.

Just plug in your iPhone (or, presumably, any other device that you want to charge) into the iPad’s USB-C port, and it’ll charge. Apple hasn’t said yet what kind of power that iPad will be able to push — you probably won’t be able to charge another iPad Pro or a Mac, for instance — but if you’re out and about and you need some extra juice for your phone, it’s a neat option to have.

After months of rumors, Apple has today announced a completely redesigned iPad Pro with slimmed-down bezels, Face ID, a USB-C port, and far more powerful specs than its predecessor. Just like prior years, the new iPad Pro comes in two screen sizes: 11 inches and 12.9 inches. The 11-inch model has essentially the same proportions as the prior 10.5-inch model. And the 12.9-inch model puts the same-sized display into a much smaller form factor. The new iPad Pro starts at $799 for the 11-inch and $999 for the 12.9-inch. Preorders begin today, and it ships on November 7th.

The new Pro is the company’s first iPad not to include a home button, which allowed Apple to extend the screen vertically for a much more immersive experience. The bezels have been downsized on all four sides. Like the iPhone XR, Apple is referring to this screen as a Liquid Retina Display. Both sizes offer Apple’s ProMotion technology for smooth, fluid display performance. With the removal of the home button, the new iPads will fully adopt the gesture navigation that debuted on the iPhone X.

Apple is finally updating its Mac mini. It’s the first time the Mac mini has been updated since the end of 2014, and this is a major update. Apple is adding a quad-core 8th Gen Intel processor instead of the 4th Gen Intel Core i5 dual-core processor that shipped in the device four years ago. There’s even an option for six-core Intel Core i7 versions, too.

The new Mac mini includes support for up to 64GB of RAM, and every model has flash storage with up to 2TB of space. That’s a big change from the regular hard drives that shipped on most of the 2014 Mac mini models. Apple is also including its new T2 security chip on the new Mac mini, and updating the range of ports to modernize this Mac for 2018. There are four USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, HDMI, Ethernet, and two USB-A ports on the rear.

Apple has brought the MacBook Air back to life today, announcing the first proper refresh of its super thin laptop line in three years during its October hardware event. The MacBook Air, which last year saw a minor graphics and CPU upgrade, has languished since Apple introduced the 12-inch MacBook in 2015. And yet Apple, without a proper budget option, has kept the Air around. As Apple’s only laptop around the $1,000 price point, the Air suffers from a lower-resolution, non-Retina display, and subpar performance.

The new MacBook Air, however, is a proper replacement, in line with rumors first reported by Bloomberg in August. It has a Retina display, 50 percent thinner bezels in a design similar to the standard MacBook, and upgraded components. It has a 13.3-inch screen that stretches to the edge of the enclosure, two USB-C ports, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It also weighs just 2.75 pounds, which is lighter than the previous MacBook Air model that came in at 2.96 pounds.