Last week, Apple sent out invites for the media event to be held later today with the tag line “We’ve got a little more to show you“.
With just over 8 hours to go, here’s what we can expect from Apple’s iPad event tomorrow, based on all the rumors and speculations we’ve heard so far.
Stats and Numbers:
Apple tends to reveal key numbers during quarterly financial results and at special media events. So we expect Apple’s CEO Tim Cook to be the first to take the stage and reveal a lot of stats and numbers related to the entire ecosystem of Apple’s products.
We expect Tim Cook to announce that iPhone 5 is the most successful device ever launched by Apple and mention the number of iPhone 5s sold so far.
iPad Mini:
Ever since Apple launched the iPad in 2010, there have been rumors that Apple will launch a smaller and cheaper version of their tablet.
The “we’ve got a little more to show you” tag line on the invite for the October 23 media event seems to strongly indicate that Apple will finally launch the smaller iPad to take on cheaper Android-based tablets like Google Nexus 7 and Amazon Kindle Fire.
You can check out this post to find out everything we know about Apple’s smaller iPad.
Tweaked iPad 3:
Apple is widely speculated to launch a tweaked version of iPad 3 alongside the smaller iPad.
It may come with Apple’s new Lightning connector, global 4G LTE support and upgraded FaceTime camera. Some rumors have also suggested that it may come with an updated heat dissipation mechanism to address the heating issue that has been reported by some users and a completely new Retina display based on IGZO technology.
In our opinion, Apple will keep the changes in the tweaked iPad 3 to the bear minimum to avoid annoying users who have already bought the new iPad.
iBooks:
We’ve already heard that Apple’s October 23rd media event would have a strong focus on iBooks, and an iTunes book listing seems to confirm it.
The last major release of iBooks was version 2.0, which debuted at Apple’s education focused event in New York early this year, along with an iBooks creation tool iBooks Author. This release saw the introduction of a completely new book format, “.iBooks,” which brought along support for interactive 3D content along with a host of other features. With iBooks 3.0, Apple is likely to build up on this format, adding more features and shipping a new version of iBooks Author to go along with the main app.
In many ways, the iPad mini is an even better fit for the education sector than the larger iPad, given the lower price and the smaller size. And the larger iPad is already very popular in a lot of schools. A new version of iBooks coupled with a cheaper and smaller iPad would further accelerate the adoption rate of the iPad in this sector.
New Macs:
Apple may unveil the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro. The 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro is expected to have a resolution of 2560 x 1600 pixels, up from the current 1280 x 800 pixels along with a considerable decrease in thickness and weight and powered by Intel’s latest generation Ivy bridge processor.
The estimated pricing of $1699 makes the 13-inch Retina MacBook Pro $600 more expensive that the entry level 13 inch model. For comparison, the difference between the price of a 15-inch Retina and non Retina MacBook Pro is a little less, at $400.
Apple may also unveil a redesigned iMac with a thinner form factor and powered by Intel’s latest generation Ivy Bridge processors.
Apple is also likely to launch a new version of Mac mini, most likely with faster processors as the current Mac Mini are on the last-generation chipsets. The report claims that Mac minis will come in two standard configurations, with different storage and processor options, and a third model that runs OS X Server.
iTunes 11:
Last month at the iPhone 5 and iPod event, Apple showed off iTunes 11, a complete redesign of Apple’s media player as well as the front end to many of its media services.
We expect Apple to announce the release date for iTunes 11, which could even be today.
iOS 6.x:
According to rumors, Apple has started testing iOS 6.1, which is expected to come with features such as AirPlay Direct, which we had expected Apple to announce at the iPhone 5 event.
It seems unlikely that Apple will give us a preview of the upcoming iOS software update at the event. We also don’t expect Apple to add any new features for iPad mini.
