As it happened: Apple launches iPad mini, 4th generation iPad and new Macs

11.40 pm: The Price of the iPad mini

Ok, this one is a shocker. The iPad mini is priced at $329 for a 16GB version with Wi-Fi only. The one with Cellular connectivity will start at $429 for the 16GB. That is expensive.

By the way, this is the lowest price for an iPad ever. Yeah that’s low according to Apple. The iPad mini will begin shipping from 2 November. The list of countries is pretty big but India is not on the list.

Tim Cook signs off after talking about what 2012 has meant for Apple.

Meanwhile Twitter is buzzing with jokes about how the iPad mini looks like the Galaxy Note II.  Here’s one such tweet:

https://twitter.com/aral/status/260801197445873664

11.30 pm: Direct attack on Google, Schiller compares the mini to the Nexus 7

Schiller’s talking about how the Nexus 7 is more plastic and heavy while the mini is made of aluminium. He’s saying the Nexus 7 is not a great experience.

He’s comparing Apps on the Nexus 7 and the iPad mini and showing how the mini experience is much better for those browsing the web thanks to the bigger screen.

iPad mini is two-thirds larger viewing experience for users: Phil Schiller

The iPad mini has an A5 chip. A FaceTime camera with HD and a 5 megapixel camera. It has a 4G LTE, faster Wi-fi. Schiller’s made it clear that this is better than the iPad 2 as well.

11.25 pm: The iPad mini has been launched

Finally the moment is here: The iPad mini is out and everybody is clapping

The iPad mini has a screen resolution of 1024 x 768 and it’s as thin as a pencil! Wow. It has a screen size of 7.9 inches thus making it bigger than the Nexus 7.

11.20 pm: Ok, Phill Schiller is back on stage now to announce the 4th generation iPad

Surprise, surprise, the 4th Generation iPad is here. What happened to the mini? This one has an A6 processor which is much faster than the older A5 chip. Two times CPU and Graphics power. Ten hour battery. FaceTime Camera gets an update with 720p HD. It also has a lightning conductor.

Price is the same for the fourth generation iPad: $499 for the 16 GB Wi-fi only version.

11.10 pm: Tim Cook is back on the stage talking about the iPad and how it’s changed the world and Apple 

Tim Cook: We’ve sold 100 million iPads over a period of two and half years. More iPads sold in June quarter than PC makers sold PC.

He’s talking about how iPad accounts for 90 percent of Web traffic on tablets and how the iPad has been a game changer in education.

Tim Cook on textbooks in iBooks format: iBooks textbooks are now available for 80% of the US high school curriculum. Wow that is a big number. Apple seems to have unlocked the educational potential of the iPad as well and as the numbers show it seems to be working in the United States.

Ok, Phill Schiller is back on stage now to announce the 4th generation iPad.

10.55 pm A new Mac mini and two new iMacs

Schiller jokes, “You knew there’d be something about a mini in this presentation right?”

He’s introducing the Mac mini computer. This one has a 2.5 Ghz processor with 4GB RAM and upto 500 GB of Hard disk Space. Price: $599

The new iMac is also launched at the event. This one is razor thin, only 5mm edge on the side, nearly 80 percent thinner from the older version, says Schiller.

The iMac will come in two sizes, 27 inch and 21.5 inch. The 27 inch screen has a screen resolution of 2560x1440 pixels and the 21.5 inch has a screen resolution of 1920x1080 pixels. The iMac has NVIDIA Kepler graphics and up to 3TB HDD.

Price for the 21.5 inch iMac: $1299. This ships in November

Price for the 27-inch iMac: $1799. This ships in December.

Apple is giving users the option of Fusion drive in the Mac mini and the iMac to combine Flash Drive and the traditional Hard Drive.

10.50 pm Phill Schiller on stage, he introduces the new 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display

Phill Schiller comes out on the stage. He introduces the 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. This one is 20 percent thinner than the previous version making it the thinnest MacBook Pro ever. No Optical Drive but there is an SD card slot. The 13-inch new MacBook has a higher screen resolution than any other computer of the same size.

It has a screen resolution 2,560 x 1,600. That’s four times the screen resolution of the previous 13-inch MacBook. It has an Intel dual-core i5 or i7 Ivy Bridge processors, Intel HD 4000 Graphics and with 7-hour battery. It’s all flash storage and comes with up to 768GB of Flash and 8GB of RAM.

Price of the MacBook Pro 13-inch with Retina Display: $1699 only. Wow, still as expensive.

10.40 pm Tim Cook on stage, the event is ready to roll

Tim Cook has just come on stage. He was greeted with some thunderous applause. He’s talking about the stunning start for the iPhone 5 and how Apple sold 5 million units in the first weekend itself. Cook says, this makes the iPhone 5 the most sold phone ever in a single weekend!

Now there’s a video about the awesomeness of the iPhone 5.

Tim Cook has moved on to talk about the iPods now. Cook says, Apple has sold 3 million units for the new iPod Touch.

The big number: 200 mn devices are already running iOS 6. Fastest upgrade for any software, says Tim Cook. That is a big number, and this despite the flaw with the Apple Maps application.

Tim Cook talks about some big numbers for the App Store. Customers have downloaded nearly 35 billion apps and Apple has now paid out $6.5 billion to developers, says Tim Cook.

He moves on to iBooks next. Cook: We have 1.5 million books on iBooks users have downloaded nearly 400 million books since the launch of the store.

10.30 pm Get ready folks, the Apple event has begun

Ok, so the Apple live stream has begun. Everybody is still settling in. The music that was playing in the background was Two Weeks by Grizzly Bear. Wondering if Tim Cook will say, Oh and one more thing at the end of this event. Unlikely.

Here’s a tweet picture from inside the event by tech site, T3.com

https://twitter.com/t3dotcom/status/260784551486451712

9.30 pm: iPad mini is trending on Twitter

There’s an hour to go for Apple’s special event and it’s not surprising that the iPad mini is already trending on Twitter. The event is also being streamed live on Apple’s website but this will only work if you have an Apple device, aka, Apple Tv, Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. You can check out the event here.

Here’s a look at some of the tweets around the launch:

https://twitter.com/JohnnyFocal/status/260774269087268865

https://twitter.com/CLHauk/status/260773840567824386

https://twitter.com/karthikvk/status/260773729091612672

Apple is hosting its much discussed event this (Indian) evening where it is expected that the 7-inch version of the iPad, which the media has dubbed as the iPad mini will be launched. The event will be held in San Jose, California and will begin around 10.30 pm Indian Standard Time. We’ll be bringing you live updates from Apple’s event.

So what do we already know about Apple’s new offering? Well according to the rumour mill this one will come with an 8GB version as well along with the regular, 16, 32 and 64 GB versions. But will it be as cheap as the Nexus 7 or the Kindle Fire? It is highly unlikely that the iPad mini will cost less than $200 and reports have indicated that the price will be $250 and above.

Apple is also live-streaming the event on AppleTV, reports MacWorld .

It seems that the new iPad will hit the stores within two weeks of the launch and will ship to users by 2 November. You can read more on that  here on the TechCrunch site.

It seems that Apple will also launch a a new 13-inch MacBook Pro with a Retina Display. This will be a thinner version of the 15-inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display that was launched in June. A new Mac mini is supposedly on its way as well.