Apple's October event was a big one. They introduced new iPads and updated one Mac and introduced another new Mac the last thing to talk about is software and services and with that, let us dive in.

iOS 8.1

Apple introduced iOS 8.0 last month. In that time 48% of iOS devices are running iOS 8.0, and 47% are running iOS 7. The remaining 5% are running an earlier version of iOS. iOS 8.1 includes a couple of bug fixes and includes support Apple Pay. iOS 8.1 will be available on Monday, October 20th as a free upgrade for all of those running iOS 8.0. The iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 should be running iOS 8.1. Besides Apple Pay, there are other new features for the update, just Apple Pay.

WatchKit

At the September event, Apple announced their new product line, the Apple Watch. At that time they also announced a new framework, WatchKit; they stated that it would be coming later this year. They were not incorrect when they stated this. At today's event, Apple announced that the WatchKit framework would be coming in November to allow developers time to determine how best to support the Apple Watch with their applications. There was no update on release date for the Apple Watch outside of "Early 2015".

Apple Pay

Apple introduced its payment service, Apple Pay, last month at their September Event. At that time, they stated that Apple Pay would begin rolling out in October. Well, a date has been set, and it is on Monday, October 20th, and it will only begin in the United States. Apple has partnered with the three largest card issuers, Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. Also at the September event Apple stated that they were starting with the largest banks. In the interim, they have signed up over 500 banks. All of these will begin to roll out support for Apple Pay this year as well as early next year.

OS X 10.10 Yosemite

All Macs being shipped today, including the updated Mac Mini and the iMac with 5K Retina Display will be running OS X 10.10 Yosemite. It is available now in the Mac App Store and is available for Free. If you are running OS X 10.8 or OS X 10.9 Mavericks, you can upgrade right now.

OS X Server 4.0

There was a piece of software that was not mentioned and that is OS X 10.10 Yosemite Server. It was also updated to version 4.0. Unlike OS X 10.10 Yosemite, Server 4.0 is not a free upgrade and costs $19.99. It can be downloaded from the Mac App Store. OS X Server 4.0 will only run on OS X 10.10 Yosemite.

iWork

One of the suites of software that was announced as receiving an update is the iWork Suite. Pages, Numbers and Keynote have been updated to take advantage of the features of OS X 10.10 Yosemite. Pages 5.5 includes support for Handoff, iCloud drive support, an updated file format, Apple Support for mail merge, and improved table support. Numbers 3.5 includes support for Handoff, iCloud Drive, an updated file format, improved table support, and the ability to easily resize and re-position charts. Keynote 6.5 includes support for Handoff, iCloud Drive, an updated file format, the ability to move and customize items in the presenter's display, the ability to pair Keynote with nearby iOS devices by using Multipeer connectivity, and improved table support.

iWork is a free upgrade for those who have already purchased the applications. If you have not, you can download Pages, Numbers, and Keynote for $19.99 each.

GarageBand

GarageBand has been updated to 10.0.3. The changes associated with this are OS X 10.10 Yosemite support, Mail Drop support, a new Voice template to easily create a voice track, and the addition of audio-effect plugins. GarageBand is available in the Mac App Store as a free update, or $4.99 if you do not already own the application.

iMovie

iMovie 10.0.6 includes an updated look for OS X 10.10 Yosemite, a set of new export options, including Audio Only, the ability to share a frame as an image, the ability to email HD video with Mail Drop, improved performance, and the ability for developers to create App Previews as well as screen capturing directly from an iPhone or iPad. It is available now in the Mac App Store as a free update, or $14.99 if you do not already own it.

iPhoto

iPhoto received only a very minor update to version 9.6. The only fixes are compatibility fixes for OS X 10.10 Yosemite. It is available in the Mac App Store for free.

Final Thoughts

Even though we knew that OS X 10.10 Yosemite was right around the corner, we did not know the exact release date. The unveiling of the Apple Pay start date, as well as the accompanying iOS 8.1 update, will let users being using Apple Pay on Monday. With over 500 banks that will be supporting Apple Pay, it is quite likely that a bank near you will be supporting the service sometime soon.

At Apple's event, they discussed iPads, Macs, and other items. If you want to read about the iPads, go check out this post. Right now, we will discuss the Macs. There were only a couple of updates to Mac, one somewhat minor, but the other being significant.

Mac Mini

The Mac Mini, the lowest priced Mac in the line-up, was last updated in October of 2012, until today that is. The Mac Mini received a bunch of great updates. The first is that the lowest-end model is now $100 cheaper at $499. This is good news for those who are new the Mac, but before we decide if that is fantastic news, let us look at all of the specifications.

The second improvement is that they are now all running Intel's 4th Generation Core series, codenamed Haswell. There are three models of the 2014 Mac Mini. The standard configurations all include dual-core Core i5 processors. Their speeds are 1.4GHz, 2.6GHZ, and 2.8GHz. The 2.6GHz and 2.8GHz models are able to be configured to use a 3.0GHz dual-core i7 processor.

The memory configurations start at 4GB for the 1.4GHz model, and 8GB for the 2.6GHz and 2.8GHz models. All three of these can be configured for up to 16GB of memory. These are still DDR3, however they are now Low-powered memory chips.

The Mac Mini uses integrated graphics, so with the upgrade to the 4th Generation chips, the graphics have improved. On the 1.4GHz model, this now includes Intel HD 5000 Graphics, on the 2.6GHz and 2.8GHz models use Intel's Iris Graphics.

The port configuration on the Mac Mini has changed. The Mac Mini now supports Thunderbolt 2, which is capable of up to 20Gigabits per second. The Mac Mini no longer has a Firewire connection. In its place, is now a second Thunderbolt 2 port. With the second Thunderbolt 2 port, the Mac Mini is now capable of displaying two monitors running at 2560 by 1440.

Connectivity within the Mac Mini has also been slightly upgraded. The device now contains 802.11AC, which will provide faster wireless access.

The storage capabilities of the Mac Mini has changed slightly. The previous generation Mac Mini came with a 500GB 2.5" hard-drive. This has not changed for the 1.4GHz model. The 1.4GHz model is configurable with a 1TB Fusion drive. The 2.6GHz comes with a 1TB drive, and can be configured for a 1TB Fusion drive or a 256GB SSD. The 2.8GHz models now come with a 1TB Fusion drive, and can be configured with a 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB SSD drive.

The Mac Mini is available to purchase now, and ships in 1 to 3 business days.

iMac with 5K Retina Display

The iMac with 5K Retina Display is a brand new 27" device. Its biggest feature is the screen. It sports a 5120‑by‑2880 pixels, which is a total of 14.7 million pixels. This is 67% more pixels than standard 4K display. The 27" iMac with 5K Retina Display needed some additional technology to be able to handle the number of pixels. The screen is only 1.4mm thin.

The first of these technologies is the Timing Controller, also called the TCon. This controller handles the coordination between all of the pixels on the display. According to Apple, there was no timing controller to handle the 5K display, so they had to create a custom one. Apple's TCon can handle 4 times the bandwidth, and up to 40 Gigabits per second. This is the same speed as Two Thunderbolt 2 ports working in parallel. As a side-effect, the 27" iMac with 5K Retina Display cannot be used in Target Display Mode. Now that the unique technology has been discussed, let us talk about the specifications.

The processor for the iMac with 5K Retina Display is a quad-core Intel Core i5 running at 3.5GHz and can Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz. The processor can be configured for a 4.0GHz (that can Turbo up to 4.4GHz).

The default memory is 8GB (which seems low for this model) of 1600MHz DDR3 memory. This is configurable up to 32GB. There are four ports that are user accessible, which is the same as the standard 27" iMac.

The iMac with 5K Retina Display comes with a 1TB Fusion Drive and can be configured for a 3TB Fusion Drive or, 256GB SSD Flash, 512GB SSD Flash, or 1TB Flash Storage.

The graphic card on the 27" iMac with 5K Retina Display is an AMD Radeon R9 M290X with 2GB of GDDR5. This is configurable to an AMD R9 M295X with 4GB of GDDR5 memory. This processor is needed to drive all of the pixels in the 5K Display.

The ports available on the iMac 5K with Retina are the same as the regular 27" iMac. These include four USB 3 ports, two Thunderbolt 2 ports, a Gigabit Ethernet, and an SDXC card slot. The iMac with 5K Retina Display is capable of handling an external display up to 3840 by 2160 pixels.

The iMac with 5K Retina Display is available today and begins at $2499 for the base model.

Final Thoughts

Even though none of the other Macs received updates, the one that was updated and the new one released have kept the Mac line fresh. The introduction of the 27" iMac with 5K Retina Display brings an additional device in the iMac to the lineup. The 5K Retina screen option will be a great improvement for those who can benefit from the device. The updated Mac Mini will bring even more users into the fold. The biggest aspect of this may be the $499 price point. The biggest surprise is that everything is available today.

Apple held their October Media event today. They announced a whole slew of items. As expected Apple announced a couple of new iPads, the iPad Air 2 and the iPad Mini 3.

iPad Air 2

The iPad Air 2 is an update to last year's iPad Air. When the iPad Air was introduced last year, it was touted that is was as thin as a pencil. The iPad Air 2 is even thinner. The iPad Air is 7.5mm and the iPad Air 2 is 6.1mm. This is a significant reduction in size; 18% to be exact. This reduction in size is due to the new screen. The new screen combines all of the features of the screen into one single piece. Despite the smaller form factor Apple has managed to cram more into the package.

The iPad Air 2 now comes with an A8X chip, which houses 3 Billion transistors and an accompanying M8 co-processor. The M8 also includes a barometer. The graphics performance, compared to the original iPad is 180x better. Along with the better graphics is the improved Camera. The Camera is now an 8 Megapixel iSight Camera with a five-element lens and the same ƒ/2.4 aperture. The camera is also now capable of doing burst mode photos, better paranoiac photos (up to 43 megapixels). Still photos are not the only thing to be improved. Video has also been improved with the iPad Air 2. The iPad Air 2 is capable of doing Slow motion video at 120 frames per second.

On the front of the iPad Air 2, the FaceTime Camera has also been improved. It now sports an ƒ/2.2 aperture lens, which should bring in more light into pictures, as well as the ability to geotag photos and videos taken with the FaceTime Camera.

There has been a couple of other new features added to the iPad Air 2. The first is a Touch ID sensor. The Touch ID sensor is not the same as the one in the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Instead, it is the same one that is in the iPhone 5S. This means that users will only be able to use the Touch ID to purchase items from the iTunes Store, unlocked their device and apps, and purchase items using Apple Pay, but only through applications.

The second new feature is improved wireless. The iPad Air 2 now sports 802.11AC wireless. This means that it is capable of speeds up to 866 Megabits per second.

The pricing for the iPad Air 2 is $499 for a 16GB model, $599 for 64GB Model, and $699 for the 128GB Model. The Cellular versions cost $629, $729, and $829 respectively. There is one item for the iPad Air, it now comes in three colors, Silver, Space Gray, and Gold.

iPad Air

The iPad Air has now replaced the iPad with Retina Display (4th Generation). The features of the iPad Air remain the same, excluding the price and available sizes. the iPad Air is now available for $399 for the 16GB and $449 for the 32GB. The cellular models cost $529 and $579.

iPad Mini 3

The iPad Mini 3 is only a slight update to the iPad Mini with Retina. The iPad Mini 3 now has a 5 Megapixel iSight Camera that includes a Timer Mode. The timer mode is available so you can get into the proper pose before taking pictures. The front-facing FaceTime Camera is now also capable of taking Panoramas as well as burst-mode.

The iPad Mini 3 did also get a Touch ID sensor. As with the iPad Air 2, the iPad Mini 3 will only be able to use the Touch ID sensor to unlock the device, unlock Applications and purchase items from iTunes and apps.

The only other change is that the iPad Mini 3 is now available in gold. It is available in three configurations, 16GB, 64GB and 128GB models for $399, $499, and $599. The cellular model is available in the same size configuration at $529, $629, and $729.

iPad Mini 2

The iPad Mini with Retina has remained largely unchanged except for two things, the price and its name. The name of the iPad Mini with Retina is now the iPad Mini 2. The pricing of the iPad Mini 2 has been reduced to $299 for 16GB and $349 for 32GB. The cellular models are $429 and $479 for the 16GB and 32GB models respectively. The iPad Mini 2 is only available in Silver or Space Gray models.

iPad Mini

One might expect that Apple would eliminate the original iPad Mini, but they did not. Instead, they dropped the price to $249 for the wi-fi version and $379 for the cellular version. It is available in Silver or Space Gray. This is the lowest price point that an iPad has been available at throughout its history.

Final Thoughts

The introduction of the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 bring forward the success of the iPad line. During the presentation Tim Cook, also known as Chairman HoneyCrisp, stated that Apple has sold 225 Million iPads, since they launched back in June of 2007. If you are in the market for a new iPad, now is a great time to purchase a new one. The iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 will be available for pre-order tomorrow and will ship next week.

On October 11th, Apple announced their "It's been way too long" event. Tomorrow is that event. You can watch it live at Apple.com at 10AM Pacific, or 26 hours from the time that this was posted. With that, I thought I would share my predictions for what we will see.

iPads

Just like with iPhones, new iPads have become a yearly occurrence. This year should not be any different.

iPad Air

I am thinking we will see an updated iPad Air that encompasses Touch ID, is slightly thinner, has the same A8 and M8 co-processors and incorporates the same 802.11AC wireless chipsets, along with the same Retina HD screen as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Right now, the iPad Air only comes in two colors, Black and White. It is possible that the new iPad Air may come in Silver, Gold and Space Gray, much in the same manner as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Outside of these slight improvements, there may not be much for the iPad Air.

iPad with Retina Display

This line is currently the 4th Generation iPad. My prediction is that this model will disappear and is replaced with the current iPad Air; all at the same price point.

iPad Mini

The iPad Mini was originally released in November of 2012 and received an update in 2013 with the introduction of the iPad Mini with Retina. It is my prediction that the iPad Mini will disappear and be replaced by the current iPad Mini with Retina. The new iPad Mini with Retina 2, will mimic the iPad Air, except that it will be smaller. The possible new features include Touch ID, a thinner form factor, 802.11AC wireless, and Retina HD Screen. The iPad Mini may also come in the same three colors, Silver, Gold, and Space Gray, as the other devices.

Apple TV

The current Apple TV was last released in March of 2012 and has not been appreciably updated since then. There was a slight upgrade called 3rd Generation Revision A. The only change The 3rd Generation Apple TV uses Apple's A5 Chip. This is chip that was released with the 3rd Generation iPad, iPhone 4S, 5th Generation iPod Touch and original iPad Mini. The Apple TV presently supports 1080p playback. It is my prediction that Apple will release a new Apple TV, running an shrunken down A7 chip that supports 4K playback and 802.11AC wireless, and has Gigabit connectivity. I know that adding 4K playback is a stretch, but given the future capabilities of 4K, it is not inconceivable that Apple may introduce this. The 4K version of the Apple TV may be considered a new product, like the Apple TV Pro and may also be at an increased price point.

OS X 10.10 Yosemite

Every year Apple releases a new version of OS X, at least this has been the case since 2011 when Apple introduced Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. As I am writing this, OS X 10.10 Yosemite was at Golden Master 3. It is almost 100% certain that we will see the release of OS X 10.10 Yosemite. It will almost certainly be a free upgrade for existing OS X users whom are running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard or later.

OS X 10.10 Yosemite Server

In a similar fashion to OS X 10.10 Yosemite, we will see OS X 10.10 Yosemite Server. Apple has had a habit of reducing the price of OS X Server. Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server was $499 for the unlimited-client version, OS X 10.7 was $49.99, and OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and OS X 10.9 Mavericks were both $19.99. I have a suspicion that Apple may reduce this to $9.99, or, as a bold move, make it entirely free. Honestly, I do not see Apple making it free, but it would be a nice change.

Macs

With a new version of OS X there are typically new Macs to go along with the new Operating System. Any new Mac purchases will likely have OS X 10.10 Yosemite on them.

MacBook Pro

The non-retina MacBook Pro has not seen an update since June 2012. It is possible that Apple would update this line, but it is not likely. This is the old MacBook Pro, and last model, that includes an optical drive built-in. This is legacy way of doing things, and once the sales diminish to a point where Apple does not think this is a viable option, they will kill off this model entirely. It may be this event where this occurs. I do not expect any update to this model.

MacBook Pro with Retina

I do not foresee the MacBook Pros with Retina receiving any update, besides having OS X 10.10 Yosemite installed by default. These just received a minor speed bump and a default memory increase and a price reduction in July. It is not impossible, but it is not likely at all.

MacBook Air

The MacBook Airs last saw an update in April of 2014. That's about 6 Months ago. It is not likely that Apple would introduce a new model of MacBook Air. However, what Apple could do is increased the default memory from 4GB to 8GB. This would provide a minor refresh, but would not warrant a big model refresh.

Mac Mini

The Mac Mini is Apple's entry-point Mac. It is the Mac that has been on the market, in its current configurations, the longest. The Mac Mini was last updated in October of 2012. It is definitely time to refresh the Mac Mini. The updates to the Mac Mini could be the default configuration of RAM at 8GB, 802.11AC wireless, two Thunderbolt 2 ports, and Intel's Haswell or Broadwell M chipsets.

Mac Pro

The top of the line Mac, the Mac Pro, will probably not see an update. The updated Mac Pro was unveiled at Apple's World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) in June of 2013. It was released in late December of 2013. The Mac Pro does not follow any sort of typical pattern. The Mac Pro is a machine that is designed for professionals and a standard upgrade cycle does not apply.

iMac

The iMac received a "new model" in June. This model created a new low-end model. The model is a 21.5" is running the same internals as the MacBook Air. The remaining 21.5" and 27" iMacs were updated in September 2013. The rumors swirling around the iMac is that the new iMac will have a Retina Display. This may be an exclusive option to the 27" models. It is also possible that the Retina iMac is a new line entirely. The existing iMacs may not be updated at all. They already has all of the same updates that we may see in the MacBook Pro with Retina and Mac Minis.

27" Retina Thunderbolt Display

Apple's Thunderbolt Display was released in July of 2011. This has been the last update to it. One could argue that the Thunderbolt Display does not really need an update since it does serve its purpose of being a display. The current resolution of the 27" Thunderbolt Display is 2560 by 1440. If a new Thunderbolt display was to be released, it would like be a 4K Model. Now, this poses some issues given that to push a Full 4K monitor at an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a resolution of 3840 × 2160, you would need more than a Thunderbolt Display can handle with just one cable. Two cables could possibly support it, but none of Apple's products, except the Mac Pro, have two direct Thunderbolt connections.

Final Thoughts

Overall I think the Apple Event will bring a bunch of new hardware and software. I am hoping that the Mac Mini and iPad Air are updated. These are almost guaranteed to occur. It is 100% likely that OS X 10.10 Yosemite will be released very very soon. I would expect to see a new iMac with Retina. If we do see any of these we will know tomorrow.

Back on September 19th, I posted how the sales of my iOS 8 book were doing. This was after only 2 days, but the numbers included 16 days worth of pre-orders. I thought I would do an update to that post. This chart is comprehensive between both Amazon and Apple. Here are the links for purchase Apple (ePub), Apple (iBooks), or Amazon (ePub). This information is for all of September.

Just as expected, the United States is taking up a majority of the sales. The U.S. has 81 percent of overall sales, followed by the U.K. at 11 percent and Canada at 6 percent. None of the percentages differ greatly from the sales percentage on September 19th. Let us look at Non-US sales numbers by themselves.

The U.K.'s marketshare has increased by 5 percentage to 34, up from 29 percent. Germany's marketshare has decreased by 3 percentage points to 21 percent. Italy has passed by Canada, to take 9 percent, to Canada's 8 percent; these are up 3 percent and 2 percent respectively. Japan's share has dropped by 3 percent to 6 percent overall. While Greece, whom also has 6 percent previously, has dropped to 4 percent.

So there it is, the percentages have remained largely unchanged. The biggest surprise, to me, was Japan. I did not expect such a high percentage of Non-US sales to originate from Japan.

While this video is 6 1/2 years old, it's definitely worth a watch. It has some great advice with reasoning behind it.

Here's a video by @songadaymann that involves Apple's Quick Type completion.

To prepare for The Walking Dead coming back on Sunday, You should familiarize yourself with "Carl Poppa".

I'm sure hope that this officer is reprimanded and strip of his badge. This is no way to "protect" citizens.