Apple knocked its big October iPad and Mac event out of the park

Apple

• Apple held a big event in Brooklyn on Tuesday to debut new
  iPads and Mac computers.
• Overall, the presentation was much better than the company’s
  last event in September, where it launched new iPhones and Apple
  Watches.
• The latest Apple products look fun and exciting, but Apple
  also deserves credit for making its event shorter than last time,
  choosing new presenters who were clearly excited to be on stage,
  and even getting the audience into it.

Last month, Apple held its big annual iPhone event — and
it was pretty disappointing. There were none of the surprises
Apple is known for, and the company even discontinued a handful of beloved
products, which many people didn’t see coming.

Compared to that event, Apple knocked its big iPad and Mac
showcase on Tuesday out of the park.

The products are new and exciting

At its second big event of the fall, Apple debuted three
redesigned products: a new MacBook Air, a new Mac Mini, and two completely
new iPad Pro models.

Kif
Leswing

The MacBook Air and Mac Mini were two updates that were a long
time coming. The last meaningful Mac Mini update, for instance,
was over 1,400 days ago.

So Apple delivered in this very basic respect, by updating these
beloved computers — but the new products actually look excellent.
The new MacBook Air has a
Retina display, Touch ID, and USB-C for both power and data
transfer — and no Touch Bar, thank goodness.

The new Mac Mini can be configured with six cores and up to 64 GB
of RAM, and you can daisy-chain countless Mac Minis together for
all of your computing needs.

With both devices, Apple addressed those customers looking for
powerful mobile and desktop computers.

Read more: Here’s
everything Apple announced at its big iPad and Mac
event

And, of course, we have to talk about the new iPad Pro, which really
does look like the biggest improvement to the iPad since the very
first iPad Air. It’s similar to the jump that the iPhone made
last year when Apple introduced the iPhone X.

The new iPad Pro is a complete redesign — it comes in 11-inch or
12.9-inch sizes, replaces the traditional home button with Touch
ID, and features a nearly edge-to-edge Liquid Retina display, the
same you’d find on the new iPhone XR.

Apple also built all-new accessories to go with the new iPad Pro,
including a redesigned Smart Keyboard and a redesigned Apple Pencil.
Both accessories now “click” onto the tablet using special
magnets and connectors, and get all their power directly from the
tablet. It’s the kind of incredible innovation we’ve come to
expect from Apple. 

Presentation matters

What’s nice about these new products is that the people on stage
to present them seemed genuinely excited to talk about them.

All of the presenters were excellent, but Apple CEO Tim Cook and
Tom Boger, the head of Mac product marketing, were particular
standouts. Both felt energetic and excited to share Apple’s news.

Apple

It was also really nice to see a healthy representation of men
and women on stage this time around. Whereas Apple has been
criticized in the past (and rightly so) for having too many white
male presenters, the company seems to have listened to those
complaints. Angela Ahrendts, Laura Legros, Shaan Pruden, and even
Jamie Myrold from Adobe helped balance out the show and kept it
from feeling like Apple events are by men, for men. And yes,
representation actually does matter when you’re broadcasting your
company event to millions of people around the world.

Finally, the audience seemed really into the show. It’s a small
detail, but hearing the whoops and hollers, even when Tim Cook
walked out on stage, made the event feel more, well, eventful.
Apparently the people in the front rows were mostly if not all
Apple employees, but if that’s what it takes to make the show
more exciting, they should keep planting more of those audience
members in the future.

A fitting end to a year of Apple shows

Tuesday’s event was likely the last time we’ll see Apple showing
off new products in 2018. But if that’s the last Apple show of
the year, the company went out with a bang.

The new iPad Pro, MacBook Air, and Mac Mini were three incredibly
important updates. Of course, the iPhone is the singular most
important product that Apple makes, but the company had needed to
address its most “affordable” computers for a long time, and
those customers — mostly students, young professionals, and
artists — are sure to be happy with these updates, even though
all three new products are priced higher than their predecessors
(the new Mac Mini costs $300 more to start than before, which
stings). 

Still, Tuesday’s event had everything you’d want from an Apple
event: real innovation, a handful of surprises, some gorgeous new
product videos, and a feeling like you need that
new gadget. It wasn’t perfect — 90 minutes could have been
trimmed down, even if it wasn’t as long as the two-hour September
event — but my excitement for Apple’s new products continued long
after the show ended, and I could not say the same for last
month’s event.