Apple remained silent for most of 2013 and industry watchers panicked as the months rolled by with no major product launches. Well, when it rains it pours. Apple launched the brand new flagship iPhone 5s and the sort-of-new iPhone 5c almost exactly one month ago, and opening-weekend sales absolutely smashed Apple’s earlier iPhone sales records. Now, it’s time for the next few pieces of Apple’s 2013-2014 product puzzle to fall into place.
Apple just sent out invitations for its fall event last week, but the rumor mill has been churning for months and we pretty much already know what to expect. There will be iPads. There will be Macs. There will be Mavericks. In fact, we always know what to expect from Apple events these days, but spoilers seemingly haven’t hurt sales one bit.
According to the company’s invitations, Apple has a lot to cover during Tuesday’s event — but there will be two clear stars of the show: A new iPad and a new iPad mini.
Where the “iPad 5” is concerned, months of leaks and rumors point to a completely redesigned full-size tablet. The overhauled case will closely resemble Apple’s iPad mini design, but obviously with a bigger footprint. Despite sporting the same 9.7-inch Retina display as Apple’s fourth-generation iPad, however, the device is expected to be smaller and thinner overall.
Apple’s “iPad mini 2” is expected to look almost the same as its predecessor, but there will likely be one key difference: a new high-resolution Retina display. The tiny tablet may be marginally thicker to accommodate the new display and accompanying larger battery, but hopefully the difference in weight will be minimal.
The biggest question marks surrounding the new iPads are whether or not they will feature Apple’s new Touch ID fingerprint scanner embedded in the home buttons, and what colors they will come in. Silver/white and space gray/black both seem like locks, and supposed iPad mini housings have been pictured in gold several times now but the full-size iPad has not.
Apple has plenty more in store as well, and the show is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. EDT, 10:00 a.m. PDT. Unlike the iPhone event last month, Apple will be streaming today’s press conference live.
Here’s how to watch the live streaming video feed:
If you’re on a Mac computer, click this link from within the Safari browser to stream the event. Note that the video feed won’t work in Chrome, Firefox or any other browser, and sadly, it won’t work on Windows PCs either.
On an iOS device like an iPhone or iPad, click this link. Again, the stream will only work in Safari.
Finally,
And as always, BGR will be covering all of the news from today’s event as it breaks, so be sure to tune into our coverage.
