Its Spring, and everyone is cleaning out the clutter and adding a little refresh to their home. Apple has the same idea. They didn’t hold an event, but there were several changes and discontinuations announced today.
iPad Announcements
9.7 inch iPad
The new 9.7 inch iPad replaces the iPad Air 2 in the iPad lineup. Cleverly called, iPad, it features an A9 chip, which is an upgrade to the iPad Air 2 A8X chip. It doesn’t support Apple Pencil or Smart connected devices, but it is reasonably priced at $329, $459 for cellular. Add an additional $100 for 128GB version.
iPad mini 4
Apple increased the storage of the iPad mini 4 to 128GB while keeping the price at $399, $529 cellular.
Apple also discontinued the iPad mini 2, which was running on an A7 processor, the same as the iPhone 5S.
Current iPad Lineup
So to recap, the current iPad lineup from Apple consists of the iPad mini 4, the new iPad, and the two sizes, 9.7 and 12.9 inch, of the iPad Pro.
iPhone Announcements
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus in Red
I know, it is what We couldn’t live without, a red iPhone! Well now it is here, only six months after the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus were originally released. The red iPhones come with your choice of 128GB or 256GB.
iPhone SE
The iPhone SE was released last year with your choice of 16GB or 64GB. Apple has announced that you now have the choice of 32GB or 128GB. No other changes were announced.
iPhone Cases
Apple also had to throw in one last thing. They also announced six new iPhone case colors are available in their lineup.
Apple Watch Bands
Reduced Options when Purchasing a New
Apple Watch
Apple has reduced the options that you have when purchasing a new Apple Watch. From now on, you can only choose from a Sport Band or Milanese Loop. All other bands are sold separately, and will have to be purchased in addition to the watch.
New Watch Bands
Apple added some new colors and configurations to their watch band collection. There’s a new Woven Nylon band style, the Classic Buckle gets new colors and its second redesign, and Sport Band now includes three new colors.
Apple also sells Nike Sport Bands separately for the first time, and there are new colors in the collection.
Software Announcements
Swift Playgrounds
Swift Playgrounds for iPad received multi-language support.
Clips
Clips, a new video editing app, was also announced, and it will be available soon. Clips runs on iOS 10.3 or later, and that version of iOS is still in beta.
