Apple Expected To Announce iPad Pro With USB-C Next Week

Bloomberg highlights all the big announcements expected to be made next week at Apple's October hardware event, such as an iPad Pro with a USB-C port instead of a Lightning port, a MacBook Air successor, and a new Mac Mini. From the report: The update to the iPad Pro will be the most significant in the product's history. The device was originally launched in 2015 in part as a counter-measure to Microsoft's Surface Pro, which gained a following with business users seeking large tablets with support for attachable keyboards and styluses. The iPad Pro models, which have larger screens, better cameras, and faster processors, are more expensive, which has sustained revenue growth. [Some of the new features, according to people familiar with the plans, include a nearly edge-to-edge display with slimmer bezels, a USB-C connector, Face ID, Animojis, a faster processor (variant of the A12 Bionic chip), a custom Apple graphics chip, and an updated Apple Pencil.]

For the Mac, Apple is planning its first wide-ranging upgrades since June 2017. The MacBook Air and Mac mini, a small desktop machine without a screen, have gone several years without notable changes. This, combined with interest in larger smartphones and competing PCs, led Apple to report the fewest Mac sales since 2010 in its fiscal third quarter. [Apple is reportedly planning a new entry-level laptop to replace the aging MacBook Air. It's expected to have a higher-resolution 13-inch screen, as well as slimmer bezels around the display. The Mac mini will have new processors and features for professional users. Apple's also working on refreshed iMacs, iMac Pros, and 12-inch MacBooks with faster processors, and at least some of these updates could be ready for the October launch.] The event's theme is 'making,' and it will take place in New York City on Tuesday at 10:00am EST.

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