Apple today introduced a stellar new 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K Display that offers a resolution of 5120×2880 pixels, making it the highest resolution display ever with 14.7 Million pixels. On the inside, this iMac features a 3.5GHz Intel Core i5 processor with Turbo Boost speeds up to 3.9GHz, AMD Radeon R9 M290X graphics, 8GB Ram and 1TB Fusion Drive along with 2 Thunderbolt posts and ships with OS X Yosemite.
The iMac with Retina 5K Display has been priced at Rs. 1,79,900 in India.
At its annual October event, Apple today introduced the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 — the latest generation of its iPad lineup. The new iPad Air 2 features a completely overhauled industrial design that makes it the thinnest iPad ever at just 6.1mm thin. It features an improved Retina display with more vibrant colors, an improved camera which takes breathtaking photos and Touch ID. On the inside, it boasts a new A8X chip that offers 40% better CPU performance at 2.5 times the GPU performance compared to previous generation iPad as well as a faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi module with data rates up to 866Mbps.
Both the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 will be available in Gold, Silver & Space Grey variants.
The following is the official pricing of the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 in India:
| iPad Model | 16GB | 64GB | 128GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPad Air 2 - Wi-fi | Rs. 35,900 | Rs. 42,900 | Rs. 49,900 |
| iPad Air 2 - Wifi + Cellular | Rs. 45,900 | Rs. 52,900 | Rs. 59,900 |
| iPad mini 3 - Wifi | Rs. 28,900 | Rs. 35,900 | Rs. 42,900 |
| iPad mini 3 - Wifi + Cellular | Rs. 38,900 | Rs. 45,900 | Rs. 52,900 |
| iPad Air | Rs. 28,900 | ||
| iPad mini 2 (Retina display) | Rs. 21,900 | ||
| iPad mini | Rs. 17,900 | ||
Apple today announced that the iPhone 6 & iPhone 6 Plus would be arriving in 36 more countries and territories this month. This is the fastest ever rollout by Apple for iPhone and it begins with two of the largest mobile markets in the world.
The iPhone is set to be released here in India at midnight on October 17th and the stores (Apple Premium Resellers) have already taken over 100 pre-orders each. I opted for a Space Gray, 64GB iPhone 6 this year that will replace by Silver 16GB iPhone 5 and I’m hoping to pick it up at midnight, right after the Apple Event scheduled on Oct. 16th.
With the launch of iOS 8 on September 17th, Apple has revamped the pricing for iCloud storage. The pricing is far more affordable now and you can get up to 1TB of storage for $19.99 a month. Every account comes with 5GB of Free storage and has the option to upgrade to 20GB for Rs. 60/month, 200GB for Rs. 250GB/month, 500GB for Rs. 600/month or 1TB for Rs. 1200/month.
This new pricing is already live if you have iOS 8 or Yosemite running on your devices.
Apple slashes iPhone prices in India
Rajat Agrawal & Sambit Satpathy for BGR India:
The 16GB and 32GB iPhone 5S variants now have a MRP of Rs 44,500 and Rs 49,500 respectively. The 8GB iPhone 5C, on the other hand, sees its price drop to Rs 31,500.
Interesting move. The iPhone 5s Gold has been selling for around 35-36k on Amazon & Flipkart over the last few days, so I wonder what effect this price cut has on those prices.
With the imminent launch of iPhone 6 in India next month (likely October 17th), I’m hoping it is priced just below the 50k mark.
Free Apple TV with Tata Docomo Broadband
Tata Docomo’s Broadband services are currently offering a Free Apple TV with every yearly subscription to any of their “Lightning Plans”. These are their broadband plan offerings with download speeds ranging from 20Mbps to 100Mbps and the offer is applicable only for Karnataka, Mumbai, Maharashtra & Goa circles.
The minimum monthly rental for these plans is Rs. 2199, so you’d be shelling out Rs. 26,388 + taxes upfront for this offer.
In today’s day & age, securing your online accounts has become very important. Many major web services today offer multi-factor authentication, commonly known as two-factor authentication or two-step verification. Services like Google, Dropbox, Evernote, App.net, etc. have offered 2FA as an option for quite some time now. Apple on the other hand has had this option available only for a limited subset of users. With over 800 Million iTunes accounts, Apple has the largest database of Credit Card powered accounts on the web.
Today, Apple enabled support for Two-step verification for additional countries, including India. Here’s the complete list:
I highly recommend heading over to http://appleid.apple.com and enabling this option for your account.
Unlike other services, Apple has a unique way of delivering the code to you. Most services that I know of use either a unique code that is generated on the user’s device or send the code via an SMS to the user’s phone. When you enable two-step verification for your Apple ID, Apple asks you to register one or more “trusted devices” that will can receive the code. This can either be your own mobile phone capable of receiving SMSs or it could be your partner’s or parents’ phone. Additionally, you can also add any iOS device that has “Find My iPhone” enabled, which can receive the code via a system modal dialogue box. For example, if you have an iPad without a SIM in it, it can still be added as a trusted device.
Next time when you attempt to sign in with your Apple ID, after you’ve entered your password, Apple presents all these trusted devices as an option to you. You can select which device you want to receive the code on and proceed.
In case you have forgotten your password or don’t have access to any of your trusted devices, Apple also gives you a Recovery Key to gain access to your account. Make sure you keep it safe.
[h/t 9to5Mac]
Apple Slashes Prices of iMac & Mac mini in India
After introducing a new, cheaper iMac yesterday, Apple has also gone ahead and slashed the prices of iMac, Mac mini and Apple TV in India, according to NDTV Gadgets.
Apple had last raised the prices when it introduced the new iMac line-up back in September 2013. Here are the updated prices:
| Model | Old Price | New Price | Effective Price Cut |
|---|---|---|---|
| iMac - 21.5", 2.7GHz | 99,900 | 92,900 | 7,000 |
| iMac - 21.5", 2.9GHz | 1,14,900 | 1,06,900 | 8,000 |
| iMac - 27", 3.2GHz | 1,39,900 | 1,27,900 | 12,000 |
| iMac - 27", 3.4GHz | 1,54,900 | 1,42,900 | 12,000 |
| Mac mini - Base Model | 44,900 | 42,900 | 2,000 |
| Mac mini - 2nd Model | 58,900 | 56,900 | 2,000 |
| Mac mini - OS X Server Model | 72,900 | 70,900 | 2,000 |
| Apple TV | 8,400 | 7,500 | 900 |