So the latest Apple event happened. I’m always a little disappointed in them. Maybe I put my expectations too high? Anyway, for schools, the big news is the inclusion of the iWork apps (Pages, Keynote, and Numbers) and two iLife apps (iMovie and iPhoto) now available for free with new purchases. Too bad they didn’t include Garageband, but for schools looking at one to one programs with iPads this is an amazing deal. Right the start the students will have some powerful creation tools that have no equal on any other handheld or tablet device. The iPhone 5C and 5S sound pretty cool, but nothing in the “gotta have it” department. Not enough for me to update my iPhone 4 yet.
Nothing else in my predictions were announced, although the iPhone 4S lives on. I’m hoping for new iPads in October, just in time for the holiday season. They’ll probably be released, but will they be a good enough value against the Android tablets? I mean, the Android tablets have Minecraft too. I’m so tempted by the Barnes & Noble Nook HD+ Tablet. The screen is an amazing 1920×1280 resolution and at $149 it’s half the price of an iPad mini. But then I would lose TweetBot, Pythonista, and Drafts.
The one interesting piece in the event is the inclusion of a 64-bit processor in the iPhone 5S. There have been rumors circulating about Apple testing Macbooks Airs with ARM processors like those in the iPhones. Could the iPhone 5S be a stepping stone to these new laptops? A $499 Macbook Air with 24 hour battery life sounds pretty sweet.