Apple Rolls Out iPad Air

Apple rolled out the lighter, thinner, faster iPad Air on Tuesday (Oct. 22) during a press conference. Among its new features, the iPad will weigh 1 pound, down from 1.4 pounds.

The iPad Air will retain the same 9.7-inch screen as previous iPads and the same A7 processing chip available in the iPhone 5S. According to Apple Sr. VP Phil Schiller, the iPad Air will be 72 times faster than the original iPad. The iPad Air will go on sale Nov. 1, with pricing beginning at $499 for a 16GB; the price for a 16 GB with 4G LTE connectivity is $629.

Schiller also unveiled a revamped iPad Mini (comes in silver or space gray), starting at $399. It will be available in late November; the iPad Mini will include an A7 processor and the same high-resolution “Retina display” as bigger iPads.

The iPad Air will go on sale Friday, Nov. 1 at Apple retail stores in 42 countries and territories: the U.S., Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, China (Wi-Fi models only), Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao (Wi-Fi models only), Macedonia, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK.

Apple will also give away operating and work software free to all users of MacBooks and Mac computers. It’s Mac operating system and iWork software suite, which compete with Microsoft’s Excel, Word and other applications, will now be offered free to users.