iPad announcement: news and live updates from Apple’s event in Cupertino

Following yesterday's iPad event, Apple has, as promised, placed the new iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 up for pre-order in the Apple Store. They'll begin shipping next week.

The Air 2, the company's thinnest iPad ever, is priced at $499 for the 16GB, wifi-only version, $599 for 64GB, and $699 for 128GB. The iPad mini 3, which is similar to the mini 2 apart from the addition of Touch ID, comes in silver, space gray, or gold, with a base, 16GB model selling for $399.

If there's one thing I've learned about Apple's dealings with SIM cards in the past seven years, it's that Apple gets what Apple wants.

Finally, with the iPad Air 2 and mini 3, Apple has decided to start making its move by using a reprogrammable SIM that can be taken from carrier to carrier, switching networks and pricing plans through user-friendly software alone. It's called "Apple SIM." Not every carrier is on board yet — Apple SIM is still removable, and carrier-bought iPads will use regular, locked SIMs — but the writing is on the wall. The wounds are mortal. Within a year or two, you'll probably never see a SIM card in an Apple product again. You may not even see a tray.

Apple's latest desktop operating system, OS X Yosemite, is now available to download from the Mac App Store. It's a free update, and it delivers a whole host changes, most notably a revamped visual style that's a lot more colorful than the OS X you're used to. In fact, the Yosemite makes your Mac's operating system look a lot more like iOS than traditional OS X, and it brings the two operating systems together in a few more ways too.

One of the biggest features in Yosemite is the ability for it to let you move your work between your Mac, iPhone, and iPad and then pick up exactly where you left off on another device. It also adds a few smaller — but still quite useful – integrations with iOS, such as the ability to send and receive text messages, to answer phone calls, and to automatically start up a wireless hotspot, should your phone plan support it.

Apple's iPads with built-in cellular antennas have long let you hop between carriers just by swapping out the SIM card, something Apple seems to have solved with one SIM card that can hop onto whatever carrier you pick from a list inside iOS. The new technology, called Apple SIM, is only available in the new iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3, and limited to some carriers in the US and in the UK. It potentially paves the way for the company to include the same technology in the iPhone so it could just sell one device to people for them to set up with their carrier of choice later on.

In terms of the initial carriers, Apple says its new SIM technology works with short-term plans, like the monthly and on-demand data packages with AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and EE in the US and UK. Notably missing on that US list is Verizon, though Apple notes that its list of carriers could change.

Just about all of the announcements from Thursday’s Apple event leaked out in advance, and the event felt somewhat subdued compared to last month’s iPhone 6 announcement. A phone call with Stephen Colbert and a torrent of dad jokes livened the mood somewhat, but the bulk of the event focused on hardware. Just in time for the holidays, here come the iPad Air 2, the iPad Mini 3, and a gorgeous new iMac with a Retina display. On the software side of things, OS X Yosemite arrives today as a free update, and iOS 8.1 — which will enable Apple Pay on the iPhone 6 and 6+ — is coming Monday.

Here’s a recap of the most important details from today’s announcement.

When Apple finds a formula it likes, it sticks with it. So the outer design of the iPad mini hasn't changed in any appreciable way since it was first introduced in 2012. The iPad mini 3 is still an excellently built tablet with a metal back case and a 4:3 display. It's still a bit too wide to hold in one hand, but much more portable than the iPad Air, with bezels around the screen that are just a little larger than is ideal.

The iPad mini 3 is thus not much of a change. Apple has added TouchID and an alternate gold color option and... not much else. The camera, processor, and everything else inside the device is exactly the same as last year's model. The iPad mini 3 got maybe a grand total of four minutes of stage time at Apple's event today, and it was not demo'd at all. It starts at $399, which seems like a pretty steep price to pay for TouchID — especially when last year's model is still available for $100 less.

I just spent some time with Apple's new iPad Air 2. As all the leaks suggested, it looks almost exactly the same as the original iPad Air, although it's a bit thinner, has an optically-bonded display, a much-improved camera, a new A8X processor, and a TouchID sensor in the home button.

Apple accidentally hinted at a "Mid 2014" Mac mini earlier this year, and now the company is finally ready to refresh its miniature Mac. While the Mac mini hasn’t been updated for two years, today’s refresh improves on the specifications significantly. The new Mac Mini includes fourth-generation Intel Core processors, two Thunderbolt 2 ports, and Intel Iris and HD Graphics 5000 options. "It's the world's most energy efficient desktop computer," says Apple's Phil Schiller. Apple's latest Mac mini ships today and starts from $499.

Apple is shipping its new Mac mini in three standard models. There’s a 1.4GHz dual-core Intel i5 model with 4GB of memory, 500GB hard drive storage, and Intel HD Graphics 5000 for $499. A second option bumps the speed of the dual-core i5 processor to 2.6GHz, with 8GB of RAM, Intel Iris Graphics, and 1TB of hard drive storage all for $699. The final standard configuration will ship with a 2.8GHz dual-core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, Intel Iris Graphics, and a 1GB Fusion Drive for $999. You can also upgrade configurations to a 3.0GHz dual-core i7 processor, up to 16GB of memory, and 1TB of flash storage. Unlike the previous Mac mini, there's no quad-core i7 model, so a dual-core i7 is the best option for processing power.

Apple has announced a new version of its iMac desktop computer complete with a high-resolution Retina display. The new model has what Apple says is the "world's highest resolution display", at 5120 x 2880 pixels on a 27-inch screen. Prior to this, the highest resolution iMac was the 27-inch version, which has a 2560 x 1440 pixel display. Apple notes that it has seven times as many pixels as an HD TV, with 14.7 million in total. It's also 67 percent more pixels than 4K displays, and Apple is calling it a Retina 5K display.

Despite the higher resolution screen, the new model retains the 5mm thick profile of the current iMac, and Apple says the panel uses 30 percent less energy than before. Apple is using a new chip to control the display as well as something called Oxide TF and a low-power backlight. Apple says pricing for the new iMac will start at $2,499, with units available for purchase today. The base model has a 3.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor, AMD Radeon R9 M290X graphics card, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB Fusion drive. Customers can configure it with up to a 4GHz Core i7 processor, 32GB of RAM, a 3TB Fusion drive, or a 1TB SSD. Apple is also continuing to offer the 21.5-inch and 27-inch non-Retina iMacs.

The third-generation iPad mini is here, and yes, it's got a Touch ID fingerprint sensor built in. Apple just (very quickly) introduced the iPad mini 3 during an event at its Cupertino headquarters. Looking at the device straight on, you'd be hard pressed to spot any major differences between Apple's latest 7.9-inch tablet and the iPad mini with Retina display that was released last year. Aside from the Touch ID home button, it's identical: a Retina display up front, chamfered edges, and an aluminum rear shell. (Like the new iPad Air 2, it too now comes in gold.)

It starts at $399 for 16GB in Wi-Fi only and runs up to $729 for a 128GB + LTE model. Pre-orders begin tomorrow, and ships by the end of next week. The previous iPad mini with Retina display — now known as iPad mini 2 — has received a price cut and can now be bought for as low as $299. And the first, non-Retina iPad mini now costs only $249, though there are probably better options out there for that price.

Apple's poked fun at itself before, including the lengths it goes to keep things from leaking. Now it's done it again in the name of promoting one of its own products. Having a bit of fun at its own secrecy (and the fact that it leaked its two new iPads yesterday), Apple's software chief Craig Federighi demoed how you could use its iCloud service to pull up a presentation in the fear of it landing on somewhere like made-up Apple rumors site "Infinite Scoop."

Apple is introducing the iPad Air 2, a new version of its wildly popular tablet with a Touch ID fingerprint sensor and an even thinner body. The new tablet has the same look as its predecessor but is only 6.1mm thick — down from 7.5 mm on the original iPad Air, an 18 percent reduction. This new model will also be the first iPad available in gold.

The Air 2 has the same 9.7-inch display size as its predecessors, but that display should now look even nicer. The LCD, glass, and touch sensor are now all optically bonded, so there are no longer any air gaps between then. On top of that, Apple's put an anti-reflective coating on the glass that it says will reduce reflections by 56 percent, making it much easier to read in daylight.

Apple is kicking off today's iPad event with the usual numbers showing the health of Apple's platforms and ecosystems that typically kick off Apple's presentations. Today, Craig Federighi has just announced that 48 percent of iOS users have upgraded to iOS 8 since it launched last month. That's down significantly from last year, when CEO Tim Cook said that about 64 percent of iOS users had upgraded to iOS 7 after a similarly short window. The launch of iOS 8 was plagued by a few pretty severe bugs, and last week some data showed that iOS 8 adoption was indeed lagging behind previous years.

Trying to spin things in a more positive fashion, Federighi noted that 94 percent of iOS users were on either iOS 7 or iOS 8, comparing that to 79 percent of Android users running either KitKat or Jelly Bean. He also compared the 48 percent of iOS users running iOS 8 after 26 days to the 25 percent of Android users running KitKat after 313 days as a way of propping up Apple's relative lack of fragmentation.

Apple is releasing OS X Yosemite today, launching what is arguably the most significant update to the Mac's operating system in years. Yosemite, which will be made available for free in the Mac App Store, includes a total visual overhaul of OS X that introduces a simple and colorful style, much like what's found on iOS.

In fact, the reason Yosemite is so significant is that it really begins to bring the Mac and the iPhone together in a meaningful way. For one, you'll be able to start answering phone calls and sending and receiving text messages from your Mac. Apple demonstrated the phone call feature at an event today by ringing up Stephen Colbert, who held a brief conversation involving a lot of code words with software chief Craig Federighi.

Apple today announced iOS 8.1, the first dot update since iOS 8 launched that brings Apple Pay and various OS X Yosemite tie-in features to the company's mobile operating system. iOS 8.1 also brings back Camera Roll, a feature iOS 8 removed, and iCloud Photo Library in beta, a feature Apple teased months ago that lets you store all of your photos from all your devices in the cloud. The update rolls out on October 20th.

Apple announced today that WatchKit, the developer tools for the forthcoming Apple Watch, will be available for developers starting next month. Developers will be able to create apps and other utilities for the Apple Watch using WatchKit. Apple says that the Apple Watch will be available sometime early next year and will be priced at $349 to start.

Check out our Apple iPad and Mac liveblog for more!

The Verge's Apple Pay Hands On

Today is Apple Day: Part Two (assuming part one was iPhone), and all signs point to new iPads, new Macs, a release date for OS X Yosemite, and... Apple TV? We're not holding our breath for that one.

After the Apple Day Bingo Cards reach capacity ("new," "exciting," "billions," "millions," "magical"), join Ross Miller (hello!) and Chris Ziegler as they parse the big news of the day and hit each other with very tiny sticks (the Elders call them "pencils"). Later in the show we'll be checking in with the San Francisco crew as they leave Apple's event, hopefully with some hands-on impressions.