SAN JOSE, CALIF. (AP) - Apple is holding a presentation in San Jose, Calif., during which it is expected to unveil a smaller iPad.
Tech bloggers and analysts expect a device with a screen measuring 7.85 inches on the diagonal, making it about half the size of the regular iPad. It would be slightly larger than the 7-inch tablets from Amazon.com Inc. and Google Inc. The regular iPad is 9.7 inches.
Apple has sold 84 million iPads since their debut in April 2010. Although Apple dominates the worldwide tablet market with 70 percent of shipments in the second quarter, according to IHS iSuppli, Amazon and Google have been able to make in-roads with the smaller alternatives. A smaller iPad from Apple Inc. could help the company cement its dominance.
The event at the California Theatre comes a few days before Microsoft Corp. starts selling a new version of its Windows operating system, one designed to work well on both traditional computers and tablets. Microsoft is also releasing its own tablet, the Surface, on Friday. It will be slightly larger than the full-sized iPad.
Here’s a running account of Apple’s event, presented in reverse chronological order. All times are PDT. Presenters include Apple CEO Tim Cook and Philip Schiller, the senior vice president for worldwide marketing.
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10:25 a.m.
Schiller teased audience by talking about the Mac Mini, not an iPad Mini.
“You knew there would be something called `mini’ in this presentation,” he said to laughter.
A new Mac Mini starts at $599 and comes with 4 gigabytes of RAM, or working memory, and a 500 GB hard drive for storage. A $999 version comes with a terabyte hard drive, or double the capacity.
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10:20 a.m.
After touting growth in Mac computers at a time when sales of Windows-based machines are slowing, Apple introduced a new MacBook. In June, Apple introduced a MacBook Pro that is about as thin as its already-slim MacBook Air, but with a sharper display. That model had a 15.4-inch screen.
At Tuesday’s event, Schiller unveiled a smaller version, with a screen of 13.3 inches. He noted that the 13.3-inch MacBook Pro that Apple already makes has been the company’s top-selling laptop. The new version adds the sharper display and is thinner and lighter than the regular MacBook Pro.
“In typical Apple fashion, we are going to take our best product and introduce something better and much cooler,” he said.
The starting price is $1,699.
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10:15 a.m.
Cook began the presentation with a customary update on past products.
Cook talked about the success of the iPhone 5 and the new iPod Touch, both released last month. He said there have been 3 million iPod Touches sold.
He also talked about an upgrade to Apple’s software for mobile devices, iOS 6. He said there were now 200 million devices running iOS 6.
He said the app store had more than 700,000 apps, including 275,000 for the iPad. Customers have downloaded more than 35 billion apps, he said.
He touted an e-book app called iBooks and announced a new version with a new reading option: continuous scrolling. With that, you keep scrolling down the screen rather than flip pages to keep reading. You can also tap on a quote to share instantly on Facebook or Twitter.
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10 a.m.
The event opens with Cook appearing on stage. “We have some fond memories here, and we’re going to create a few more today,” he told the audience.
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