appleipadair2
Latest
Engadget UK giveaway: win an iPad Air 2 courtesy of Mobilefun.co.uk
It's the middle of January. Only a few weeks have passed since the revelries of Christmas and New Year, and yet they seem distant memories. You're already struggling to stick to your 2015 resolutions, and you've had enough of the cold, wet winter, though there's plenty left to endure. But don't worry chums -- things can only get better, starting with your chance to win a shiny, gold iPad Air 2. The 16GB, WiFi-only model comes courtesy of our friends at mobile accessory retailer Mobilefun.co.uk, where you'll find a grand selection of cases and folios to protect your new baby. For those who don't know the drill, you can enter the giveaway up to three times via the widget below, after checking you're eligible to participate by reading the rules just beneath it. Winning: Congrats to Stephanie B. from Hertfordshire.
iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 now available in certain UK stores
Apple began accepting online orders for the iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 shortly after the new tablets were announced last week, but if you'd rather not wait for a delivery, you can pick one up in-store as of today. Apple's own retail outlets now have the new generation of slates in stock, as do select John Lewis locations, including the flagship London Oxford Street, High Wycombe and Edinburgh stores. Be aware this is the very first batch to hit the UK, so shops might not be able to hook you up with the exact hardware configuration and colour scheme you so desperately want. The iPad Air 2 and mini 3 start at £399 and £319, respectively, with prices increasing based on storage capacity and/or the addition of LTE connectivity. If you'd prefer to spread the cost of new iPad across the term of a mobile data contract, O2 and EE are currently accepting preorders for both tablets, with Three and Vodafone saying they'll joining the fray soon.
iPad Air 2 is Apple's thinnest tablet ever
Apple's got a new iPad, and it's a sequel to last year's ultra-svelte iPad Air: It's called the Apple iPad Air 2. CEO Tim Cook announced as much this morning from Apple's Cupertino, California, headquarters with a video of a pencil being shaved down, a nod to last year's unveiling of the first iPad Air. The iPad Air 2 is 6.1mm, "18 percent thinner than the first iPad Air," Apple's Phil Schiller told attendees. "It's the world's thinnest tablet." Beyond thinning it down even further, Apple's usual suspects of upgrades are on board: The iPad Air 2 has the newest A8 processor and M8 coprocessor, which Schiller said is 12 times more powerful than the original iPad. It's also got a brand-new camera out back: an 8MP iSight camera (f/2.4 aperture) that does 1080p video, burst mode, panorama shots and auto HDR (that takes up a bit less space). The display remains 9.7 inches, which Schiller called "a new Retina display." He also said the new iPad Air 2 has Touch ID, the Home button-based security system that enables logging in via fingerprint. With Touch ID, iPad Air 2 also has Apple Pay, albeit enabled for online purchases only. Head below for more specs and info as it comes out of Cupertino!
