As you all may have heard already, Apple recently released the iPad Air! The iPad Air is 20% thinner and 28% lighter than its predecessor while still maintaining its original 9.7-inch (diagonal) display. The previous iPads could definitely be held in one hand, but your arms would get sore when you hold it for a long period of time. The iPad Air is a perfect device for reading- it is almost as if I was holding a hard cover book! Apple also updated the processor to the A7 chipset so that the iPad Air runs considerably faster. This benefit may not be apparent at first, but it is still significant because the iPad Air now has better graphics and gaming performance. Something else that is pretty impressive is that while the size of the iPad Air reduced drastically, Apple managed to keep the same 10-hour battery life.
As an artistic person, I absolutely love the new built in apps that come with the new generation of iPads. In addition to the old Newstand, Message, App Store, etc., the iPad Air now has iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, Pages, Numbers and Keynote. If you are a Mac user, you might be familiar with these apps. iPhoto allows you to easily view, edit, organize and share your photo; iMovie quickly turns your home videos into beautiful HD movies; GarageBand makes it fun and easy to create music on your iPad; Pages, Numbers and Keynote are simple to use, office friendly applications for people who need to write papers, analyze numbers or give presentations.
The iPad Air is not a completely new idea, but the elements of the iPad Air that Apple tweaked this time made a huge difference. I would still suggest everyone to go into the Apple store and/or borrow a friend’s iPad Air before purchasing it, because it is very different from the pervious generations of iPads. You definitely do not want to make the mistake of buying something then realizing you do not like it!
By ITA, Priscilla Wang