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A roundup of this week’s new Apple product announcements

A roundup of this week’s new Apple product announcements

During yesterday morning’s special press event, Apple introduced a host of new products, along with some restructuring and repricing in their product lines (you can now get a new iPad for a little as $250, and a new Mac mini starts at just $500). Here are the highlights, along with availability information (as best we can determine—we will update this post as details emerge):

  • Apple iPad Air 2 familyiPad Air 2: The big splash was made by the debut of the iPad Air 2, a crazy-thin (just 6mm) iteration of its flagship full-sized tablet. It’s not only thinner, but faster, too. And you can now add a third color choice to the current Space Gray and Silver: Gold. The new color choice, along with the addition of TouchID, brings the iPad Air 2 in line with Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. Prices start at $499.99. Available for pre-order immediately; we expect to begin filling orders in roughly two weeks. Find out more.
  • iPad Air: Yep, it’s sticking around—but it’ll cost you substantially less. Prices now start at $399.99. Available almost immediately. Find out more.
  • iPad mini 3: Similar specs to the original iPad mini 2, but now adds TouchID and the new Gold color choice. Available for pre-order immediately; we expect to begin filling orders in roughly two weeks. Find out more.
  • iPad mini 2 and iPad mini: Now cost much less than before. The Wi-Fi 16GB iPad mini, for example, now sells for $249.99—the lowest price ever offered for a new iPad. Available almost immediately. Find out more.

If you’re interested in a specific model iPad, contact us and we’ll get you the very latest availability and pricing.

Other announcements…

  • Apple iMac 27-inch running YosemiteiMac 27-inch with Retina 5K Display: The “5K” stands for “5000”—as in 5000+ pixels. The new flagship iMac boasts more than four times the pixels of its 27-inch brethren. That’s impressive enough, but the fact that it will sell for $2499.99—that’s just nuts. Most 4K standalone monitors sell for more than that. Basically, Apple’s throwing in a quad-core Mac with all the bells and whistles for free. Available for pre-order immediately; we expect to begin filling orders in roughly one week. Find out more.
  • Mac mini: The littlest Mac got a well-deserved, long-delayed makeover. The entry price point dropped a hundred bucks to $499.99—the lowest price ever for a new Mac. It now comes with two Thunderbolt 2 ports and 802.11ac Wi-Fi. Available for pre-order immediately; we expect to begin filling orders in roughly one week. Find out more.
  • OS X 10.10 Yosemite: The long-awaited major update to the Mac’s operating system looks to be an impressive one, with hundreds of new features and enhancements—and is available for free download immediately.

Connecting Point’s ‘Head Back with a Mac Sale’ | Free Canon All-in-One; no-interest 18mo. financing

Connecting Point's 'Head Back with a Mac Sale' - FREE Canon PIXMA All-in-One, plus special financingSummer’s almost gone. Time to head back to school. Head back to work. Time to Get. Stuff. Done.

And the best way to get stuff done? A new Mac from Connecting Point.

And getting one is now both easy and affordable: For a limited time, Connecting Point’s offering special financing and terrific incentives.

Canon PIXMA MX472 All-in-One Printer/Scanner/Copier/Fax

Canon PIXMA MX472 All-in-One Wireless inkjet office solution features an Automatic Document Feeder for unattended multi-page scanning and copying, 50-page fax memory, AirPrint support, and up to 4800 x 1200 dpi optimized color printing. Retail price $99.99

Whether you’re upgrading, or switching from Windows, now’s the best time to buy, during Connecting Point’s ‘Head Back with a Mac Sale,’ running from Wednesday, August 27th through Saturday, August 30.

During this sale, buy any Mac and get a FREE Canon Pixma MX472 All-in-One printer / scanner / copier / fax (which normally retails for $99.99).*

Plus get six, 12, or even as much as 18 months interest-free financing, with your good credit.**

But don’t delay: This sale lasts just four days. When we close for the night on Saturday, our ‘Head Back with a Mac Sale’ closes, too!

*Limited to stock on hand.  **NO INTEREST, IF PAID IN FULL WITHIN 6, 12, OR 18 MONTHS on qualifying purchases made with your GE Capital Retail Bank Home Design credit card between May 23rd, 2014 and January 16th, 2015. Interest will be charged to your account from the purchase date if the promotional purchase is not paid in full within 6, 12, or 18 months. Offer applies only to single-receipt qualifying purchases. No interest will be charged on the promo purchase if you pay the promo purchase amount in full within 6, 12, or 18 months. If you do not, interest will be charged on the promo purchase from the purchase date. Depending on purchase amount, promotion length, and payment allocation, the required minimum monthly payments may or may not pay off purchase by end of promotional period. Regular account terms apply to non-promotional purchases and, after promotion ends, to promotional balance. For new accounts: Purchase APR is 29.99%; Minimum Interest Charge is $2. Existing GE Capital cardholders should see their credit card agreement for their applicable terms. Subject to credit approval.

Apple History: Original iMac bowed on this date in 1998…and the tide was turned.

Original Apple iMac from 1998, in Bondi blueConsidering how high the company flies today, it’s sobering to recall the lows Apple hit in the 1990’s. Apple spent the bulk of that decade frantically scrambling to come up with a hit, introducing one failed product after another: a digital camera, a portable CD audio player, powered computer speakers, a gaming console (no, really), and a bizarre set-top box for television. CEO John Sculley bet the farm on Apple’s entry into the nascent “personal digital assistant” category, resulting in the Newton – innovative, before its time – and to this day, one of the most spectacular failures in the company’s history. Literally dozens of indistinguishable Mac models were trotted out, with a bewildering alphabet soup of names, numbers, and specifications.

The original iMac went off like a torpedo to the bow of the Good Ship Computer. It looked and operated like nothing the world had seen.

Market share continued to erode, stock prices plummeted, and Microsoft Windows was mopping the floor with Apple. Sculley was succeeded by Michael Spindler, who was superseded by Gil Amelio. In July 1997, a desperate board of directors fired Amelio amidst record-low stock prices and staggering financial losses.

It was arguably Apple’s darkest hour.

Then co-founder Steve Jobs stepped back up as interim CEO (dubbed “iCEO”), drastically pared down the sprawling product line, and began working on a radical new design with Jonathan Ive.

You can see what they came up with in the photo above. The original iMac went off like a torpedo to the bow of the Good Ship Computer. It looked and operated like nothing the world had seen. And it effectively saved the company, selling almost 800,000 units in its first five months.

Jobs and Ive would later collaborate on the iPod and iPhone, among many, many other projects. Apple was on a roll – a roll that has yet to slow.

Connecting Point's own Scott Farmer takes the original Apple iMac for a test drive - August 16, 1998

Photo credit: Bob Pennell, Mail Tribune

Feel like a little more nostalgia? Read an August 16, 1998 Medford Mail Tribune article about the original iMac’s introduction. Connecting Point is prominently featured in the story – along with a face long familiar to our customers.

Now the entry price for a new iMac is $200 less, as Apple debuts $1099 model

Apple iMac 21.5-inch, front viewToday, Apple announced a new entry-level iMac priced at $1099 – $200 less than the previous entry-level model (which, like all the other iMac® models, remains current). It retains many features identical to its two 21.5-inch brethren:

  • 21.5-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology, 1920×1080 pixels
  • 8GB DDR3 memory (not expandable)
  • FaceTime HD camera
  • Built-in downward-firing stereo speakers
  • Dual microphones
  • Headphone/optical digital output
  • Four USB 3.0 ports; Two Thunderbolt ports; SDXC card slot
  • Gigabit Ethernet; 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi; Bluetooth 4.0
  • Apple Wireless Keyboard and wireless Magic Mouse
  • OS X Mavericks operating system

So what’s different? A few key changes have been made to reduce the cost:

  • 1.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 processor, with Turbo Boost up to 2.7GHz. Contrast this with the substantially faster (2.7GHz and 2.9GHz) quad-core processors in the other two models. The L3 cache is smaller, too, and shared by the two processor cores.
  • 500GB 5400 RPM SATA hard drive, in place of the 1 TB hard drives in the other models.
  • Intel HD Graphics 5000, in lieu of Intel Iris Pro graphics in the $1299 model, and  the 1GB NVIDIA GT 750M graphics in the $1499 model.

To better see how the new model fits in with the other 21-5-inch models, click here.

AVAILABILITY: We’ll be accepting orders for this new iMac model immediately. Fulfillment will depend on initial supplies and demand, which could push delivery to as much as two weeks away.

Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, and Macintosh are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

’12 Days of Savings 2013′ Day 7: Save $$$ on AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac

’12 Days of Savings’ runs through December 21st, with special deals every day!

'12 Days of Savings' Day 7 - Save $$$ on AppleCare Protection Plan for MacDay 7 (Dec. 16th): Save $$$ on AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac

Every Mac comes with a one-year limited warranty and 90 days of telephone technical support. The AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac extends your coverage to three years from the original purchase date of your Mac.1 And for one day only, you can get coverage at these steep discounts:

AppleCare for Mac mini $119.99 (reg. $169.99) | AppleCare for iMac $129.99 (reg. $189.99) | AppleCare for MacBook Pro 13/MacBook Air $179.99 (reg. $269.99) | AppleCare for MacBook Pro 15 $299.99 (reg. $369.99)

1 See terms at www.apple.com/legal/applecare/appgeos.html for full details.

Find out about upcoming ‘12 Days of Savings 2013‘ bargains before anyone else – and lots of other cool deals, promos, special offers, tech bulletins, closeouts, and product intros – by signing up for Connecting Point’s email newsletter.

All “12 Days of Savings” offers are limited to stock on hand, and will not be extended beyond the day they are featured. Offers and prices are not applicable to prior purchases.